Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You know, those are the ones they are shoving down our throats and making BILLIONS profits while doing it. Statin drugs are those cholesterol drugs. They are not telling us the whole truth!
If you or someone you know is on these drugs, get educated on the REAL everyday side effects so when they happen, you will know what is happening to you BEFORE the damage is permanent.
In every study with rodents to date, statins have caused cancer. Why have we not seen such a dramatic correlation in human studies? Because cancer takes a long time to develop and most of the statin trials do not go on longer than two or three years. Still, in one trial, the CARE trial, breast cancer rates of those taking a statin went up 1500 percent. In the Heart Protection Study, non-melanoma skin cancer occurred in 243 patients treated with simvastatin compared with 202 cases in the control group.
In the USA Today paper, they had the Lipitor ad. In enormous bold print are the words: Lipitor reduces risk of heart attack by 36%*.
That asterisk on the 36% contains some meat: *That means in a large clinical study, 3% of patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a heart attack compared to 2% of patients taking Lipitor. In english, that translates when compared to NOTHING you STILL have a 1% chance of a heart attack ON the statin drug over the ones not taking it..
First, your risk is only lowered by a relative amount, from an already low 2% to a slightly lower 1%. Your real risk is only lowered by 1%. There is a world of difference between that 36% and 1%, and the ad did say, sort of, that the risk was relatively lowered, not lowered absolutely, so it wasn't terribly deceptive. And some people might think to themselves,
"Ah, any lowering is good, even if it's only 1%."
Thus, in order to get the 1% reduction it turns out that you have to be in a pretty high risk group to begin with; namely, those with "multiple" risk factors. How many risk factors do you have to have before you can hope for the reduction? Two? Three? The ad doesn't say. Maybe you need all five before you can hope for the reduction. That is the most likely reading of the ad.
They are keeping important information from us about these drugs and playing with words trying to confuse us and denying us the right to make an informed decision as to rather the benifits of taking these drugs outweigh the risk for our own bodies. Up to 15% of people are suffering side effects but you don't hear them talking about that. I really believe that 15% is not a true number just from the people I have personally talked to on them that are having side effects, I am betting it is 50% or better.
Just because you are taking the drug now and not experiencing any side effects does not mean you are home free. #1. the doctors do not reconize complaints as statin drug side effects, even if they do, they don't know how to treat it. #2 You may go 2, 3, 4, 5 years before they show up
I, personally started with them the second week I was on them but did not realize that horriable pain in my knees was caused by the drug until I quit them 6 years later and the pain immediately stopped.
I assure you all, I am not a quack and none of this is a scam like big pharma is pulling on us. If you want to know more, go to Statin Drugs Forum - Index and read away. It could save your life, it sure saved mine
My dad's cholesterol is so reduced after going on a no-grain, "white" carbs, and sugars diet ala Dr. Mercola that it is truly amazing. Had I not seen the lab values myself, I wouldn't have believed him. Trying the diet was his last attempt at lowering the cholesterol before resorting to a statin medication.
I have not read Dr. Mercola's book in some time, but I believe he stated that 99% of people can control their cholesterol in the above manner, but there are a few with genetic predisposition that could benefit from the use of statins.
I take all the supplements reccomended on spacedoc.net.
Omega 3 is the main one. Has anyone told you to take CoQ-10 with that Lipitor? Statins deplete your body of that and every cell in your body need that. One of the pharma's has had a patent for a statin with CoQ-10, since the 80's and has sat on it.
*Danielle*- You have to experience it to believe it. I know it is true because it happened to me. I am not asking you to believe me, I am asking you to become aware of the hidden side effects so when the time come to make an informed decision, you can! (I was cheated out of that choice)....Ask MY doctor? That is a JOKE! I went to him for the problems I was having and he brushed me off or wrote me a Rx for a even more dangerous drug that I would not take. Doctors are NO help, I saw 4 different doctors for that odd lumpy swelling on my feet that hurt as it spread, they all knew I was on a statin and NONE could tell me what it was or what to do to stop it or relieve the pain. They have quit hurting since I quit the drug.
When it happens to you or someone you love, then you will see and understand we are not a bunck of crazies running around crying wolf and spacedoc's web sight has helped a LOT of people, including myself. BTW, I have not bought his book although I would like to read it.
karen_s... Watch those video's! They Katie Couric said that only people with known heart disease should be taking statins.... and it can be controlled by diet. That is what I am doing along with the supplements. I was doing good and sticking to my diet until I had to get those steroid shots in my shoulder for the statin induced tendonitis. Now my appitite has gone wild! I am one of those with that genetic predisposition.
I understand what your saying. Everyone should be educated on all medical drugs they put into their bodies. It really is not your doctors responsibility. There is no excuse to not know facts about anything anymore...All the info is right at our finger tips...so no need to finger point anymore.
However, I do know that there are millions upon millions of people that statins are helping tremedously and I hate to see threads trying to scare people away from something that is working for them.
Where did you get the following info (bolded below)? How does the spacedoc know this? Has he conducted some kind of creditable study? I am always leary of underground claims from people claiming they have researched it...
Why would a pharma company sit on anything that has the potential to make them a lot of money and literally be the choice in statin use above all the others?
Omega 3 is the main one. Has anyone told you to take CoQ-10 with that Lipitor? Statins deplete your body of that and every cell in your body need that. One of the pharma's has had a patent for a statin with CoQ-10, since the 80's and has sat on it.
*Danielle*- I strongly suggest you start researching it for yourself before you say anyone is making false claims. I could provide you with a lot of links and more to read that you would have time for, but I am feeling like you are one that has to do it yourself and I think you should do just that. The evening news segments I provided were a good place to start. Underground? (Was being televised on TV underground?) I did not realize the internet that everyone has access to, is something underground. Silly me, I was under the impression it was the information highway and is out there for all to see.
We have the right to make INFORMED decisions about our bodies and what we put in it and to decide if the benifits of a drug out weigh the risks of it for ourselves. I read the insert when put on it and NOT a one of the side effects I had were on the print outs that came with the drug, NOT A ONE!
Start researching, there is a lot for you to read........
(IN case you don't know how, I did it this way "statin drugs/side effects", "Statin drugs/memory loss" and such as that.)
We have the right to make INFORMED decisions about our bodies and what we put in it and to decide if the benifits of a drug out weigh the risks of it for ourselves. I read the insert when put on it and NOT a one of the side effects I had were on the print outs that came with the drug, NOT A ONE!
Why would the pharm companies tout the risks of their drugs? After all, if we actually KNEW the side effects of all of these medications/drugs/remedies/vaccinations that we put into our bodies, we might be so quick to use them. That would not help the drug companies in the least. Much better to deny that any side effects are related (heart problems after taking NSAIDS? Oh no, must be a coincidence!) and enjoy the profits until enough people catch on, right?
Doctors seem hellbent on slapping a bandaid on problems and not treating the underlying issues. If you weigh 300 lbs and smoke a pack a day, the doc might say "well, you should lose weight and quit smoking, but here, have some drugs to lower your blood pressure." Now the patient needs to come back for bp checks, the drug reps are happy with that doctor (believe me, i used to work for one... the drug reps would be in there all the time asking how often do you prescribe this? Let me give you more info on that. Here are other uses. Let me take you out to lunch to discuss this drug. Here, have some samples. Have some notepads/pens/postit note pads to give out to your patients as well.), etc. Unfortunate to say, but if everyone was advised that drugs are dangerous and you MUST change your lifestyle, lose weight, stop smoking, eat veggies, etc in order to be healthy, many doctors would be out of business. It's a simple fact.
Are there good, ethical doctors? Of course! But in this era of managed care and health maintanance organizations dictating treatment options, as well as too many patients scheduled in a day, doctors do what they can to keep the patient flow going... which, unfortunately, is NOT in the best interest of every patient.
beanandpumpkin- Free lunches, trips and such ammenities should be outlawed between the drug companies and the docotrs. Doctors are no longer there to serve their paitents but to serve the drug companies. Get this! One of the problems I had on the statin, he gave me that wonderful new NSAIDS. I got the Rx home and read the insert and threw the whole bottle away without ever swollowing one of them.... BUT, the information WAS there so I could make an informed decision and that was NOT to take it. It is all about our right to know and to make our own choice. (I wonder how many people died to give me that right?)
*Danielle*- I wanted to ad that how I came to discover that all of my problems were statin related was not until June 2006 (I was still on them and clueless), when I saw a commercial on TV by some lawyer looking for a class action law suit against one of the companies that make statin drugs and listed a long list of side effects. Until then, I had kept asking "WHAT is happening to me?"... That is when I came home and looked it up on the internet.
I understand that and I am sorry you had to deal with that. I read the Lipitor drug pamphlet and it listed everything from Liver enzyme problems to kidney failure and EVERYTHING in between.
In this day and age you can not go to the doctor and just do as they say. You can't do it...I research EVERYTHING that goes into my families bodies.
I do not deal with doctors who accept gifts from Drug reps. All you have to do is ask them...My husband is a physician he absolutely does not accept anything from any drug companies. The hospital he works for forbids it so that is not an issue for any doctors we see.
Your health is not anyone elses responsibility but your own. If you did not make the connection between a new onset of knee pain and the side effects listed on the insert that is not right to finger point at your doctor. The insert clearly lists if you have any unexplained pain tell your doctor. Why did you not connect your sore knee to the 'unexplained pain' the insert clearly states?
I don't know...if I start on a med and feel anything out of the norm for me, I stop taking it, call my doctor and we discuss options.
With every drug, there are side effects. If you expect your doctor to know each and every single side effect of each drug you take, you need to think twice.
I have a friend who was on Zoloft. This drug helps billions of people with depression world wide. She started having ringing in her ears. It drove her crazy. She called her doctor and he told her he had never heard of that side effect and deemed the ringing to a sinus infection...Well, she investigated it further and found it to be a very very rare side effect. She printed off the info, went to her doctor, enlighted him on the subject and they figured out an alternative...Point is, you have to be proactive with your health...You can't just sit there and do as your doctor says...You can't.
I am glad you figured out this drug was not for you. I am sorry had to deal with what you did...but there is no need to finger point, and claim people are hiding things. This drug WORKS for millions of people.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
