The Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven't Been Told About
Cholesterol-Lowering Medication, Part I
[ Part I, Part II, Part III ]
By Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD
Originally printed at Weston A. Price
Hypercholesterolemia is the health issue of the 21st century. It is
actually an invented disease, a "problem" that emerged when health
professionals learned how to measure cholesterol levels in the blood.
High cholesterol exhibits no outward signs--unlike other conditions of
the blood, such as diabetes or anemia, diseases that manifest telltale
symptoms like thirst or weakness--hypercholesterolemia requires the
services of a physician to detect its presence. Many people who feel
perfectly healthy suffer from high cholesterol--in fact, feeling good
is actually a symptom of high cholesterol!
Doctors who treat this new disease must first convince their patients
that they are sick and need to take one or more expensive drugs for the
rest of their lives, drugs that require regular checkups and blood
tests. But such doctors do not work in a vacuum--their efforts to
convert healthy people into patients are bolstered by the full weight
of the U.S. government, the media and the medical establishment,
agencies that have worked in concert to disseminate the cholesterol
dogma and convince the population that high cholesterol is the
forerunner of heart disease and possibly other diseases as well.
Who suffers from hypercholesterolemia? Peruse the medical literature of
25 or 30 years ago and you'll get the following answer: any middle-aged
man whose cholesterol is over 240 with other risk factors, such as
smoking or overweight.
After the Cholesterol Consensus Conference in 1984, the parameters
changed; anyone (male or female) with cholesterol over 200 could
receive the dreaded diagnosis and a prescription for pills. Recently
that number has been moved down to 180. If you have had a heart attack,
you get to take cholesterol-lowering medicines even if your cholesterol
is already very low--after all, you have committed the sin of having a
heart attack so your cholesterol must therefore be too high. The
penance is a lifetime of cholesterol-lowering medications along with a
boring low-fat diet. But why wait until you have a heart attack? Since
we all labor under the stigma of original sin, we are all candidates
for treatment. Current edicts stipulate cholesterol testing and
treatment for young adults and even children.
The drugs that doctors use to treat the new disease are called
statins--sold under a variety of names including:
Lipitor (atorvastatin)
Zocor (simvastatin)
Mevacor (lovastatin)
Pravachol (pravastatin)
How Statins Work
This diagram illustrates the pathways involved in cholesterol
production.
The process begins with acetyl-CoA, a two-carbon molecule sometimes
referred to as the "building block of life." Three acetyl-CoA molecules
combine to form six-carbon hydroxymethyl glutaric acid (HMG). The step
from HMG to mevalonate requires an enzyme, HMG-CoA reductase. Statin
drugs work by inhibiting this enzyme--hence the formal name of HMG-CoA
reductase inhibitors. Herein lies the potential for numerous side
effects, because statin drugs inhibit not just the production of
cholesterol, but a whole family of intermediary substances, many if not
all of which have important biochemical functions in their own right.
Consider the findings of pediatricians at the University of California,
San Diego who published a description of a child with a hereditary
defect of mevalonic kinase, the enzyme that facilitates the next step
beyond HMG-CoA reductase.1 The child was mentally retarded,
microcephalic (very small head), small for his age, profoundly anemic,
acidotic and febrile. He also had cataracts. Predictably, his
cholesterol was consistently low--70-79 mg/dl. He died at the age of 24
months. The child represents an extreme example of cholesterol
inhibition, but his case illuminates the possible consequences of
taking statins in strong doses or for a lengthy period of time:
Depression of mental acuity
Anemia
Acidosis
Frequent fevers
Cataracts
Cholesterol is one of three end products in the mevalonate chain. The
two others are ubiquinone and dilochol. Ubiquinone or Co-Enzyme Q10 is
a critical cellular nutrient biosynthesized in the mitochondria. It
plays a role in ATP production in the cells and functions as an
electron carrier to cytochrome oxidase, our main respiratory enzyme.
The heart requires high levels of Co-Q10. A form of Co-Q10 called
ubiquinone is found in all cell membranes where it plays a role in
maintaining membrane integrity so critical to nerve conduction and
muscle integrity. Co-Q10 is also vital to the formation of elastin and
collagen. Side effects of Co-Q10 deficiency include muscle wasting
leading to weakness and severe back pain, heart failure (the heart is a
muscle!), neuropathy and inflammation of the tendons and ligaments,
often leading to rupture.
Dolichols also play a role of immense importance. In the cells they
direct various proteins manufactured in response to DNA directives to
their proper targets, ensuring that the cells respond correctly to
genetically programmed instruction. Thus statin drugs can lead to
unpredictable chaos on the cellular level, much like a computer virus
that wipes out certain pathways or files.
Squalene, the immediate precursor to cholesterol, has anti-cancer
effects, according to research.
The fact that some studies have shown that statins can prevent heart
disease, at least in the short term, is most likely explained not by
the inhibition of cholesterol production but because they block the
creation of mevalonate. Reduced amounts of mevalonate seem to make
smooth muscle cells less active, and platelets less able to produce
thromboxane. Atherosclerosis begins with the growth of smooth muscle
cells in side artery walls and thromboxane is necessary for blood
clotting.
Cholesterol
Of course, statins inhibit the production of cholesterol--they do this
very well. Nowhere is the failing of our medical system more evident
than in the wholesale acceptance of cholesterol reduction as a way to
prevent disease--have all these doctors forgotten what they learned in
biochemistry 101 about the many roles of cholesterol in the human
biochemistry?
Every cell membrane in our body contains cholesterol because
cholesterol is what makes our cells waterproof--without cholesterol we
could not have a different biochemistry on the inside and the outside
of the cell. When cholesterol levels are not adequate, the cell
membrane becomes leaky or porous, a situation the body interprets as an
emergency, releasing a flood of corticoid hormones that work by
sequestering cholesterol from one part of the body and transporting it
to areas where it is lacking. Cholesterol is the body's repair
substance: scar tissue contains high levels of cholesterol, including
scar tissue in the arteries.
Cholesterol is the precursor to vitamin D, necessary for numerous
biochemical processes including mineral metabolism. The bile salts,
required for the digestion of fat, are made of cholesterol. Those who
suffer from low cholesterol often have trouble digesting fats.
Cholesterol also functions as a powerful antioxidant, thus protecting
us against cancer and aging.
Cholesterol is vital to proper neurological function. It plays a key
role in the formation of memory and the uptake of hormones in the
brain, including serotonin, the body's feel-good chemical. When
cholesterol levels drop too low, the serotonin receptors cannot work.
Cholesterol is the main organic molecule in the brain, constituting
over half the dry weight of the cerebral cortex.
Finally, cholesterol is the precursor to all the hormones produced in
the adrenal cortex including glucocorticoids, which regulate blood
sugar levels, and mineralocorticoids, which regulate mineral balance.
Corticoids are the cholesterol-based adrenal hormones that the body
uses in response to stress of various types; it promotes healing and
balances the tendency to inflammation. The adrenal cortex also produces
sex hormones, including testosterone, estrogen and progesterone, out of
cholesterol. Thus, low cholesterol--whether due to an innate error of
metabolism or induced by cholesterol-lowering diets and drugs--can be
expected to disrupt the production of adrenal hormones and lead to:
Blood sugar problems
Edema
Mineral deficiencies
Chronic inflammation
Difficulty in healing
Allergies
Asthma
Reduced libido
Infertility
Various reproductive problems
Enter the Statins
Statin drugs entered the market with great promise. They replaced a
class of pharmaceuticals that lowered cholesterol by preventing its
absorption from the gut. These drugs often had immediate and unpleasant
side effects, including nausea, indigestion and constipation, and in
the typical patient they lowered cholesterol levels only slightly.
Patient compliance was low: the benefit did not seem worth the side
effects and the potential for use very limited. By contrast, statin
drugs had no immediate side effects: they did not cause nausea or
indigestion and they were consistently effective, often lowering
cholesterol levels by 50 points or more.
During the last 20 years, the industry has mounted an incredible
promotional campaign--enlisting scientists, advertising agencies, the
media and the medical profession in a blitz that turned the statins
into one of the bestselling pharmaceuticals of all time. Sixteen
million Americans now take Lipitor, the most popular statin, and drug
company officials claim that 36 million Americans are candidates for
statin drug therapy.
What bedevils the industry is growing reports of side effects that
manifest many months after the commencement of therapy; the November
2003 issue of Smart Money magazine reports on a 1999 study at St.
Thomas' Hospital in London (apparently unpublished), which found that
36 percent of patients on Lipitor's highest dose reported side effects;
even at the lowest dose, 10 percent reported side effects.2
Muscle Pain and Weakness
The most common side effect is muscle pain and weakness, a condition
called rhabdomyolysis, most likely due to the depletion of Co-Q10, a
nutrient that supports muscle function. Dr. Beatrice Golomb of San
Diego, California is currently conducting a series of studies on statin
side effects. The industry insists that only 2-3 percent of patients
get muscle aches and cramps but in one study, Golomb found that 98
percent of patients taking Lipitor and one-third of the patients taking
Mevachor (a lower-dose statin) suffered from muscle problems.3 A
message board devoted to Lipitor at forum.ditonline.com contains more
than 800 posts, many detailing severe side effects. The Lipitor board
at contains more than 2,600 posts.
The test for muscle wasting or rhabdomyolysis is elevated levels of a
chemical called creatine kinase (CK). But many people experience pain
and fatigue even though they have normal CK levels.4
Tahoe City resident Doug Peterson developed slurred speech, balance
problems and severe fatigue after three years on Lipitor--for two and a
half years, he had no side effects at all.5 It began with restless
sleep patterns--twitching and flailing his arms. Loss of balance
followed and the beginning of what Doug calls the "statin shuffle"--a
slow, wobbly walk across the room. Fine motor skills suffered next. It
took him five minutes to write four words, much of which was illegible.
Cognitive function also declined. It was hard to convince his doctors
that Lipitor could be the culprit, but when he finally stopped taking
it, his coordination and memory improved.
John Altrocchi took Mevacor for three years without side effects; then
he developed calf pain so severe he could hardly walk. He also
experienced episodes of temporary memory loss.
For some, however, muscle problems show up shortly after treatment
begins. Ed Ontiveros began having muscle problems within 30 days of
taking Lipitor. He fell in the bathroom and had trouble getting up. The
weakness subsided when he went off Lipitor. In another case, reported
in the medical journal Heart, a patient developed rhabdomyolysis after
a single dose of a statin.6 Heel pain from plantar fascitis (heel
spurs) is another common complaint among those taking statin drugs. One
correspondent reported the onset of pain in the feet shortly after
beginning statin treatment. She had visited an evangelist, requesting
that he pray for her sore feet. He enquired whether she was taking
Lipitor. When she said yes, he told her that his feet had also hurt
when he took Lipitor.7
Active people are much more likely to develop problems from statin use
than those who are sedentary. In a study carried out in Austria, only
six out of 22 athletes with familial hypercholesterolemia were able to
endure statin treatment.8 The others discontinued treatment because of
muscle pain.
By the way, other cholesterol-lowering agents besides statin drugs can
cause joint pain and muscle weakness. A report in Southern Medical
Journal described muscle pains and weakness in a man who took Chinese
red rice, an herbal preparation that lowers cholesterol.9 Anyone
suffering from myopathy, fibromyalgia, coordination problems and
fatigue needs to look at low cholesterol plus Co-Q10 deficiency as a
possible cause.
Stay tuned for Part II in the next issue of the newsletter.
References
[ Part I, Part II, Part III ]
Next >>
Related Articles:
The Truth About Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs (Statins), Cholesterol, and
Health
Crestor and Other Statins: Are They Really Worth the Risk?
Half of Population Will be Taking Statins
Statins - Is the Danger is the Dose?
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