About gall stones

I had this in my saved file and think this is such valuable information, I’m
forwarding it on. It’s long but might be worth the read to people with
cholesterol problems. Also Dr. Bruce West has said that, as a person ages,
their cholesterol actually need to be higher. 300 used to be a normal reading
until the drugs companies realized they could make more money if they lowered
the supposedly acceptable numbers. Eventually numbers are expected to be
lowered more. Anyone with a total cholesterol of 150 of less is opening
themselves up to increased risk of cancer.
Amber
I was still in practice, twenty years ago, when lovastatin, the
first statin drug, became available for use by we primary care
physicians.
We learned to expect liver inflammation and occasional muscle aches
and pains. With the dosages used at that time and with a relatively
small number of patients on the early statins, the side effect issue

impressed me as being acceptable. This is no longer true.
Today, with more potent drugs, millions of people taking them and
doses triple and quadruple those of the past, our side effect
profile has radically changed. Now, cognitive damage, emotional and
behavioral change, neuropathies and even neuro-degenerative damage
are increasingly recognized as associated with statin drug use. But
there is something even more perverse - the element of permanence of
some of these consequences.
The pharmaceutical industry has been quick to add such conditions as
neuropathy and amnesia to their long list of “disclaimers” in their
drug reference information. Yes, within the past six years, after my
own cognitive reactions to statins in the prevailing climate of
complete physician denial, drug companies have belatedly added
cognitive damage but not one word about permanent cognitive damage.
And the same for neuromuscular - yes, most of the drug companies
now admit that peripheral neuropathy may be a consequence of statin
use but have never mentioned it might be disabling, crippling or
permanent. The deliberate pattern of gross misrepresentation and
disinformation of statin drug side effects to physicians who
prescribe these drugs has created a climate where many physicians
will summarily dismiss patient claims of damage as impossible,
thereby placing them in harm’s way.
The first evidence of permanence came from reports of cognitive
problems associated with statin use. Michael Hope was one of the
first to receive widespread media attention - a former CEO reduced
to unemployable status due to persistent loss of short-term memory.
Today, four years after the onset, Michael is still grossly
impaired. He is one of many hundreds who have persistent
cognitive deficits long after stopping their statin.
Next came reports of muscle aches and pains brought on by statin
drugs that persisted and even worsened despite promptly stopping the
statin. Two astronaut friends of mine, having no history of muscle
problems, experienced muscle pains shortly after their statin was
started for mild hypercholesterolemi a. Much to their dismay these
pains have persisted years after they stopped the offending drug.
They are but two of thousands of patients in this growing subgroup
of people with persistent and apparently permanent muscle symptoms
seemingly triggered by statin drug use. Current research indicates
that many of these have an unsuspected genetic predisposition. Some
of these cases respond to CoQ10, many do not.
Another growing reality is that of peripheral neuropathy,
particularly unresponsive to treatment, coming on soon after statin
therapy is initiated. Once this occurs, not only does it seems to be
permanent but tends to worsen in many patients. Hundreds of victims
are incapacitated, even crippled by this unfortunate side effect,
seemingly related to alterations in CoQ10 availability brought on by
statin drug interference with the mevalonate pathway.
Mevalonate pathway disruption also seems to be the mechanism of
action for another type of neurological disaster associated with
statin use, that of neurodegenerative disease onset shortly after
the start of treatment. Only in the past few years have we learned
of the unfortunate tendency of statins to promote the tau protein
formation while inhibiting the usual sequence of biochemical
reactions in the mevalonate pathway. Tau protein is now known to
promote the formation of neuro-fibrillatory tangles with secondary
neuronal damage, offering a possible explanation for the unusual
number of cases we are seeing of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
Parkinsonism, frontal lobe dementia and Alzheimers’ disease and
other neurodegenerative conditions shortly after statins are
started. This suggests that these diseases are somehow being
triggered by statins. Need I add that these diseases are both
permanent and progressive.
Not only have statin drug companies failed to adequately warn
prescribing physicians of permanent cognitive loss associated with
statin use, they have failed to warn about permanent neuromuscular
and neurodegenerative consequences. Thousands of unsuspecting
patients have become victims and in most of these cases their
doctors, having had no advance warning from the pharmaceutical
industry, have tended to disregard patient complaints, offering
almost any explanation other than the correct one. Unfortunately, as
these damage claims come to the attention of the courts many MDs
will be forced to share liability with the drug companies. On
hearing hundreds of patient complaints about doctor rebuff
on this subject of statin side effects, I well recall the words of
Doctor Ellsworth Amidon, my professor of medicine at Vermont College
of Medicine, way too many years ago: “Listen well to the words of
the patient, my young doctors, for they are telling you the
diagnosis.”
Duane Graveline MD MPH