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FDA: Statin Zocor causes muscle injury

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:58:00 +0000

Editor's note: Readers should be aware that if lowering cholesterol is a way to cut risk of heart disease, statins like Zocor is not the only medication they can take to lower the cholesterol. Some foods and nutrients may help lower cholesterol in some cases more effectively than statins. To ultimately reduce risk of heart disease regardless of the cholesterol status, one needs to follow a healthy diet. Ask Dr. Dean Ornish for his dietary advice that may save your life.

shawng

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:42:13 +0000

Naturally-occurring antibodies to oxidized cholesterol may be an alternative to zocor.

Healthy lifestyle including a healthful diet is a viable substitute to zocor. In a healthful diet, overly processed foods need to be eliminated because they contain rich amounts of harmful oxycholesterol (oxysterols) or oxidized cholesterol -- specifically, 7 beta-hydroxycholesterol, 7-ketocholesterol, and 5 beta, 6 beta-epoxycholesterols -- the chemicals found in cholesterol-rich diets and associated with atherosclerosis.

A growing number of scentific papers have clearly shown that dietary oxycholesterol promotes the development of atherogenic oxidized LDLs or LDLs that accelerate atherosclerosis.

Preclinical studies have showed that a diet high in these oxidized cholesterols resulted in a 100% increase in fatty streak lesions (the early stage of atherosclerosis) in the aorta with increased levels of oxycholesterol in the atherosclerotic plaques. Clearly, western diets containing high concentrations of oxidized cholesterol increase the serum levels of oxidized cholesterol-rich LDLs which, in turn, boost the build-up of atherosclerotic plaques.

Nearly half a century ago, researchers showed that cholesterol antibodies may be boosted to immunologically clear LDL, a potentially useful strategy to reduce serum cholesterol levels and dietary-induced aortic atherosclerosis. A number of independent reports over the past decade have correlated high levels of anticholesterol antibodies with a significant reduction of both diet-induced hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerotic lesions.

Humans with peripheral atherosclerosis and cerebrovascular disease reportedly have low levels of circulating cholesterol antibodies.

Recent studies by Origo Biosciences found that naturally-occurring anticholesterol antibodies recongize oxidized cholesterol LDL in the blood. The source of oxidized cholesterol in LDLs originates as cholesterol-rich micelles in the gut through the introduction of processed foods. Hence, gut micelles rich in oxidized cholesterols become an attractive target for anticholesterol antibodies.

Naturally-occurring anti-cholesterol antibodies may play an ‘immuno-housekeeping’ or protective role by facilitating the clearance of oxidized cholesterol-rich particles in both the blood stream and in the gut.

Interestingly, Origo Biosciences found these antibodies in certain dairy products. Certified anticholesterol-active whey and milk as a highly functional ingredient may find some application in a variety of foods, beverages, and supplements to help prevent dietary oxidized cholesterol from being absorbed in the gut.

Origo believes that these dairy-derived antibodies may prevent oxidized cholesterol uptake in the body and serve as a safer alternative to zocor.

SteveL

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:18:04 +0000

Thanks shawng

Dr. Grayling Jahosephat

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:57:32 +0000

You're an idiot. Proof? By stating lifecycle changes are a substitute for statins, you've proved yourself an idiot.

Millions of people have genetically high cholesterol #1, #2 NOBODY but a freak that exercises 16 hours a day and eats straw and water can get their cholesterol to the level that has been proven to REVERSE buildup.

So, NO, idiot, exercise and lifestyle changes ARE NOT substitutes for statins.

And the whole big SCARY TITLE of this article is a RARE side affect, not a foregone conclusion. IDIOT.

Julie

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:19:05 +0000

This is one of the most poorly written articles that I have read in a long time, both in terms of grammar and content. Speaking from a physician's point-of-view, muscle injury from statin medications is extremely rare. In addition, lifestyle modifications can greatly help reduce cholesterol, but they are NOT a substitute for statins. ALL patients should speak to their doctors about the pros and cons of taking statins rather than taking any action based on this article.

Bryce

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:22:30 +0000

Grayling is a great example of doctors that push drugs that have never been proven to prevent heart disease, but make tons of money due to marketing tactics.

Fool me once shame on you

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:24:24 +0000

I can understand why Julie as a physician makes such a comment. Obviously Julie is not happy reading what is told in the story.

To me as a drug consumer, this is a great article. I don't care about the grammar. I came here to learn something other than English. I know many people who are technically savvy in the IT industry and medical research do not speak and write English well. But who would care about that so long as these guys can send satellites to their orbits? I say this is a good article because it gives me some information my doctors would not.

Physicians know a lot about drugs and they are trained to write prescriptions. But they, okay most of them, are not trained to give their patients any dietary advice. Medical students are not required to take any nutrition courses in the majority of medical schools. Most physicians suffer deficiency of knowledge in nutrition.

Doctors can say statins are good for their patients. I personally believe that these statins do help some patients. But they are not in a position to say a healthy diet could not beat statins because they don't know much about nutrition and diet.

deb

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 03:08:07 +0000

I am a strict vegan.I dont eat junk food.
I dont eat dairy,meat,eggs or fish.My cholesterol was 10 I brought it down to 7.6 with my diet.I know this is still to high.I really do not want to take pills

Mxaim Hurwicz

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 03:33:17 +0000

My father, Professor Leonid Hurwicz, experienced exactly the effect described here, myopathy and kidney failure, while on a statin. Even when he told his doctor of his muscle pains, all he was told was to take Tylenol. In the midst of all this his kidneys failed and spent the rest of his short time on dialysis. We finally got his doctor to agree to stop the prescription, saying he had other patients who has stopped and that he had heard about the muscle wasting. But then, inexplicably, a few weeks late, my father got a letter prescribing the same stain again. My father followed his doctor's orders to his death. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics while all this was going on. He could have enjoyed it a lot more without statins. Nobody wanted to hear about it then. I hope these drug companies and the doctors who follow them change their ways. Of course, it's often too late for their victims, but the money is good so on it goes.

jeffrey dach md

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:02:06 +0000

On November 18, 2004, Dr. David Graham, associate director in the FDA’s Office of Drug Safety gave senate testimony that Crestor was one of five drugs with safety concerns. The drug causes muscle breakdown and renal failure. Now we hear the same for Zocor,

The truth is that NO woman should ever be given Zocor, Crestor, Lipitor or any other statin drug for elevated cholesterol. There are no statin trials with even the slightest hint of a mortality benefit in women and women should be told so. In other words, statin drugs don’t work for women.

To read more:

http://www.drdach.com/Cholesterol_Women_Dr_Dach.html

Jeffrey Dach MD

Steve Goldstein

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:31:56 +0000

You write: "...alerted the public to an increased risk of rhabdomyolysis in patients using higher than 20 milligrams of simvastatin in the drug called amiodarone."

Um ... since when did amiodarone contain simvastatin? Or, did you mean to write, "...together with the drug called amiodarone"?

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Editor's response: Thanks. The error has been corrected.

Philip

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:54:20 +0000

Of course the FDA recently expanded the indication of another drug in the same class, Crestor, to include people with normal cholesterol! It isn't like the FDA hadn't already issued a Public Health Advisory about Crestor and rhadomyolysis
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PublicHealthAdvisories/ucm051756.htm

Are we looking at another tragedy unfolding and yet another embarrassing about face by a compromised regulatory agency. Meanwhile the "lipid hypothesis" itself is being more and more widely questioned after decades of intensive lipid lowering have had no effect on heart disease rates. Perhaps even more astonishingly, when Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD reviewed the medical literature he found something quite surprising had been documented there. On average, at least according to Dr. Ravnskov's review of the literature, people with higher cholesterol live longer. You can read on this here http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/2009/10/do-people-with-high-cholesterol-live.html if interested.

There is also a write-up about Dr. Duane Graveline, MD and former NASA astronaut's findings concerning statins and the rare but serious side effect of global transient amnesia. http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/2009/11/statins-and-global-transient-amnesia.html

Wonder if this new FDA advisory will change prescribing patterns? Or will the Zocor indication just be expanded to healthy people with normal cholesterol?

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