It's interesting that one prominent cardiologist recently said it was a lot cheaper to prescribe low-cost statins than it was to coach patients in diet & exercise! He's right.Įxcerpt from Topol's, "Diabetes Dilemma for Statin Users" If a radical shift in one's diet can lower cholesterol, blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart disease & diabetes, and decrease inflammation-maybe it's time more people knew about it-and received the right education, coaching, & support to do something about it. It's time to recognize that muscle aches, weaknesses, & even some cognitive dysfunction can't always be blamed on a patient's age.
However, their side effects appear to increase, as the dosage increases, and as patients get older. There is no doubt that they are a life-saving drug for many-particularly for anyone who has already suffered a heart attack. Statins are the most-prescribed drug on the market, with almost 21 million prescriptions written for them last year. Beatrice Golomb of the University of California at San Diego, has been running one of the largest observational studies on adverse effects of statins for years-providing a database for people all over the world to self-report any side effect to statins that they have experienced.
Read their latest post on the recent warnings here.ĭr. Joe & Terry Graedon of The People's Pharmacy, have been hearing about the side effects of statins from their listeners & readers for years-and passing these anecdotal reports on to the FDA. Topol's Op/Ed was followed yesterday by NYT's health columnist, Tara Parker Pope's " A Heart Helper May Come at a Cost for the Brain"-highlighting the cognitive side effects of statins.
Eric Topol, one of the country's top cardiologist, and the former chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic (now at the Scripps Research Instiute) wrote a "must read" Op/Ed piece in the New York Times on March 4, 2012, The Diabetes Dilemma for Statin Users, with a decidedly different view of diabetes risk associated with statins. ( WSJ 2/29/12) Read the WSJ article here.ĭr. I know I can lower the risk of death, stroke and heart attack by about 30%" in patients at high risk of such cardiovascular events. Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, said, "There is no question that statins slightly increase the risk of a diabetes diagnosis and of slightly higher blood sugar, but I think this has no impact on the risk-benefit assessment. All statins will now have label warnings to the effect that high-dose statins significantly increase the risk of diabetes, and statins can have cognitive side effects, albeit reversible. Steven Nissen & Marc Gillinov new book, " Heart 411: the ONLY Guide to Heart Health You'll Ever Need", minimizes the adverse effects of statins, the FDA has finally decided to publicly alert us to two of statin's more alarming side effects. Last Week's Breaking News: FDA adds warnings to statin labels Note: This is a very long post that includes the latest FDA statin warnings, as well as posts I have previously written that explain in more detail the side effects of statins-what they are, why they occur, and what increases your chances of experiencing them. Caldwell Esselstyn's Heart Disease Prevention & Reversal Diet (59) Bill Clinton's Heart Disease Reversal Diet (12).