An M.D.'s report on statin drugs/long

[Guest guest]

I had this in my saved file and think this is such valuable information, I'm

forwarding it on. It's long but might be worth the read to people with

cholesterol problems. Also Dr. Bruce West has said that, as a person ages,

their cholesterol actually need to be higher. 300 used to be a normal reading

until the drugs companies realized they could make more money if they lowered

the supposedly acceptable numbers. Eventually numbers are expected to be

lowered more. Anyone with a total cholesterol of 150 of less is opening

themselves up to increased risk of cancer.

Amber

I was still in practice, twenty years ago, when lovastatin, the

first statin drug, became available for use by we primary care

physicians.

We learned to expect liver inflammation and occasional muscle aches

and pains. With the dosages used at that time and with a relatively

small number of patients on the early statins, the side effect issue

impressed me as being acceptable. This is no longer true.

Today, with more potent drugs, millions of people taking them and

doses triple and quadruple those of the past, our side effect

profile has radically changed. Now, cognitive damage, emotional and

behavioral change, neuropathies and even neuro-degenerative damage

are increasingly recognized as associated with statin drug use. But

there is something even more perverse - the element of permanence of

some of these consequences.

The pharmaceutical industry has been quick to add such conditions as

neuropathy and amnesia to their long list of " disclaimers " in their

drug reference information. Yes, within the past six years, after my

own cognitive reactions to statins in the prevailing climate of

complete physician denial, drug companies have belatedly added

cognitive damage but not one word about permanent cognitive damage.

And the same for neuromuscular - yes, most of the drug companies

now admit that peripheral neuropathy may be a consequence of statin

use but have never mentioned it might be disabling, crippling or

permanent. The deliberate pattern of gross misrepresentation and

disinformation of statin drug side effects to physicians who

prescribe these drugs has created a climate where many physicians

will summarily dismiss patient claims of damage as impossible,

thereby placing them in harm's way.

The first evidence of permanence came from reports of cognitive

problems associated with statin use. Hope was one of the

first to receive widespread media attention - a former CEO reduced

to unemployable status due to persistent loss of short-term memory.

Today, four years after the onset, is still grossly

impaired. He is one of many hundreds who have persistent

cognitive deficits long after stopping their statin.

Next came reports of muscle aches and pains brought on by statin

drugs that persisted and even worsened despite promptly stopping the

statin. Two astronaut friends of mine, having no history of muscle

problems, experienced muscle pains shortly after their statin was

started for mild hypercholesterolemi a. Much to their dismay these

pains have persisted years after they stopped the offending drug.

They are but two of thousands of patients in this growing subgroup

of people with persistent and apparently permanent muscle symptoms

seemingly triggered by statin drug use. Current research indicates

that many of these have an unsuspected genetic predisposition. Some

of these cases respond to CoQ10, many do not.

Another growing reality is that of peripheral neuropathy,

particularly unresponsive to treatment, coming on soon after statin

therapy is initiated. Once this occurs, not only does it seems to be

permanent but tends to worsen in many patients. Hundreds of victims

are incapacitated, even crippled by this unfortunate side effect,

seemingly related to alterations in CoQ10 availability brought on by

statin drug interference with the mevalonate pathway.

Mevalonate pathway disruption also seems to be the mechanism of

action for another type of neurological disaster associated with

statin use, that of neurodegenerative disease onset shortly after

the start of treatment. Only in the past few years have we learned

of the unfortunate tendency of statins to promote the tau protein

formation while inhibiting the usual sequence of biochemical

reactions in the mevalonate pathway. Tau protein is now known to

promote the formation of neuro-fibrillatory tangles with secondary

neuronal damage, offering a possible explanation for the unusual

number of cases we are seeing of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,

Parkinsonism, frontal lobe dementia and Alzheimers' disease and

other neurodegenerative conditions shortly after statins are

started. This suggests that these diseases are somehow being

triggered by statins. Need I add that these diseases are both

permanent and progressive.

Not only have statin drug companies failed to adequately warn

prescribing physicians of permanent cognitive loss associated with

statin use, they have failed to warn about permanent neuromuscular

and neurodegenerative consequences. Thousands of unsuspecting

patients have become victims and in most of these cases their

doctors, having had no advance warning from the pharmaceutical

industry, have tended to disregard patient complaints, offering

almost any explanation other than the correct one. Unfortunately, as

these damage claims come to the attention of the courts many MDs

will be forced to share liability with the drug companies. On

hearing hundreds of patient complaints about doctor rebuff

on this subject of statin side effects, I well recall the words of

Doctor Ellsworth Amidon, my professor of medicine at Vermont College

of Medicine, way too many years ago: " Listen well to the words of

the patient, my young doctors, for they are telling you the

diagnosis. "

Duane Graveline MD MPH