Have you ever been prescribed one of these meds? I have, and my health immediately began a downward spiral. I could barely function; I felt as though I was walking through "pudding'. And the physician I was seeing at that point told me, "You will die if you don't take Lipitor!"
I researched, especially at the Mayo Clinic site, to find that RED YEAST RICE contains natural statins, and can help lower bad cholesterol. So I told my doctor (a second year student whom I hope by now has developed a "better bedside manner", that I would test the Red Yeast Rice. The next month I visited this man, my "bad" cholesterol had decreased by "59", down to 225. He told me (actually YELLED at me!) that I had to stop eating red meat, i.e. beef. I had not had beef in over 2 years at that point.That's when he told me I would die if I did not take Lipitor.
And that's when I told this pompous-ass Pakistani almost-but-not-quite doctor that ALL of us die, sometime in our life.
I have to admit, I am not a very good patient; as a matter of fact, I have very little 'patience' with any of these young, foreign medical students, who are taught very early in their careers about the benefits of agreeing with what we know as BIG PHARMA--the huge pharmaceutical companies, who are greedy, and will take advantage of every slight lapse in one's health to declare it a 'new disease', and develop a Mega-million dollar drug (for them), which actually makes a person more ill than they are...or even die from taking that particular drug.
Obviously, I am still alive, two years later, though still disabled by osteoarthritis with an added fibromyalgia diagnosis...oh yes, some days (and even nights) are horrid, I feel...but I am pleased, quite, to be able to post this for you.
Statin drugs cause liver damage, kidney failure and cataracts, says BMJ
Sunday, November 07, 2010 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer

Here's the entire article:
(
NaturalNews) Cholesterol-lowering
statin drugs significantly increase a person's risk of cataracts, muscle weakness, liver dysfunction and kidney failure, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.
The study also confirmed that the drugs lower the risk of heart disease and esophageal cancer, but claims of other health benefits were unsupported.Researchers from Nottingham University in the United Kingdom examined data on more than 2 million patients between the ages of 30 and 84, seen at 38 different general practices, who had been prescribed the cholesterol-lowering
drugs. More than 70 percent were taking
simvastatin (
Zocor), 22.3 percent were taking
atorvastatin (
Lipitor), 3.6 percent were taking
pravastatin (
Pravachol,
Selektine), 1.9 percent were taking
rosuvastatin (
Crestor) and 1.4 percent were taking
fluvastatin (
Canef,
Lescol,
Lochol,
Vastin).
The researchers confirmed prior data suggesting that
statins increase patients' risk of
cataracts, liver dysfunction,
kidney failure and a form of muscle weakness known as
myopathy. They found that for every 10,000
women treated with the drugs, 23 would develop acute kidney (renal)
failure, 39 would develop
myopathy, 74 would develop
liver dysfunction and 309 would develop cataracts. Men suffered an even higher
risk of
myopathy, but their risks of the other three
conditions were similar to those suffered by women.
Putting it in different terms, the researchers found that only 434 people would need to be treated with the drugs for five years for one case of acute renal failure to develop. It would take only 136 treated for each case of liver dysfunction and 33 for each case of cataracts. Among women, 259 would need to be treated for each case of
myopathy; among men, the number was only 91.
The risk of developing all conditions was highest during the first year of
treatment, but continued throughout the course of the study. Risk of liver and kidney problems increased proportionally with the dose of
statins being taken.
All drugs appeared to pose a similar risk of all conditions, with the exception of
fluvastatin, which increased the risk of liver dysfunction more than its competitors. Men taking
fluvastatin were twice as likely to develop liver dysfunction as those not taking
statins, while women's risk increased by 2.5 times.The researchers did find, however, that the risk of cataracts returned to normal within one year of stopping
statin treatment, while the risk of liver and kidney problems returned to normal within one to three years. Additionally, they found no connection between
statin use and the risk of dementia,
osteoporotic fracture, Parkinson's
disease, rheumatoid arthritis or venous
thromboembolism.
Examining the purported
benefits of the drugs, researchers found that they did in fact lower the risk of
heart disease, averting 271 cases for every 10,000 high-risk
patients treated. Put another way, 33 high-risk men or 37 high-risk women would need to be treated with the drugs to avert one case of the disease.
Although advocates of the drugs have claimed that they may also reduce the risk
cancer, the researchers found almost no data supporting these claims. The study "largely confirmed other studies that reported no clear association between
statins and risk of cancers," the researchers wrote.
The only cancer-fighting effect uncovered in the study was a slightly lower risk of
esophageal cancer, with eight cases averted for every 10,000 high-risk women treated. In other words, 1,266 high-risk women or 1,082 high-risk men would need to be treated with the drugs to prevent one case of esophageal cancer.
Although sales of the blockbuster drugs are unlikely to be reduced as a result of the study, the researchers encouraged closer monitoring of patients for side effects and said their findings "would tend to support a policy of using lower doses of
statins in people at high risk of the adverse
event."
Sources for this story include:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64J7B820100520; http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Atherosclerosis/20232.