Dangers of Statins or Cholesterol Drugs

Hundreds of millions of people all over the world  are taking cholesterol-lowering drugs—mostly statins and some “experts” claim that many millions more should be taking them. We couldn’t disagree more.

Statins are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, that is, they act by blocking the enzyme in the liver that is responsible for making  cholesterol (HMG-CoA reductase).

The fact that statin drugs cause side effects is well established—there are now approximately 1000 studies proving their adverse effects, which vary from muscle problems to increase of risk of cancer. The reported side effects include muscle problems, acidosis, immunity depression, anaemia, sexual dysfunctioning, cataract and memory loss.

Muscle problems are the best known of statin drugs’ adverse side effects, but cognitive problems and memory loss are also widely reported. A spectrum of other problems, ranging from blood glucose elevations to tendon problems, can also occur. There is evidence that taking statins may even increase in diabetes risk, and even cancer.

Statin Drugs: A Surprising Cause of Diabetes

Statins have been shown to increase the risk of diabetes through a few different mechanisms. The most important one is that they increase insulin resistance, which can be extremely harmful to the health. Increased insulin resistance contributes to chronic inflammation in the body, and inflammation is the hallmark of most diseases. In fact, increased insulin resistance can lead to heart disease, which, ironically, is the primary reason for taking a cholesterol-reducing drug in the first place! It can also promote belly fat, high blood pressure, heart attacks, chronic fatigue, thyroid disruption, and diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and cancer.

Secondly, statins increase the diabetes risk by actually raising the blood sugar. When you eat a meal that contains starches and sugar, some of the excess sugar goes to the liver, which then stores it away as cholesterol and triglycerides. Statins work by preventing the liver from making cholesterol. As a result, the liver returns the sugar to the bloodstream, which raises the blood sugar levels.

Now, it’s important to realize that drug-induced diabetes and genuine type 2 diabetes are not necessarily identical.

If you’re on a statin drug and find that the blood glucose is elevated, it’s possible that what you have is just hyperglycemia—a side effect, and the result of the medication. Unfortunately, many doctors will at that point mistakenly diagnose you with “type 2 diabetes,” and possibly prescribe another drug, when all you may need to do is simply discontinue the statin in order for the blood glucose levels to revert back to normal.

Therefore, if you are on  statin (cholesterol reducing) drugs, please do read this article.

Major Statin Drug Study Found to Be Flawed

A study known as the JUPITER trial initially suggested cholesterol-lowering statin drugs might prevent heart-related death in many more people than just those with high cholesterol. But two years after its publication in 2008, researchers came out saying the JUPITER results are flawed — and that they do not support the benefits initially reported. Not only is there no striking decrease in coronary heart disease complications, but a more recent report has also called into question drug companies’ involvement in such trials.

If You Take Statins, You need to take CoQ10 too

Statins deplete the body of CoQ10, which can have devastating results. If you take statin drugs without taking CoQ10, the health is at serious risk. CoQ10 is a cofactor (co-enzyme) that is essential for the creation of ATP molecules, which you need for cellular energy production. Organs such as the heart have higher energy requirements, and therefore require more CoQ10 to function properly. Produced mainly in the liver, it also plays a role in maintaining blood glucose.

Physicians rarely inform people of this risk and only occasionally advise them to take a CoQ10 supplement. As the body gets more and more depleted of CoQ10, you may suffer from fatigue, muscle weakness and soreness, and eventually heart failure.

Coenzyme Q10 is also very important in the process of neutralizing free radicals. So when the CoQ10 is depleted, you enter a vicious cycle of increased free radicals, loss of cellular energy, and damaged mitochondrial DNA. If you decide to take a CoQ10 supplement and are over the age of 40, it is important to choose the reduced version, called ubiquinol. Ubiquinol is a far more effective form for its many far-ranging benefits.

Statins Impair many Biological Functions

Statin drugs also interfere with other biological functions, including an early step in the mevalonate pathway, which is the central pathway for the steroid management in the body. Products of this pathway that are negatively affected by statins include:

• All the sex hormones
• Cortisone
• The dolichols, which are involved in keeping the membranes inside the cells healthy
• All sterols, including cholesterol and vitamin D (which is similar to cholesterol and is produced from cholesterol in the skin)

It’s still uncertain whether statins actually deplete the body of vitamin D, but they do reduce the body’s natural ability to create active vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol). This is the natural outcome of the drug’s cholesterol-reducing ability, because you need cholesterol to make vitamin D. It’s the raw material the body uses for vitamin D conversion after you’ve exposed the skin to sunlight. It’s also well-documented that vitamin D improves insulin resistance, so needless to say, when you take a statin drug, you forfeit this ‘built-in’ health-promoting mechanism, which is yet another clue as to how statins can cause diabetes.

Ninety-Nine percent People Do Not Need Statin Drugs

That these drugs have proliferated the market the way they have is a testimony to the power of marketing, corruption and corporate greed, because the odds are very high— greater than 100 to 1—that if you’re taking a statin, you don’t really need it. The only subgroup that might benefit are those born with a genetic defect called familial hypercholesterolemia, as this makes them resistant to traditional measures of normalizing cholesterol.

It is significant to note that cholesterol is actually not the cause of heart disease.

If the physician is urging you to check the total cholesterol, then you should know that this test will tell you virtually nothing about the risk of heart disease, unless it is 330 or higher. HDL percentage is a far more potent indicator for heart disease risk. Here are the two ratios you should pay attention to:

1. HDL/Total Cholesterol Ratio: Should ideally be above 24 percent. If below 10 percent, you have a significantly elevated risk for heart disease.
2. Triglyceride/HDL Ratio: Should be below 2.

Many people with total cholesterol levels over 250  were actually at low risk for heart disease due to their elevated HDL levels. Conversely,  many people with cholesterol levels under 200 who had a very high risk of heart disease, based on their low HDL. The body NEEDS cholesterol—it is important in the production of cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D, and bile acids that help you to digest fat. Cholesterol also helps the brain form memories and is vital to the neurological function. There is also strong evidence that having too little cholesterol INCREASES the risk for cancer, memory loss, Parkinson’s disease, hormonal imbalances, stroke, depression, suicide, and violent behaviour.

Statins very harmful for Pregnant Women

More than 10 percent people over the age of 45 are now taking these drugs, and few are properly warned about the related health risks. Part of the problem is that many doctors are not even aware of all the risks. A study published last spring highlighted this dilemma.

Most disturbingly, the researchers found that physicians were lacking in awareness of the teratogenic risk (ability to cause fetal malformations) of statins and other cardiovascular drugs they prescribed for their pregnant patients. The study followed an earlier report, which had concluded statins should be avoided in early pregnancy due to their teratogenic capability. An even earlier 2003 study had already established that cholesterol plays an essential role in embryonic development, and that statins could play a part in embryonic mutations or even death.

Indeed, it’s difficult to look at these facts and not reach the conclusion that the pharmaceutical industry is quite willing to sacrifice human lives for profit. Statins are in fact classified as a “pregnancy Category X medication.” Meaning, it causes serious birth defects, and should never be used by a woman who is pregnant or planning a pregnancy.

Parents Beware: Outrageous Push to Put Kids on Statin Drugs!

In a bold attempt to increase profits before the patent runs out, Pfizer has introduced a chewable version of Lipitor. Its US patent for Lipitor expired in November 2011, and seeking to boost sales of the drug, children have become the new target market, and the conventional medical establishment is more than happy to oblige.

Researchers and many doctors are now calling for universal screening of school children for high cholesterol to find those “in need of treatment.” In addition, older siblings, parents, and other family members might be prompted to get screened as well, the researchers say, which would uncover additional, previously undiagnosed adults in need of the drug.

This is clearly NOT the way to improve public health. On the contrary, it could produce a new, massive wave of extremely dire health consequences in just a few years’ time.

So rather than improving school lunches, which would cost about a dollar a day per child, they’d rather “invest” ten times that for tests and drugs that in no way, shape, or form address the root cause, which is an improper, unhealthy diet! All they’re doing is allowing all the industries to maintain or increase their profits: Big Pharma, Big Sugar, Big Corn and the processed food industry.

Who pays for all this?

You and the children! And in multiple ways.

Optimizing The Cholesterol Levels, Naturally

There’s really no reason to take statins and suffer the damaging health effects from these dangerous drugs. The fact is that 75 percent of the cholesterol is produced by the liver, which is influenced by the insulin levels. Therefore, if you optimize the insulin levels, you will automatically optimize the cholesterol. It follows, then, that my primary recommendations for safely regulating the cholesterol have to do with modifying the diet and lifestyle:

1. Optimize the vitamin D levels. Research by Dr. Stephanie Seneff has shed additional light on the extreme importance of appropriate sun exposure for normalizing the cholesterol levels and preventing heart disease.
2. Reduce, with the plan of eliminating, grains and sugars in the diet. Ideally, you’ll also need  to consume a good amount of raw food.
3. Make sure you are getting plenty of high-quality omega-3 acid rich food.
4. Other heart-healthy foods include olive oil, coconut and coconut oil, organic raw dairy products and eggs, avocados, raw nuts and seeds, and organic grass-fed meats as appropriate for the nutritional type.
5. Exercise daily. Make sure you incorporate high fitness/aerobic exercises, which also optimizes the human growth hormone (HGH) production.
6. Improve emotional health.
7. Avoid smoking or drinking alcohol excessively.
8. Be sure to get plenty of good, restorative sleep.
9. Unlike statin drugs, which lower the cholesterol at the expense of the health, these lifestyle strategies represent a holistic approach that will benefit the overall health—which includes a healthy cardiovascular system.

The Baycol Statin Recall and Safety Issue:

In August 2001, Bayer AG, the maker of Baycol (cerivastatin), a popular cholesterol-lowering drug used by about 700,000 Americans, pulled the medicine off the market after 31 people died from severe muscle breakdown, a well-recognized side effect of cholesterol-lowering drugs. Related points are given below.

There is hard data on Baycol-associated adverse reactions. If you or someone you know is taking one of the statin cholesterol-lowering drugs, this is a “must-read” for you  to help you understand the potential dangers that this exposes you to.

Baycol, a cholestrol-lowering drug (statin), has been voluntarily pulled off the market because of numerous deaths associated with its use.

With the recall of Baycol, patients are now searching out a new drug to take its place, but are other statins really safe?

Buyer faces penalty over cholesterol reducing drug

Bayer might have to pay a fine to the German government of about $23,400 for withholding from the German authorities information on the drug’s potentially fatal interaction with another drug.

Lipitor Tied to Liver, Kidney Injury, as Well as Muscle Damage

It seems that Baycol is not alone among cholesterol lowering drugs in posing serious dangers to the public. A number of legal actions are also being pursued against Pfizer Inc., the manufacturer of the Lipitor.