Are You Still Taking Statins? Did You Know Statins have Side Effects?

Many of our friends watched the TV report on cholesterol on ‘Catalyst’ lately and have now stopped taking medication to lower their cholesterol. We had tried over many years to share the views about the cholesterol mistruths exposed in the book “The Cholesterol Myth” only to be met with disbelief. We constantly were finding our friends drinking low fat milk, eating low fat yoghurt, avoiding butter and cream due to warnings by their doctor who thinks cholesterol is a problem. Most people don’t have a cholesterol problem and what’s even worse; medications can bring your cholesterol down to dangerously LOW levels. You need essential fatty acids in your diet.

Unfortunately we couldn’t make a difference to their beliefs and sadly we have recently learnt that one friend on statins for some time now has been told that he has IBM – an irreversible muscle wasting disease which will reduce his mobility in the coming years. He is still unaware that this could be the result of his medication which has been prescribed by his heart specialist.

Another friend who was extremely fit was found by his doctor to have a higher than normal cholesterol level and was put on a strict diet – no fats at all. Being a health fanatic he followed the doctor’s advice and ended up with swollen legs and became very ill. So he decided to return to his usual diet and slowly regained his normal health. He discovered his ‘high’ reading was normal for him.

More reasons to avoid cholesterol medications

In one of the slowest reversals in history, the mainstream is finally ready to acknowledge that there are some real problems with cholesterol medications. Researchers looked at data on more than 2 million Brits, and found that statin users faced higher levels of liver dysfunction, kidney failure, cataracts and that most famous side effect, debilitating muscle weakness.

But despite all those side effects reported in the new study, the commentary published with it in the British Medical Journal says you should go ahead and keep taking your statins anyway!! Maybe they didn’t even bother to read the study, which found that for every 10,000 women treated with these meds, there are 74 cases of liver dysfunction, 23 patients who suffer acute kidney failure, 307 cases of cataracts and 39 cases of myopathy – better known as severe, debilitating and often irreversible muscle pain.

The Nottingham University researchers found similar rates in men in nearly all those categories except for the muscle problems — men get twice as many of those. More muscles, more problems.

 

Ref: William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.