New Study On Statins - July 9

Most Statin Users Won't Have Major Side Effects
However, large review found 9 percent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes

By Serena Gordon

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 9 (HealthDay News) -- Statins -- the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs -- have few serious side effects, although they do slightly raise the risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a large new evidence review.

In the analysis of 135 previous studies, which included nearly 250,000 people combined, researchers found that the drugs simvastatin (Zocor) and pravastatin (Pravachol) had the fewest side effects in this class of medications. They also found that lower doses produced fewer side effects in general.

"As with any drugs, statins have both benefits and harms," said study lead author Huseyin Naci, a doctoral candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

"We show that harmful side effects of statins are not common, and they are greatly outweighed by their benefits," said Naci, also a research fellow in the department of population medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Results of the study, which received no drug company funding, were released online July 9 in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Statins are medications used to lower the amount of LDL cholesterol or "bad" cholesterol -- in your blood. LDL levels can be lowered through dietary changes and exercise, but many people find it difficult to maintain these lifestyle changes.

Moreover, statins may be useful for stabilizing plaque in the blood vessels (plaque can break off and cause a heart attack or a stroke) and reducing inflammation, according to Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a preventive cardiologist and director of Women and Heart Health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She was not involved with the new study.

In the analysis, the researchers reviewed data from randomized clinical trials, some of which compared statins to each other, while some compared statins to an inactive placebo pill. The average follow-up time for the studies included in the analysis was 1.3 years.

The review included data from the seven statins currently on the market. Atorvastatin (Lipitor), simvastatin and pravastatin were the most commonly used statins among participants.

Simvastatin and pravastatin had the best safety profile, according to this review.

Overall, the researchers found a 9 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes in people taking statins. Naci said it's possible that statins may impair the secretion of insulin, although this study didn't examine potential mechanisms for why statins might increase diabetes risk.

"The slight increase in diabetes risk is greatly outweighed by the cardiovascular benefits of statins," he said.

Statins were not linked to any increase in the risk of cancer, according to the review. "There is conclusive evidence that statins do not raise cancer risk," Naci said.

The use of statins, particularly atorvastatin, was linked to an increase in liver enzyme irregularities. Naci said these blood test changes don't cause any symptoms, and are reversible when the drug is stopped. "If monitored closely, there is no cause for concern, and no specific precautions are warranted based on our study," he said. "Switching to a statin associated with fewer elevations may be appropriate."
The researchers also found that the higher the dose, the more likely people were to stop participating in a trial due to side effects.

"Side effects do tend to go up with higher doses," cardiologist Steinbaum said. "You want to use as little medication as possible, and combine the use of statins with lifestyle management. There's no medication that's a quick fix and a cure, but it's worth taking statins if you can manage the side effects."

She added that while simvastatin and pravastatin may have the most favorable side effect profiles, "they tend to be the least potent statins. The statins with the greatest effects tend to have the most side effects," Steinbaum said.

"Not all statins are the same," noted study author Naci. "Our study provides evidence that the side effect profiles of individual statins vary, which should be considered when making prescribing decisions."

The people conducting the statin study review should have included my history for balance.

Interesting that in the descriptive portion on statin use, nothing was mentioned that statins block the essential function of Coenzyme Q10.

I took both Zocor and Pravachol 24 years ago as a preventive measure when I was in the care of an overzealous Internist who thought everyone should be on a statin as a precaution. That was when I had not yet learned that statin drugs were often harmful and that Big Pharma’s influence over physicians was far reaching.

The result for me was almost immediate muscle weakness mostly in my legs. When I complained, he said… there is nothing in the literature that indicates that would be so, but I’ll change your Rx. After two months of experimenting, my leg muscles were weak and painful just to stand for any length of time. I learned by falling down that I was unable to jump.

To this day, I am unable to hop on one foot due to mitochondrial dysfunction. I can walk and jog but without super-heroics of abundant daily dosing with supplements such as d-ribose, magnesium, CoQ10, carnitine and more, I become weak. Since my heart is also a muscle, I am quite sure that this mito-damage was contributory to flawed heart energy conduction as well. Fortunately, I didn’t take the statins long enough to develop diabetes.

While statin drugs are known to be anti-inflammatory, there are other safer, far less costly methods of keeping systemic inflammation low. These new studies are (in my opinion) another desperate attempt to hold on to sales of expensive drugs that are now being discarded by knowledgeable patients and doctors alike.

Everyone should be aware that statins deplete Coenzyme Q10 and without that, muscle cells are unable to function properly. At the very least, CoQ should be prescribed right along with the statin… but that’s rarely done. Better yet, avoid statins completely as cholesterol is not the enemy.

Inflammation is the enemy and that goes along with oxidized saturated fats which are very harmful so it’s important to understand about avoiding heavily cooked meats that are highly atherogenic.

In a discussion on diet and prevention of Atherosclerosis, Alan R. Gaby, MD (pioneer in the nutritional medicine) says we need cholesterol to make steroid hormones…

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The standard belief system (not necessarily wisdom) from way back in the 60’s was that dietary cholesterol and saturated fat was bad and polyunsaturated fats were good… they didn’t say. much about sugar except John Yudkin over in England has been yelling about sugar for about 40 or 50 years… it turns out that it is much more complicated than that and some of it is actually wrong. I can tell you my take on it and we’ll get to that in a few minutes.

A recent meta-analysis of 21 studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed no correlation of intake of dietary fat and incidence of cardiovascular disease. So…that one is kinda kicked by the wayside. Saturated fat is metabolized in the body and while it may raise triglyciderides to some extent, it doesn’t seem to do much else that would predict cardiovascular risk.

In addition, as you all know, cholesterol is an essential nutrient and if one does not ingest it, the liver will synthesize it because we need it as a precursor to steroid hormones and we need it as a component of cell membranes.

So why would high cholesterol saturated high saturated fats be bad for us? They may be-- but for reasons perhaps unrelated to their saturated fat content. For one, most of the foods high in cholesterol and saturated fats are meats. And when we cook them (and we have to cook them to avoid some kind of infectious disease) particularly at high temperatures, a number of toxic by-products are formed – one is oxidized cholesterol which is highly atherogenic even though even though pure native cholesterol does not produce atherosclerosis in animals. If it is allowed to oxidize, then it produces atherosclerosis even at low doses. The same thing may occur with the various unsaturated fats when heated to high temperatures, those oxidize and form lipid peroxides. Third, when you heat meats and other foods to high temperatures, it causes the formation of Advanced Glycation End-products – AGEs… nice acronym because they do accelerate the aging process as well.
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Jackie