Lipitor is not the problem; DOCTORS are!

[westlothian]

It is not Lipitor that is the problem, it is doctors within the current medical model.
My husband has lost the last precious decade of his life through his doctor’s persistence in force-feeding him statins. As a family we are devastated. It feels as an attempted manslaughter with no just retribution. The thought that millions of doctors worldwide are mindlessly & gratuitously prescribing these and other poisons makes me despair. Cognitive deterioration was swift and progressive following Lipitor. Warnings and reports to the family doctor went unheeded. (“Surely not!” was her idiotic response; followed by a scare-mongering attempt to switch my husband from high-dosage Lipitor to Crestor - which we refused.) Had we gone along the prevalent “doctor knows best” route, while she was advocating the necessity of Lipitor for life, in all likelihood my husband would have been dead by now. We have also refused a referral “for tests” to a hospital consultant who just also happens to be on the advisory board of GlaxoSmithKline, and we now maintain our physical health by avoiding contact with general practitioners altogether.
It took me six months of gathering evidence to persuade my husband that his seriously escalating memory-loss was a direct result of a year’s statin poisoning from a general practitioner that he apparently trusted, but by which time the damage was done. Despite multiple recommended health supplements (from those who sell them) I have lost my bright, healthy, intelligent partner as he now struggles with strategies to cope with a reduced short-term memory span of some 3 – 4 minutes, which affects absolutely everything on a day-to-day basis. I am now virtually a carer for my partner as he, through no fault of his own, has suddenly lost areas of his identity, personality, confidence and ability. My resultant hatred levels for sections of the medical profession are colossal, as, in thrall to the drug companies, they still dangerously function to people’s detriment - aided and abetted here in the UK by government NHS targets (now disturbingly labelled as ‘preventative medicine’). No doubt there is a pharma pill somewhere for this anger-response at what has been done to us... And what of the millions of others whose lives are also ruined year after year by a formerly trusted profession now prescribing-for-profit...?
It goes without saying that the existence of the SpaceDoc website (once found) and writings of a handful of other concerned medics such as Ravnskov, Golomb, Langsjoen, Cohen, Kendrick and others (anti-cholesterol viewpoints are scarce here in Britain!) have prevented my complete breakdown from anger and stress in recent years. (My current GP is advocating statin additives to our already contaminated drinking water supply! Are all these doctors as clueless as they appear, or do they just not care about the ethics of their so-called profession any more?)

[BDavis]

You ask a good question. Are the doctors that are still prescribing Statin on a regular bases stupid, lazy, too busy to stay updated or malice?
My question is if these are the doctors that most of us are left to treat us after the damage, what will come of us?
BeLinda

[lars999]

I have arrived at my personal modus operendi for any GP that even suggests a statin drug -- they are outta my life -- forever. Instead, I now only deal with specialists and do as much homework prior to each meeting as I am aware I should. I got this way because: 1) the medical community killed my closest friend with totally unnecessary estrogen replacement therapy, resulting in a very aggressive breast cancer that killed her in about 6 months, 2) my current SO got 3 years of her life badly messed up with breast cancer (caught really early), emotional devastation from cancer diagnosis, operation, chemo and radiation therapy, and 3) now my own, equally unnecessary victimization by Lipitor. NO MORE SLACK for MDs, especially GPs!!

My answer to all statins is "NO!!!", ditto for any "cholesterol lowering drug". To any other prescribed drug it is "I will check this out myself and decide if I concur." As I relate my above mentioned exeriences to more and more friends and colleages, I find I am far from alone in this attitude and practice. Happily, about 1/2 of these folks have refused to even fill a single prescription for a statin drug. Wish I had been equally smart!!

Thanks to lots of searching on Internet and reading tens and tens and tens of medical journal articles, I now understand just how drug tests can be and are rigged, especially those designed to get approval of a new drug. And, yes, statistics do distort, even lie, especially as used by drug companies. NIH has now lost a huge fraction of my respect for them.

Fortunately, the decisions and policies of other countries equivalent institutions are generally equally accessable to me, so I can get "second opinions". This Internet Site and Dr. Uffe Ravenskov's Thincs.org group have been wonderful aids, as has Dr. Beatrice Golumb's San Diego Statin Effects Study. The writings of Duane Graveline, Uffe himself, Malcom Kendricks, Kilmer McCully, etc., etc. have been really educational. Thanks to all of this, I feel very well prepared to discuss recommendations by an medical doctor, as well as to approve or refuse any recommendations.

As I have personally gone through more and more of medical reports that lead to "cholesterol causes arteoslerosis nonsense" I see all the many familar signs of "conviction-based, data-be-damned science". The cholesterol skeptics have it right!!

SO, where I going now? Learning all I can about what causes damage to lining of blood vescles, leading to body "bandaiding" these damaged areas with protective coating (plaque), that is artosclerosis, even to unstable areas of plaque (that rupture, leading to blood clots and subsequent heart attacks). Of course, the only treatments I am currently interested in, re cardiovascular health, are those that keep my blood vescles linings healthy and free from plaque.

I am also getting a very personal education in reducing my Lipitor side effects, with lots of room left for improvements.

Yes, this is an ongoing process, in part because the cholesterol-fixation has diverted much needed attention from the real causes of arterosclerosis and the nasty side effects of all statin drugs.

Lars