Another Warning of Adverse Side-Effects of Simvastatin

The Telegraph reports on an American study which has found that "high doses can cause muscle damage and a rare condition which induces kidney problems and may be fatal."

Statins, of which this drug is an example, are taken by people to lower their cholesterol level and reduce the risk of having a heart attack. They cost the NHS a great deal of money because they are prescribed to millions of people, who take them every day, often for the rest of their lives. This makes them an obvious cash cow for the drug industry, but the benefit to patients is less obvious. See relative risk and number needed to treat. And painful side-effects are much more common than is usually admitted.

A cost-free, drug-free, completely safe way to reduce hypercholesterolaemia is to cut down on salt and salty food. Avoiding salt and salty food also reduces excess weight and the risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improves your health in countless other ways

Unfortunately, too many people benefit financially from conning the public into thinking that statins are a good and necessary therapy. If you click on the STATINS label beneath this post you will find further information about this controversial class of drugs.

A bit more about Inegy, the cholesterol lowering drug that 'increases risk of cancer by 50 per cent'

Cholesterol lowering drug 'increases risk of cancer by 50 per cent'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract 1:

"Researchers found there were 105 cases of cancer in people taking Inegy compared to 70 in those on a dummy drug over a four year period.

The study also suggested that Inegy, which combines a statin called simvastatin and another drug called ezetimibe, has little effect in reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Prof Heinz Drexel, of the University of Innsbruck in Austria and spokesman for the European Society of Cardiology, said: "I am not sure that the efficacy is proven and I am not sure that the safety is proven. I wouldn't take the drug myself.

"In patients with an urgent need to reduce cholesterol I would give them the drug but that is they are the exception and that is not consistent with how it is being used currently. "It is being more widely used than I think it should be. We can use something else in patients whose cholesterol is not sky high."

In the last two years 300,000 prescriptions for Inegy were dispensed in England and Wales and between four and five million people are thought to be taking standard statins."

Note well that Prof Heinz Drexel would not take Inegy himself! It's rare for a doctor to speak as forthrightly as that.

Extract 2:

"There was also a higher proportion of deaths from cancer with 39 deaths in the Inegy group and 23 deaths in those on the placebo.

The cancers in both groups were across all major areas of the body including the skin and lungs, according to the findings, which were also published in the New England Journal of Medicine."

The best and the completely safe way to reduce the risk of most cancers is to avoid prescription drugs unless they are absolutely necessary and rigorously avoid salt and salty food and make sure you eat plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

And see Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

A cholesterol-lowering drug, Inegy, may increase the risk of cancer.

Cholesterol-lowering drug 'may increase cancer risk'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The drug called Inegy is taken by thousands of people in the UK and the drug regulator is studying research which has linked to indicated a link to increased cancers and deaths from cancer.

It is a combination of the statin simvastatin and ezetimibe for use in patients whose cholesterol cannot be controlled by one drug alone.

Just under 300,000 prescriptions were dispensed for Inergy in the last two years in England and Wales, official figures show.

The American Food and Drug Administration issued a statement saying preliminary findings from a study has shown found the drug did not reduce cardiovascular problems as expected and a larger percentage of patients on the drug were diagnosed with and died from all types of cancer than those on the placebo during the five year study."

So! - It doesn't actually work and it also causes extra deaths from cancer? - Best not to take it then...(o: - or prescribe it!

You may wonder why doctors prescribe these rubbish drugs that don't work and are so harmful. - There was a good clue on the radio today. - There was criticism of pharmaceutical companies that provide expensive junkets/trips abroad for doctors and other health professionals to go to 'conferences' and other euphemisms for free holidays in exchange for prescribing more of the drug companies' pharmaceutical junk to their innocent patients...)o:

'Twas ever thus. There have been many eminent critics of the medical profession's venality and cupidity, e.g. Dr Joe Collier, clinical pharmacologist, was writing about this influencing/bribery of doctors by drug companies 20 years ago in The Health Conspiracy - How Doctors, the Drug Industry and the Government Undermine Our Health and other publications. See also Sleaze

Actually a great many, possibly even most, prescription drugs increase the risk of developing cancer - steroids, HRT, anti-psychotics, tricyclic antidepressants, etc.

More than a million people will be put on statins on the NHS to lower their cholesterol level and prevent heart attacks, under NICE guidelines.

Statins to be given to a million more over-40s

Extract from the Telegraph:

"GPs are urged to trawl the records of patients aged 40 and over to find anyone with a one in five chance of having a heart attack or stroke and call them in for advice and drugs.

Four million people already take statins, mostly after heart attacks. But the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) wants healthy people deemed at high risk of an attack or a stroke within 10 years to have preventive drugs as well.

That would put 1.5 million more on medication and should prevent an extra 15,000 heart attacks, strokes and new cases of angina each year.

It will cost £28 million to implement in the first year.

Nice recommends checking the records of everyone aged between 40 and 75 to flag up those at high risk and call them in for lifestyle advice and consider prescribing 40mg of simvastatin, which costs about 4p per person each day.

That will be controversial as it will put healthy people on medication and the drug has to be taken for the rest of a patient's life. Statins reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke by about a quarter."

This is absolutely disgraceful. - There is no need at all for healthy people to be put on drugs - drugs with many adverse, unpleasant side-effects - for the rest of their lives in order to reduce their risk of heart disease. - The drug-free, cost-free, totally safe and extremely effective way to reduce heart disease and stroke and to reduce high cholesterol is to avoid eating salt and salty food. - People should be told the truth about the effects of salt sensitivity and decisions made about drug recommendations should not be made in order to bring profit to the iniquitous drug companies.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

advice for pregnant mothers

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

More criticism of statins: - doubts are being raised over whether statins really live up to the hype about them

So much for the wonder drug - Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"More than three per cent of the population are now taking statins, at a cost to the NHS of £730 million last year. They have gained the reputation of being something of a wonder drug and are now prescribed not just for patients already suffering from heart disease but also for those identified as being at risk of developing cardiac problems in the future. The Government claims that its policy of encouraging the prescription of statins saves up to 7,000 lives a year.

Now, though, doubts are being raised over whether statins really live up to the hype. Dr James LeFanu, medical columnist of The Sunday Telegraph, highlighted the issue a month ago - and has since received more than 400 letters from readers who have had a less than happy experience with the drugs."

"So far, the Government and the medical establishment disagree with Dr LeFanu and those patients who have stopped taking their statins. The biggest British study into the effectiveness of the drug, published in The Lancet five years ago, followed 20,536 patients who took simvastatin or a placebo over five years. It concluded that for high-risk patients, the drug could cut the risk of heart attacks, strokes or the need for surgery to unblock arteries by about one third. Critically, it said prescribing should be widened to cover increasing numbers of patients, because it had been shown the drug was "so well tolerated and safe".

But the study, funded by the Medical Research Council and the British Heart Foundation, was unusual in one significant respect. Of 63,603 patients screened to take part in the trial, about half - 32,145 - were selected as eligible. Of these, more than one third were subsequently excluded, following a "run-in period" where they tried the drug for up to six weeks. Reasons for their exclusion varied. Overall, 26 per cent either dropped out or were deemed by researchers to be unlikely to keep taking the drugs for the full five years. A further 10 per cent were excluded because their GPs warned of increased risks due to existing health conditions. Others were excluded because of apparent side-effects, such as rising levels of liver enzymes and creatine, and, in some cases, developing muscle weakness.

So, of the 63,603 initially selected, only 20,536 continued - a mere 32 per cent. The chairman of the British Heart Foundation, Professor Peter Weissberg, admits: "It tried everyone on the drug and only the ones who didn't have side-effects were continued. That is unusual, but dozens of other trials have looked at this in a more standard way and have concluded that the side-effects are not major. One of the problems with clinical trials will always be the drop-out rate. The key thing to establish with this trial was: if you take this drug, does it save your life or not? It concluded that it does.""

It's also worth looking at relative risk and number needed to treat

Lose weight AND lower your high cholesterol level AND lower your risk of heart attack by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)