Statins

Adding a bit more to the statin discussion that branched out in the Supplement thread <[www.afibbers.org]>, it's important to learn why statins can affect everyone including afibbers due to the depletion of CoQ10.

Statins prescriptions are very popular these days; they get pushed on everyone. One of my favorite books, Overdo$ed America, by John Abramson, MD, clinical instructor at Harvard Medical school, devotes a chapter to analyzing the data and how the actual presentations of the data are often skewed. In this book, he has interesting titles for chapters and subchapters.

The New Medical Consumerism
Spinning the Evidence
The Devil is in the (Statistical) Details
Collaboration in the Academy
The Myth of Excellence
False and Misleading
The Great American Drug Lobby
(just a few among many)

If you haven’t read Overdo$ed America, it’s never too late to become enlightened on the facts on how many studies contain biased information and as a result, often very unfortunate mishaps occur with drugs once released to patients and eventually those drugs are recalled by the FDA.

Among the topics discussed in this book are statins. Here are links that relate to this statin topic:

Are lipid-lowering guidelines evidence-based?
John Abramson, MD James M Wright, MD
[www.lipidsonline.org]

A 2007 opinion article by Drs John Abramson (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA) and Jim Wright (University of British Columbia, Vancouver), published in the Lancet, argued that the bulk of the evidence did not support statin therapy for primary prevention in women or in people over age 65.
[www.overdosedamerica.com]
Quote:" No studies have shown statin cholesterol-lowering drugs to be effective for women at any age, nor for men 69 years of age or older, who do not already have heart disease or diabetes. Better than 50 adults have to take a cholesterol-lowering drug for 1 patient to avoid a mortal heart attack, and that figure only applies to high-risk patients. There is a vanishing benefit to lowering cholesterol for healthy adults." [Lancet 2007; 369:168-169].

Dr. John Abramson joins with 30 more eminent MD's in this Sept 2004 letter to the NIH calling for a complete revision of the faulty cholesterol treatment guidelines.
Quote:
One statin critic not backing down is John Abramson, author of Overdosed America. He points out that patients on Crestor had the same rate of serious illnesses requiring hospitalization as those on placebo. "You haven't improved their net health," says Abramson. Instead, he argues, you're trading heart attacks and strokes for other serious illnesses. And he contends that not offering weight-loss counseling to an overweight population created an "artificial situation" that exaggerated the benefits of the drug. He's not alone. Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's fake news show The Colbert Report joked the study was "a great breakthrough in the battle to find things to prescribe to people who don't need them."

Forbes article: Want to avoid a heart attack? Stop taking your vitamins and switch to a cholesterol-lowering statin drug instead.
[www.forbes.com]
Flagged as “A dose of bias is unhealthy” at Dr. Abramson’s website.

Interview with Dr. Abramson on Townsend Letter
The Overselling of Statins
(the late) Robert Crayhon, MS, CN
[www.townsendletter.com]

You can listen to past presentations on Coast to Coast with Dr. Abramson…
Check here; then scroll down to the download area.
[www.coasttocoastam.com]

Additional and highly informative comments by Jeffrey Dach, MD another physician are available here:
[www.drdach.com]

Jackie

Hi Jackie,

I tried to catch up with you in the other room, then saw that you'd been moved over here. I have wanted to add something to your informative words. Since there's a bit more privacy here I’ll just say it like it is: in a more perfect world the purveyors of the ‘cholesterol myth’ and the statin industry would all be convicted of criminal conspiracy and mass murder.

Erling

A few random quotes from make the case:

“Despite the proven irrelevance of cholesterol, we have a pharmaceutical and food industry committed to promoting the charade of cholesterol etiology, and statin sales have never been higher.” “...in August 2001, Baycol was found to be associated with approximately 100 rhabdomyolysis deaths.” “...reports are surfacing of cardiac arrhythmias associated with the use of statin drugs. These take the form of extra systoles of both atrial and ventricular origin, occasional bradycardia and runs of tachycardia's of various types.” “In truth, anything is possible with statin use, and much of what happens, it seems, can be for the rest of your life.” “With millions of people on statins, think of the legions of people out there with permanent muscle pain and weakness. It is a tragedy beyond belief.”

You recently posted a paper by noted cardiologist Peter Langsjoen MD, which I've excerpted here:

“The medical profession has, after more than 30 years of excellent propaganda, successfully created the wholly iatrogenic "pseudo-disease" dubbed "hypercholesterolemia" and the associated malady "cholesterol neurosis" ...the medical profession stumbled upon the magic bullet, the cure for this dreaded artificial disease: statins. ...statins have rapidly grown into one of the most widely prescribed class of drugs in history. ...they block the body's ability to make cholesterol, thus lowering the blood level of cholesterol, thereby curing "cholesterol neurosis". Doctors and patients equally neurotic have immediate gratification. The "evil" high cholesterol has been dramatically lowered and the future is bright and promising. So far, so good.

Statins kill people - lots of people - and they wound many, many more. All patients taking statins become depleted in Coenzyme Q10 eventually - those patients who start with a relatively low CoQ10 levels (the elderly and patients with heart failure) begin to manifest signs/symptoms of CoQ10 deficiency relatively rapidly - in 6 to 12 months. Younger, healthier people who's only "illness" is the non-illness "hypercholesterolemia" can tolerate statins for several years before getting into trouble with fatigue, muscle weakness and soreness and... heart failure.

In my practice of 17 years I have seen a frightening increase in heart failure secondary to statin usage, "statin cardiomyopathy"... We are now in a position to witness the unfolding of the greatest medical tragedy of all time -- never before in history has the medical establishment knowingly created a life threatening nutrient deficiency in millions of otherwise healthy people, only to then sit back with arrogance and horrific irresponsibility and watch to see what happens -- as I see two to three new statin cardiomyopathies per week in my practice, I cannot help but view my once great profession with a mixture of sorrow and contempt.

Reply Quote

Erling,

I've been making anti-statin noises for years, and my husband, Mike (age 53 and has been taking statins for a dozen or so years), has always rolled his eyes. Lately, he has been listening, and now wonders if he was to go off them, should he "wean" himself gradually so as to avoid the rebound of cold turkey? In the past if he has taken too long to get to the doctor for refills, has run out of meds, and blood was taken, there has always been a dramatic increase in his numbers.

Even with all the studies that you have shown, I think it will take a leap of faith on his part to break away from the established thinking (brainwashing?) currently around.

Thanks,

lisa

Hi Lisa,

Good for you - keep making noise! The irrefutable fact is that the cholesterol scam is an intentionally brainwashing criminal conspiracy, or certainly would be if not sanctioned by equally criminal law makers.

To my mind a cold turkey 'rebound' does not seem logical, unless the word is to include a normal rise in blood cholesterol, which is logical -- but so what? "People with high cholesterol live the longest" we are convincingly told by Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD, in the topic below: [www.afibbers.org].

Anyone will benefit from spending time sifting through the hundreds of articles at Dr. Duane Graveline’s [www.spacedoc.net]. Somewhere along the way truth will overwhelm brainwashing. All anyone else can do is to continue yelling that all the emperors are stark naked and should be in jail.

Erling

Thank you, Erling, for your valuable (as usual) contributions.

Of key issue here for afibbers is the CoQ10 depletion factor by statins and how that affects heart cell energy production and function.

I often entertain a speculative thought that possibly the esclating increase in prevalence of atrial fibrillation is linked to the increase and persistence in writing statin prescriptions.

Since I had statin damage and then some years later, AF entered my life, I'm always thinking it may have been at least a contributor but since I had so many other issues, it was just one of many potential causes.

Jackie

Hi Jackie,

Thanks for your continuous offering of valuable writings, shining light on important, often murky subjects. In the case of statins it seems a never-ending task to highlight what would long since have become accepted truth, were it not for 'powers' that profit hugely by 'dumbing down'.

Your speculative reasoning is of course right 'on target' and completely logical, and obvious, that increased statin use adds significantly to AF prevalence by reducing CoQ10/ATP energy availability in cardiac muscle cells, all cells. Add decreased 'reduced' CoQ10 (ubiquinol) anti-oxidant protection of vulnerable mitochondrial DNA, and any/all of the dark effects of a statin become likely.

I'm always sorry when reminded of your struggles with such effects, apparently increasingly expressed years after discontinuing a rather brief exposure. Fortunately you understand why this is, and are diligent in doing all the right things to minimize symptoms. Hopefully you will discover ways to further enhance mitochondrial function -- maybe there's something of benefit with the new CoQ10 product called PQQ?

All of which is reason to again further the efforts of Duane Graveline MD. MPH, his book The Statin Damage Crisis (March !5, 2009) [www.amazon.com]

Description:

The purpose in the choice of the title The Statin Damage Crisis is to draw attention to the thousands of statin damaged people who have written to Dr Graveline about their disabling neuropathies, myopathies and a variety of neurodegenerative conditions such as ALS and Parkinsonism associated with statin use. Although much of the book's content will be familiar to readers of Statin Drugs Side Effects, ( this was originally planned as a new edition ) The Statin Damage Crisis adds much new material that Dr Graveline has learned of in the past two years.

Dr Graveline states: "Early on my NASA doctors told me my amnesia response to statins was nothing but a coincidence, but I persevered to write my first book, Lipitor, Thief of Memory." "Then I learned of statin damage to nerves and muscles and profound behavioral and personality changes, demanding I write a second book, Statin Drugs Side Effects. Even this broadly encompassing book was insufficient to describe what I have learned more recently of the truly dark side of statins - their ability to alter the very fabric of our makeup." "I had long wondered why muscle and nerve damage seemed permanent and even progressive like my own ALS-like condition. Now I have found that the ultimate effect of statins on CoQ10 and dolichols is to damage the DNA of the mitochondrial life-force within our cells - mitochondrial mutation masquerading as premature old age."

(Excellent reader reviews follow)

Erling - thanks for your comments and bringing up the topic of PQQ. I'm actively research that and will probably be reporting on my experiences eventually.

For now, after experimenting with many, many things, I find that a minimum of 200 mg ubiquinol daily has made the most difference. I begain by taking 400 ubuiquinol along with a special CoQ-nano (200 mg) form that really made a huge difference in physical stamina, muscle comfort and also seems to have stabilized my heart considerably. After several months of that, I can now manage comfortably with the lower dose, fortunately.

I haven't read Dr. Graveline's latest book; guess I'll have to add that one to my library.

Certainly, your story of your experience of a detrimental effect from a high-dose statin should not be forgotten either. These are dangerous drugs, for sure and we need to be relentless in informing the unsuspecting.

Best to you,
Jackie

Erling:

Please be sure to comment on my post in the other thread on statins and cholesterol. I am listening avidly but I am overly fearful of abandoning the "medical community lie" of statins are needed to keep cholesterol numbers down.

I have had blocked arteries and subsequent angioplasties three times in my "career" as a CAD patient: 1980 (angioplasties just getting started), 1995, and 2005. In all cases, the culprit seemed to be high cholesterol and associated poor diet. Each time brought a dedication to healthier lifestyle and eating choices. Clearly did not follow it closely enough.

The emotional connection to the concept that higher (objectionable) cholesterol numbers lead to blocked coronary arteries is strong and large. Statistics are statistics but as they say, you (me) are a sample of one, and I could fall on the wrong side of the statistical equation.

I am looking forward to your comment relating to the numbers on the other thread (it is confusing when there are several threads on the same subject). But I did not want my request to slip by.

Thanks,
Ken