High Cholesterol Drugs: Doctors Deny Side Effects e.g. Lipitor Side Effects by Dismissing the Down Side of Cholesterol Lowering Drugs• When patients suggest to their doctors that they might be having adverse drug reactions, such as Lipitor side effects, doctors tend not to see a connection. Why? • Because when patients report side effects, their doctors either simply dismiss them or attribute them to the normal process of aging, according to a study of 650 patients taking cholesterol-lowering drugs. “Physicians seem to commonly dismiss the possibility of a connection to their patients’ symptoms,” says Dr. Beatrice Golomb, of the University of California at San Diego, who conducted the survey that revealed doctors’ ignorance of potential adverse drug reactions for patients taking drugs for high cholesterol. • This denial “Seems to occur even for the best-supported adverse effects of the most widely prescribed class of drugs” such as statins or simvastatin, according to Dr. Golomb. • Statins e.g. Lipitor, Zocor Not of Benefit to Women, Healthy Men and People over 70? Cholesterol Drugs e.g. Lipitor, Best Known Side EffectsThe best-known side effects of statins, which include drugs such as Lipitor and Zocor, are:• Liver damage • Muscle weakness (remember, the heart is a muscle) • Changes in mood, memory and concentration • Peripheral neuropathy – a nerve pain that affects the extremities • The University of California study ’s authors believe that statin-related side effects for high cholesterol drugs are not the only ones being missed. They suggest that many other drug side effects are also being ignored. The researchers speculated that doctors’ tendencies to ignore drug side effects may be due to the powerful ad campaigns touting medications’ benefits and downplaying side effects. • The researchers were surprised at how often patients reported that their doctors dismissed their concerns. As a result, they advise that patients take time to learn the potential adverse effects of their medications, so that if their doctor does not take their symptoms seriously, they can look elsewhere for medical care -- for physicians that do hear them How Many People Did this Drug Help?When your doctor prescribes a cholesterol-lowering medication, you need to know how strong the effect is. How do you determine the effectiveness of a drug?• You need to know how many people the drug has helped. • You also need to know what type of people this drug has helped. Why? Dr. John Abramson, a clinical instructor at the Harvard Medical School, says the typical advice on prescribing statin drugs flies in the face of science: • "There's a theory that statin drugs help women and elderly people who do not yet have heart disease," says Abramson. "That theory has been tested in studies so far and has been disproved." • Abramson and 30 other doctors and scientists are asking for a new, independent review of the cholesterol guidelines promoting statins. • They cite one study showing women using statins got slightly MORE heart disease, not less. • Another showed the elderly got no real heart benefits, but did develop more cancer. 3% of Those With Heart Disease May BenefitWho benefits from statins and how much? In a Scandinavian study of 4,444 people with established heart disease, 8.5 per cent of the people taking a placebo died of heart disease over the five years of the study. By contrast, of those taking the cholesterol-lowering simvastatin Zocor, 5 percent died.• The difference between the placebo group and the Zocor group was 3.5%. What does that mean? • Mathematically, a 3.5% difference means “effective” i.e. the difference did not happen by chance. • “Effective,” in real life, means in this instance, that the drug only protects someone with heart disease from dying of a heart attack, 3% of the time.
• This means that 3 out of 100 people benefit, but 97 people don’t. What’s worse, is that Zocor has the most impressive track record:
• For most cholesterol drugs, the most you can hope for in this high risk population, is about 1% to a 3% difference. That means 1 person in 100, up to 3 people in 100 benefit but the rest of the 97% DO NOT BENEFIT. Read Alan Cassels’ article: Pharmaceutical researcher: Pharmaspeak: Tricks To Make Drugs Sound Effective See the book: Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients Take This To Your Doctor:If your doctor tells you that a drug is considered to be effective because clinical trials are “significant,” ask if it is the mathematical use of the word, or the real life meaning:• Ask how effective the high cholesterol drug is over the placebo, i.e. how many people out of 100 actually benefit. • Ask if the drug has indeed lowered mortality rates, not just heart attack rates. • Ask for precise, numerical terms. • Ask how the simvastatin’s effectiveness compares to the rates of side effects. • Ask for a list of the likely adverse effects. Then do your homework and check your options for instead making diet and lifestyle changes that will enhance your overall health and improve your wellbeing without serious risks -- without the use of marginally effective, possibly dangerous high cholesterol drugs such as Zocor, or enduring Lipitor side effects. • Significant lifestyle changes will work much better than for 3% of the people! Independent Scientists Refute Cholesterol Myths Links for Lowering High CholesterolHow Nutrition Helps Heart Health Compared to Meds * Better Predictor of Heart Disease than Cholesterol? * Eat Eggs to Lower Your High Cholesterol! * How To Avoid High Cholesterol Without Medications or Statins * How I Lowered my Cholesterol Naturally by Shirley H., R.N * High Cholesterol Drugs: Side Effects of Cholesterol Lowering Drugs like Zocor and Lipitor Side EffectsGO to Health Discoveries HOME PAGE from High Cholesterol
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