There are two broad categories of the statin debate:
- Is cholesterol really a villain? We are so conditioned to hear that elevated LDL cholesterol is bad that we don’t question why. Supposedly LDL enables blockages in your heart (or brain) since pathologists find fats in your artery walls if you have cardiovascular disease.
What if you had a Doctor that said that white blood cells are bad since people with infections have high white blood cell counts! Infections must be caused by white blood cells. You’d walk out of that Doctors office immediately. Correlation is not causation.
The debate about whether cholesterol is actually bad for you is beyond the scope of this website. I personally think that the danger of LDL is way over hyped. Sugar (and simple carbs) are much worse for you. They cause systemic inflammation that results in real damage.
There are many people debating whether cholesterol is really a villain. Do your research. I’m not going to cover it here.
- Should you take statins? Let’s assume that elevated LDL cholesterol is not good. What to do? And, are statins the answer?
Try this analogy: We know that being overweight is not good either. We also know that smoking cigarettes tends to suppress appetite. Nicotine is a stimulant (like many diet pills).
Suppose your doctor noticed that you were 20 lbs overweight and suggested that you take up smoking. Hey, it should really help you lose those 20 pounds! Again, you’d walk out of that Doctor’s office immediately! Why? Because the harm caused by cigarettes is much worse than the benefit. Obvious!
The key to this story: Statins are like cigarettes. They may actually have a slight benefit. But the harm, over time, is immense.
That is the crux of this website: to illuminate the harm of statins. I know. I live it every day.
If your Doctor doesn’t acknowledge the following, get a new Doctor:
For otherwise healthy people (no known cardiovascular disease) the risk reduction of taking statins is less than the risk increase of developing myopathy (muscle damage) or developing diabetes. (reference)
Repeat this question to your Doctor: So, Doctor: you are suggesting I take a pill whose potential benefit is less than the potential harm. Really?
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There are many serious adverse effects of statins. The leading two are myopathy and diabetes. Lipitor is now being sued for causing diabetes and, finally, statin TV commercials are mentioning muscle pain. Neuropathy, cognitive decline, pancreatic cancer, cataracts, and even Alzheimer’s risks have been linked to statins. And just in the past year statins have been shown to cause heart failure. No surprise (to me) since statins damage muscles and the heart is a muscle. It is astounding that they are still widely prescribed.
I will cover the overall risks and will stress myopathy and diabetes. They are what I know best, since they are what statins have caused in me.
Read on.
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