Active Low-Carber Forums - War against Statin Deniers

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- - War against Statin Deniers (http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=482096)

War against Statin Deniers

The bloody awful Daily Fail, aka Mail on Sunday, has sunk to new lows.
Attacks on the "Statin Deniers" ...

The deadly propaganda of the statin deniers: The drugs DO protect you from heart attacks but as this devastating investigation reveals thousands are refusing them
Dr Malcolm Kendrick, Dr Zoë Harcombe and Dr Aseem Malhotra are all deniers
Millions of middle-aged people who would benefit from taking statins, don’t
Research suggests many who refuse the pills have already had a heart attack
This could be because they've been led to believe that the drugs don’t work

That's just the headline!! Long Article here:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/...propaganda.html

First read about this attack from Dr. Kendrick's response:
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2019/...lesterol-games/

How he keeps his dry wit about him, after the paper initially was going to state he wasn't a GP and wasn't in the NHS is beyond me.

Quote:

Anyway, this is probably enough for now. I just wanted to give you some idea of the attacks and battles that are going on and to shine a little light on what happens. The Mail on Sunday have published a very long article attacking ‘statin deniers’ with pictures of me Zoe and Aseem at the front. I think I look quite dashing. Not as dashing as Aseem who is a very handsome swine, and also young, and intelligent – and brave. Yes, I hate him.

Nor am I as attractive as Zoe Harcombe. But hey, at least I got my picture in the national press. I wasn’t very keen on the bit where they called me self-pitying. But I was quite pleased that they included some of the stuff that I sent.

Until next time, best wishes from the mass-murdering, statin denying, self-pitying Dr Kendrick.

Then Zoe's response: http://www.zoeharcombe.com/2019/03/...mail-on-sunday/ with of course, detailed references to studies supporting their claims.

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Before I did what I do now I worked as the HR Director at management team level for a number of blue chip organisations. I was privileged to receive some world class training in a number of different areas; one of which was bullying. I will never forget the ACAS definition of bullying that was instilled in us at the time: Bullying is an act designed to undermine, humiliate and intimidate. Those three words were so well thought through, so appropriate and so precise. Make no mistake – today’s hatchet job in the Mail on Sunday is an attempt to undermine, humiliate and intimidate me, Dr Aseem Malhotra and Dr Malcolm Kendrick.

On Thursday evening (28th Feb 2019) I received an email from Barney Calman. I have lunched with Barney. He has received my Monday note for years for free. I have helped him with numerous articles and quotations for free (I think I received a tiny contribution following one nightmare article). If you read just the words in black below, you will be able to see the email that I received. I was given until noon the next day to respond. Aseem and Malcolm received almost identical emails and were given similar deadlines. Aseem didn’t bother replying – his view was that they’re going to print what they wanted to anyway, so why bother. He was right. Malcolm and I did reply. The words in red below are my reply.

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We should be flattered – the might and wealth of the Oxford statin Clinical Trial Service Unit and the might and wealth of the Mail on Sunday deem it necessary to try to silence three individuals. But then, when one statin alone has earned one company $149 BILLION, the motivation to end debate is clear.

I’ll leave you with some of the comments below the article. There are way more than three people concerned about statin side effects. Perhaps everyone should buy Collins’ patented gadget to assess their own risk before taking statins:

“Let all these professionals, all ages, take Statins themselves for a few months and then comeback and lie through their teeth and all they all still say the same thing!!! I bet they couldn’t!“ (~Colleen)

“I’ve tried all of the top six brands of statins. All slightly different but all with terrible side effects. After three years of what can only be described as hell i’m now statin free, loving exercise and healthy eating as an alternative. I feel a million times better off these meds than on them. Definitely a cover up of sorts going on as far as I can see. “ (~ Pressacian)

“But statins also increase the risks of your developing type 2 diabetes, which is on the rise and is a risk in itself. I am pre diabetic and as that puts me in the increased risk of heart attacks group I was offered statins. Even though my cholesterol had been tested and was very good. I pointed out that taking statins would likely send me fully diabetic, while lowering my already normal cholesterol, but the GP said that the policy was to prescribe statins to anyone in the increased risk group, regardless of why they were there. It seems interesting that the rise in type 2 diabetes coincides with the increased use of statins the last decade?” (~Julie)

“Drugs are a billion dollar business. Drug companies are legally allowed to give bribes to doctors. Always do your own research, find out how the drugs work and what the side-effects are. “ (~Lin)

“This whole article reads like paid advertising, from the title to the critics of statins referred to throughout as “deniers” instead of what they are, critics or opponents.“ (~Suzette)

Almost decided not to add it here but the last two links have many studies and good responses to this inflammatory press.

The statin gang out to get Dr. Malhotra must really be fried that he has such a high profile and spoke to Parliament recently on diabetes.

It's really horrifying. I'm one of those very rare people who experienced one of those insignificant side effects from a statin. If I had continued on the drug I have no doubt that I would be in a wheel chair now, my joints destroyed. The side effect from not taking a statin is much improved health.

Stupid question, but can someone remind me why statins are bad?

(That's not sarcasm. My husband was recommended statins a few years back, and we said no. Made some dietary changes instead, and have continued to refuse. I just can no longer remember the REASONS that we used to back up the decision. I know we had them, and they were convincing.)

The major issue is that statins are prescribed to lower blood lipids, cholesterol and LDL. Recent findings question the validity of either being a reliable health risk indicator. More so, increased LDL as we age may in fact be protective and beneficial. This is the main issue I have with prescribing statins.

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Originally Posted by LiterateGr

My heart transplant team got me on it due to cholesterol being high cause of me losing 78 pounds on LCHF, and well heart transplants are different in every way lol. So I might need to be on it but it was doing weird things to me so I have been off for a while.

When I took Lipitor it caused severe joint pain. I could only walk up and down stairs like a toddler placing one foot and then the other one on the same step, holding onto the railing all the way. I would be in so much pain when I woke up in the morning it would take me about 30 minutes just to get out of bed. This pain developed gradually. When I went to the doctor, someone who was filling in for my regular doctor who was on vacation, she told me to stop the Lipitor. I thought she was just trying to get rid of me but within 2 weeks of stopping it all my join pain went away never to return. This was enough to convince me never to take a statin again. I know that this is just one anecdote but this was not a minor side effect and clearly it was common enough that this doctor recognized the cause of my problem. I had been taking the drug for over a year and the problem developed gradually so I would never have linked it to the Lipitor but clearly that was the cause.

I pray I never have to deal with a doctor telling me to go on a statin. I would need to have a whole page of info to just hand over in place of my words.

Thank you for posting this.

I stopped taking statins months ago / last year.

I stopped opening news sites that take so long to load with all of the bells, whistles, malware, viruses, worms, etc. I guess I could copy the url and open with a proxy server - which would be the only case nowadays lol.

:)

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Originally Posted by LiterateGr

Scan back through 5 or 6 pages on this cholesterol sub-forum, and you will find thread titles for Statins and increased risk of Diabetes, ALS, Muscle Damage and Joint Pain to name a few. I think the one for me, beside the lack of evidence about risk of higher LDL, is Diabetes as a side effect. Even the statin supporters admit there is an increased risk of diabetes, which in itself, is linked to an increased risk of heart disease. One article looked at statins from a Numbers Needed to Treat (NNT) to find the benefit (Low) of preventing a cardiac event vs the % risk of becoming diabetic.

Here's one thread about the large study done in the military Tricare system...risk of diabetes increased 87% https://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=467249

The details from Amy Berger: http://www.tuitnutrition.com/2015/0...d-diabetes.html

For fun, take a look at the side effects for this one class of statins. The statin ads on TV that speed talk their way through a long list only touch a few of them :lol:
https://www.drugs.com/sfx/simvastatin-side-effects.html

The Bitter Statin Debate on DietDoctor. Long article at link.
As with the comment section at the Daily Mail article, within an hour of posting there is a comment about painful side effects even after trying different brands and low doses.

https://www.dietdoctor.com/the-bitter-statin-debate

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ms Arielle

I pray I never have to deal with a doctor telling me to go on a statin. I would need to have a whole page of info to just hand over in place of my words.

My doctor, just last week, suggested I go on a statin (actually it was just an administrative clearly calling me). I just said “never in this lifetime “ and we left it there. 😂 But seriously, I’m completely convinced that statins, prescribed for no valid reason IMHO, where what led to the eventual death of my dad, probably some years sooner than he should have gone.

Another one of those spooky coincidences after my post on the 5th ....NY Times had an article on 3/7 titled, "Statins May Increase Risk of Diabetes" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/...f-diabetes.html

And DietDoctor today titled "Statin Induced Diabetes, what’s the scope of the problem ".
https://www.dietdoctor.com/statin-i...-of-the-problem