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Statin Side Effects

Statin side effects: Almost universal and often missed.

One of the most distressing things about practicing medicine these days is the blind faith that most people, doctors and patients, have in cholesterol pills like Lipitor, Crestor, Vytorin, and Zocor, just to name a few of the most popular statin drugs available today. This faith comes not from gullibility, but from carefully crafted drug company misdirection.

Few realize that statins work differently than other drugs physicians prescribe for long-term use. Most drugs just block a receptor. Statins block a metabolic pathway, and this means they can alter every cell in your body in one way or another. What exactly they will do within a given tissue in a given person is unpredictable. This unpredictability makes tracking the connection between starting the pill and developing the problem almost impossible. Add to that the fact that some of the insidious effects are slow enough to be misattributed to age-related problems.

The worst part is, these harmful effects may be permanent.

Statin side effect include:

Diabetes: A 2012 study showed the risk was 71% for those on a cholesterol pill, verus 29% on placebo. Diabetes doubles your risk of having a heart attack. Worse… (see next)

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I would like to thank you for literally saving my life. Back in February, I had to be hospitalized while on vacation in Phoenix with an A1C of 11% and had to start taking 2 types of insulin and 2 other meds. I read the Fatburn Fix in April, and followed the program to a tee, and I’m down by 15 pounds, 6.8 A1C, and only one once weekly diabetes medicine. 

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Memory Loss: Renown neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter warns us that even slight elevations of blood sugar threaten brain health. Not to mention that your brain is 15% cholesterol by weight.

Breast cancer: A 1995 study showed 12 women on a statin developed breast cancer, versus 1 on placebo. Don’t think that sounds like much of an issue? The drug companies do. Ever since, women with prior breast cancer have been excluded from statin studies.

Heart failure: A doctor in Texas showed that coQ10 supplementation can prevent Statin-Induced-Cardiomyopathy (Cardiomyopathy means heart failure)

Joint Problems: A 2013 JAMA article found that statin users had a higher incidence of “musculoskeletal injuries, including an increased risk of dislocations, strains, and sprains” compared to men and women with otherwise matched demographics (age, weight, etc).

Weight gain: In my experience, men and women who have been placed on high doses of statins often develop mild fatigue and joint aches. For some, it’s just enough to reduce how much they exercise and then the weight creeps up.

People take statins for decades, studies don’t last that long.

Statin studies may last 6 or 7 years, but the average amount of time any give person stays in the study is less. The side effects listed in the drug information sheet are from studies as short as 12 weeks.

So if you’ve been on a statin more than 6 or 7 years, you are in uncharted territory as far as medical science goes. We have very little data showing what happens to a person taking statins for a decade or longer.

The value of reducing your LDL is widely overestimated, and so, from where I sit, it appears that many people taking a statin to reduce their cholesterol should never have been given the prescription.

The good new is, with the internet finally shedding light on the mishandling of data and on all the players who benefit from deceiving us about the real cause of heart disease, I predict that within the next decade we will see physicians finally pulling back and the overprescribing curtailed. But you don’t need to wait a decade to educate yourself.

Start learning right here:

How doctors get paid for prescribing statins

My battle in Hawaii over the Pay for Performance program on statins

A conversation between myself and a medical executive for whom I would never hope to work

Read Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food (chapter 7) to learn how traditional diets will Reduce Your Heart Attack Risk, Naturally!

Promising news from the BMJ: “An updated meta-analysis of linoleic acid intervention trials showed no evidence of cardiovascular benefit. These findings could have important implications for worldwide dietary advice to substitute omega 6 linoleic acid, or polyunsaturated fats in general, for saturated fats.”

One reader’s testimonial on the value of Chapter 8 of Deep Nutrition to help you give you the confidence to take control of your heart health.

With over two decades of clinical experience and expertise in genetic and biochemical research, Dr. Cate can help you to reverse metabolic disease and reshape your body.

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This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. It appears that the url linked to the paper by Peter H. Langsjoen, MD, referenced in “Joint Problems” above is no longer on the FDA website.

  2. Many thanks Dr. Cate for sharing this.

    I have noticed that many of our clients in our massage therapy/ physiotherapy practice that have been on statins since many years also show some signs of joints problems and chronic muscles pains. Many of them are in their forties and up. I find that so frustrating sometime when I talk how broths, dramatically reducing sugar, consuming good quality saturated fats and etc, could significantly help and all I get is some raised eyebrows!

    An out of topic question : what is your stance about vegetable juicing? I have checked your book and your website and couldn’t find any information on (slow) juicing. I’m aware that it’s not part of any traditional diet, but could it help to get more nutrients when you can’t get enough veggies in one day?

    1. Good for you for helping clients make a connection between how they eat and how their connective tissues work.

      If a person has a juicer and you have recipes that use 1 pc fruit or less and taste good, then juicing is a great option. If not, then it’s possibly more productive to focus the discussion on fast salads.

      And to help with the raised eyebrows, a PT I worked with in NH had the idea of keeping a couple copies of Deep Nutrition around and put a sticky in the relevant sections on broth and sugar. This was just one trick he had up his sleeve for getting them to ask the questions and opening the conversation spontaneously.

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