Statin drugs are supposed to be safe. This is what we have been hearing about them from the Conventional Medical Establishment now for many years. They were first introduced in 1987, and quickly became a blockbuster drug. One Statin drug, Baycol, caused over 50 deaths, and was linked to over 1000 cases of muscle weakness. It was quickly (and silently) withdrawn.
Soon, Big Pharma propaganda had convinced us that these drugs were entirely safe. The magazine 'What Doctors Don't Tell You', WDDTY, in January 2007 observed that 'everyone seems to be popping a cholesterold-lowering statin drug these days. They have become part of the daily health regime for millions of people, and they are considered to be so safe that one statin, Simvastatin, is available over-the-counter in the UK without a prescription".
And as late as May 2008, the Independent was able to publish an article - 'Prescribing more Statins could save lives'. The article reported that, in 2007, Professor Roger Boyle, the Government's 'heart tsar' had suggested that every man over 50, and every woman over 60, could be offered a daily Statin to reduce their heart attack risk. It also reported that NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Evidence) was advising that all adults aged 40 to 75 should be assessed for their risk of heart disease - and should be offered Statin drugs.
These were incredible, but quite typical claims that have been made for Statin drugs for over 25 years now. But by the time this article was published the dangers of Statins were known, but well hidden from view.
I have copies of WDDTY going back to the early 2000s - and they were regularly reporting on the dangers of Statins - all studiously avoiding by the mainstream media, Big Pharma, the Government, the NHS, and our own GPs.
The Health Sciences Institute has also been saying for years that Statins are unsafe. Indeed, as they say, the known disease-inducing effects (DIEs) of these drugs now include liver damage, acute kidney failure, memory loss, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, muscle weakness (including a condition, rhabdomyolysis, that can be fatal), fatigue, depression, type 2 diabetes and cataracts.
There is now considerable, if not overwhelming evidence, pointing to the dangers of Statin drugs. Indeed there is much more evidence than even I had imagined when I began researching for this blog. This article is perhaps the most useful link - as it provides links to a considerable number of scientific studies that points to the dangers of Statins - from peripheral neuropathy and poly-neuropathy, to neuro-toxicity, to psychiatric reactions, to cognitive function, memory loss, mental effects, to Alzheimers disease, and much more.
One of the most recent connection has been with diabetes. Statin drugs has been found to increase the risk of diabetes in post-menopausal women by a massive 70%. A long-term study in the USA, involving 1000's of women, found that female patients prescribed Statins had 48% greater change of developing diabetes. And this rose to 70% in older women. There is more on this research here. And the research is outlined here.
Equally important, Statin drugs is implicated with many kinds of nerve damage. There is now research evidence indicating that if you take Statin drugs for 2 years or more, nerve damage becomes the rule rather than the exception. An amazing claim indeed.
EVIDENCE SUPPORTING THE DANGERS OF HIGH CHOLESTEROL
Yet, to understand the full enormity of the Statin drug scam, we also have to understand about cholesterol, and whether it is (as we have been told) an important contributory cause of heart disease. Remember, the main reason for people taking Statins is that we have been convinced that high levels of cholesterol cause heart disease. Yet there is a major clue that this link may be quite wrong, namely, that as cholesterol levels have become lower, rates of heart disease have not followed suit.
” … between 1994 and 2006 the percentage of men aged 65 to 74 with ‘high’ cholesterol decreased from 87% to 54% … Despite this, the rate of coronary heart disease for this age group stayed about the same … Other age groups have experienced an increase in the rate of heart disease as the number of people with ‘high’ cholesterol has decreased.”
The Big Pharma companies do, of course, have good reason to invent and/or support such a link. Indeed, as this article explains, there are about $29Billion Reasons to lie about cholesterol!
The evidence linking high cholesterol with heart disease is, at best, tenuous. And where there is a problem, it is probably best to deal with it is through diet rather than drugs!
SO WHAT ARE WE TOLD ABOUT THE DANGERS OF STATINS?
There continues to be a deafening silence about the dangers of Statin drugs. The research outlined in this blog is rarely, if ever, reported in the mainstream Media. They appear content going along with the views of the conventional medical establishment, and the drug companies. So as patients we are not told anything beyond a few bland and understated cautions, and the mantra that 'the benefits outweigh the disadvantages'.
The information is not even found on websites selling these drugs, or indeed, in the information contained within the packaging. One study, undertaken by the school of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences (University of Portsmouth), and reported by HRI, asked this question, and discovered the following:
* General contraindications regarding statin use were absent in more that 92% of website advertising Statins.
* Contraindications relating to interactions with other medication were absent in over 47% of websites.
* Warnings about the potential for muscle damage were absent in 37% of websites
* Warnings about the potential for liver damage were absent in almost 50% of website.
The conclusion HRI reached, after looking at this research, was that it was impossible for consumers to make 'informed choices' about the likely benefits and harms of these drugs. Their dedicated blog, 'The Cholesterol Truth', believes that 'statin drugs are nothing but money-spinning concoctions that are putting people's health at risk'. It is difficult to disagree with this summary. They say, further:
"It's ridiculous to think doctors are prescribing drugs that are supposedly preventing a killer disease ... but in turn these drugs also increase the risk of another major disease - diabetes. It's hardly surprising that the number of people being diagnosed with diabetes is reacing epidemic proportions given the widespread use of statins.
Yet this is what we get with all Big Pharma drugs. We take them for one condition, only to find that we soon go down with another disease, often much worse than the original disease.
Big Pharma companies, supported by the Media, politicians and the NHS, continue to push Statin drugs quite shamelessly. This article describes the idea that they should be prescribed for the treatment of flu - something that is described as 'a ludicrous recommendation'.
Quite so. But perhaps recommending Statin drugs to treat any condition is equally ludicrous!
Soon, Big Pharma propaganda had convinced us that these drugs were entirely safe. The magazine 'What Doctors Don't Tell You', WDDTY, in January 2007 observed that 'everyone seems to be popping a cholesterold-lowering statin drug these days. They have become part of the daily health regime for millions of people, and they are considered to be so safe that one statin, Simvastatin, is available over-the-counter in the UK without a prescription".
And as late as May 2008, the Independent was able to publish an article - 'Prescribing more Statins could save lives'. The article reported that, in 2007, Professor Roger Boyle, the Government's 'heart tsar' had suggested that every man over 50, and every woman over 60, could be offered a daily Statin to reduce their heart attack risk. It also reported that NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Evidence) was advising that all adults aged 40 to 75 should be assessed for their risk of heart disease - and should be offered Statin drugs.
These were incredible, but quite typical claims that have been made for Statin drugs for over 25 years now. But by the time this article was published the dangers of Statins were known, but well hidden from view.
I have copies of WDDTY going back to the early 2000s - and they were regularly reporting on the dangers of Statins - all studiously avoiding by the mainstream media, Big Pharma, the Government, the NHS, and our own GPs.
The Health Sciences Institute has also been saying for years that Statins are unsafe. Indeed, as they say, the known disease-inducing effects (DIEs) of these drugs now include liver damage, acute kidney failure, memory loss, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, muscle weakness (including a condition, rhabdomyolysis, that can be fatal), fatigue, depression, type 2 diabetes and cataracts.
There is now considerable, if not overwhelming evidence, pointing to the dangers of Statin drugs. Indeed there is much more evidence than even I had imagined when I began researching for this blog. This article is perhaps the most useful link - as it provides links to a considerable number of scientific studies that points to the dangers of Statins - from peripheral neuropathy and poly-neuropathy, to neuro-toxicity, to psychiatric reactions, to cognitive function, memory loss, mental effects, to Alzheimers disease, and much more.
One of the most recent connection has been with diabetes. Statin drugs has been found to increase the risk of diabetes in post-menopausal women by a massive 70%. A long-term study in the USA, involving 1000's of women, found that female patients prescribed Statins had 48% greater change of developing diabetes. And this rose to 70% in older women. There is more on this research here. And the research is outlined here.
Equally important, Statin drugs is implicated with many kinds of nerve damage. There is now research evidence indicating that if you take Statin drugs for 2 years or more, nerve damage becomes the rule rather than the exception. An amazing claim indeed.
EVIDENCE SUPPORTING THE DANGERS OF HIGH CHOLESTEROL
Yet, to understand the full enormity of the Statin drug scam, we also have to understand about cholesterol, and whether it is (as we have been told) an important contributory cause of heart disease. Remember, the main reason for people taking Statins is that we have been convinced that high levels of cholesterol cause heart disease. Yet there is a major clue that this link may be quite wrong, namely, that as cholesterol levels have become lower, rates of heart disease have not followed suit.
” … between 1994 and 2006 the percentage of men aged 65 to 74 with ‘high’ cholesterol decreased from 87% to 54% … Despite this, the rate of coronary heart disease for this age group stayed about the same … Other age groups have experienced an increase in the rate of heart disease as the number of people with ‘high’ cholesterol has decreased.”
The Big Pharma companies do, of course, have good reason to invent and/or support such a link. Indeed, as this article explains, there are about $29Billion Reasons to lie about cholesterol!
The evidence linking high cholesterol with heart disease is, at best, tenuous. And where there is a problem, it is probably best to deal with it is through diet rather than drugs!
SO WHAT ARE WE TOLD ABOUT THE DANGERS OF STATINS?
There continues to be a deafening silence about the dangers of Statin drugs. The research outlined in this blog is rarely, if ever, reported in the mainstream Media. They appear content going along with the views of the conventional medical establishment, and the drug companies. So as patients we are not told anything beyond a few bland and understated cautions, and the mantra that 'the benefits outweigh the disadvantages'.
The information is not even found on websites selling these drugs, or indeed, in the information contained within the packaging. One study, undertaken by the school of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences (University of Portsmouth), and reported by HRI, asked this question, and discovered the following:
* General contraindications regarding statin use were absent in more that 92% of website advertising Statins.
* Contraindications relating to interactions with other medication were absent in over 47% of websites.
* Warnings about the potential for muscle damage were absent in 37% of websites
* Warnings about the potential for liver damage were absent in almost 50% of website.
The conclusion HRI reached, after looking at this research, was that it was impossible for consumers to make 'informed choices' about the likely benefits and harms of these drugs. Their dedicated blog, 'The Cholesterol Truth', believes that 'statin drugs are nothing but money-spinning concoctions that are putting people's health at risk'. It is difficult to disagree with this summary. They say, further:
"It's ridiculous to think doctors are prescribing drugs that are supposedly preventing a killer disease ... but in turn these drugs also increase the risk of another major disease - diabetes. It's hardly surprising that the number of people being diagnosed with diabetes is reacing epidemic proportions given the widespread use of statins.
Yet this is what we get with all Big Pharma drugs. We take them for one condition, only to find that we soon go down with another disease, often much worse than the original disease.
Big Pharma companies, supported by the Media, politicians and the NHS, continue to push Statin drugs quite shamelessly. This article describes the idea that they should be prescribed for the treatment of flu - something that is described as 'a ludicrous recommendation'.
Quite so. But perhaps recommending Statin drugs to treat any condition is equally ludicrous!
