Lipitor, Crestor, et al

They're bad for you. Seriously.

Back in the 90's I was working in medical research. Animal trials, to be exact. Primates to be specific. If I can ever stand to write about my time there more specifically, I might, but some of those little guys will haunt me to my grave.

In the 90's, Big Pharma was starting to get into the game of having universities do their research studies (you know, for that sheen of respectability), and our facility was big on cholesterol research and diet. The NIH was cutting funding and those investigators needed grant money from somewhere to maintain their lifestyle--uh, sorry, their research. There were two types of studies, long term and terminal. Most, of course, were terminal because it costs money to feed and house all those animals, and in those cases, they often brought in monkeys from the wild to use for 6, 10, 12 weeks and then...well, you know. Ultimately the little guys would wind up as so many tissue samples in liquid nitrogen, shipped off for further study and analysis. They usually came in late at night, transported from the local airport under cover of darkness, direct from Indonesia (they're considered garden pests over there and the locals happily catch them for money to feed their families--the guy who bought them and then shipped them to us we used to call the Slave Trader. Never did know his real name, didn't want to) to become the latest statistics in a high-fat diet with a side of some new, experimental cholesterol-lowering statin.

The drugs never had names, just a combination of letters and numbers, and no one ever mentioned the company paying for the research, although we all knew who it was, but I worked on several of those trials and the results were always the same. Those were never the results that got reported, of course. I was just a lowly grunt on the ladder, so I didn't sign any paperwork, talk to 'important people' or get any money other than my hourly wage, but I watched as respectable researchers fell like dominoes for those large "grants". The deal was simple: "Here's some money, prove this works". So truckloads of primates were hauled in and dosed to move things along to FDA approval.

I will never forget standing over the necropsy table, looking at monkey after monkey who, after 6 weeks on that crap, had livers and kidneys that were failing. Had they not been in a six week terminal study, the drug would have killed them anyway, probably in less than another 6 weeks. It was terrifying to see, particularly in what had been healthy, wild animals less than two months prior. But what was more terrifying was watching how the data got massaged, the information got reported, and the investigator got another million dollars to look at another drug. Once you were in the system and a known friendly, well, drug companies couldn't call you fast enough.

I haven't worked in that field in a long, long time and I hope to never work in it again, but I know people who still do and I watch trials and FDA approvals with a jaundiced eye. It is almost always a given that any prescription drug will give with one hand and take with the other. A drug may give you lower cholesterol, but what it takes can be joint mobility, energy levels and possibly your life. There's a reason people on statins have to have liver function tested regularly--statins can do serious damage. But, of course, we live in an age where popping a pill that could kill you is preferable to eating less bacon. Hell, we live in an age (and a country) where the drug advertised on TV may cause compulsive gambling, stroke or even death and people will still take it...but the anit-depressant racket is a whole other essay.

The other day, my husband got the high cholesterol warning and, of course, the requisite statin offer. He knows, of course, that I'll crawl on my hands and knees on broken glass to prevent him from taking the damn things, so he's very aware that his diet is about to change. But not that much. In the not-so-long-ago, your cholesterol wasn't considered high until it was over 240, but when statins hit the market, suddenly 200 was the start of the danger zone. And, of course, cholesterol alone doesn't accurately indicate trouble, the ratio is a much better indicator. Regardless, even if his number was over 400 (it isn't), I still wouldn't let him take statins. Ever. And I'm not trying to lecture anyone, but if you're taking those things, please be mindful of your health. It is so much better, simpler and healthier to just eat less animal products. Its not as awful, or as hard as people seem to think it is and your liver and kidneys will thank you for more longevity. Because the alternative is that shiny new statin that just hit the market and, well...Baycol, anyone?

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riverlover's picture

I for a while worked with cats. Mostly non-terminal, but there were some accidents that resulted in death. I count that time as bad karma. I escaped to mouse work, at the end no less sickening, maybe more, because I killed off scores with CO2. No one could watch that. Last job, that one.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

jiordan's picture

I was lucky. Sedation and sodium pent instead of some of the other options. But it was still killing--well, murder, to me--and like you, I consider it my bad karma era. One I'm still paying for. It was my last job of that nature, too.

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Muddy Boots's picture

It boils down to blunt reality. Both you and riverlover shared that sick reality with the world. You are not absolved individually - the mental scars are yours to carry - but I can also see you as speakers for the dead. Those scars on a social scale are the attempt to heal itself. You are the healers in this. Reality is too intertwined and interconnected for anyone to say, but I want to say thank you for being there and then leaving and then sharing.

If that is confusing to you, let me just say I forgive you, and appreciate you.

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"If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back" - Regina Brett

jiordan's picture

I'm a little choked up at that and I don't know how to express my gratitude for the kind words.

Your forgiveness is most welcome and appreciated. I hope the same, someday, from those I helped to the grave in the name of paying my bills. They taught me an invaluable lesson in what it means to sell your soul for a paycheck, one I've never forgotten.

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LeChienHarry's picture

My DH randomly typed into Google, "health", "diet", "good" and landed on The Perfect Health Diet blog, run by physicist, Paul Jaminet and his wife, a PhD cancer researcher.

We followed their diet and lost weight, improved cholesterol readings, more energy. They work very hard to review all the studies about anything they publish. Meta.

After trying numerous diet options, we have stuck with this, to our lasting improvement, and no calorie restrictions.

Neither of us work for anything connected to the Jaminets, or their books, blog. Just found something that seems to work.

Interestingly, they have recently met with Sally Fallon of "Nourishing Traditions" and found they had come to similar conclusions from completely different origins. Fallon's preface contains a long dissertation on the Framingham Heart Study, how the data was cherry-picked to show 'fat in, fat on' and how the actual date showed something else entirely.

We had been given that book ten years earlier, but it sat on our bookshelf. Once we read both, things more or less, fell into place.

http://perfecthealthdiet.com/the-diet/

We lost quite a bit of weight without really trying, figuring if the diet didn't work, we could try something else. No cravings after about a week which I needed because I crave wheat products if I start to eat them.

Just an anecdote, from two people who are lucky to have found something helpful.

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jiordan's picture

was supposed to be my reply to you...

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jiordan's picture

to both of you, and good for you for finding a way to better health away from Big Pharma. It doesn't really take a lot of tweaking to get a diet with less cholesterol in it and your lipid profile will drop accordingly. Not as hard as some people think, but it can be tedious paying closer attention to food labels and what you consume. But considering the real price of the alternative...a little tedium never hurt anyone.

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Thank you for sharing. I chose my liver.

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jiordan's picture

Your liver thanks you, and I commend you for putting it first. Big Pharma might not agree, but I imagine their stocks will do just fine without us Smile

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Deja's picture

Of course I was prescribed one. I filled it, read the print out, and that led me to teh Google. Wow!

I learned that we require cholesterol for brain function. I learned that statins shut down cholesterol production. I immediately thought of my mother fearfully thinking she's getting Alzheimer's and realizing it was likely that damn statin.

I never took mine. My son went vegetarian, so I rarely eat meat.

Thank you for this essay! I'd write more but I have to clock in at work.

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jiordan's picture

It seems like the whole medical profession is little more than pill pushers (there are some great physicians out there, but sometimes they can be hard to find) when it comes to things like cholesterol, depression, anxiety, diabetes and high blood pressure. The first option is always a pill and the stock value of drug companies is mind-boggling considering that there are almost always safer, cheaper, healthier alternatives.

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PastorAgnostic's picture

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CHURCH OF INEFFABLE STUPIDITY Stream Members Following Profile
Brit Journal: STOP STATIN USE, at least in healthy people

By agnostic
2015/03/09 · 14:42
25 28/ 29 Comments 0 Shares Tweet
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Church of Ineffable Stupidity
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Diabetes
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parkinsonsdisease
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Doctors around the whirled have long pushed Statins as a magical mystery tour of health and eternal yute. That might have to be amended to "infernal" instead. By forcefully (and I mean forcefully) lowering cholesterol levels, they predicted that routine Statin use by healthy people would prevent heart disease and lead to longer, healthier lives. Not to mention much higher profits for statin drug makers.

Not everyone got on board for the maiden voyage of the SS Statin Express, however. Some docs questioned whether a healthy person should jerk around his/her/its cholesterol levels, especially since cholesterol plays such a major role in your health. Those that didn't are now counting their blessings and new and improved studies start casting aspersions on the widespread use of these drugs.

From the Church of Ineffable Stupidity,

a few facts that you need to know about this War on Cholesterol:

As you sit, your brain is chock full of Cholesterol. Should you be worried? Probably not. It seems to be critically important to memory, rational thinking, and learning. In your low-risk group of relatively healthy people, if 600 people take statins routinely from age 20-40, perhaps one and only one may be spared from a heart attack by the time they reach 65.

In higher-risk populations, there probably is some good that they do. However, as patents expire, the drug companies have increased potency of their Statins, and pushed sales to ever younger groups, as early as the age of 8.

So, as Joe Biden was quoted, what is the big fucking deal? If it helps lower cholesterol, it has to be good. And the more powerful the drugs, the better my chances are with my health, right?

There is a dirty, seedy, greedy underside to this push of this so-called miracle drug: Side Effects. A surprisingly common one is muscle pain - up to 70% of users complain about it. All too often, docs who profit from prescribing Statins blame your aging rather than the drugs they push. But it gets worse. Failing memory, depression, irritability — are directly related to Statin use. Even then, doctors have blamed other factors, age, lack of exercise, diet, or even personality disorders. This is despite 65-70% of users mentioning it to their doctors (which tells you just how troubling those complaints have to be).

The bad news keeps coming. Adult onset Diabetes is directly related to Statin use. The relationship is direct - the longer and higher doses you take, the more likely you are to become diabetic. The British Medical Journal previously estimated that 46% of all users will suffer from Diabetes unnecessarily because of widespread Statin use.

If that ain't bad enough, try this: STATINS SEEM TO CAUSE PARKINSON'S.

Let me type the more slowly so everyone can get the idea. STATINS SEEM TO CAUSE PARKINSON'S. Not just confusion, forgetfulness, inability to process new information, or inability to learn - Actual, factual PARKINSON'S DISEASE.

Dr Kailash Chand, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association, was speaking following research which found those who take the cholesterol-lowering drugs are more than twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease in later life than those who do not.
A study last week showed statin use increases the risk of diabetes by 46 per cent. It has led to calls to end to the widespread use of the drugs.
The risks of side-effects of these drugs are far greater than any potential benefits and it is high time these drugs were restricted in the low-risk population. The Parkinson’s research carried out over 20 years, and involving nearly 16,000 people, suggests cholesterol may have a vital role in protecting the brain and nervous system.

The findings have alarmed experts who say if applied to the number of Britons deemed eligible for statins it could equate to 150,000 extra patients with Parkinson’s, a central nervous system disorder affecting one in 350 mostly older people.

The work has also fueled concerns that statins, now recommended for up to half the adult population over 50 by government drug policy adviser the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, may be doing many patients more harm than good.

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jiordan's picture

I'd take "may" out of that last sentence, but otherwise...absolutely. Having been there on the ground floor, so to speak, I watched not only the horrifying animal trials, but all the papers and studies associated with it, the manufactured data, the marketing buildup, the FDA approval..and I knew the entire time that NOTHING had changed (except possibly some inert ingredients) about that chemical compound from the time it initially destroyed all those livers and kidneys to the day doctors started writing scrips for it.

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Yesterday I was going to pick up my supply of Crestor but the insurance company raised my copay to $275, from 90$ for 90 days. I was planning on calling my doctor about getting it from Canada.
I am on it because my ratio is horrible, and I had all the awful effects (pain so bad I could barely walk) on generic statins as well as Lipitor.
I did try eating vegan for quite a while and hired a personal trainer to make sure I worked out but unbelievably my ratio got much worse. And since my daughter is vegan and a great cook my vegan was healthy and yummy. Not lettuce, fake meat, beans and Oreos. (As a side note ever since I found out Oreos are vegan I'm too scared to eat them. What the hell is in a cream filled cookie with no butter or eggs or milk?)
This essay has me totally rethinking again and instead of talking to my doctor about getting it from Canada maybe we need to try something else. Also I'm not sure of the last time I've even had a liver panel.
So from the bottom of my heart thank you for taking the time and energy to write today.

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jiordan's picture

will drop your cholesterol levels pretty quickly, so I'm surprised at the opposite reaction, however, it may be that your body was simply in the process of "straightening out" (there's an old naturopath adage that when you are healing, you will get worse before you get better as your body processes out all the crap and toxins) and hadn't found normal yet when your ratios jumped up. Depending on how long you were on statins to suppress cholesterol production, it could be that your liver went into overdrive producing it once the medication stopped (*and please note I am NOT a physician, just someone with a medical background familiar with this kind of research--I am just guessing and could be completely wrong).

There are people who swear by a Paleo diet to lower cholesterol (as well as prevent/reverse diabetes) and vegan diets are, by their nature, completely cholesterol free, still others suggest that inflammation, not diet is the culprit and that reducing stress and sugar in your diet will resolve much of the problem. I hope you find a strategy other than Crestor that works for you as I truly believe that no matter how bad your cholesterol is, the side effects of statins, over time, are much worse.

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my total lipids dropped from 249 to 160 (LDL fell from 160 to 99). All of my other labs improved as well, as I had had some borderline values indicating pre diabetic condition. Even the most enthusiastic of pill pushers now reluctantly admits there is no reason to join the statin parade. Parenthetically, I should note that I also dropped over thirty pounds, without trying to and while eating as much as I pleased.

I should note that I do not like most vegetables, was a big time burger and cheese consumer, in short an unlikely convert. Transitioning was not as difficult as you might imagine. My wife, an on again off again vegetarian, made the switch first. Recognizing the difficulty of maintaining domestic harmony with disparate diets, I went along with her. I am glad I did!

There was a film on Netflix I found helpful in gathering momentum to make the change; Forks Over Knives, which I highly recommend. Reducing consumption of animal food products is good for your health and good for the planet. Give it a go!

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

jiordan's picture

I've been on a vegan diet for years now. I switched for health reasons that had nothing to do with cholesterol but it has been such a amazingly good thing for me in ways I hadn't even expected that I would never consider going back now. I generally don't mention it in mixed company as there's almost inevitably someone that feels like they're being lectured and proceeds to tell me that they wouldn't want to live without bacon.

My hubby didn't want to even tell me about the cholesterol warning because he thought I'd immediately put him on a vegan diet with me (he still eats the standard western diet), so I'm sensitive to people thinking they're being accosted by dietary information they don't want. Food is a very personal thing and how we each relate to it even more so. I've shown him Forks over Knives and a few other documentaries but I try not to push.

However, I heartily agree with you. Good for your health and good for the planet!

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Worked so wrong on me. I barely eat meat as it is. Never particularly cared for it. So most of my protein comes from beans, lentils, grains and nuts anyway. But going full on balls to the walls just made my good cholesterol awful. My bad has always been okay, but my ratio is terrible. My normal good is 30. The doctor said she thinks 50 is where it should be. On a vegan diet it went to 13. That's when she started statins. They were a complete fail until Crestor. BUT maybe I just need to do more research on a diet or food choice that specifically works to increase good cholesterol (I have to use good and bad because I never remember HDL vs LDL)
And in my opinion, vegan has been terrific for my daughter her husband and my husband. Her husband fought it tooth and nail and he probably benefitted most. He no longer needs to take meds for he diabeties and she got him on board with showing him forks over knives.
On the bad/sad side, she has 3 little ones. They can eat as they choose. Her 5 year old does not like meat or eggs or cow milk. He is in kindergarten and it is unbelievable how many of those little kids are nasty when he says he doesn't like meat or milk. His 4 year old sister adores meat eggs and cheese.

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jiordan's picture

and I don't mean that as snark..it could be that your genetic makeup simply requires a different mixture of foods, or is better served by a percentage of animal protein. The real question is what kind of diet makes you feel good, gives you energy, helps you sleep peacefully, keeps your mood level, maintains your focus and stabilizes your weight. Blood work only tells part of the story...having a normal ratio of 30 may just be what works for you.

Regardless, thanks for reading and thanks for sharing!

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Raggedy Ann's picture

I still eat eggs and some fish. Very little dairy, though. We, too, rely on beans, lentils, nuts for the bulk of our protein, but people don't realize how much protein there is in spinach, broccoli, peas, microgreens, and many other veggies. I've had the same experience with people when I say I'm vegan. Suddenly they are almost apologizing for not being able to be vegan. I always have to say - everyone is different and you need to eat what works for you. I didn't realize how defensive some people would become, so I, too, don't mention it much. Smile

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Calls herself plant based eater. Non vegans assume she's a weirdo if she says vegan and many vegans argue with her because she eats that way to feel better, so she eats honey and carries a leather purse. And she also isn't 100% 100% of the time. She also allows her kids to eat whichever way they want. The 5 year old is vegan the 4 year old is not. The 1 year old is vegetarian right now, but I don't think she's ever tasted meat yet. You must live in a nicer place if people get defensive instead of being assholes.

Although I have to say no one who has ever eaten dinner at her house would ever notice everything was vegan. She loves to feed her father in law because he is the biggest asshole about her "converting his son to being weird with meat". He is convinced she cooks special dinners just for him.

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jiordan's picture

Yeah, I get that sometimes too because I've got a leather bomber jacket I adore and I never worry about whether something has honey in it. I rarely cook with it, but if its the sweetener offered its fine with me. So no, I'm not a "real" vegan to some. And I have friends who are vegan and they let their daughter eat however she wants (which gets them the stink eye from some purists as well). She generally stays away from meat and dairy but she eats cheese once in a while and that fine with them...

I've spent that last couple of years learning to make vegan cheese, and I can now make a spinach artichoke dip that would fool anyone--and has. I know how your daughter feels about getting a carnivore's approval Smile

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studentofearth's picture

Everybody is a little different and it takes a while to find the right diet for you. While you are experimenting finding your best diet there are a couple of dietary changes to help with cholesterol and liver function..
Add oats (flour or oatmeal) to your diet once a day it traps cholesterol in the gastrointestinal system. The cholesterol is excreted and not reabsorbed.
Do not eat or drink products made with corn syrup or high fructose syrup. They can increase "bad cholesterol" and negatively effect the important ratio of LDL (low density lipoproteins) and HDL (high density lipoproteins).

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

mjsmeme's picture

currently working at the Natural Gourmet Institute in NYC and studying for a Masters in Nutrition. She lectures on topics that deal with how our bodies process the things we put inside them. Thanks for this insider's perspective.

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jiordan's picture

I hope your daughter finds it useful

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I started reading up on them, watched his memory change (doesn't need much help at our age), and talked him right out of them. We are desperately looking for a change in lifestyle that will make us thinner and healthier. I think a move to warm weather climes is on the top of the list. When you hibernate for 9 months out of the year, it doesn't help.

Thanks for the interesting story. Sorry about the chimps.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

jiordan's picture

Chimps are big and scary strong and if they decide they don't like you, can pick you up and make a wish with your appendages. They're also much more expensive to house. I worked with these guys. Crab-eaters in the wild and really good pick-pockets in ANY environment. They like to steal things and stuff them in their cheeks (they have cheek pockets like chipmunks). As hard and awful as some of it was, I really did love those guys.monkey.jpg

As for your Mr., I think you were wise to pull him off the statins. As mammals, we make our own cholesterol, so any cholesterol we consume, adds to that load. All animal products have cholesterol so minimizing how many animal products you consume in any given meal will generally lower cholesterol. With our diet and what's easily available at stores, it can be really hard to get away from cholesterol laden stuff--good luck!

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triv33's picture

18 months later the woman we knew was gone, and there was nothing we could do but watch helplessly as she slipped away over the next ten years. I researched, I found the culprit, the doctors denied it, said it couldn't be. A year later I saw Dr Timothy Johnson on my teevee telling me that a very small percentage of statin users were, in fact, suffering from memory loss, perhaps they could be helped by decreasing the dose, or changing from one to another...all bullshit. My mom was in full on senile dementia, which I've talked a lot about. I don't talk a lot about the statins that we were ridiculed for suggesting caused it.

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I shave my legs with Occam's Razor~

jiordan's picture

my heart breaks for you and the loss of your mother. For whatever its worth, you were absolutely right about Lipitor and if it helps at all, feel free to rant about how evil it is in this thread to your heart's content. No one is going to shut you down or tell you you were wrong about the culprit behind your mother's decline.

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triv33's picture

when I tell any doctor "no thank you" on the statins. Not that I care. I've been run through some pretty bizarre hoops of my own in the wonderful world of medicine, so my lack of awe for their authority takes them aback, I think.

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I shave my legs with Occam's Razor~

lunachickie's picture

If it's a Tor drug for cholesterol, I've tried it. I was given one, back in the early 90s, called Zocor, which I was able to tolerate and took for a couple years, but most insurances won't pay for it now (if they even still make it?) I can't tolerate any of the others today and I won't take them.

My doc, who I just adore, will often tell me about "alternatives" to some of these drugs--he indicated that a supplement called "red yeast rice" can be taken in its stead. He didn't give me the reasons why/how it does what it does/why its a good alternative to Tors. I could never feel any difference in any of them, so I won't know if it works until I have my next batch of blood work. So we'll see! If it makes my levels come down, I'll share that with yas Smile

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triv33's picture

perhaps I might try red yeast rice as well. And that is what I will do because I will never take a statin.

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I shave my legs with Occam's Razor~

jiordan's picture

which is a natural statin, its recommended that you take CQ10 with it to ameliorate the aches and lethargy that sometimes accompany even the natural remedies. I hope it works for you. Its a much milder form than any of the scrips and created by nature instead of Eli Lilly.

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lunachickie's picture

He didn't mention that part--but that's okay, anything is an improvement. Lipitor was the worst. So far on the supplement, thoughr, I have had no pain to speak of, so I am hoping the next batch of bloodwork shows improvement. Thanks again Smile

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ZimInSeattle's picture

simvastatin for years and my LDL is at about 160. I have heard lately a lot more about the dangers of statins and I'm going to stop taking this. I also take prilosec for GERD. Some horror stories coming out about this too. I have been taking that for years as well. Every time I try to stop, the pain I get is just unbearable. Not sure how I can get away from it.

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

jiordan's picture

but quitting cigarettes pretty much stopped it entirely. I also propped the head of my bed up about 5 degrees, which kept reflux from causing me trouble at night.

I'm not advocating for any particular diet, but you may find that consuming more fruits and veggies and less animal products will not only help your cholesterol levels but it may improve the GERD as well. And for whatever it might be worth, I had a friend who cut nightshades out of her diet (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant) and her GERD disappeared in about 6 weeks. She eats nightshades now, but sparingly.

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MsGrin's picture

It's paleo minus dairy, legumes, nightshades, nuts and there's likely something else I'm forgetting. Paleo Mom writes about both regular paleo and autoimmune paleo, and she's all science-y and has a doctorate in a hard science and everything. I haven't had the determination to make it work for me yet, but I've heard people rave about the health they have regained on it.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

MsGrin's picture

...is the cult of science over there, if you will. Please do not get me wrong - I love science, er, or the idea and idealism of it, anyway. It's just that I've been on the wrong side of what's acceptable a time or two and so I've seen behind the veil of acceptability and know that the stuff herein described (and despicable) is part and parcel of said 'science.' Like Colbert's truthiness is to truth, we've got science-y as opposed to science as soon as money is concerned (as exemplified in this piece).

My first run-in with science was about mold and mycotoxin exposure. It very nearly killed me (a long, different story than what I'll tell here), and it DID kill my neighbor. Figuring out the how and what of it was quite challenging, but his mother and I accomplished it. And there was nothing we could do to right wrongs as we forged ahead. They systems failed us mostly for not having a bottomless wallet. We found what killed him in his lung and other autopsy tissues (very hard to find the appropriate labs to do the testing), and it's the same substance which was dropped on Laos in the 1970s. The U.S. Army has a chapter on this substance in a big book of bioweapons and THEY know it's lethal. But the official and legal position of the medical establishment is 'Mold can't hurt you.' This substance which killed him is a mycotoxin, a secondary metabolite of mold, and the stuff in his lungs was also grown out from a sample taken from the under-structure of the building in which we both lived. The coroner recorded his death as from coronary disease. He was 36. He did have blockage in his arteries, but it was not plaque, it was fibrin which as I understand is the body's response to poisoning. He also produced out of his mouth (and nose?) about a quart of foam at his death, another indicator of poisoning. He had never had any signs of cardiac distress ahead of dropping dead in his sleep.

A lot of money was spent to come up with the 'mold can't hurt you' premise medicine swears by. Of course they admit to issues with allergy and also that folks with HIV might have sensitivities. There's a specific outfit whose 'science' is constructed to protect insurance companies in court should there be health questions after water damage.

The building where I was poisoned had had a sewer pipe leak underneath prior to my moving in. There was no visible sign of mold in my unit, but air sampling found mycotoxins consistent with causing the issues which nearly took me out. Additionally, it turns out my family carries a gene for quite a lethal disease which got triggered in my case due to this exposure and may yet be my demise. Thankfully, the version in my family had remained unknown because it tends to be extremely slow-growing. My mother was recently diagnosed in her 70s, while mine began developing in my 40s. Had that not happened in my case, my family would still be blissfully unaware we carry this gene. (The support groups for this issue can be quite depressing because new friends can drop like flies, in my experience).

Later, I became ill with a bacterial infection which is fairly common in this country but unusually hard to diagnose because, again, there has been a strong bias to discourage information about this illness by insurance companies which do not want to pay for expensive treatments. Since there is a potential new VACCINE in the works, however, the tune about how difficult this illness is has been changing to pave the way for the new money-maker. Grrrr. Oh, I forgot to mention that I earnestly believe my father was infected on the same day I was, and he just passed away this past month, never having ruled out this disease... I won't get into all the reasons I believe this, but I do believe he had several happy healthy years in him which were lost to lack of treatment for something which is at least partially curable. Damn. I so hate it when medicine fails us in this way.

Doesn't take much real life experience to learn that what is put forth as 'science' sometimes really isn't. I take more stock in common sense at this point. To me, I think we treat science as something akin to religion. It's nice to be able to believe in something, anything than to feel helpless without an answer. Truth is, however, that the scientific method is about evolution, and sometimes what we think we know gets turned upside down in the whole hypothesis/thesis/paradigm shift/synthesis sequence.

Yea us for getting as far as we have so far. T'would be nice if going forward we can find a way to have health be more of a driver/impetus for discovery than money at some point in our collective future.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

LeChienHarry's picture

If we were to add up all the people who are sick or less vigorous than they should be: politically incorrect infections; toxins, hormone additives, antibiotic additives, exposures to biocides, crappy non-foods; the numbers would be staggering.

We need to be our own advocates and often our own treaters. The doctors are not helping. PHaRMA is not helping. Insurance companies (who should be trying to save money through best practices) are not helping.

Your journey has been a long one. Thank you for writing.

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You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce

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shitloads of soluble fiber.. less meat.. lots of veg...

and SOME red yeast rice, but with that a shitload of Quinol instead of plan CoQ10.

Statins cause colon cancer, statins cause liver failure. Statins cause PERIPHERAL NERVE DAMAGE.. I'M DISABLED CRIPPLED DUE TO THAT AND INSECTICIDE POISONING FROM CLEANING OUT AN OVER POISONED HOUSE AFTER A WILL HAD BEEN ILLEGALLY PROBATED.

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Muerte al fascismo. Muerte a la tiranía. colapso total de los que promueven tampoco. A la pared con el unico porciento%