Long-time lurker, first time poster. And this one is a dozy, inspired by the few pro-statin messages found here... especially the recent "Lipitor & Cancer" post. Lipitor, and statins, are anything but life-extending... to the contrary. And shamefully the word isn't getting out there quickly enough, much like Vioxx.
Merck's 1992 Mevacor Statin/CoQ10 patent
The US Patent Office
http://patft1.uspto....p;RS=PN/5082650
"Any pharmacological treatment, any drug treatment such as the clinical administration of MEVACOR to reduce hypercholesterolemia which reduces blood levels of CoQ.sub.10 and thereby reduces the energy-coupling and other roles of CoQ.sub.10 can be clinically detrimental such as to cardiac function and even life itself."
CoQ10 helps relieve statin induced muscle pain
http://www.healthsen...p...item&id=124
"Merck Pharmaceuticals has been sitting on a patent for combining Lovastatin and CoQ10 in the same capsule for 15 years, and I can't understand why they don't launch this product. I hope that as more studies show that higher dose statins, used over extended periods, are associated with greater side effects that include carcinogenicity [ability of a substance to cause cancer] and cardiomyopathy [weakening of the heart muscle], Merck will feel political pressure to act on these patents and create a product combining CoQ10 and Lovastatin at last."
Effect of Coenzyme Q10 on Myopathic Symptoms in Patients Treated With Statins
The American Journal of Cardiology
http://download.jour...1490700255X.pdf
"These results confirmed previous observations that statin-related myopathy can occur without a concomitant increase in plasma CK. This lack of association of myopathic symptoms and CK indicates that plasma CK concentration, which is generally increased in the presence of more severe muscle damage, is not a sensitive marker to detect or assess statin-related myopathies."
Bayer's 2001 Statin Voluntary Recall Due to Fatal Cases of Rhabdomyolysis
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
http://www.fda.gov/c...nfopage/baycol/
"FDA announced on August 8, 2001 that Bayer Pharmaceutical Division is voluntarily withdrawing Baycol (cerivastatin) from the U.S. market because of reports of sometimes fatal rhabdomyolysis, a severe muscle adverse reaction from this cholesterol-lowering (lipid-lowering) product. The FDA agrees with and supports this decision."
Gene responsible for statin-induced muscle pain identified
The Harvard University Gazette
http://www.news.harv...statinpain.html
"Statins, the popular class of drugs used to lower cholesterol, are among the most commonly prescribed medications in developed countries. But for some patients, accompanying side effects of muscle weakness and pain become chronic problems and, in rare cases, can escalate to debilitating and even life-threatening damage."
Statin Drugs - A Critical Review of the Risk/Benefit Clinical Research
Joel M. Kauffman, Ph.D. Professor of Chemistry Emeritus
http://www.laleva.or...l_research.html
"Besides cancer, the other side effects of statins listed were incomplete, and should have included constipation, myalgia, myopathy, polyneuropathy, liver and kidney damage, congestive heart failure and amnesia. Side-effects are usually said to affect 2-6% of patients. In fact, a recent meta-analysis noted side-effects in 20% of patients above the placebo rate (65% vs. 45%), and no change whatever in the all-cause death rate for atorvastatin. [8] The PROSPER trial on pravastatin showed no change in the all-cause death rate, and increased cancer and stroke rates. 9 Statins are commonly used at a dose to lower TC to < 160 mg/dL, a level noted in the report of a NHLBI conference to be associated with higher cancer rates....Statins decrease the body's production of the essential coenzyme Q-10 and dolichol, among other things. Low Q-10 levels are strongly associated with congestive heart failure."
Statin Adverse Effects: Implications for the Elderly
The Geriatric Times
by Beatrice A. Golomb, M.D., Ph.D.
http://www.cmellc.co...es/g040618.html
Docs often write off patient side-effect concerns
Source: Drug Safety, 2007; 30: 669-75
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20479490/
"In a survey of 650 patients, taking cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, who reported having adverse drug reactions, many said their physicians denied that the drug could be connected to their symptoms, Dr. Beatrice A. Golomb of the University of California at San Diego and her colleagues found."
Pfizer Is Sued Over Lipitor Marketing
The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.co...6568740957.html
"A former Pfizer Inc. official in a lawsuit accused the company of illegally boosting sales of its top-selling drug Lipitor through an elaborate campaign of misleading educational programs for doctors."
Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven't Been Told About Popular Cholesterol-Lowering Medicines
Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD
http://www.westonapr...ses/statin.html
"Hypercholesterolemia is the health issue of the 21st century. It is actually an invented disease, a "problem" that emerged when health professionals learned how to measure cholesterol levels in the blood. High cholesterol exhibits no outward signs--unlike other conditions of the blood, such as diabetes or anemia, diseases that manifest telltale symptoms like thirst or weakness--hypercholesterolemia requires the services of a physician to detect its presence. Many people who feel perfectly healthy suffer from high cholesterol--in fact, feeling good is actually a symptom of high cholesterol!"
Hidden Truth About Cholesterol-Lowering Drugsby Shane Ellison, M.Schttp://www.health-fx.net/eBook.pdf
"As a medicinal chemist, I discovered startling evidence surrounding cholesterol-lowering drugs. Chemically, these drugs are known as "statins." Commercially, they are known as atorvastatin (Lipitor), fluvastatin (Lescol), lovastatin (Mevacor), pravastatin (Pravachol), simvastatin (Zocor), and rosuvastatin (Crestor). The belief that these drugs prevent heart disease is undeniably false -- but more importantly, dangerous."
The Statin Scam Marches On
By Byron J. Richards, CCN
http://www.newswithv...rds/byron44.htm
"Considering that tens of millions of Americans now take statins to lower cholesterol, the following headline was conspicuously absent from the major media this month: "Statins Found to Turn On Gene that Causes Muscle Damage." It's now a fact of science; a new study shows that taking statins destroys your muscle to a greater or lesser degree. And let's not forget that the heart is a muscle."
Lipitor Thief of Memory
by Dr. Duane Graveline
http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/1424301629
"When Dr. Duane Graveline, former astronaut, aerospace medical research scientist, flight surgeon, and family doctor is given Lipitor to lower his cholesterol, he temporarily loses his short-term memory. Urged a year later to resume the drug at half dose, he lost both short-term and retrograde memory and was finally diagnosed in a hospital ER as having transient global amnesia (TGA). This is the "scary, appealingly written" account of his search for answers that his medical community didn't have -- the how and why of his traumatic experience, and what needs to be done to prevent the devastating side effects to body and mind from the escalating use of the statin drugs.
Dr. Duane Graveline's homepage (with copious statin side-effect info)
http://www.spacedoc.net/
Dr. Duane Graveline's statin drugs forum
http://www.spacedoc.net/board/
Edited by joseph583984, 10 January 2008 - 02:22 PM.