‘SUPERDRUG' DEATH LINK? (statins)
http://www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/2008...s011008_01.html
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My attention was caught by that statement too.
"Statins are so spectacularly successful at combating heart disease – the UK’s biggest killer – that some experts have called for them to be ~prescribed automatically to everyone over 50. " That is spectacularly irresponsible journalism. Statins haven't been spectacular at combating heart disease... if anything they've been moderately successful at lowering cholesterol, but heart disease has not gone down, and the whole lipid hypothesis is finally starting to crumble. |
Read "The Great Cholesterol Con" by Dr Malcolm Kendrick. Statins - according to him - do work with a very small and very specific (male) group of patients, but he argues that it is not their cholesterol-reducing properties that cause this, but that another mechanism is at work.
For most people statins are not going to help with anything at all. Lowering cholesterol appears to have all sorts of nasty side-effects, one of them being depression. Depressive types have naturally low cholesterol. Very low cholesterol levels have also been linked to Parkinson's. When one considers all the massively important jobs cholesterol does in our bodies - for example, it is a main component of brain cells, if I recall correctly - then the LAST thing we should be doing is messing about with our cholesterol levels, and lowering them could prove to be extremely dangerous. I'm waiting for some big class action suits over these drugs. amanda |
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ETA: The post is here. It's both the anti inflammatory and plaque increased. http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...ighlight=plaque |
Kisal, I took lovastatin for 2 years, and it all but dissolved my muscles. Every visit to my doctor I'd complain about fatigue, weakness, and muscle/joint pain, and he'd brush it off. Hey, you're fat, you're diabetic, what do you expect? I reached the point where I couldn't walk to the end of my driveway, couldn't get myself off the floor from a kneeling position, had to stop and sit down every 10 minutes during even the lightest physical activity like vacuuming, couldn't even hold my arms up long enough to brush my hair or put on mascara without them trembling and bad pain, was even having suicidal thoughts and cognitive thinking issues, when I stumbled across the spacedoc.net site and figured out what was happening. That was September '06.
When I told my doctor, even having written him a long letter explaining all the problems I was having, and printed off the letters Dr. Graveline has on his site for giving to doctors, and asked him to report it to whoever doctors are supposed to report cases of side effects to, he wouldn't do it, and flat out denied that the statin could have caused it. He said if the statin was causing it, it would have all cleared up within 24 to 48 hours of my stopping taking it. Well I did start to recover as soon as I stopped taking them, but I'm still recovering today, almost 2 years later. I can finally exercise, and do weight training now trying to recover my lost strength. Still not joint-pain free, though. Do you think your doctor reported your side effects to simvastin? Seems to me like the primary reason the % of people who experience side effects looks so minuscule, is because doctors don't report. Glad you figured yours out and quit them, too. |
MizKitty and Kisal - I am so sorry to hear that you both had (and are still having) such a terrible time with the statins. I would possibly be in your company if not for the recent surge in media expose's detailing the side effects and the dangers, because I am supposed to be taking Lipitor right now (but I refused to fill the prescription). I am not sure what I am going to do, if anything - but my total cholesterol is 200 and that is not high, plus I am a woman, and 65 - no benefit possible for me. Whether the doc will listen is another story - if not, he can sue me. I'm not taking it.
Remember - one statin has already been taken off the market (Baycor) and another is under scrutiny now (Vytorin) - let's hope that the rest of them come under fire soon. There is a lot of evidence now, and the media is on it, for once. These drugs are BAD NEWS. |
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And MizKitty and Kisal; I hope you find a solution soon. There has to be something that can reverse this for you. (something natural, of course!) |
I've been doing a lot of research lately about better ways of lowering cholesterol. I've found many articles that say niacin is quite effective. However, it is not without side effects, and at the dosages necessary to control cholesterol, it must be monitored by a physician. There are 3 types of niacin used for cholesterol control: IR (immediate release, which can cause intense flushing and has some danger of liver toxicity), ER (extended release, which causes less flushing and has the least potential for causing liver toxicity), and SR (sustained release, which causes about the same amount of flushing as the ER, but in tests has shown a very high incidence of liver toxicity.)
I suggested niacin to my doctor, and she agreed, but was going to prescribe the SR type. I briefly explained to her that the ER was the better choice, so now she wants me to come in and show her my research. My appointment is for next Monday, the 19th, and I am well armed with 6 really excellent studies that I printed out, all from official peer reviewed medical and pharmacy journals. :D On another subject, while I was doing my research, I stumbled across a report of a study that seems to indicate that calcium supplements can increase heart attack risks in postmenopausal women. I'm going to give her that one, too. :) |
Do you ever get the feeling that doctors think we are all too stupid to have independent thought and reason. I get the impression that if there is something that they do not know or understand that they assume that we don't know or understand it either and if we arm ourselves with knowledge that is beyond theirs they use their power as an 'authority' to dismiss us and threaten us with removal from their practices. It is time their God complexes were well and truly stamped on.
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Kisal you should point your research towards some rather smart people who insist that cholesterol does not even need to be lowered. Cholesterol is like firemen. You generally find them when there is a fire, but they don't cause the fire.
One of the reason that this whole cholesterol hysteria gained so much momentum is that that it gives doctor something to treat. Our modern medicine is very result oriented, so treating a number gives the both the doctor and patient the illusion of progress. Also higher cholesterol has been shown to be PROTECTIVE in older women. So don't let your doctor obsess over your "numbers". |
Yes, high cholesterol gives doctors something to treat. And from what I understand you then need to get your blood tested fairly often to make sure it's not causing liver damage, thus also having to makie more frequent doctor visits to check the results (although I don't know if the doctor tells you this is why your blood is being tested while on statins).
I refused to take them. My doctor said he had NOT heard that older women in particular should not take statins, that high cholesterol may protect older women against cancer. |
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My doc gave me a niacin script for this and told me it might cause a "mild" flushing sensation. Well I was supposed to take it at night and I did around 11 p.m. and around 1 or 2 a.m. I woke up on FIRE. My face, neck and torso were fire engine red and it felt like someone had rubbed jalepeno (spelling?) peppers on me. I had to use cold wet towels to try to stop the burning. It lasted about 2 hours. Well needless to say I never took the pills again. I'm very leery of all these new drugs. I also refused to take Lipitor - just don't believe all the hype. |
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Niacin and hydration and No-flush niacin kills |
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Very enjoyable to those of us who have sussed out that much of what is presented as evidence based medicine is no more than Medical Dogma. If you like Taubes you'll enjoy Kendrick. We need more proper scientists and fewer people who simply rehash current medical dogmas by manipulating the facts to fit the theory. |
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