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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Arthritis / April 2005pharmacists on statins
http://pharmacy.king-online.com/Pharmacy_20050420/index.php Patients Find Statins Can Have Side Effects Guidelines for cholesterol control recently have become much more stringent. For millions of Americans, achieving the new targets requires strong medicine. Over the past decade, prescriptions for statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs have soared. Such medications are extremely effective at getting the numbers under control and reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. As good as these drugs are, though, some people can't handle them. We have heard from many readers like this one: "My husband and I were both put on statins, one on Lipitor and one on Zocor. With time, we both experienced serious side effects. My husband had severe memory problems and confusion. Once he could not find a warehouse that he has been going to for years. Another time he got lost coming home from the VA hospital, even though it is a well-known and rather simple route. I thought he must be getting Alzheimer's disease. "I also had problems with my memory, often forgetting what I was saying but more often not being able to retrieve ordinary words used in everyday conversation. In addition, I had problems with my balance, bumping into walls and staggering when I walked. "Both of us had muscle and leg pain. Neither of us associated our memory loss, confusion or loss of balance with statins. We knew that muscle pain could be a side effect, though, so when the pain became intolerable we weaned ourselves off the statins. "To our surprise and delight, our other symptoms began to diminish. It has taken a full year, but I can finally carry on a conversation without feeling that I'm losing my mind. Neither of us will ever use statins again. "In talking with people we know, we have heard other stories that sound similar. I am extremely concerned that serious harm is being done to the health and well-being of many people. The health-care industry is pushing statins even for people who do not have high cholesterol. I fear that the damage done may make the problems with Vioxx, hormone-replacement therapy and fen-phen look small in comparison." No one should ever stop cholesterol-lowering medicine without consulting a physician. Some doctors, however, have a hard time believing that these miracle medicines could have unacceptable side effects. Another reader reported: "I have been on cholesterol-reducing medication for some time. I had been telling my doctor that my medication was doing something to my muscles, and he would not believe me. "I changed doctors, and the new one discovered that my muscle enzymes were 800 (normal is 200). He took me off the medicine, and my enzymes came down, though they are not yet normal. When I went on a different statin, they climbed back up again." If you would like to learn more about the dark side of statins, you may be interested in a radio interview we conducted with several physicians who have studied such issues. To order a CD of this one-hour conversation, please send $15 to: People's Pharmacy, CD-523, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027. Physicians know that lifesaving drugs like penicillin can sometimes cause life-threatening reactions. It's time to recognize that even great drugs like statins can cause some people serious harm. Joe Graedon is a pharmacologist. Teresa Graedon holds a doctorate in medical anthropology and is a nutrition expert. Their newest book is "The People's Pharmacy Guide to Home and Herbal Remedies" (St. Martin's Press). © 2005 by King Features Syndicate, Inc. >>Physicians know that lifesaving drugs like penicillin can sometimes cause life-threatening reactions. It's time to recognize that even great drugs like statins can cause some people serious harm. << They can indeed, but it's idiosyncratic. It seems unlikely that most side effects result from the statin's main effect of inhibiting HMG-CoA reductase. For they vary from person to person, and from one drug in this class to the next. You just have to each one, and watch carefully each time a new person and a new statin are introduced. SBH > >>Physicians know that lifesaving drugs like penicillin can sometimes > cause life-threatening reactions. It's time to recognize that even [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > SBH Why are there so many physicians who still don't know this? Please do not tell me they are duds. They seem to be as educated and accredited as any of their colleagues who do know. I read your impassioned defense of surgeons. I'm not unsympathetic. It's a huge responsibility. I wouldn't have it! But those who presumably chose it should take it more seriously, along with their more generalists cousins and their choices. Zee An article I read the other day started with med students being told at the graduating ceremony "At least half of what we've taught you is not correct. The problem is we don't know which half." It doesn't surprise me that doctors don't know about statins and truthfully, I don't expect them to know everything. But I do wish more of them didn't think they do. The problem, IMO is they can't acknowledge their ignorance. American docs were (and still are in some med schools) taught that Celiac Disease only affects 1 in 15,000. We now know from European studies it's more like 1 in 130-150. But there's no drug to treat it so docs don't know about how common it can be. The drug companies provide the continuing education for the doctors from what I can tell because if it can't be treated with a drug, they don't know what to do with it. Karen > Why are there so many physicians who still don't know this? Please do > not tell me they are duds. They seem to be as educated and accredited [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Zee > An article I read the other day started with med students being told at the > graduating ceremony "At least half of what we've taught you is not correct. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > Karen Sigh. Well no they can't acknowledge their ignorance. Or culpability. Or fallibility. They'd have their a.ses sued off in the American system if they did, and increasingly so in the Canadian system as it moves to an American for-profit healthcare (sic) style. We have to start somewhere above physicians if we want to change anything. The FDA, Health Canada, how clinical trials are run, how medical schools are funded, where continuing medical education comes from, and who delivers medical education to the consumer, and how it is delivered. I'm all for physicians earning a *very* good living. They are the best of us afterall. Have enormous responsibility. But I think it's time to move responsibility out of the hands of the profit sector. Here's an interesting site. It seems many physicians are as tired of this shill and the detritus ensuing as we are. www.nofreelunch.org Zee > > Why are there so many physicians who still don't know this? Please do > > not tell me they are duds. They seem to be as educated and accredited [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > > > Zee Dr. Golomb, the researcher who is the NIH principal investigator for statins and non-cardiac endpoints (http://medicine.ucsd.edu/statin/contactinfo.html) presented a paper at the International Coenzyme Q10 Association conference a couple of weeks ago. This is the first publication that I know of that deals with follow up of patients recovering from statin adverse effects. It was an historic day. Dr. Golomb reported results from a large and detailed database on patients who have suffered adverse effects on statins and recovered. The presentation included: - Patients who experienced adverse effects on one statin, then halted the statin and recovered - if subsequently put on another brand of statin at a comparable dosage, ~ 95% experienced the same adverse effects. - if subsequently put on another brand of statin at a lower dosage, ~ 55% experienced the same adverse effects. Also, this sobering and very alarming statistic: For those who suffered cognitive damage from a statin, "recovery" off the statin meant recovering only 70-80% of their former cognitive abilities. - if subsequently put on another brand of statin and again suffering cognitive damage from that statin, they recovered only 80% of the remaining cognitive ability In other words, after 2 statins, the best recoveries were a regain of only 64% of the patient's original pre-statin cognitive ability. The variance was related to equivalent dosages, not brand, of statin. (This from hastily scribbled notes during an excellent, comprehensive, and intense presentation of a great deal of data. Any factual errors in representing the data are due to my notes, as the abstract was not included in the program. Obviously, this presentation was of great interest to me because of the profound memory loss my husband suffered due to adverse effects of Lipitor 10 mg over 4 years.) There was much more presented, and, tragically, the time expired before all the slides had been addressed. This is a very important area of study for countless families who are dealing with the many months to years of recovery necessary to regain some sense of normalcy after experiencing statin adverse effects. >>>Physicians know that lifesaving drugs like penicillin can sometimes > cause life-threatening reactions. It's time to recognize that even [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > SBH |
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