STATINS: The 'safe' drug that may cause Parkinson's disease
Everyone seems to be popping a cholesterol- lowering statin drug these days. They have become part of the daily health regime for millions of people, and they are considered to be so safe that one statin - simvastatin - is available over-the-counter in the UK without a prescription.
They're not safe, of course, and a new study that links statins to Parkinson's, the disease of the central nervous system, underlines the point.
Statins reduce levels of the 'bad' LDL cholesterol - and the new study, from the University of North Carolina, believes these lowered levels may trigger Parkinson's. Sufferers can have levels of LDL cholesterol that are three times below the average.
Researchers are so concerned by their discovery that they are initiating an immediate and major study involving 16,000 participants.
This is not exactly the first piece of bad news about the 'safe' statins. One statin, Baycol, was withdrawn from the market in 2001 after 31 people died from rhabdomyolysis, a muscle-weakening disease caused by the drug. At the time, 601 further cases of rhadomyolysis and 38 deaths among statin users had been reported to America's drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration.
Other reported side effects include heart failure,liver and kidney damage, myalgia, insomnia and sinusitis.
None of this will stop the statin rollercoaster. They are among the most popular drugs in the world, topping annual sales of $20bn, thanks in part to the creative prescribing flair of doctors, who are also dishing them out to patients with osteoporosis and Alzheimer's.
Source: Movement Disorders, published on-line on December 18, 2006.
1 comment:
There are many more deaths due to Baycol and all the rest of this crap than has been statiticly reported. A lawyer had an ad in the paper asking for people to contact him if we lost a family member to Baycol. I replied but no response was forthcoming. I have been prescribed statin for a couple or more heart attacks since 1997. I got the same muscle weakness as my mother who has passed away from her use of statins and even though I brought this to the attention of my physician and a number of "professionals" in a "heart study" for a major university in the U.S., they still prescribed statins. Of my own volition, I stopped taking anything. The medical response was to terminate my doctor patient relationship which has left me with no family physician for the past two years. So be it.
My problem is that even though I stopped taking Crestor, or Lipitor, I wasn't able to walk for a buildup of creatine in my leg muscles was cramping my legs and turning my toes dark red adn my legs light to dark shades of blue.
To make a long story longer, I lucked out and discovered that conenzyme Q10 restored my circulation and even though I still have trouble at work, I can and it can only be attributed to this organic compound.
Appreciate your site. Will visit back again.
Post a Comment