Tue, Oct-23-12, 21:36
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Senior Member
Posts: 6,498
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Plan: VLC, mostly meat
Stats: 202/200/165
BF:
Progress: 5%
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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Let's remove all the qualifiers for the drug statin and instead look at what statins actually do when we eat it. Don't even call it a drug, just call it a substance. We'll see if it's really a drug after that.
Let's start with Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statins
Quote:
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Statins (or HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) are a class of drugs used to lower cholesterol levels by inhibiting the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, which plays a central role in the production of cholesterol in the liver.
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Translation: Statins are a class of substances that interfere with liver function - specifically an enzyme that regulates the production of cholesterol. So what happens when we do this? Let's see the effects of that interference with liver function:
Quote:
Adverse effects
The most common adverse side effects are raised liver enzymes and muscle problems. In randomized clinical trials, reported adverse effects are low; but they are "higher in studies of real world use", and more varied.[15] In randomized trials, statins increased the risk of an adverse effect by 39% compared to placebo (odds ratios 1.4); two-thirds of these were myalgia or raised liver enzymes with serious adverse effects similar to placebo.[16] However, reliance on clinical trials can be misleading indications of real-world adverse effects – for example, the statin cerivastatin was withdrawn from the market in 2001 due to cases of rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown), although rhabdomyolysis did not occur in a meta-analysis of cerivastatin clinical trials.[15] Other possible adverse effects include cognitive loss, neuropathy, pancreatic and hepatic dysfunction, and sexual dysfunction.[15]
Some patients on statin therapy report myalgias,[17] muscle cramps,[17] or, less frequently, gastrointestinal or other symptoms. Liver enzyme derangements, typically in about 0.5%,[citation needed] are also seen at similar rates with placebo use and repeated enzyme testing, and generally return to normal either without discontinuance over time or after briefly discontinuing the drug. Multiple other side effects occur rarely; typically also at similar rates with only placebo in the large statin safety/efficacy trials. Two randomized clinical trials found cognitive issues while two did not; recurrence upon reintroduction suggests these are causally related to statins in some individuals.[18] A Danish case-control study published in 2002 suggested a relationship between long-term statin use and increased risk of nerve damage or polyneuropathy,[19] but suggested this side effect is "rare, but it does occur";[20] other researchers have pointed to studies of the effectiveness of statins in trials involving 50,000 people which have not shown nerve damage as a significant side effect.[21]
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Let's remove the idea that cholesterol is bad, the idea that those are "side" effects, and the idea that statins are a class of "drugs". What do we get? Detrimental effects. That's it that's all. When we find a substance that does bad things to us, we don't call it a drug, we call it a poison. Arsenic is a good one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_poisoning
Quote:
Signs and symptoms
Symptoms of arsenic poisoning begin with headaches, confusion, severe diarrhea, and drowsiness. As the poisoning develops, convulsions and changes in fingernail pigmentation called leukonychia may occur. When the poisoning becomes acute, symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, blood in the urine, cramping muscles, hair loss, stomach pain, and more convulsions. The organs of the body that are usually affected by arsenic poisoning are the lungs, skin, kidneys, and liver.[2] The final result of arsenic poisoning is coma to death.[citation needed]
Arsenic is related to heart disease[3] (hypertension related cardiovascular), cancer,[4] stroke[5] (cerebrovascular diseases), chronic lower respiratory diseases,[6] and diabetes.[7][8]
Night blindness
Long term exposure to arsenic is related to vitamin A deficiency which is related to heart disease and night blindness.[9]
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So how does arsenic do all that?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arseni...gical_mechanism
Quote:
Biological mechanism
The high affinity of arsenic(III) oxides for thiols is usually assigned as the cause of the high toxicity. Thiols, usually in the form of cysteine residues, but also in cofactors such as lipoic acid and coenzyme A, are situated at the active sites of many important enzymes.[6]
Arsenic disrupts ATP production through several mechanisms. At the level of the citric acid cycle, arsenic inhibits lipoic acid, which is a cofactor for pyruvate dehydrogenase. In addition, by competing with phosphate, arsenate uncouples oxidative phosphorylation, thus inhibiting energy-linked reduction of NAD+, mitochondrial respiration and ATP synthesis. Hydrogen peroxide production is also increased, which, it is speculated, has potential to form reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress. These metabolic interferences lead to death from multi-system organ failure. The organ failure is presumed to be from necrotic cell death, not apoptosis, since energy reserves have been too depleted for apoptosis to occur.
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Right, so arsenic interferes with various systems, and doing so causes bad things to happen. Sounds a lot like statins to me. So what's the difference? Arsenic is not classified as a drug, nor does it interfere with systems that produce a substance that we believe is bad, i.e. cholesterol. We're not confused about arsenic. It does bad things. It's a poison. However, if we ever start to believe that ATP is bad for us, I'm sure we'll jump on the arsenic-is-a-miracle-drug bandwagon to get rid of all that bad ATP.
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But seriously, trying to show statins in a good light is like ignoring the elephant in the room. Statins do more harm than good, and whatever good it does has no effect on ultimate outcome, i.e. death.
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