Doctors around the whirled have long pushed Statins as a magical mystery tour of health and eternal yute. That might have to be amended to "infernal" instead. By forcefully (and I mean forcefully) lowering cholesterol levels, they predicted that routine Statin use by healthy people would prevent heart disease and lead to longer, healthier lives. Not to mention much higher profits for statin drug makers.
Not everyone got on board for the maiden voyage of the SS Statin Express, however. Some docs questioned whether a healthy person should jerk around his/her/its cholesterol levels, especially since cholesterol plays such a major role in your health. Those that didn't are now counting their blessings and new and improved studies start casting aspersions on the widespread use of these drugs.
From the Church of Ineffable Stupidity, a few facts that you need to know about this War on Cholesterol:
As you sit, your brain is chock full of Cholesterol. Should you be worried? Probably not. It seems to be critically important to memory, rational thinking, and learning. In your low-risk group of relatively healthy people, if 600 people take statins routinely from age 20-40, perhaps one and only one may be spared from a heart attack by the time they reach 65.
In higher-risk populations, there probably is some good that they do. However, as patents expire, the drug companies have increased potency of their Statins, and pushed sales to ever younger groups, as early as the age of 8.
So, as Joe Biden was quoted, what is the big fucking deal? If it helps lower cholesterol, it has to be good. And the more powerful the drugs, the better my chances are with my health, right?
There is a dirty, seedy, greedy underside to this push of this so-called miracle drug: Side Effects. A surprisingly common one is muscle pain - up to 70% of users complain about it. All too often, docs who profit from prescribing Statins blame your aging rather than the drugs they push. But it gets worse. Failing memory, depression, irritability — are directly related to Statin use. Even then, doctors have blamed other factors, age, lack of exercise, diet, or even personality disorders. This is despite 65-70% of users mentioning it to their doctors (which tells you just how troubling those complaints have to be).
The bad news keeps coming. Adult onset Diabetes is directly related to Statin use. The relationship is direct - the longer and higher doses you take, the more likely you are to become diabetic. The British Medical Journal previously estimated that 46% of all users will suffer from Diabetes unnecessarily because of widespread Statin use.
If that ain't bad enough, try this: STATINS SEEM TO CAUSE PARKINSON'S.
Let me type the more slowly so everyone can get the idea. STATINS SEEM TO CAUSE PARKINSON'S. Not just confusion, forgetfulness, inability to process new information, or inability to learn - Actual, factual PARKINSON'S DISEASE.
Dr Kailash Chand, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association, was speaking following research which found those who take the cholesterol-lowering drugs are more than twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease in later life than those who do not.
A study last week showed statin use increases the risk of diabetes by 46 per cent. It has led to calls to end to the widespread use of the drugs.
The risks of side-effects of these drugs are far greater than any potential benefits and it is high time these drugs were restricted in the low-risk population. The Parkinson’s research carried out over 20 years, and involving nearly 16,000 people, suggests cholesterol may have a vital role in protecting the brain and nervous system.
The findings have alarmed experts who say if applied to the number of Britons deemed eligible for statins it could equate to 150,000 extra patients with Parkinson’s, a central nervous system disorder affecting one in 350 mostly older people.
The work has also fueled concerns that statins, now recommended for up to half the adult population over 50 by government drug policy adviser the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, may be doing many patients more harm than good.
Statin use linked to Parkinsons
To make matters worse, the Drug Dealers and their pusher Doctors initially used to provide Statins those who had a 30 per cent or greater risk of suffering a heart attack. That number was shelved and in 2005, Statins were pushed to the population with only a 20 per cent risk. Drugsters have been moving to push it down to 10% (or 80% of the population) AND they have been moving the goalposts on age down to 8.
Here is the cite on Diabetes:
But London cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra said: “Although the benefits are clear in reducing the risk of death in those with established heart disease this is not the case for a low-risk population.
“Millions see them as a magic pill but they are not.
“This research shows you are more likely to develop irreversible Type 2 diabetes than prevent a non-fatal heart attack if you are at low risk.”
Participants in the study, carried out by the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital, were aged between 45 and 73 and followed for six years. New diabetes was diagnosed in 625 men.
Cholesterol and Diabetes.
When cholesterol is so critical to mental functioning, who wants to risk having to stick needles in your arm daily, test your blood sugars all the time, and suffer the risk of having the shakes so bad that you need to hire someone to do it for you?
On a personal note, my former GP pushed Statins hard, harder and hardest. He could not understand why I refused to take them. "It is all benefits and no downside/ Why can't you see that?" He quit practicing because of Parkinson's about four years ago. He also compared his muscle pain to my constant back problems. Too bad his only response was hydrocodone.
I have(had) an expert who was also a big fan of Statins. He proudly showed me the latest, far more powerful version he had been taking since they came out. I had to withdraw him as an expert because his Parkinson's made it impossible for him to travel.
Yet another scandal brewing in Big Pharma? Recall restless leg syndrome? A nonsense diagnose intended to sell meds by popular demand? Or what of Pain Meds that actually kill? Remember when you saw more VIOXX ads that beer or car ads on T&V? Merck spent 1.4 BILLION on advertising a year. Despite that, and after recouping every penny of research, development and manufacturing costs, they still made more than a BILLION a year in net profits. Pity it would kill you, although admittedly that would stop your complaints of pain.
VIOXX pulled off the market - cuz, it will damage, even kill you.
My hands down favorite has to be ulcer medications. An Aussie scientist claimed that a common bacteria was the cause of most ulcers he saw in his practice. Barry Marshall came up with this idea after he saw ulcers coincidently disappear when he gave his patients anti-biotics for unrelated problems.
It has been claimed that the H. pylori theory was ridiculed by the establishment scientists and doctors, who did not believe that any bacteria could live in the acidic environment of the stomach. Marshall has been quoted as saying in 1998 that "(e)veryone was against me, but I knew I was right."
Eventually, despite strong complaints from the Drugster Industry, he was proved right: Marshall and Robin Warren showed that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is the cause of most peptic ulcers, reversing decades of medical doctrine holding that ulcers were caused by stress, spicy foods, and too much acid. This discovery has allowed for a breakthrough in understanding a causative link between Helicobacter pylori infection and stomach cancer.
Bacteria the cause of most ulcers.
Given that kind of track record, I am not surprised at this man-made mess regarding Statins. "In an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Dr John Ioannidis estimated that the total sales of statins may approach $1 trillion worldwide by 2020; the most commercially successful drug in history, atorvastatin (Lipitor®), had sales exceeding $120 billion between 1996 and 2011." Statin sale records.
Holy Heart Attack, Batman. A TRILLION DOLLARS IN SALES? No wonder the drugster industry is petrified over these new Statin findings.
I don't practice medicine, although I do play doctor in my bedroom on occasion, but I can add 2+2. It sure seems to me that Statins have a place in the medicine cabinet, just not for every adult in the US and A. Perhaps 5-8% at most.