Push for Statin Use Unfounded

I can remember over a decade ago when I first started alerting people to the severe risk of statin drugs.   Even so Big PhRMA has continued to blur your vision in more ways than one.  In their effort to boost profit over health, while aiming its marketing to an end with everyone taking these sometimes deadly drugs.

Just last week I talked with a neighbor who had been taking statins for a decade, and suffering terrible leg cramps. He added that no one can figure out what is causing his complaint.

I tried to explain muscle cell wasting and kidney failure as it is associated with statins.  He said he would ask his doctor when he went in soon to go over his 24 drugs.

Then today I learn from another troubled person pushed on to the statins stairway by her cardiologist. She has no history of heart disease and a cholesterol on 210 (not worth a wink).  Meanwhile she complains of back pain, asthma, sinus infections, skin problems, and allergies.

She'd heard many times about the problems and side effects of statins.  Once off them she has no more of these troubling symptoms.

Perhaps it is time for you to think about whether or not you too might not want to be taking these drugs.

Uffe Ravnskov MD PhD has a book that reviews the medical studies which supposedly show that cholesterol is the cause of heart disease.  He shows that they do no such thing. This is a medical myth.  Neither cholesterol consumption nor cholesterol blood levels cause heart disease.  Similarly, many medical studies demonstrate that anti-cholesterol drugs work very well to reduce blood cholesterol levels, however, this treatment does not prolong life and makes most people sick with adverse side effects.  See "Fat and Cholesterol Are Good for You" 

Statins and All-Cause Mortality in High-Risk Primary PreventionA Meta-analysis of 11 Randomized Controlled Trials Involving 65 229 Participants

Kausik K. Ray, MD, MPhil, FACC, FESC;Sreenivasa Rao Kondapally Seshasai, MD, MPhil;

Sebhat Erqou, MD, MPhil, PhD;Peter Sever, PhD, FRCP, FESC; J. Wouter Jukema, MD, PhD;

Ian Ford, PhD; Naveed Sattar, FRCPath 
Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(12):1024-1031.
Background  Statins have been shown to reduce the risk of all-cause mortality among individuals with clinical history of coronary heart disease. However, it remains uncertain whether statins have similar mortality benefit in a high-risk primary prevention setting. Notably, all systematic reviews to date included trials that in part incorporated participants with prior cardiovascular disease (CVD) at baseline. Our objective was to reliably determine if statin therapy reduces all-cause mortality among intermediate to high-risk individuals without a history of CVD.
Data Sources  Trials were identified through computerized literature searches of MEDLINE and Cochrane databases (January 1970-May 2009) using terms related to statins, clinical trials, and cardiovascular end points and through bibliographies of retrieved studies.
Study Selection  Prospective, randomized controlled trials of statin therapy performed in individuals free from CVD at baseline and that reported details, or could supply data, on all-cause mortality.
Data Extraction  Relevant data including the number of patients randomized, mean duration of follow-up, and the number of incident deaths were obtained from the principal publication or by correspondence with the investigators.
Data Synthesis  Data were combined from 11 studies and effect estimates were pooled using a random-effects model meta-analysis, with heterogeneity assessed with the I² statistic. Data were available on 65 229 participants followed for approximately 244 000 person-years, during which 2793 deaths occurred. The use of statins in this high-risk primary prevention setting was not associated with a statistically significant reduction (risk ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.83-1.01) in the risk of all-cause mortality. There was no statistical evidence of heterogeneity among studies (I² = 23%; 95% confidence interval, 0%-61% [P = .23]).
Conclusion  This literature-based meta-analysis did not find evidence for the benefit of statin therapy on all-cause mortality in a high-risk primary prevention set-up.