Arthritis - pharmacists on statins

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pharmacists on statins

outrider

2005-05-01, 5:46 pm

http://pharmacy.king-online.com/Pha...50420/index.php

Patients Find Statins Can Have Side Effects

Guidelines for cholesterol control recently have become much more
stringent. For millions of Americans, achieving the new targets
requires strong medicine.

Over the past decade, prescriptions for statin-type
cholesterol-lowering drugs have soared. Such medications are extremely
effective at getting the numbers under control and reducing the risk of
heart attacks and strokes.

As good as these drugs are, though, some people can't handle them. We
have heard from many readers like this one:

"My husband and I were both put on statins, one on Lipitor and one on
Zocor. With time, we both experienced serious side effects. My husband
had severe memory problems and confusion. Once he could not find a
warehouse that he has been going to for years. Another time he got lost
coming home from the VA hospital, even though it is a well-known and
rather simple route. I thought he must be getting Alzheimer's disease.

"I also had problems with my memory, often forgetting what I was saying
but more often not being able to retrieve ordinary words used in
everyday conversation. In addition, I had problems with my balance,
bumping into walls and staggering when I walked.

"Both of us had muscle and leg pain. Neither of us associated our
memory loss, confusion or loss of balance with statins. We knew that
muscle pain could be a side effect, though, so when the pain became
intolerable we weaned ourselves off the statins.

"To our surprise and delight, our other symptoms began to diminish. It
has taken a full year, but I can finally carry on a conversation
without feeling that I'm losing my mind. Neither of us will ever use
statins again.

"In talking with people we know, we have heard other stories that sound
similar. I am extremely concerned that serious harm is being done to
the health and well-being of many people. The health-care industry is
pushing statins even for people who do not have high cholesterol. I
fear that the damage done may make the problems with Vioxx,
hormone-replacement therapy and fen-phen look small in comparison."

No one should ever stop cholesterol-lowering medicine without
consulting a physician. Some doctors, however, have a hard time
believing that these miracle medicines could have unacceptable side
effects. Another reader reported:

"I have been on cholesterol-reducing medication for some time. I had
been telling my doctor that my medication was doing something to my
muscles, and he would not believe me.

"I changed doctors, and the new one discovered that my muscle enzymes
were 800 (normal is 200). He took me off the medicine, and my enzymes
came down, though they are not yet normal. When I went on a different
statin, they climbed back up again."

If you would like to learn more about the dark side of statins, you may
be interested in a radio interview we conducted with several physicians
who have studied such issues. To order a CD of this one-hour
conversation, please send $15 to: People's Pharmacy, CD-523, P.O. Box
52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027.

Physicians know that lifesaving drugs like penicillin can sometimes
cause life-threatening reactions. It's time to recognize that even
great drugs like statins can cause some people serious harm.

Joe Graedon is a pharmacologist. Teresa Graedon holds a doctorate in
medical anthropology and is a nutrition expert. Their newest book is
"The People's Pharmacy Guide to Home and Herbal Remedies" (St. Martin's
Press).

=A9 2005 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Sbharris[atsign]ix.netcom.com

2005-05-01, 5:46 pm

>>Physicians know that lifesaving drugs like penicillin can sometimes
cause life-threatening reactions. It's time to recognize that even
great drugs like statins can cause some people serious harm. <<

They can indeed, but it's idiosyncratic. It seems unlikely that most
side effects result from the statin's main effect of inhibiting HMG-CoA
reductase. For they vary from person to person, and from one drug in
this class to the next. You just have to each one, and watch carefully
each time a new person and a new statin are introduced.

SBH

outrider@despammed.com

2005-05-01, 5:46 pm

Sbharris[atsign]ix.netcom.com wrote:
> cause life-threatening reactions. It's time to recognize that even
> great drugs like statins can cause some people serious harm. <<
>
> They can indeed, but it's idiosyncratic. It seems unlikely that most
> side effects result from the statin's main effect of inhibiting
HMG-CoA
> reductase. For they vary from person to person, and from one drug in
> this class to the next. You just have to each one, and watch
carefully
> each time a new person and a new statin are introduced.
>
> SBH

Why are there so many physicians who still don't know this? Please do
not tell me they are duds. They seem to be as educated and accredited
as any of their colleagues who do know.

I read your impassioned defense of surgeons. I'm not unsympathetic.
It's a huge responsibility. I wouldn't have it! But those who
presumably chose it should take it more seriously, along with their
more generalists cousins and their choices.

Zee

Karen

2005-05-01, 5:46 pm

An article I read the other day started with med students being told at the
graduating ceremony "At least half of what we've taught you is not correct.
The problem is we don't know which half."
It doesn't surprise me that doctors don't know about statins and truthfully,
I don't expect them to know everything. But I do wish more of them didn't
think they do. The problem, IMO is they can't acknowledge their ignorance.

American docs were (and still are in some med schools) taught that Celiac
Disease only affects 1 in 15,000. We now know from European studies it's
more like 1 in 130-150. But there's no drug to treat it so docs don't know
about how common it can be. The drug companies provide the continuing
education for the doctors from what I can tell because if it can't be
treated with a drug, they don't know what to do with it.

Karen

<outrider@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:1114825230.626731.228130@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>
> Why are there so many physicians who still don't know this? Please do
> not tell me they are duds. They seem to be as educated and accredited
> as any of their colleagues who do know.
>
> I read your impassioned defense of surgeons. I'm not unsympathetic.
> It's a huge responsibility. I wouldn't have it! But those who
> presumably chose it should take it more seriously, along with their
> more generalists cousins and their choices.
>
> Zee
>

outrider@despammed.com

2005-05-01, 5:46 pm

Karen wrote:
> An article I read the other day started with med students being told
at the
> graduating ceremony "At least half of what we've taught you is not
correct.
> The problem is we don't know which half."
> It doesn't surprise me that doctors don't know about statins and
truthfully,
> I don't expect them to know everything. But I do wish more of them
didn't
> think they do. The problem, IMO is they can't acknowledge their
ignorance.
>
> American docs were (and still are in some med schools) taught that
Celiac
> Disease only affects 1 in 15,000. We now know from European studies
it's
> more like 1 in 130-150. But there's no drug to treat it so docs
don't know
> about how common it can be. The drug companies provide the
continuing
> education for the doctors from what I can tell because if it can't be
> treated with a drug, they don't know what to do with it.
>
> Karen

Sigh. Well no they can't acknowledge their ignorance. Or culpability.
Or fallibility. They'd have their asses sued off in the American system
if they did, and increasingly so in the Canadian system as it moves to
an American for-profit healthcare (sic) style.

We have to start somewhere above physicians if we want to change
anything. The FDA, Health Canada, how clinical trials are run, how
medical schools are funded, where continuing medical education comes
from, and who delivers medical education to the consumer, and how it is
delivered.

I'm all for physicians earning a *very* good living. They are the best
of us afterall. Have enormous responsibility. But I think it's time to
move responsibility out of the hands of the profit sector.

Here's an interesting site. It seems many physicians are as tired of
this shill and the detritus ensuing as we are.

www.nofreelunch.org

Zee

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