Statin Drugs. Conventional medicine still think they are so safe they can be sold without a prescription, regardless of the patient harm they are known to cause

Many people continue to believe that if a pharmaceutical drug can be bought at any pharmacy, over-the-counter, without a doctor's prescription, it must be safe. It would appear that this misapprehension is to be further enhanced in Britain - the NHS is planning to allow pharmacists to dispense high-dose statins without the need for a prescription.

I wrote about the dangers of over-the-counter drugs is in my blog "Pharmaceutical drugs on sale at the pharmacy are no safer" in January 2017. In this I discussed the dangers of drugs such as Alka Sultzer, Anadin, Beechams Powders, Benylin, Calpol, Dulcolax, Feminax, Gavascon, Lemsip, Nurofen, Rennies, Robitussin, Solpadeine, Strepsils, Voltarol, and Zantac.

Now, allowing Statin drugs to be sold over-the-counter, takes this another stage further. When first introduced patients were told that Stains were extremely effective, and entirely safe. THEY HAVE PROVEN TO BE NEITHER.

Indeed, I have written about the dangers of Statins many times over the years (go to the search bar above and type 'statins' to see these blogs). But in summary, the side effects now associated with these drugs are numerous and serious. They include:

• cataracts
• heart failure
• pneumonia
• nerve damage
• muscle pain, muscle tissue breaking down
• diabetes
• prostate cancer
• liver damage
• kidney disease
• memory loss (dementia?)

So are they dangerous enough to ensure that doctors monitor patients who take them? Apparently not, at least not as far as the NHS, and the conventional medical establishment, is concerned.

I can think of only two reasons for opening up the availability of these seriously harmful drugs

• pharmaceutical profits.
• doctors wanting to avoid the responsibility and blame of prescribing them.

Conventional medicine is not over-concerned with safety. The principle of 'first do no harm' has long been jettisoned by doctors. No amount of evidence of patient harm appears to have any impact on the sale and promotion of pharmaceutical drugs, regardless of the harm they are known to cause.