wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

My father in his 70's who has excellent cholesterol was perscribed statin. He started in Jan/08 and is now almost bedridden with muscle pain, liver damage, depression, fatigue, can't write with his right hand and even more side effects/damage. DO NOT TAKE THIS PILL!!! This was a man who was extremely healthy, walked 2 miles per day.....today he sits with his face in his hands, depressed and angry, and is always in bed too weak to walk. We are waiting for his doctor (who is responsible for "dealing" this drug to a healthy man) for more tests (liver damage), urologist appt, and more. What a mess this has been and extremely sad to experience!! Another money grabbing pill on the market perscribed to people who do not need it. Very, very frustrating and sad to see a life come to a standstill due to an ill-perscribed drug.

The link to Dr. Saul's article:

http://orthomolecular.org/resources/
omns/v04n22.shtml

I’m glad people are questioning the advisability of statins for all! Even if it’s true that patients with high levels of C-Reactive Protein are at higher risk for heart attacks (even with normal cholesterol levels), WHY do doctors think statins should be the FIRST treatments considered?

Following the publicity surrounding the JUPITER/Crestor study, some experts pointed to studies showing that nutritional supplements also lower CRP levels. Dr. Andrew Saul referenced several of these studies in his article, “Why treat nutritional deficiency with drugs?” (http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v04n22.shtml).

These studies have been published in medical journals: the American Heart Association’s “Circulation,” “Diabetes Care” and “The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition,” etc., and are catalogued by PubMed. I list (and link to) 7 of the studies in an article on my website, “Statins (Crestor) for Everyone? Or Could Diet and Nutritional Supplements Do the Job Better?” -- at http://tinyurl.com/6k752j .

Paul Ridker, MD, who conducted the JUPITER study, was quoted on WebMD’s professional news service, Heartwire, as saying “. . . diet alone can have a substantive effect on lowering CRP levels.”

Julia Schopick
Medical Advocate
www.HonestMedicine.com

My father died from a side-effect of Crestor: rhabdomyolysis. His cholesterol numbers dazzled his cardiologist, who didn't notice my dad was getting sicker and sicker. Last summer, he was scouting Greenmarkets for heirloom tomatoes, commuting to a demanding job, and doing all the shopping and cooking for my mother. He began forgetting simple words --a typical statin sort of mental deficit, lost weight, fell while getting off the bus, and his doctors were so in love with Crestor that when he complained of weakness they couldn't figure out what was wrong. He was taken to the hospital in November, where his cardiologist admitted he had rhabdomyolysis. He died in January.

There are two ways to get rhabdo: from a drug like Crestor, or from hard impact, such as a motorcycle accident. The muscles literally dissolve, the proteins enter the bloodstream and damage the kidneys.

Crestor is the only statin that caused "rhabdo" in trials. Crestor is on Public Citizen's Do Not Use list. Public Citizen tried to get Crestor banned, but the Bush-weakened FDA dismissed the protest.

Stopping drug trials is a convenient, dramatic gesture that garners publicity for the company and eliminates any news of deleterious side-effects from long-term use. Asians especially should not take Crestor; it acts particularly strongly on them.

This is a monster drug. It should not be on the market.

hey, crestor's only 1200 dollars a year -- might as well toss it down the ol piehole and see what happens...

I was on Crestor for 3 years and during the last 6 months of taking it I developed severe continual pelvic and hamstring pain. No doctor had a clue what was wrong; I was sent for X-rays and sonograms which showed nothing abnormal.

On my own I stopped taking Crestor and the pain stopped 2 weeks later. That was a year ago and the pain has not returned.

I now exercise daily, watch my fat and sugar intake, and take Resveretrol, which is a concentrate in a capsule of the substance in red wine that reduces cholesterol.

.

I think this study adds to the evidence that high cholesterol is NOT a risk factor for heart disease. There was the study on Vytorin earlier this year which found that, even though it lowered cholesterol more than other drugs, it had no greater effect at preventing heart disease, compared to other drugs.

The effectiveness of statin drugs has nothing to do with lowering cholesterol. It is rather due to something else, probably its anti-inflammatory effect.

I recommend this article:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07E3D9163DF934A15752C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=

I was on Crestor for three years for borderline high cholesterol. During the last 6 months of taking it I developed severe pelvic and hamstring pain. I saw 3 doctors and none had a clue, but I was sent for sonograms and x-rays, which showed nothing abnormal.

On my own I stopped taking Crestor and 2 weeks later had no pain. It is now a year later and the pain has not returned.

I now exercise more, watch my fat and sugar intake, and take Resveretrol, which is a concentrate in pill form of the beneficial substance in red wine that lowers cholesterol.

The question should be what does the CRP test measure:

inflammation.

Next question: what causes inflammation?

Vitamin D, from sunshine and supplements, reduces inflammation and CRP.

This is another stunt by Astrozeneca.
I wish you would invite dr. Uffe Ranvkoff the Author of "the cholesterol myths".
And stop with the assumption that cholesterol is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. It is not!!! in fact 50% of people with an heart attack have normal or low cholesterol.
Statins are very dangerous and have a double effect Lower the cholesterol and antiinflammatory. and the second one is the possible cause of the effect you see in this study.

Isn't it the case that once you are on Lipitor or Crestor or some such statin, you _must_ remain on it? (Don't know the reason, but I know people on these drugs who were told this.)

Some researchers wonder whether statins are analogs of Vitamin D.

Also, in the darker months of the year, heart disease increases statistically.

Coincidence?

didn't statins last make the news recently for having a negative or neutral health effect?

can you address that report?

I'm sorry conspiracy theory or not I don't believe this is a good idea. First of all leave these folks alone they don't really need that "extra" boost for the reasons this is being sold to the public (look it up for yourself like I did, it's not all that big a deal) and it seems like yet another drug pushing by the pharmaceutical companies to increase their profits. I've taken these drugs for my very high pressure and others I know have also and they have been nothing but harmful to the point that we had to stop. Some because of memory loss that returns when drugs discontinued and another extreme and uncontrollable muscle cramps that do continue after discontinuing the med. And keep in mind the pharma co that did the study is the co that makes the drug. Yes, pharma cos are drug pushers and doctors are their street dealers. Read about it yourself, it's spun. Just a month ago a friend of mine on statins lost his memory completely for 4 hours. It also happened to my brother. So get the full story on statins.

gee, what a surprise: a study funded by Big Pharma insists that ALL of us need to take a pill! gimme a break. this is journalism? buried at the end of the piece:

"Like many clinical trials, the Jupiter study was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company, in this case AstraZeneca. It makes the drug in the trial, rosuvastatin, which is sold as Crestor."

I'm sorry conspiracy theory or not I don't believe this is a good idea. First of all leave these folks alone they don't really need that "extra" boost for the reasons this is being sold to the public (look it up for yourself like I did, it's not all that big a deal) and it seems like yet another drug pushing by the pharmaceutical companies to increase their profits. I've taken these drugs for my very high pressure and others I know have also and they have been nothing but harmful to the point that we had to stop. Some because of memory loss that returns when drugs discontinued and another extreme and uncontrollable muscle cramps that do continue after discontinuing the med. And keep in mind the pharma co that did the study is the co that makes the drug. Yes, pharma cos are drug pushers and doctors are their street dealers. Read about it yourself, it's spun. Just a month ago a friend of mine on statins lost his memory completely for 4 hours. It also happened to my brother. So get the full story on statins

The fact that AstraZeneca financed this study brings into the discussion questions of impartiality and bias. Why, if this was such an important study, did this not get funded by the NIH?