But is Anyone Paying Attention?
Accounting for 6.5% of the
total market share, statin drugs are the
most widely sold pharmaceutical drugs in history. To date, Forbes Magazine
tells us that statins are earning drug companies $26 billion in annual sales.
Pfizer spends over $3
billion each year to convince us that we need more and more drugs to be
healthy. The public and the medical profession have been bamboozled by the
legions of drug reps, billion dollar ad campaigns, and creative statistics.
Every weekday, some 38,000
Pfizer sales reps, roughly the size of three army divisions, make their pitches
around the globe. They're armed with briefcases full of free drug samples,
reams of manipulated clinical data, and lavish expense accounts for
wining-and-dining doctors and their staff. The medical profession, its
organizations, the media, and the public at large have swallowed the statin
drug propaganda, hook, line and sinker.
In 2004, Pfizer's
blockbuster drug Lipitor became the first prescription drug to make more than
$10 billion in annual sales. Over twenty six million Americans have taken
Lipitor, the most popular statin drug. Pfizer is now running full-page Lipitor
ads in numerous papers, including The New York Times and USA Today. The ads
feature Dr. Robert Jarvik, inventor of the artificial heart. The ad reads:
In patients with multiple
risk factors for heart disease, LIPITOR REDUCES RISK OF HEART ATTACK BY 36%*
The noteworthy part of this ad is the
asterisk and this explanation of the 36% statistic: "That means in a large
clinical study, 3% of patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a heart
attack compared to 2% of patients taking Lipitor."
Another Jarvik/Lipitor
Times ad proclaims: In patients with type 2 diabetes, LIPITOR REDUCES RISK OF
STROKE BY 48%* If you also have at least one other risk factor for heart
disease... The explanation: That means in a large clinical study, 2.8% of
patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a stroke compared to 1.5% of
patients taking Lipitor.
Twenty six billion dollars
a year for a one to two percent decrease
risk for heart attack and stroke- that's what all the fuss is about? It almost
seems like snake oil. Yet, some doctors are recommending we put statins in
the drinking water. Others are now suggesting that infants with a family
history of heart disease should take statins as a preventative measure.
The Washington Post ran an
article that reported on the PROVE-IT study: "The findings should prompt
doctors to give much higher doses of drugs known as statins to hundreds of
thousands of patients who already have severe heart problems," experts
said. Perhaps "the experts" aren't aware of studies that show low
serum total cholesterol is associated with a marked increase in mortality in
advanced heart failure.
One of the
largest of these studies was conducted at UCLA Department of Medicine and Cardiomyopathy Center
in Los Angeles.
The study involved more than a thousand patients with severe congestive heart
failure (CHF). After five years, 62 percent of the patients with cholesterol
below 129 mg/l had died, but only half as many of the patients with cholesterol
above 223 mg/l.
The Post article goes on to say:
In addition, it will
probably encourage physicians to start giving the medications to millions of
healthy people who are not yet on them and to boost dosages for some of those
already taking them to lower their cholesterol even more.
The last line of this
quote above should illicit alarm from every taxpayer in America.
Why? Because it will be
the taxpayers who will pay for all those Medicaid and Medicare statin
prescriptions -- amounting to billions of dollars spent on worthless and
dangerous drugs. Worse, we'll also be paying for all the costs associated with
the drug-induced side effects of the statin medications - congestive heart
failure, polyneuritis, muscle pain, depression, memory loss (dementia), poor
immune function, and fatigue to name a few.
Ok the real question is this: "Do statin drugs
reduce deaths associated with cardiovascular disease?" Contrary to the Lipitor ads, apparently not, since
a meta-analysis of 44 trials involving almost 10,000 patients showed the death
rate was identical at 1 percent of patients in each of the three groups--those
taking atorvastatin (Lipitor), those taking other statins and those taking
nothing.
And what about using statins as a prophylactic
measure?
A meta-analysis of 5 major
statin drugs which showed that statin drugs provided a total absolute reduction
in total mortality of 0.3% among those who showed no signs of having
cardiovascular disease (primary prevention).
We'd be wise to read the
study below before putting statins in the drinking water.
The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
reported on an analysis of all the major controlled trials before the year 2000
and found that long-term use of statins for primary prevention of heart disease
produced a 1 percent greater risk of death over 10 years compared to a placebo.
The only thing statin drug
trials have proven for sure is that statin drugs lower cholesterol by
inhibiting an enzyme known as HMG-CoA-Reductase. Regardless of their ability to
lower cholesterol, they failed to show that this effect has any meaningful
benefit for preventing early death from heart disease, heart attack or stroke.
And they've proven to be a catalyst for dangerous
side effects. The most common side
effect associated with statin drugs is muscle
pain and weakness.
The symptoms are most
likely due to the depletion of CoQ10, a nutrient that supports muscle function.
One study found that 98% of patients
taking Lipitor and one-third of the patients taking Mevachor (a lower-dose
statin) suffered from muscle problems.
A Denmark study that evaluated
500,000 patients found that taking
statins for one year raised the risk of nerve damage by about 15%--about
one case for every 2,200 patients. For those who took statins for two or more
years, the additional risk rose to 26%.
Former astronaut, Dr.
Duane Graveline describes in his book, Lipitor: Thief of Memory, his complete
memory loss due to the side effects of Lipitor. The incidence of congestive
heart failure (CHF) has steadily increased since the introduction of statin
drugs. In fact, while heart attacks have slightly declined, CHF has more than doubled since 1989.
Statins were first prescribed in 1987.
An article published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association reveals that in every study with rodents to date, statins
have caused cancer. In the CARE trial, breast cancer rates of those taking a
statin went up 1500%.
And one last reason to
avoid statins- men whose cholesterol levels are lowered through the use of
prescription medications double their chances of committing suicide.
In closing...
I hope the public and the brainwashed medical
community pays attention to the asterisk and the fine print. A one to two
percent benefit earns Pfizer 10 billion dollars a year. Mind-boggling isn't it?
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