Over the past 20 years, drugmakers have touted statin (cholesterol-lowering) drugs as a cure for just about everything. The main claim—reducing the number of heart attacks and strokes—cannot even be proven, except for a small subset of patients with specific types of heart disease. Nonetheless, a relentless PR campaign by the manufacturers has convinced doctors and patients alike that these drugs are a panacea. They have been purported to help osteoporosis, cancer, memory, brain function, hormonal problems and even keep you young. And it has paid off—to the tune of billions of dollars in profit annually. The problem is that this is all bunk, hype and nothing more than PR to sell more of these drugs. And worse, your doctor may still believe this rubbish.
A study of over 2 million patients talking statin drugs, age 30-84, was reported in the British Medical Journal (May 2010). Titled “Unintended effects of statins in men and women in England and Wales: Population based cohort study using the QResearch database,” it showed that statins’ supposed unintended benefits—that help just about every health problem—are a big bunch of drug-selling hoopla. In fact, these drugs failed to show any unintended benefits for anything except a slight improvement in the rate of cancer of the esophagus.
Statins did, however cause a lot of damage and side effects. The major side effects were liver and kidney damage, muscle damage, and cataracts. So if you have started these drugs, and if your health begins to go downhill, you must always suspect the drug as the cause. Whenever you damage your liver or kidneys, you can expect serious health problems. But perhaps the least expected problem was the increases incidence of cataracts.
Millions of statin-takers suffer from serious muscle problems including weakness and pain, live problems with all kinds of repercussions, unexplained cataracts, and even acute kidney failure with major health implications. And even after quitting the statins, the damage can last for up to three years. Just how many people are improperly diagnosed when their doctors fail to recognize statins as the cause of their problems in unknown. Many of those improperly diagnosed patients are incorrectly prescribed more prescription drugs to treat the problems caused by the statins. This dramatically complicates the whole health picture.
You have two simple ways to avoid this type of health disaster. The obvious way is to avoid statin drugs altogether. The second way is to immediately suspect your drug as the cause of any new health problems, and to quit the drug, no matter what your doctor says.
Once you look at real statistics on absolute benefit from the statin drugs versus the potential health damage caused by them, it is easy to see that the medical cholesterol-screening, cholesterol-lowering, and cholesterol-phobia (the irrational fear of cholesterol) is a giant scam to sell drugs.
What About Statins for Heart Disease?
One more time about the $17 billion annual fantasy of the statins for heart disease…Yet another study, this time a meta-analysis (study of 11 previous studies) of more than 60,000 people, showed that most statin use is a scam. The study proved that “for patients without established heart disease, statins are more risky than helpful.”
More than 75% of statin use is by people without established heart disease who are trying to prevent heart attacks and strokes. These are the folks whose doctor recommended a statin to prevent a heart attacks. Or those who actually believe that these drugs can help prevent heart attacks and strokes. These millions of people are spending more than $12,750,000 on drugs that not only fail to achieve the desires results, but actually cause more harm than good!
Even for the folks who have established heart disease, the benefit-to-risk ratio of statins is questionable at best. Today, when you see a physician and you have circulatory problems, a clot, or high blood pressure, you are simply told that the cause is cholesterol. You are prescribed statins, and that is it. Just how did this game come about, and how can it be maintained? The answer is simple. As with all things in health care, just follow the money—in this case, $17 billion annually—and that is just for the drugs. When you throw in the doctor visits, hospitalizations, and all the res, it is one truly ingenious American business phenomenon—nothing more.
