Dangers of Cholesterol Lowering Drugs

During the last 20 years, the industry has mounted an incredible promotional campaign--enlisting scientists, advertising agencies, the media and the medical profession in a blitz that turned the statins into one of the bestselling pharmaceuticals of all time. Sixteen million Americans now take Lipitor, the most popular statin, and drug company officials claim that 36 million Americans are candidates for statin drug therapy.

Extracted from: The Weston A. Price Foundation 14/6/2004 “Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven’t Been Told About Popular Cholesterol-Lowering Medicines”
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...researcher Dr. Beatrice Golomb warns the studies generating the bulk of the positive press were funded by the companies that make the drugs, like Pfizer, which earns $9 billion a year from Lipitor.

"I made the decision that I really didn't want to take money from the drug industry," says Golomb.

Funded by the government and not the drug makers, Golomb is taking an independent look at studies already done on statins, pinpointing severe muscle problems, which Pfizer has disclosed, and cognitive dysfunction -- not mentioned in patient leaflets.

Extracted from: Statins' Mind-Boggling Effects
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Dr. Golomb: Cholesterol is indeed vitally important for function of every cell in the body. It is the most common organic molecule in the brain (and only salt and water are more common on a "molar" basis). It is essential to formation of "synapses" that allow nerve cells to communicate. It is the precursor for all the steroid hormones, including estrogen and testosterone, and stress and blood sugar regulating corticosteroids...

Extracted from: The Deadly Danger Of Cholesterol Lowering Drugs
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...They can cause muscle-wasting diseases; they can cause chronic muscle pain, which can be misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia; they cause mental disorders including brain fog, loss of memory, and signs of dementia or Alzheimer's. These drugs inhibit the production of healthy cholesterol in your body, meaning they interfere with sex hormones and the normal healthy functioning of the endocrine system...

...We already saw a huge scandal with Vioxx and the Cox-2 inhibitors, and how drug companies have been pushing those drugs onto the population even though they were fully aware, as we now know, of the dangerous cardiovascular effects of those drugs...

Extracted from: Healing foods beat statin drugs for lowering high cholesterol
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Side Effects


Sleep problems, sexual function problems, fatigue, dizziness and a sense of detachment are also reported with these drugs. Additionally, people have mentioned experiencing swelling, shortness of breath, vision changes, changes in temperature regulation, weight change, hunger, breast enlargement, blood sugar changes, dry skin, rashes, blood pressure changes, nausea, upset stomach, bleeding, and ringing in ears or other noises.


Cancer

Cancer Population studies in the early 1990s had shown a rise in non-cardiovascular deaths, particularly cancer deaths in people with low cholesterol concentrations (Circulation 1992, 86:1046-1060).

Similar conclusions have been drawn from results of early trials of cholesterol lowering (BMJ 1992, 304:431-434). Some researchers have shown that lipid-lowering drugs, including statins, increase the occurrence of several types of cancer in rodents (JAMA 1996, 275:55-60). In the CARE trial (N Engl J Med 1996, 335:1001-1009), incidence of female breast cancer and in the PROSPER trial (Lancet 2002, 360:1623-1630) in elderly, incidence of all cancers increased in patients given pravastatin.