position paper on statins

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position paper on statins

Postby pops » Sun May 02, 2010 1:57 pm

Position paper: Statins

After experiencing excruciating pain from lovastatin, I started researching that class of drugs. This is what I found.

8 of 9 people on the board at the FDA who are pushing for increased use of statins by lowering the standard for LDL to 70, are concurrently employed by pharmaceutical companies that manufacture statins.

The risk of muscle pain and weakness is not agreed upon by experts in the field. The American Heart Association says 20% experience pain and weakness. The Cleveland Institute says between 2% and 3% experience pain and weakness. Dr. Weil, who is not an expert but is a medical doctor, says 25% experience pain and weakness. And several sources claim that athletes experience muscle weakness and pain at a rate of 75%. I know I did. And, I still am. My resting pulse has gone from 50 to 60, which suggests to me that my heart muscle was as affected as my back, quadriceps, knees and calves were.

At least one study stated that virtually all statin users had muscle damage based on biopsies, even those who did not experience pain or weakness.

There are indications that lowering LDL beyond 100 can negatively affect the myelin sheath, causing the symptoms of multiple sclerosis in those who are not afflicted with that disease.

Some of the muscle weakness resulting from statin use is probably related to the deficiency of coenzyme q10 statins cause. Unfortunately, coq10 is not the only cause of myopathy in statin users, but one of many. Taking coq10 is probably not sufficient to prevent side effects.

The FDA is about to enter a policy of recommending LDL of 70 as the goal for everyone. The only way for people to attain that goal is to be on statins. Therefore the policy will be that everyone should be on statins. At that rate, the increase in myopathies, including cardio myopathies, will probably be horrendous. Cardio myopathies have doubled since statins were introduced.

It is likely that many, perhaps millions, of cases of extreme pain in the elderly are caused by statins.

When pain is ignored and statins are continued, permanent muscle injury can occur. Even when statins are stopped immediately upon the first signs of pain and weakness, there have been documented cases where permanent injury was incurred.

There is still no proof that LDL has anything to do with heart disease. Many researchers are claiming CRP is a more important factor.

In one study, Crestor at 5mg was 61% as effective in preventing heart disease as Crestor at 80 mg. But at 5 mg side effects were almost non-existent, and at 80 mg virtually everyone experienced severe side effects.

Crestor has petitioned the FDA to allow their product to be prescribed as a preventative in healthy people with no risk of heart disease.

In my opinion, statins are being over-prescribed. Profit motive seems to be involved, though I have no proof of that. Doctors are as much a victim as patients. They are being fed disinformation, just as the general public has been.

Again, my opine, the best way to prevent heart disease is probably still the old standard. Diet and exercise. Statins might be useful in the worst cases where patient compliance is non-existent or heart disease is already present. Even then, the lowest effective dose should be used to avoid serious side effects.

pOps
pops
 
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