LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Cholesterol Lowering Drugs

Cholesterol Lowering Drug (Jupiter) Trial Shenanigans

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ARE THE DATA FROM ASTRAZENICA, CRESTOR JUPITER TRIAL ON STATINS LOOKING FISHY?

Wow.  I really think if most of the American public knew the real story of what goes behind some of these trials we’d all be sickened.  In it’s essence, the Jupiter trial looked at the prevention of heart disease in patients who had NORMAL cholesterol, but elevated inflammation.  Essential understanding that the “cholesterol blame game” was going away and they needed to find a new lab value that they could use the drug for.

The study was stopped early and declared a rousing success.  Much fanfare was heard and the medical journals and editorials sung it’s praise.  Oops.  A little too soon.  A closer look at the data raises some serious suspicions.  Basically, the trial was stopped early when predetermined events occurred just 2 yrs into the trial.

Furthermore, when you look at a population, certain statistics are expected.  Here’s the quick details:

  • The study found that statin drugs did NOT protect against deaths from heart attack and stroke.
  • In the general population, cardiovascular deaths account for about 40% of the total number of deaths.  Of these heart attacks, around 50% of these are fatal.

But in the Jupiter trial?  Apparently miracles occurred.  Cardiovascular mortality accounted for under 20% (instead of 50%) of the deaths, and the fatality rate of these heart attacks was very low (instead of the expected 50%).  This raises serious questions about the validity of the data and suggests that funding of the trial may have had a strong influence on the interpretation of the data.

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Statin Side Effects Solved with an Apple a Day

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Sometimes the old adages contain much deeper wisdom than many given them credit for. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” may prove more accurate than previously thought.

Apples are a rich source of polyphenols; plant based protective compounds that have been shown to be very protective for your blood vessels. Protect your blood vessels and you lower your risk of having a heart attack, stroke or developing dementia. Quite a bit of bang for your buck. And this protection is outside of whatever level of cholesterol you may or may not have.

This particular study takes an interesting look at what would happen if we through statins in the garbage (if you ask me, is where they belong) and replaced the drug with the adage’s “apple a day.” The results are really not that surprising. Here are the details:

  • The study assumed treatment of 17.6 million people over the age of 50 with either statins or an apple / day.
  • Statins would prevent 9400 vascular deaths.
  •  An apple a day would prevent 8500 deaths.
  •  Statins would lead to 1200 excess cases of myopathy (muscle pain).
  •  Statins would lead to 200 cases of rhabdomyolysis (a frequently fatal destruction of all muscles, leading to kidney failure).
  •  Statins would lead to 12,300 diagnoses of diabetes (yes—this number is correct).
  •  All of this was at 70% compliance. With 90% compliance, all of these numbers (benefits and side effects) would increase.

There were no estimates for side effects of apple consumption, for obvious reasons (in other words–there weren’t any).

The bottom line is that we have put statins on a pedestal, but they are barely more effective than even the most basic lifestyle recommendations (an apple a day) and with far, far, far more dangerous and common side effects.

 

Cholesterol Lowering Drugs and Breast Cancer: Might as Well Smoke Instead

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I am no fan of cholesterol lowering drugs, especially the statins. I thought I was aware of all of the dangerous side effects, but this one caught me by surprise.

My office staff recalls a fundraising event a number of years back for a local cancer organization.  The keynote speaker to a group of maybe 250 attendees was a respected general surgeon here in Chandler.  At the beginning he talked about prevention of breast cancer and my heart rate jumped up slightly in anticipation of hearing him deliver something profound about preventing breast cancer to this captive audience.

Over the next ten minutes or so I went over the long list of things we know to be protective against breast cancer.  Exercise.  Plant based diet.  Non-GMO soy.  Vitamin D.  Less stress.  Cruciferous veggies.  I was trying to guess which one he would throw out to the receptive audience.

Statins.

He mentioned that statins may turn out to lower the risk of breast cancer.  I felt a hand on my shoulder holding me back from running to grab the mike.  Hundreds of things he could have mentioned and he throws out STATINS????  Needless to say we have never gone back to this fundraising event.

Now, years later, we see how completely off base this doctor was.  This particular study looked at whether or not the long term (10+ years) use of statins actually INCREASED the risk of breast cancer.  Here’s what they found:

  1. Current users of statins for 10+ years had an 83% risk of invasive ductal carcinoma (the scary kind).
  2. There was a 97% increased risk of invasive lobular carcinoma.
  3. If there was a diagnosis of elevated cholesterol (and wouldn’t this be almost the entire group??) had a more than double the risk of both invasive ductal carcinoma.
  4. High cholesterol diagnosis and cholesterol lowering drug use ups risk of invasive lobular carcinoma a massive 243%.

Given that this class of drugs flat out sucks at primary prevention of heart attacks, there is not a whole lot more to say on the topic, is there?

If You Take Statins, You’re Out of Your Mind

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As I’m sure you’re well aware, drugs to lower cholesterol are among the most successful in history. But the list of side effects is quite long, and it just got longer.

I have covered many of the common cholesterol lowering drug side effects in a previous article that can be read by clicking here.  Many of these side effects can be predicted based on the fact that statins, while lowering your cholesterol number (and let’s face it–that’s pretty much all they do is lower the number of a single marker in your bloodstream) they also block the production of a compound called Coenzyme Q10, or CoQ10.

Another name for CoQ10 is ubiquinone is because it is present everywhere in our cells.  And it’s there because it’s important for every single cell to generate energy for that cell to function the way it was supposed to function.  Kind of makes you wonder why Mother Nature put the path to create cholesterol on the same path as something as critically important as CoQ10, huh?

So basically, when a cholesterol lowering drug lowers CoQ10 in the cell, all kinds of bad things can happen to pretty much every cell in the body, the worst side effect being death from fatal rhabdomyolosis, a condition where your muscle essentially melt away from the massive damage.  The debris that gets kicked into your circulation essentially shuts down the kidneys.

Most notably, any cell with a high metabolic activity that requires lots of energy (in the form of ATP) can suffer from the statin class of drugs.  That is why the heart can be damaged by statins (kind of ironic, don’t you think) and why muscle aches and pains are the greatest problems with statin use.

However, the largest utilizer of glucose in the human body at rest is the central nervous system.  Yes–your brain.

So, could this class of drugs to lower cholesterol lead to brain damage?  It certainly makes sense and is supported by the results in this particular study.

Granted, the group of patients studied were patients who had pre-existing cardiovascular disease (and would almost all be put on statins) and had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) put in as a result.  So maybe not your average population and probably doesn’t apply to you directly.  However, it is highly likely that the brain cells of these patients with the ICD function pretty darn close to the way your brain cells function, so don’t dismiss the results too quickly.

For those of you in the mental health field, researchers used both the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36-item Health Survey.  Overall, of 409 patients in this study, 60% were on statins.

Here’s what they found on statin use (regardless of the type of statin used or the dosage):

  • Associated with poorer physical role limitations (basically–physical things were more challenging).
  • Poorer social functioning
  • Poorer emotional role limitations
  • There was an association with depression and physical functioning as well, but the relationship was not as strong.
  • Overall, statin therapy was associated with impaired health status on 3 of the 8 on the SF36-item Health Survey (Tweet this).

Overall, it was clear that, at least in this specific population, statin drugs led to a deterioration in health and mental health status as a result of taking drugs to lower cholesterol.  To be fair, the benefits of the statin class of drugs IS better in secondary preventation (preventing a second heart attack) so the risk / benefit ratio may be different than in primary prevention (preventing that first heart attack).

However, remember that lifestyle changes (my recommendations can be found by clicking here) do NOT worsen cognitive function or damage muscles or increase the risk of arthritis or make your eyeballs pop out and dangle by the optic nerve.