Statin drugs are safe! No, they are unsafe! Does Medical Science know?

Are Statin drugs safe?

Patients are given drugs by their doctors because they are told by medical science that the drugs are safe. Experience, particularly over the last 70 years, but actually over the last 200 years, has demonstrated that medical science has got it wrong, most of the time.

So what about Statin drugs? Are the safe? Let's look at what medical science is telling us about drugs that vast numbers of people (6 million in the UK alone) are now taking to lower cholesterol levels, and prevent heart disease. In particular, let's look at two articles published recently by 'The Telegraph' newspaper.

"A third of adults should take statins, new research suggests", is the headline to its article dated 8th September 2016. This takes the line patients have been given for the last 30 years and more.

               "The number of people taking statins should double, according to the author of a landmark report which has found that the drug's side effects have been exaggerated and the treatment prevents 80,000 heart attacks a year. The study, which looked at 30 years of evidence, today declares the cholesterol-reducing drug safe and says that the reported side effects have "inappropriately dissuaded" people from taking them."

In the article, Professor Rory Collins stated that the review showed “the numbers of people who avoid heart attacks and strokes by taking statin therapy are very much larger than the numbers who have side-effects with it”. He went on to talk about the "misleading claims" about the side effects "that inappropriately dissuade people from taking statin therapy despite the proven benefits.” The study estimated that the drugs helped to prevent 80,000 major cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks or strokes, every year.

On 25th November 2016, The Telegraph published another article, "Lancet study on statins was 'fundamentally flawed', critics say". It said that a group of doctors, including Harvard statin expert Dr John Abramson, Sir Richard Thompson, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, and Professor Sherif Sultan, president of the International Society for Vascular Surgery. had attacked the Lancet study on the basis that some of the data behind the trials had not been published, while some claims about the impact of the drugs on cholesterol were based on forecasts. The lead author, Dr Aseem Malhotra is quoted as saying:

               “Decades of misinformation on cholesterol and the gross exaggeration of statin benefits with downplaying of side effects has likely led to the overmedication of millions of people across the world.  The lack of transparency in the prescription of statins is just one symptom of a broken system of healthcare where finance based medicine has trumped independent evidence and what is most important for patients.”

The same Telegraph article then outlined the response to Mahotra's findings! It stated that Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said:

               “This paper combines data and opinion that risks confusing patients about the benefits and safety of their statins.

Yes, patients have every right to be confused, who have to decide whether to take them or not. So, too, do doctors, who have to decide whether to prescribe them, or not!

Medical science is giving no guidance. If 'science' is meant to be definitive, if the randomised controlled tests (RCT's), much beloved by the conventional medical establishment is supposed to provide certainty, it has completely failed. Indeed, medical science has always failed - it approved pharmaceutical drugs as safe and effective. Then, decades later, discovers that they are neither safe nor effective.

My position on Statins has not changed, and it has been outlined elsewhere. The side effects of Statin drugs make them unacceptable, something all patients should avoid at all costs.

               Statin Drugs. Now doctors, are they still 'entirely safe'?
               Statin Drugs (in 'Why Homeopathy?')
               Statins. From 'wonder' drug to 'killer' drug?

Yet the point of this blog is not that the risks of Statins make them too toxic to be acceptable, but is that medical science itself cannot agree about just how dangerous they are to our health!

Proponents of conventional medicine always claim that what they do is based on science, that their drug and vaccine have an 'evidence base'. But whose science? On what evidence base? The two Telegraph articles highlights the confusion that applies not just to Statin drugs, but to every other pharmaceutical drug and vaccine. Medical scientists do not agree about how safe they are, or how dangerous they are.

The only certainty is that the conventional medical establishment will continue to prescribe the drugs and vaccines to us. They may be largely ineffective. They may be dangerous. But patients will continue to be given them until such time as it is conclusively proven that they are ineffective and dangerous. Many patients will contract the 'side effects' that are really diseases. Many patients will die.

The precautionary principle is not applied to pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines. Patients are expected to continue taking them regardless of the diseases and the deaths they might cause. Only when 'medical science' is completely convinced will it act to safeguard patients.

Statin Drugs. Should you be taking them considering what doctors are now being told?

Statin drugs are taken by millions of people throughout the world. Doctors have been telling us for decades they are effective in preventing heart attacks. They have also been telling us that they are 'entirely safe'. Put the two claims together, and we should all be taking them! And indeed this has been the advice from the conventional medical establishment, which has prescribed Statin drugs in every increasing numbers to fit and healthy people.

I have been saying on this blog for many years that Statin drugs are both useless and dangerous. Elsewhere they have been described as "the greatest medical fraud of all times". But in this blog I am not going to describe them. I am going to allow conventional doctors to do all the describing instead.

So now, I am asking everyone to read two articles published by the doctor's e-magazine Pulse, and by the magazine 'Prescriber', and most especially all patients who are taking Statins.

'No scientific evidence' for the use of statins, experts claim'
This article was published today (28th November 2016). There is now doubt about the claims being made for Statins, and the 'medical science' that supports these claims. Doctors are now asking pharmaceutical drug companies to release the data so that it can be properly assessed. Note, please, that Statin drugs have been with us since the 1970.s, claims for their efficacy have been made consistently since then, and now, 40 years on, doctors are asking for the evidence!

'More clarity needed on the true benefits and risks of statins'.
This article is for anyone who wants to read more about the concerns over both the effectiveness and the dangers of Statin drugs. It outlines the issues that are currently being discussed within the conventional medical establishment.

I have good reason to ask Statin users to read these articles. Although the 'Prescriber' article says that the "benefits and risks of statins have recently been the subject of much controversy and debate" I am not sure that our doctors will be willing or able to tell us about these controversial debates! They know about the issues, this is clear. But they continue to prescribe the drugs. And the drug companies are already coming up with denials (about it ineffectiveness, and about its dangers).

The situation with statin drugs, as with most other pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, is the 'benefit equation' that is routinely applied to them. Do they do more harm than good? And in these two articles it is clear what conventional medicine does to persuade us to take them.

• Over-exaggerating the benefits
• Under-estimating the dangers

So '2' for benefits and '3' for risk becomes '3' for benefits and '2' for risks. So our doctors give us the drugs. 

But clearly the drug companies don't want to let us know, and they are refusing to tell us, about the 'medical science' that underlays the 'benefit equation' they use for Statin drugs. So perhaps the figures are more likely to be much more in favour of pharmaceutical profit than our wellbeing and health! 

Are patients refusing Statin drugs? Or is the media being silenced?

I have been reporting on the dangers of Statin drugs on this blog for many years. The evidence of the harm they cause is now plentiful, even though doctors continue to tell us they are 'entirely safe', and that 'we should all be taking them'.

• Statins. From wonder drug to killer drug?
• The dangers of Statin drugs.
• Statin drugs. Why are they not banned?
• Statins. Those nice, safe drugs we should all be taking!
• Statin drugs. Now, doctors, are they still entirely safe?
• FDA warning. Satins now cause memory loss.
• Statins. Doctors conflicted about safety?
• Diabetes caused by Statin drugs?
• Is cholesterol harmful? Do we need Statin drugs?

Millions of patients throughout the world are now taking them. They are the most profitable pharmaceutical drug sold today, and arguably the most dangerous to patient health.

But now it has been reported that "hundreds of thousands of patients may have stopped taking statins because of widespread media coverage of controversy over the drugs' risks and benefits." This news was reported in the doctors e-magazine, Pulse, 200,000 patients may have quit statins following negative media coverage, on 29th June 2016.

Note well. Patients have stopped taking statins because of negative media coverage, not because of adverse reactions to the drugs!

According to Pulse, the problem started when NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence), in 2013, put forward plans to extend the use of statins as a preventative measure for 'low-risk' patients, claiming that it would prevent thousands of heart attacks and strokes. It was conventional doctors who resisted this recommendation. And it was this disagreement, within the conventional medical establishment, that attracted press attention. Although the media response was limited, and low key, patients began to ask questions.

So is this good news? Can we expect a more reasoned debate, in which patients are (at long last) given information about the serious side effects caused by statin drugs?

It is certainly good news for the 200,000 patients if they have stopped taking the drug. They will now be avoiding the serious side effects the drug is now known to cause. But could this be part of a counter-attack by the pharmaceutical industry, mirroring what happened when patients began to mistrust, and refuse the MMR vaccine in 2003-2004?

First, the Pulse article serious downplays the risks of statin drug, instead focusing on the media reports. It was these reports that have led patients to worry about the potential side effects of the drugs. The reports had 'dented pubic confidence' and they asked for 'better balanced reporting'.

This position was taken by the original study, published in the BMJ, "Impact of Statin related media coverage on the use of Statins". Its conclusion was as follows:

          "A period of intense public discussion over the risks : benefit balance of statins, covered widely in the media, was followed by a transient rise in the proportion of people who stopped taking statins. This research highlights the potential for widely covered health stories in the lay media to impact on healthcare related behaviour."

So it is not the drugs that are being criticised, it is the reporting of the drug side effects that is the issue! The study found that the 'discontinuation rate' fell after the press reporting, but soon returned to normal. One co-author of the BMJ study was reported in Pulse as saying that the reporting "may have given disproportionate weight to a minority view about possible side effects, denting public confidence in a drug which most scientists and health professionals believe to be a safe and effective option against heart disease for the vast majority of patients."

So it is not the drugs that are a matter of concern, it is the media reporting of the drugs on which attention is being focused on.

This is exactly what happened to the MMR vaccine debate. Evidence of the harm this vaccine caused, particularly its relationship with the epidemic of autism, caused take-up rates to fall dramatically. The response was two-fold. First, buy science to prove to parents that there was no connection. Second, attack the media sufficiently to ensure that they do not report on drug side effects.

The first led to corrupt medical scientists falsifying evidence in order to prove that there was no connection between the vaccine and autism. Then, publicise widely that there is no connection between vaccine and autism.

Second, blackmail the press in order to ensure that they stop publishing any information about anything that might suggest a link between the vaccine and the disease.

In this way, patients continue taking the drugs. And the pharmaceutical companies continue to make their profits.

So can we expect a re-run of the MMR vaccine / Autism cover-up? Do we now have to wait for the pharmaceutical industry to fund research that confirms that statin drugs are, indeed, 'entirely safe'?

And then can we expect the media to climb back into their passive, obsequious acceptance of conventional medical orthodoxy? If so, the first person they will have to silence, is Dr Bill Beeby, deputy chair of the GPC clinical prescribing subcommittee, who Pulse reported as saying that the controversy over the risk and benefit "is far from resolved, with large numbers of clinical trials remaining unpublished concealing much of the negative data surrounding their use", and that "doctors who offer the benefits still lack all of the data to quantify the risks to individual patients".

Such honesty is not required within the conventional medical establishment! The medical career of Dr Andrew Wakefield was ruined because he spoke out about the MMR vaccine / Autism link. And if he is not more careful, Dr Beeby is likely to suffer the same fate!

Information that focuses on the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines should not be made available to patients, not even to doctors if at all possible. If patients are informed about the dangers of conventional medical treatment they might decline it. And according to the conventional medical establishment it is good for us, regardless of any evidence to the contrary! And they have to support the pharmaceutical companies, who live and die by patients meekly accepting treatment we are given.

Statin drugs. Now, doctors, are they still 'entirely safe?'

Statin drugs are being taken by many millions of patients (over 12 million patients in Britain alone), all of whom have been told they are in danger of heart disease. They take them on the basis that their doctors have told them they are 'entirely safe'!

Everyone, perhaps with the exception of the conventional medical establishment, should now know that they are not safe. They are a danger to our  health. They cause cataracts, diabetes, depression, muscle pain, fatigue, memory loss, kidney damage, liver dysfunction, neurological damage, migraines and digestive problems. Our doctors do know this, unless they are asleep on the job! But do they bother to tell us?

But now Statins have been found to cause more harm. They can cause heart disease - the very problem we have been prescribed them in the first place! In  other words, they actually cause the problem they are supposed to prevent!

Research published in the medical journal, 'Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology', has shown that patients taking statin drugs are more likely to suffer from the hardening of arteries, which is a leading cause of heart disease. They also found that statins have a negative effect on vital body processes that are linked to the hear, and can cause, or worsen, heart failure. Dr Okuyama, of Nagoya City University, Japan, said:

          "We have collected a wealth of information on cholesterol and statins from many published papers and find overwhelming evidence that these drugs accelerate hardening of the arteries and can cause, or worsen, heart failure. I cannot find any evidence to support people taking statins and patients who are on them should stop." 

More, the research says that the hypothesis that statin drugs protect the heart by lowering cholesterol is flawed, and that the 'high cholesterol' - heart disease link does not exist! Strange that, given that our doctors have been taking our cholesterol levels for decades on the basis of high cholesterol leads to  heart disease!

It is yet another occasions when medical science has proven to be entirely unreliable. In other words, it is regularly telling us lies in order to sell pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines. Dr Malcolm Kendrick, who has done extensive studies on heart health and statins, has been quoted as follows:

          "This study demolishes the argument that these drugs should be prescribed to anyone, as the harms clearly outweigh any previously suggested benefits."

These Statin drugs may well become the biggest drug scandal of all, not just because of the harm it is now known to cause, not just because doctors have been telling us they are 'entirely safe', but also because their promotion has been conducted on the basis of 'scientific research'.

Yet, who is going to tell the 12 million people who are taking statins, in Britain alone, about this?  Have you seen anything in the mainstream media about this research? Have you heard any warnings from the National Health Service? Has NICE changed its advice about the treatment of heart disease, and the use of statins? Has your doctor mentioned it to you?

Some doctors have done so. Dr Peter Langsjoen, a heart specialist based in Texas, is quoted as saying:

          "Statins are being used so aggressively and in such large numbers of people that the adverse effects are now becoming obvious. These drugs should never have been approved for use. The long-term effects are devastating."

But the conventional medical establishment, as usual, keeps to their standard response when pharmaceutical drugs are found to be harming patients. A spokesman for the Britain's drug regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are reported as saying that the benefits of statins are considered to outweigh the risk of any side effects in the majority of patients.

The organisation, Cholesterol Truth, says that "there is no way with all the evidence mounting against these drugs that they will be able to keep this scandal under wraps for much longer".

I fear that they may be wrong. The conventional medical establishment is well practiced at doing this. And if we look at the situation from their point of view, perhaps we can understand why this is.

• Drug companies, medical science, the NHS, and our doctors have been telling us that statin drugs are 'entirely safe' for decades. Will they now all admit that they were wrong? 
• Drug regulators throughout the world have told us that statin drugs are safe and effective, and allowed millions of patients to take them on this basis. Will they now all admit that they were wrong?
• The mainstream media, including 'public service' broadcasters like the BBC, have been content to parrot pharmaceutical propaganda for these drugs, and have rarely if ever told us about any connection with cataracts, diabetes, depression, muscle pain, fatigue, memory loss, kidney damage, liver dysfunction, neurological damage, migraines, digestive problems or heart disease. Will they now want to admit that they have been asleep on the job?

No-one likes to admit that they are wrong. No-one wants to admit that their professional advice, over many decades, has been so drastically wrong that it has led to untold and unknown amounts of disease and death for so many patients.

Conventional medicine is a scam. It should not be considered a medical system, it is a disease-inducing system. It does not offer treatment or cures (certainly none that are long-lasting or permanent), it offers ill-health, disease and death. It maintains itself through political and media influence, through its control of bought, 'cheque-book' science that is aimed towards selling drugs and vaccines, not our health.

When people realise just how harmful statin drugs have been to our health, it is likely that the entire edifice of the conventional medical establishment will fall. There are too many, to powerful vested interests to allow this to happen, to permit honesty and openness to prevail. Conventional medicine will continue to impose censorship on what we are told about their drugs and vaccines for a very long time to come.

Cholesterol. Just how important are Statin drugs to our health?

The conventional medical establishment has for decades now told us that high cholesterol levels is one of the biggest risk factors for heart disease, and that it raises our risk of future heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular problems.

Yet, as Agora Health stated, in their recent newsletter, the problem is that lowering your cholesterol is virtually useless for preventing heart disease! They say that there is 'a ton of evidence' proving that cholesterol is not the deadly demons it has been made out to be!

     "For instance, did you know that fully half of all people admitted to hospital with a heart attack had no previous symptoms… and had cholesterol levels in the normal range?"

     "Moreover, studies also show that most people with high cholesterol almost NEVER have a heart attack. If they did, heart attack rates would be TRIPLE what they currently are!"

The problem with this kind of evidence is that it does not sell pharmaceutical drugs! The cholesterol myth has been the main reason for the enormous commercial success of Statin drugs. Therefore, the conventional medical establishment is loath to tell us, and our doctors are probably not allowed to do so.

It is, of course, one thing to take a drug that is useful. It is quite another to take a drug that is known to have serious side effects, drugs that to use a less pejorative term, causes illness and disease.

Our doctors have been telling us for years that Statin drugs are entirely safe. Indeed, many doctors have thought they were so safe they wanted all of us to take them! But my website on Statin drugs outlines the damage that useless Statin drugs can cause.

     "In 2010, a Nottingham university study was published in the British Medical Journal, and reported here in Reuters. It found that people taking Statin drugs have a higher risk of liver dysfunction, kidney failure, muscle weakness and cataracts. The study was a large one, covering over 2 million people in Britain, but the author's of the report were reported as saying that the study was unlikely to affect of Statin drugs!"

     "The link between Statin drugs and Diabetes is also strong. Diabetes is now at epidemic levels, and is usually dismissed as being the result of what we eat. But Statin drugs appear to play a significant role in this too."

     "Memory loss, confusion and dementia are now also linked to Statin drugs. The FDA,(US drug regulator) states on its website, dated 20th January 2015,  that "it has been been investigating reports of cognitive impairment from statin use for several years" and that "the agency has reviewed databases that record reports of bad reactions to drugs and statin clinical trials that included assessments of cognitive function. The FDA report talks about memory loss, forgetfulness and confusion that "span all statin products and all age groups".

Statins have been called the greatest medical fraud of all time, and perhaps in time this is how they will be recognised, and the conventional medical establishment will see fit to tell patients, honestly and truthfully, about the harm Statin drugs cause. However, despite all the evidence, it will probably be a long time before our conventional doctors are allowed to tell us, and the pharmaceutical industry  has the honesty, based on the scientific information already available to it, to withdraw and ban this too-profitable drug.

Statin Drugs. Doctors conflicted about their safety?

The conventional medical establishment appears to be conflicted over Statin drugs. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which provides doctors in Britain with advice and guidelines about prescribing drugs recently advice an increase in Statin prescribing. Whereas previous advice was to prescribe them to any patient who had a 30% risk of a heart attack or stroke, they changed that advice to anyone who had a 10% chance.

This would have meant a considerable increase in the number of people taking Statins, particularly amongst older people. NICE said that it would prevent 28,000 heart attacks, and 16,000 strokes every year. So, something worth doing?

Well, unfortunately, doctors did not think so. A recent analysis by the GPs' magazine, Pulse, discovered that since the new NICE guidelines were given, prescriptions for statin drugs had shown only a 2% rise.

So why the discrepancy? Is there increasing conflict within the conventional medical establishment about Statins? And if so, what is the conflict about?

The problem concerns the safety of Statin drugs. Once, not many years ago, conventional medicine was telling us that these were miracle drugs, reducing heart attacks and strokes, but with little or no side effects. They were, we were told, entirely safe.

Indeed, it is that type of blue-sky thinking that underlay NICE's amended guidelines to doctors. The reason for this is not difficult to find. NICE, like most government sponsored health advisory bodies, is influenced, infiltrated and dominated by medics who have strong links with the powerful pharmaceutical companies. Therefore, most of NICE's advice is driven by the interests of these companies, whose major objective is to sell drugs to patients.

Yet the dangers of Statins is becoming increasingly obvious to an increasing number of people. There is growing numbers of people who are reluctant to take Statin drugs. Doctors meet with people every day. They are aware of this growing concern. And they cannot be unaware of the very serious evidence that is building against these harmful drugs.

In 2014, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) reported that it had received 730 adverse reports related to the five most prescribed Statins in Britain, namely Simvastatin, Atorvastatin, Rosuvastatin, Pravastatin and Fluvastatin. Yet it is well known that only about 10% of adverse reactions to drugs are reported - this, in itself, probably an underestimate. What this means is that in one year, in Britain, over 7,000 patients has been damaged by Statin drugs.

What damage is it causing? The side effects of Statins are now known to include:

• Muscle pain, weakness (myopathy).
• Fatigue.
• Cataracts.
• Weight gain.
• Diabetes
• Kidney failure.
• Liver dysfunction.
• Memory loss, confusion and dementia.
• Parkinson's disease

This is a frightening list of serious illness and disease, all possible outcomes for patients who are taking these 'entirely safe' Statin drugs.

Concerns have also been expressed that the benefits of taking statins have been greatly exaggerated. Some research has questioned whether Statins can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes to the levels claimed.

Doctors are at the very end of the drug consumption line. They deal with patients who are taking them, and suffering from them. Little wonder, then, that some doctors have expressed concerns about the benefits of taking statin drugs, certainly for people who are healthy.

So why are doctors ready to defy NICE's new recommendations on Statins? GP's and NICE has different motivations and priorities. If NICE wants more people to take drugs, in the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, regardless of the harm they do to patients, the role of doctors is to put patient interests first. Perhaps it is unusual for them to do so. Doctors have been prescribing harmful and dangerous drugs to patients now for decades on the basis of the guidance and advice they have received. And, in the main, they have done so without serious questioning.

So is there change happening within the conventional medical establishment? Are doctors beginning to take a more independent line? Are they beginning the question some of the advice and guidance coming down from the pharmaceutical industry?

It would appear, in this case, to be what is happening. It is a real signs of conflict and disagreement within the conventional medical establishment. Whilst the production and management end continues to maximise the use, and over-use of harmful drugs and vaccines, the retail end is at least beginning to question the value of this single, but extremely important drug.

Can we expect more? Possibly. It is certainly time that the value of many other drugs and vaccines, whose harm and dangers are well known to anyone prepared to look, are seriously questioned.

Yet there is a problem with our doctors. If they did begin to question the value of drugs and vaccines more widely, what would they have left to offer patients? Conventional doctors have dismissed alternative medical therapies. They do not speak out sufficiently about the processed diets being served up to us by supermarkets and the Big Food companies. They are not on board, sufficiently, with the importance of exercise, or the environment concerns that affect our health. Their cupboard, without drugs, would be bear.

Real change will still have to come from patients, not doctors, who in order to tell us the truth will have to admit that they have been giving us 'medicines' that have made us ill for years! More people will have to become aware of the dangers of conventional medical treatment. More people will have to become aware that there are other routes to good health, and other medical therapies available that are safer, and more effective than what the conventional medical establishment are providing to us.

It is still going to be a long, laborious process. We have been indoctrinated by the conventional medical establishment for over 100 years. It will take time to understand that health does not come from a pill or an injection.

The Dangers of Statin Drugs

Statin drugs are the most widely prescribed drugs in the UK, and indeed throughout the parts of the world dominated by conventional, drug-vaccine based medicine. They are supposed to lower the levels of cholesterol in the blood which drug companies have long considered to be a major cause of heart disease. 

Initially, we were told that all cholesterol was bad, and needed to be reduced. Then we were told that there is a 'good' and a 'bad' cholesterol. Now, increasing evidence seems to indicate that cholesterol, even 'bad' cholesterol, is not only necessary to our health, but beneficial. This evidence has been put together on 'The Cholesterol Truth' website.

For decades the conventional medical establishment have told us that Statins are entirely safe, that even healthy people should take them as a 'preventative' measure, even that they should be added to our water supply!

This is tremendous promotional material for the Big Pharma companies, and it has led to enormous profits for them. But these profits have been made to the detriment of the health of those people who have taken them.

There are many types and brands of Statin drugs, but they all work in much the same way. These are some of the more common names under which these drugs are sold to us.

Altoprev, Lovastatin, Crestor, Rosuvastatin, Lescol, Fluvastatin, Lipitor, Atorvastatin, Livalo,         Pitavastatin, Mevacor, Pravachol, Pravastatin, Zocor, Simvastatin, Advicor, Simcor, Vytorin.

The History of the Drug

Statins have been the wonder drug of wonder drugs in recent times, the anti-cholesterol drugs prescribed now to over 2.5 million patients in the UK alone. We have been repeatedly told that this miracle drug could significantly reduce the risk of heart disease, and that they are entiresy safe and 'well tolerated'.

The discovery of the effects of statin compounds led to the first experimental 'cholesterol inhibitor' drug in the 1970s, Lovastatin. Testing this drug in the 1980s showed it to be effective in reducing cholesterol levels in volunteers, leading to the drug companies making a link between cholesterold and heart disease, and then selling Statins to reduce heart disease.

Until recently, guidelines from NICE recommended that anyone with a 20% risk of cardiovascular disease over the next ten years should be eligible for them, which means the number of people on Statins soared to more than five million within a few years. The Department of Health somehow estimated that Statins were saving 9,700 lives every year! More recently, NICE have recommened that even more people, those with a 10% risk of heart disease, should be prescribed the drugs.

Indeed, until 2009-10 the main criticism about Statins was that they were not prescribed on a sufficient scale, and this argument was raised in a Guardian article (Sarah Boseley, 22 May 2006) which begins 

          "Virtually all middle-aged men and older women should be taking statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs, if Britain is to have any real success in preventing heart attacks and strokes, experts say today". 

The cost of the drugs was one concern in making this recommendation, with Statins costing on average £152.52 a year per patient, with the NHS bill for Statins being some £769m in 2004 alone.

Yet even at that time the dangers of Statins were beginning to emerge. A Daily Mail article (Jerome Burne, Daily Mail, 27 June 2006) referred to an article in the British Medical Journal, in which Swedish physician and cholesterol expert Dr Uffe Ravnskov claimed that too little is known about the side effects of taking statins at higher doses. The article claimed that there was a possibility of mental and neurological problems such as severe irritability and memory loss, and muscle weakness (myopathy), which can make walking difficult, cause aches and pains, and in rare cases leads to total muscle cell breakdown, and kidney failure. 

Yet the same article quotes one medical professor saying "there is almost universal benefit from statins for men over 55, regardless of their cholesterol level, and also for women over 60" . What this demonstrates is that ConMed is prepared to ignore warning signs about its drugs until the evidence is significant, and unavoidable. In other words, ConMed drugs are safe until proven otherwise!

On 15th January 2007, the Daily Mail published an article by Jenny Hope 'Do Statins raise the risk of Parkinsons'. The article referred to a study undertaken in the USA by Dr Xuemei Huang, of the University of North Carolina that found patients with low levels of LDL cholesterol (something Statins are designed to lower) are three times more likely to have Parkinson's disease. The article stated that researchers were planning larger scale trials to determine whether Statins were the cause. 

This is the route through which most drugs pass. Small research projects announce cautious findings, and these are refuted by the conventional medical establishment. Then, as time passes, further evidence makes such denial increasingly difficult.

Certainly, official figures, reported in the 2006 Daily Mail article, showed that the number of reported side effects and deaths linked with Statins had increased significantly. In 2005, deaths linked to Statins for the past 18 years was thought to be 92, with 7,000 reports of adverse reactions. Yet the annual figures released by the MHRA indicated 38 deaths, with 1,337 reported side effects.

Then, in 2009, research from the Iowa State university suggested that Statins, and other cholesterol lowering drugs, could cause a decrease in brain function. Yeon-Kyun Shin, who conducted the research, said 

          "If you deprive cholesterol from the brain, then you directly affect the machinery that triggers the release of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters affect the data-processing and memory functions. In other words - how smart you are and how well you remember things" 

One of the biggest studies of Statin drugs, (American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs 2008;8(6): 373-418) was reported in Mercola on 22nd February 2009. It described the study as "the most complete picture to date of reported side effects of statins, involving nearly 900 studies, and it gives powerful evidence of 'statin-induced injury' to the functioning of the body's energy-producing cells, called mitochondria". This, the study suggested it is underlying many of the 'adverse reactions' that occur to patients taking statin drugs.

Elsewhere I have described how conventional medical drugs have a life history that takes them from birth to death. Statins were now emerging from their 'childhood' stage, when they were considered to be safe and effective, and moving towards 'adolescence' - the stage when there is increasing evidence against the drug, but as yet the evidence is not accepted by the conventional medical authorities. An adolescent drug was once thought to be 'safe' and 'effective' but is proving to be neither! So guidelines begin to be tightened. Doctors are told that cholesterol levels, and levels of enzymes indicating if there are liver or muscle problems, should be checked before prescribing the drug, and periodically thereafter.

The need for Statin drugs had always been argued on the basis of the harmful effect of cholesterol levels within the body. This, in itself, should have raised two questions. First, was diet not be a better alternative to drugs? And second, should there have been a proper debate about whether cholesterol levels really were significant in the creation of heart disease.

What needs to be remembered is that several Statin drugs have already been withdrawn from the market.

      Mevastatin (Compactin) was never marketed because testing demonstrated in the late 1970's showed it had adverse effects of tumours, muscle deterioration, and sometimes death in laboratory dogs (Wikipedia).

      In 2001, Baycol (Cerivastatin) caused muscle damage so severe and widespread, and killed several hundred patients, that it was 'quietly' withdrawn.

Yet still massive numbers of patients were still being prescribed similar drug, and patients are not being told this information.  Dr Mercola reported on 19th February 2009 (quoting a study in the Journal of American Medical Association 2009; 301: 261-2) that doctors were discovering the dangers, and the ineffectiveness of Zocor, or simvastatin. 

Zocor (Simvastatin) has been one of the most widely used Statin drugs in the world over the past 20 years, but the report said "heart specialists are looking for better alternatives after discovering high-dose simvastatin can cause muscle weakness, or myopathy".  

In 2008 the FDA, America s drug regulator, warned that Simvastatin could lead to fatal kidney failure, especially if it is used with another drug, amiodarone .

Yet massive numbers of patients in Britain, Europe, the USA, and elsewhere, are still being prescribed Statin drugs, on the basis that they are 'well tolerated' and safe!

Known side-effects (DIEs)

The conventional medical establishment have long down-played the seriousness of Statin drugs, and they contine to do so, despite the growing evidence that these drugs are dangerous. For instance, this is a typical explanation of the 'side-effects' of Statins, taken from the British Heart Foundation website.

"Like all medication, statins have potential side effects. The most common are muscular aches and pains, but many people experience none at all. Statins are among the safest and the most studied medications available today.

This is a total deceptive and dishonest description of the damage these drugs are known to cause. The full enormity of the damage this drug is causing to patients now seems to be emerging.

In 2010, a Nottingham university study was published in the British Medical Journal, and reported here in Reuters. It found that people taking Statin drugs have a higher risk of liver dysfunction, kidney failure, muscle weakness and cataracts. The study was a large one, covering over 2 million people in Britain, but the author's of the report were reported as saying that the study was unlikely to affect of Statin drugs!

The link between Statin drugs and Diabetes is also strong. Diabetes is now at epidemic levels, and is usually dismissed as being the result of what we eat. But Statin drugs appear to play a significant role in this too.

Memory loss, confusion and dementia are now also linked to Statin drugs. The FDA, (US drug regulator) states on its website, dated 20th January 2015,  that "it has been been investigating reports of coagnitive impairment from statin use for several years" and that "the agency has reviewed databases that record reports of bad reactions to drugs and statin clinical trials that included assessments of cognitive function.

The FDA report talks about memory loss, forgetfulness and confusion that "span all statin products and all age groups". 

Statins have been called the greatest medical fraud of all time, and perhaps in time this is how they will be recognised, and the conventional medical establishment will see itself able to tell patients, honestly and truthfully, about the DIEs of Statin drugs. However, despite all this evidence, it will still probably be a long time before the conventional medical estaboishment has the honesty, based on the scientific information available to it, to withdraw and ban the drug.

BBC News highlights its own inadequacies in health reporting. Statin Drugs.

The mainstream media does not report the dangers of pharmaceutical drugs, and this includes BBC News, a public service broadcaster that has repeatedly refuses to inform its viewers and listeners of the harm Big Pharma drugs can cause.

It was therefore a surprise to hear this morning (11th June 2014) that the Today programme reported that certain senior doctors have asked NICE to re-look at its advice to prescribe Statin drugs to healthy people. Perhaps they did not realise that they were giving an opportunity for these doctors to state that Statin drugs cause serious adverse reactions, including kidney and liver damage, muscle damage, and diabetes (dementia was not mentioned).

The BBC, and most of the mainstream media, have never reported these disease-causing-effects of Statin drugs before - and the question needs to be asked - Why not?

(Incidentally, the 'epidemic' rise of diabetes was featured by the Today programme the previous day, 10th June 2014. No connection was made to this, or the fact that many conventional drugs are known to cause diabetes).

What astute listeners would  have realised is that BBC News have never announced these adverse reactions, and have always been happy to parrot the conventional medical establishment's view that these drugs were 'entirely safe', and that 'everyone should take them'.

The report also demonstrated that NICE make their recommendations without access to all the evidence known to Big Pharma companies about the adverse reactions of drugs. 

John Humphries seemed genuinely surprised about this 'revelation'. Perhaps we should ask where he has been during the last ten years and more!

It also seemed to come as a surprise that NICE was dominated by people who had close links with Big Pharma companies.

For a moment I thought that the BBC had changed their policy on health issues - a sudden conversion to open and honest and impartial reporting. However, it is more likely that they stumbled on this evidence. Whether they pursue such concerns in future remains to be seen. But by past performance, they will continue to believe everything the conventional medical establishment tells them, and assume that the only people who know anything about health are conventionally trained doctors.

Patients are badly served by the BBC, and by the mainstream media generally. This is one of the main reasons for this, and similar blogs - to inform people about the dangers of conventional medicine - to inform people that the NHS, NICE, the MHRC, et al, are part of a monopoly that is causing harm to our health.

Statins. From 'wonder' drug to 'killer' drug?

Statin drugs have rapidly moved from ‘Wonder Drug’ to ‘Killer Drug’. This is something that happens all too often within the world of Big Pharma, and the drug and vaccine-ridden world of the Conventional Medical Establishment.

Statin drugs were first tested in the 1970‘s, and were found to block substances used by your body to create cholesterol, and also helped the body to re-absorb the cholesterol it created. Lovastatin (brand name Mevacor) was approved for sale in 1987. By the mid-1990‘s Big Pharma produced evidence suggesting that Statin drug’s reduced mortality in people with high cholesterol. Statins had arrived, and soon many new Statin drugs were put on the market - pravastatin, simvastatin, fluvastatin, cerivastatin, atorvastatin and rosuvastatin, with trade names such as Lipitor, Lescol, Pravachol Zocor and Crestor. And no doubt many others!

Statins replaced drugs such as Bile acid resins (Questran, Colestid), which it is now admitted had dreadful side effects, causing gastrointestinal distress, especially constipation; and Niacin, which was not well tolerated because of itching, increased liver toxicity, and increased blood glucose levels. These drugs were also known to be ineffective - so Statins were treated as a welcome new ‘miracle’ drug by the drug companies.

Now, many millions of people take Statins throughout the world. They can cost about £150 per patient per year, and the NHS bill for statins approaches nearly £1 billion annually. What is worse, the UK was the first country to make Simvastin, the most used statin drug, available for sale ‘over the counter’, that is, a Statin drug that can be bought by people without the need for a doctor’s certificate.

Why have we got into this situation? For many years, our doctors have been telling us, unashamedly and unreservedly, that Statins were so safe, and so effective in treating heart disease, that everyone should be taking them! Indeed, we were all told this as recently as 2012. These articles, using almost identical language (no doubt the language of a Big Pharma press release), all appeared on 17th May 2012, each giving us the official message from the conventional medical establishment.

• see this Daily Mail article.
• and this Daily Express article.
• and this Guardian article.
• and this Telegraph article.
• and this BBC article.

“....the NHS should impose a blanket policy of prescribing up to 20 million people statins at a potential cost of £240million a year. Currently, the only people considered at high risk, those with a one-in-five chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years, are given the cholesterol-lowering drugs. Half of men aged 50 or over and almost a third of women qualify for statin treatment. About five million people are thought to take them. National guidelines should be amended to lower the threshold for treatment to those with a one-in-10 risk over a decade, the experts said”.

Clearly, and quite typically, our mainstream media continues to be willing to pass on to us Big Pharma, and Conventional Medical Establishment propaganda about drugs and vaccines.

• Statins are safe drugs, with only mild and acceptable ‘side-effects’ .

“Side effects of statins can include muscle aches, stomach disturbances, and altered liver function. Patients have also reported sleep and memory problems, depression and headaches.

• Statins prevents heart disease.

“The risk of a heart attack or stroke is cut by a fifth in those who have no sign of heart disease, shows research by scientists at Oxford University”.

• And Statins are so good we should all be taking them, even if are were perfectly healthy.

“The Oxford researchers says the NHS should consider giving statins to healthy people”. 

The Statins website confirms this simple message. Statins benefit everyone, we are told. Statins save thousands of lives (50,000 each year is mentioned). Treating people with Statins leads to huge savings, particularly in hospitalisation costs!

“.... the National Director for Heart Disease and Stroke said that a 'blanket approach' to give everyone above a certain age a daily dose of statins would save lives, NHS funding and doctors' time”.

The NHS appears to agree with this assessment, perhaps not too surprisingly as the NHS has become, over the decades, a monopoly, free-of-charge supplier of conventional medical drugs. This NHS Choices page is entitled “Statins may help even healthy over-50’s”, and it seems quite content to repeat this simple, positive message to its patients. However, it did at least admit that the study on which this message was based “did not include possible adverse effects” but it quickly returned to message, immediately adding that “Statins are safe drugs that have been associated with a small risk of side effects”. So that’s okay then!

This ongoing propaganda campaign about Statins has been going on for over 25 years now. They have achieved ‘super-drug status’, with claims that the drug can treat not only heart disease and stroke, but high blood pressure, diabetes, dementia, osteoporosis, arthritis, and even erectile dysfunction. 

Yet there are two truths emerging rapidly from this long-term, blanket advertising of Statin drugs within the NHS, and the mainstream media.

1. Cholesterol does not cause heart problems, and that lowering cholesterol levels has serious consequences to our health. (See for example these articles, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), and many more.
2. The ‘side effects of Statins are serious, causing both disease and death for patients.

In my book, the Failure of Conventional Medicine, I have written about the ages of drugs, from ‘wonder drug’ to ‘banned drug’, a journey every conventional medical drug has taken, or is currently undertaking (see also here), (and here).

It is becoming increasingly clear that conventional medical claims for Statin drugs are being overtaken by an increasing awareness of their inherent dangers. These dangers can be found elsewhere (see, for example, my blog "Statin Drugs. Why are they not banned?") where I outline the evidence that these drugs are known to be causing a number of serious disease-inducing-effects. These include:

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

How many people suffer from these ‘side effects’? A Dutch survey of 4,738 Statin users were asked about side effects and found that just over a quarter (27%) said they suffered from them. Around 40% of these sufferers experienced muscle pain and almost a third (31%) had joint pain. It also reported that 16% had digestion problems and 13% had memory loss.

Other research shows patients who had definite or probable side effects from Statin drugs tended to be dismissed by their doctors, who denied any specific Statin-linked causality, and refused to appreciate the effect on their lives. This is not only unacceptable for individual patients, but unacceptable because serious adverse reactions are thereby not reported thus allowing the Conventional Medical Establishment to continue claiming that the drugs are safe!

And according to Malcolm Kendrick, in his book, ‘The Great Cholesterol Con’ (John Blake Publishing), there has been “no large trial of women statin users who already have cardiovascular disease has been shown to increase life expectancy by one day. More importantly, the use of statins in women at lower risk has not increased life expectancy nor prevented heart attacks and stroke”.

As Kendrick says, this raises the question whether women should be prescribed statins at all? His conclusion? They should not!

In addition to these ‘side-effects’, Statin drugs are also known to be dangerous for anyone with liver disease, pregnant and breastfeeding women. Alcohol and Statins also do not mix well!

Drug interactions are also now admitted to be a problem. There are known problems with Nicotinic Acid or Niacin; Bile Acid Sequestrants, Fibrates, Samdimmune or Neoral, Fluvoxamine, Anti-fungal drugs ending with “-azole”, Mycelex (miconazole), or Sporanox (itraconazole), Antibiotics ending in "-mycin", High blood pressure medications, Cordarone (Amiodarone), HIV Protease Inhibitors, Coumadin (warfarin), Prilosec (omeprazole), Tagamet (cimetidine), Zantac, Oral contraceptives, Lanoxin (digoxin), Antacids containing magnesium or aluminum hydroxide. 

Even St. John's Wort is said to decrease the effectiveness of some statins. With all this in mind, perhaps any patient might be better just taking St. John’s Wort!

Another little-known fact about Statin drugs is that at least 3 have had to be withdrawn either before, or after they were marketed. 

• Mevastatin was never marketed because of its adverse effects of tumours, muscle deterioration, and sometimes death in laboratory dogs (Wikipedia). 
• Compactin was also withdrawn from the market because of unwanted side effects. 
• And the muscle damage caused by one Statin drug, Cerivastatin (Baycol) was sufficiently severe and widespread (it killed several hundred people) it had to be withdrawn (quietly) in 2001.

Yet the drugs that remain on the market seem to be no better! But patients are expected to believe that other Statin drugs are sufficiently safe, or well-tolerated, for everyone to take them, without any risk or harm to our health!

Now, some doctors are beginning to take Statin drugs into its ‘old age’, and so closer to death. For instance, Dr Malcolm Kendrick argues that the disadvantages of Statins now outweigh the possible benefits for the majority of people.

“I tell patients with a cholesterol level of between 5 and 7 they’re healthy. If it’s above 7, it’s probably due to a family history of high cholesterol and if any relatives have early heart disease then it’s worth taking a statin. The body needs cholesterol - 25% of it is in the brain and is vital for it to function properly. For patients who have suffered heart attack or stroke or have existing cardiovascular disease (disease of the heart and blood vessels) taking a statin can benefit them. But, the real question is by how much?

“Patients should ask doctors, “How much longer will I live if I take a statin?” The answer is, not very long. If you’re at high risk of heart disease or stroke and you take a statin for 30 years, you’re likely to live an extra nine months.

I suppose that means as long as they don’t die of kidney or liver failure - or prostate cancer - or pneumonia - or suffer from dementia before this!

Undoubtedly, patients who are taking Statin drugs need more honest information. They are unlikely to get it from the Conventional Medical Establishment, including from our own GPs, who appear to be reluctant to tell us. So we need to demand this information of them, preferably before Statins are banned, or we suffer the serious DIEs now known to result from them.

Statin Drugs. Why are they not banned?

This blog is all about 'safer medicine'. One of the most dangerous drugs sold today, and one of the most widely taken, are Statins. I first wrote about the dangers of Statin drugs back in July 2010, with a blog entitled: "Statin drugs: another 'wonder drug' ready to take a fall!"

          "Many doctors have told us that these drugs were so good in preventing heart disease we should all be taking them! They were also supposed to be entirely safe". 

And this has been the propaganda that has persuaded so many people to take them.

Of course, the propaganda was more to do with selling drugs than any benefit to our health. Statins have been one of the most profitable drugs Big Pharma has ever come up with.  And of course, what we were told by the Conventional Medical Establishment, including our GPs, has proved to be entirely wrong.

Let's be forthright about this. Statin drugs are prescribed by doctors to make us better. But Statins are actually making people sick. In October 2011 I wrote this:

          "Even drugs like Statins, which we have been told are 'entirely safe' for decades, are now known to be unsafe. This article outlines the case against Statin drugs, and suggests that heart failure, pneumonia, nerve damage - and many other diseases can be contracted by people, the increasing numbers of people, who take them believing them to be safe.
http://safe-medicine.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/failure-of-conventional-medicine-2.html

Then,  in May 2012 I wrote this:

          "The prodigious rise in the use of Statin drugs over the last few years is another example. Statins have only recently been associated with both diabetes, and prostate cancer - so are Statins one cause of the epidemic of both these diseases? The Media has spent enough time in recent years allowing ConMed spokesmen to tell us how 'safe' these drugs are, and how we should all be taking them : perhaps now they can spare a little time asking why they have been telling us this, when it is palpably untrue, and may be connected with an increase in both these diseases.
http://safe-medicine.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/health-debate-5-epidemic-rise-in.html

You might be thinking that the conventional medical establishment would not be knowingly giving us drugs that were causing disease. But they certainly do know about the dangers. In November 2010, the British Medical Journal announced that Statins cause liver damage, kidney disease, and cataracts. This followed research undertaken at Nottingham University, using data from over 2 million patients taking Statin drugs.

So why are they still on sale?

Yet worse was to come. In October 2012, the FDA (the USA drug regulator) told us that Statins caused memory loss. Yet, despite this evidence, millions of patients are still taking these drugs. As I said at the time:


          "The FDA may have caught up - but have our doctors, the NHS, as they seem intent on continuing to prescribe Statin drugs, regardless of the evidence that they are causing serious DIEs. Indeed, I am not certain that all doctors have stopped telling us that these awful drugs are 'entirely safe'.

Given the epidemic rise in dementia among older people, did this connection with 'memory loss' lead to any action? No, they remain on sale. This is what I said at the time.

          "And what exactly is 'memory loss'. At the extreme end of the spectrum, memory loss equals Dementia. Can the FDA, or Big Pharma, or the NHS, tell us that 'memory loss' ends with a little bit of forgetfulness? Can they be certain Statin drugs are not implicated in the epidemic of dementia that we have been experiencing over recent decades.

And then there are links between Statins and Diabetes, another disease we are experiencing at epidemic levels. And still this there is no action taken. It is estimated that about 7 million people are taking these drug. How many of them go on to develop diabetes. Does anyone know? Does the Conventional Medical Establishment even care?

Then, if we look at the meek acceptance of our mainstream media, it becomes clear that we are not being told about the dangers of Statin drugs. Indeed, despite all this evidence, we are still being told that we should all be taking these drugs, because of their 'benefits'. Perhaps the worst culprit is BBC News. As recently as May 2012 their Today programme on Radio 4 extolled the benefits of Statins, with no mention of the dangers. As I said in this blog, there was:

* No mention of adverse reactions.

* No mention of Disease-Inducing-Effects (DIEs).

* No mention that Statins are now known to cause Diabetes.

* No mention of serious structural muscle damage.

* No mention of serious skin diseases.

* No mention of Prostate Cancer.

* No mention of heart disease.

* No mention of Arthritis.

In other words it is typical media reporting - by media organisations who appear to have more commitment to Big Business, and Big Pharma in particular, than the health and well-being of their viewers, listeners and readers. 

As far as health are concerned, they support the ConMed monopoly that exists within the NHS to the hilt. They will tell us nothing about the dangers of our drug and vaccine-led medical system. Nor will they do anything to inform us about safer, more effective medical therapies.

The vast majority of people who are taking Statin Drugs at this moment will not realise these dangers, they will not have been told either by their GP, the NHS, or the mainstream media.

And so we continue to be asked to continue taking "those nice, safe Statin drugs", and told "we should all be taking them. This, my last blog on the subject of Statins outlines even more information now available about the dangers of these drugs.