Could Statins be Harming Your Heart?
Ten years ago, when I began to study nutrition in earnest, I learned that statin drugs cause muscle weakness and pain. I was taught, in fact, that muscle pain and weakness was the most common side effect of statins and what’s more, that this information was almost a pharmaceutical industry secret.
At the time, muscle pain and/or weakness was not listed on the package insert for the drugs and most medical doctors had never heard of this. Little research was done in official channels, though one or two lone rogue doctors published books (OMG! On paper?) about the subject. Dr Duane Graveline, a former USAF Flight Surgeon and NASA astronaut, was one. Click here for his list of statin drugs with links to the many side effects. (At least he came into the 21st Century, am I right?)
A few of my savvy patients took themselves off the medication and noticed immediate improvement in muscle and joint pain. But those were rare instances. Most patients continued on their meds, clinging to them like a drowning man clings to a raft.
Fast forward ten years, probably billions of dollars in advertising, and zillions of little pills and the word is finally getting out.
Or is it?
The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio has just released a report of a clinical trial, backed by the Journal of the American Medical Association, showing that 43% of patients taking low dose statins will have muscle pain. The study, called Statin Intolerance Objectively Identified in Patients was published April 3, 2016. Apparently this complaint, voiced by many patients over the last decade was not supported anywhere else in the literature.
In the meantime, zillions of pills were downed with billions of glasses of juice. Or maybe vodka, who really knows?
I’m not surprised.
Over the last 10 years I have advised hundreds of patients that the side effects of their statin drugs could be the cause of their muscle aches. I explained that as a Chiropractor, I can’t help their pain if it is a side effect of medication. Most dismiss my comment with a statement such as: “I’ve been taking this for years.”
The media and prescribing doctors have done such a good job of convincing patients that statins are benign life savers that my comments fell on deaf ears.
What has always concerned me, is that the heart is a muscle. Ding, ding, ding! We have a loser here. If the drug, which is so vital to your heart, causes muscle pain, weakness and disintegration, why is it still being used? Could this drug be harming the heart muscle, too? Is this why up to 40% of women complain of loss of energy and fatigue? This goes against common sense. Yet patients fall for it by the droves. Remember all those glasses of, uhm, juice. (By the way rhabdomyolysis, the one side effect that has always been listed on the package insert, is explained here, by the Mayo Clinic.)
This morning, I woke to my local news radio station reading the headline, “43% of statin users suffer muscle pain”.
“Wow“, I thought. “I better get out of bed, a miracle is happening.”
I was so excited, I ran to my computer and began looking for the study. Well, okay, I ambled to my computer with my wild hair causing some drag on my velocity.
It didn’t take to long to find the study and realize that this study is comparing statins to another drug which works differently in the body. So maybe things ARE changing. Maybe a new heart drug won’t harm the heart.
According to the study, the new drug:
Evolocumab, a proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitor, is an injectable non-statin cholesterol-lowering drug self-administered by the patients once per month.
So there’s the rub. A new drug is here to replace the statins. And guess what? According to the The Telegraph:
Prof Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), added: “While evolocumab is likely to be useful in patients with very high LDL cholesterol levels where statin treatment is not sufficient, it will be expensive and is delivered by home injection rather than as a pill.
So now you can jab yourself at home for twice the price. But at least your muscle will be safe. Or so it seems.
The really sad thing is, high cholesterol is not the killer problem it has been made out to be. Over the years I have read many, many articles, blogs and interviews explaining why cholesterol is a life giving, essential part of the human body and not part of some internal terrorist squad. Sadly, the majority of my patients have never been exposed to this information and still blindly believe their doctors and swallow their pills with religious zeal.
Read an interview here with researcher Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD if you have never educated yourself on this subject. Another article, Do You Take Any of These 11 Dangerous Statin or Cholesterol Drugs written in 2010 by Dr. Joseph Mercola is found here. With multiple links to research and a thorough explanation of the subject, Dr Mercola is my go-to doctor on this topic.
Get reading! You’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
Dr. Liz