• Go Ahead, Take Your Statin Drug If You Must

    Posted November 16, 2016: by Bill Sardi

    The Statin Drug Shepherds Mislead The Sheep Again

    Sheep have a strong instinct to follow the sheep in front of them.  If one sheep in a large flock begins to bolt and run in a different direction the rest may follow.  There is no question there is a statin-compliant patient who dutifully follows their doctor’s instructions without question and the rest follow.  There is an overly loyal patient pool that follows the orders issue by their self-serving doctors.

    If statin drugs really reduced the risk for mortal heart attacks why is there still such debate over the matter?  Statin drugs were launched in the 1970s and failed to significantly lower circulating cholesterol levels.  Circulating cholesterol does not correlate with arterial plaque or blood clots that block arteries, which supply the human heart with oxygenated blood.  As the cholesterol paradigm was adopted by modern medicine, Americans were coached to practice low-fat diets and to consume carbohydrates that led to the ongoing diabesity epidemic.  Cholesterol phobia led to the misdirected avoidance of cholesterol-rich eggs, which have never been associated with heart attacks.  The diet only contributed 20% of the cholesterol in the blood circulation anyway, the remaining 80% being made in the liver.

    If you can get beyond the headlines that say statin cholesterol-lowering drugs reduce the overall death rate by 14 percent and cut the chance of dying from cardiovascular disease by 30 percent and a heart attack by 36 percent [Daily Mail UK Nov 15, 2016], and you present hard numbers instead of relative risk data, here is what you end up with.

    As revealed by Rita F Redberg MD, currently chief editor of JAMA Internal Medicine, in a recent edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association:

    Using the current data… of 100 people who take a statin for 5 years, only 2 of 100 will avoid a heart attack, and 98 of the 100 will not experience any benefit. There will be no mortality benefit for any of the 100 people taking the medicine every day for 5 years. At the same time, 5 to 20 of the 100 will experience muscle aches, weakness, fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, and increased risk of diabetes. All will have to take a pill every day, and they and their health plans will pay for these medications. The association between use of statins and cognitive dysfunction is controversial, with studies indicating both an increased risk and no increased risk. Most but not all studies show an increased risk of diabetes with statin use. The diabetes risk is more common for high-dose compared with moderate-dose statins.14 The US Food and Drug Administration issued safety label changes in 2012 stating that “Information about the potential for generally non-serious and reversible cognitive side effects (memory loss, confusion, etc.) and reports of increased blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels has been added to the statin labels.”

    Dr. Redberg says 244 healthy patients need to take statin drugs for 5-years to prevent one death from any cause. [Journal American Medical Assn. Nov 15, 2016]

    Dr. Redberg goes on to say there is an unintended and unexpected negative outcome from taking statin drugs.  “For example, people taking statins are more likely to become obese and more sedentary over time than nonstatin users, likely because these people mistakenly think they do not need to eat a healthy diet and exercise as they can just take a pill to give them the same benefit,” she says.

    Dr. Redberg can be heard in an audio report taped in 2012 saying there is no benefit for all-cause mortality or for healthy people.  There aren’t any studies showing statin drugs saved lives for healthy patients.  She says she sees patients every week who are miserable and suffering from the side effects from statin drugs.  She said: “I don’t feel I can look someone in the eyes and recommend statins for prevention.” [YouTube.com May 1, 2012]

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