Supernaut
Banned
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2010
- Messages
- 1,271
My own, first-hand experience of statins;
I moved into Union Court in September 2003, a small block of flats on two floors. I lived there until May 2008
A neighbour was Niall, our front doors were 20 feet from each other on the walkway, so I got to know him pretty well. He was 65 when I moved in, had retired early years before (from the then 'paternalisitc' British Airways), and he was a 'creature of habit', same ablutions every morning, almost always the same supper every night (white fish and steamed vegetables - "God, it's boring"). Liked music, classical mostly (I went with him to the Wigmore Hall a few times) so he used to come round and we'd drink a bottle or two of wine and listen to my excellent hifi.
Sometime about mid 2006 he started saying that his old back injury is giving him grief ("it's crucifying me") and he was getting pain in his joints, particularly wrists, fingers and knees, I'd hear about it almost every time I saw him.
Then he stopped following his old habits, his diet, forgot how to use his micro-wave etc.
Then he started getting a bit erratic. One day he lost his temper with me, the first time I’d ever seen him do it with anyone - I met him on the way out on a damp morning and he was sweeping up the blossom on the wlakway - when I pointed out that it would be easier if it was dry he exploded in a flurry of expletives. I can tell you, Niall was not the sort of guy I'd EVER of expected to see lose his temper.
Another time about midnight I got a knock on the door and it was Niall (who was usually in bed by 10), a bit wild-eyed;
"Mark, I can't take anymore of this, you've got to stop whatever it is you're doing, I can't stand the noises anymore".
Me; "What do you mean? What noises?"
Niall; "You're doing something with the electricity (sic)"
Me; "But I've been sitting reading all evening"
Niall "I can hear the noises it's making and I can't sleep with it ...."
He said something about seeing faint flashes of light with the noises (the people in the flat below him had been renovating for several weeks, might have had something to do with it).
The town has a 'Royal park' (arguably one of the most beautiful in England), occasionally me and Niall went for a walk there together, but Niall began to find the gentle half-mile walk up the hill to the gates to be more and more difficult, and I'd have to slow the pace to an amble.
Anyway, I'd got him to take a few supplements, particularly fish oil, thinking maybe it would help his joint pain (not to mention his BRAIN), but I couldn't really tell if it made much difference.
I've been reading about, i.e. educating myself about fats and oils (fatty-acids is the correct term) since way back (from books - how quaint), long before I got an internet connection. I was already familar with the myths surrounding the "dangers" of cholesterol and saturated fats (and the converse "benefits" of unsaturated ones). But it was the internet that let me read up about statins. There's nothing particuarly complicated or subtle about what they do - they block the action of an enzyme in the liver and thus interrupt a 'cascade' of (normal) processes which includes the synthesis of cholesterol and several other vital molecules. Which is just insane. Substances which cause injury by blocking or interrupting normal functions in the human body are genrerally regarded as poisons.
Want to know what "memories are made of"? They're made by the creation and rearrangement of synapses, the connections between neurons (brain cells), and synapses are made from .... cholesterol. In fact, one of the most common molecules (apart from water) making up your brain is .... guess what?
Niall was unquestioningly trusting and deferential to his G.P. (physician), as are most, and I knew he was taking several kinds of pills, so I asked him to show me what meds he was on - there were three, including (IIRC) the usual - blood pressure, a beta-blocker etc., and sure enough..... Lipitor, 40mg daily. He couldn't remember how long he'd been taking them, thought it might have been "a few months", but later his niece told me he'd been on them for about 15 months, so he'd started them right about the time I'd noticed he'd begun to lose it.
I told him what I'd found out, that he should stop. He listened, but of course there was no way he was going to do it (disobey his doctor? Disobey authority?) - he went back to his quack and got what they call "bland assurances" (he was offered Simvastatin instead of Lipitor). What I had to do was print out some literature, wihch I left with him. He stopped a couple of days later and never took them again.
I'd known him for nearly 3 years before he started taking Lipitor, saw him most days, and I was in a position to see him start to fall apart before my eyes. Even if he was in his late 60's, there's no way someone just starts to age that fast, mentally and physically at the same time. No way.
The bad news is that it can take months or even years to recover from some of the effects, and even worse, some of the damage might be irreversible (mitochondrial DNA mutation - permanent damage to muscle, connective tissue and others).
Not an exaggeration; I reckon statins are probably the most malevolent con ever pulled by the drug companies. They're certainly one of the most profitable - from what I can gather, they're making 10's of billions a year from them globally (I remember figure of 20 billion p.a. mentioned back in 2008, and that was when about 1.5 million people in the UK were on them, it's nearer 4 million now). If and when they finally get brought to brook, the damages they'll end up paying out will be peanuts compared to what they'll have siphoned off health organisations and medical insurers while their patents are running.
Why do they do it? Because "health care" to them is nothing but "disease management", and the bottom line is that the sicker people get the more drugs the pharmas sell and the more money they make. I’m not being too cynical for you, I hope?
Basically, statins are are now being handed out to practically everybody in nations which can AFFORD the usual inflated prices the pharmas charge for patented drugs, for no reason at all other than an arbitrary threshhold for blood-serum cholesterol determined to be "too high", most people being completely unaware of the ubiquity of cholesterol in the body as a whole, or the mechansim by which statins accomplish what they do.
I've recently seen articles in the press in which "experts" (also known as a "pharma-whores") contend that EVERYONE over the age of 40 should be given them, and even more absurdly, that they should added to certain foods as a "supplement" (yeh - we're all statin deficient!). This is obviously nothing but propagandising of the crassest sort, attempting to reinforce the bare-faced lie that statins are a completely benign "wonder drug".
"Have you never had day's illness in your life? Do you suffer rude health, a sharp mind and a limber, flexible body? You must be statin-deficient! Make an Appontment with your physician now and get yourself a daily dose of our new wonder-drug! Statins! - now you too can experience the joys of premature decrepitude!"
What prompted me to post this is that I've recently (for the last 2 years or so) been acaquainted with a man of 55 (oddly enough his name is Neil), not much older than me, who in many ways is like someone 10 or 20 years older. When I visit him in his 2nd floor home, I walk up the stairs and then have to wait for him as he drags himself up them. And here's the kicker - he has no diagnosed physical disabilites and he was a climber/mountaineer for much of his younger life!. The other day I discovered that he too has been taking Lipitor for - he can't remember, he only knows it's been "for ages".
I haven't bothered providing citations, because a search for "statins side effects" will provide so much material that it's hard to even begin to choose one. Amongst much else, you'll find the internet awash with anecdotes similar to mine.
And who should I believe - The Man, or my own lying eyes?
(BTW - I know this is just begging to be moved to the CT forum.)
I moved into Union Court in September 2003, a small block of flats on two floors. I lived there until May 2008
A neighbour was Niall, our front doors were 20 feet from each other on the walkway, so I got to know him pretty well. He was 65 when I moved in, had retired early years before (from the then 'paternalisitc' British Airways), and he was a 'creature of habit', same ablutions every morning, almost always the same supper every night (white fish and steamed vegetables - "God, it's boring"). Liked music, classical mostly (I went with him to the Wigmore Hall a few times) so he used to come round and we'd drink a bottle or two of wine and listen to my excellent hifi.
Sometime about mid 2006 he started saying that his old back injury is giving him grief ("it's crucifying me") and he was getting pain in his joints, particularly wrists, fingers and knees, I'd hear about it almost every time I saw him.
Then he stopped following his old habits, his diet, forgot how to use his micro-wave etc.
Then he started getting a bit erratic. One day he lost his temper with me, the first time I’d ever seen him do it with anyone - I met him on the way out on a damp morning and he was sweeping up the blossom on the wlakway - when I pointed out that it would be easier if it was dry he exploded in a flurry of expletives. I can tell you, Niall was not the sort of guy I'd EVER of expected to see lose his temper.
Another time about midnight I got a knock on the door and it was Niall (who was usually in bed by 10), a bit wild-eyed;
"Mark, I can't take anymore of this, you've got to stop whatever it is you're doing, I can't stand the noises anymore".
Me; "What do you mean? What noises?"
Niall; "You're doing something with the electricity (sic)"
Me; "But I've been sitting reading all evening"
Niall "I can hear the noises it's making and I can't sleep with it ...."
He said something about seeing faint flashes of light with the noises (the people in the flat below him had been renovating for several weeks, might have had something to do with it).
The town has a 'Royal park' (arguably one of the most beautiful in England), occasionally me and Niall went for a walk there together, but Niall began to find the gentle half-mile walk up the hill to the gates to be more and more difficult, and I'd have to slow the pace to an amble.
Anyway, I'd got him to take a few supplements, particularly fish oil, thinking maybe it would help his joint pain (not to mention his BRAIN), but I couldn't really tell if it made much difference.
I've been reading about, i.e. educating myself about fats and oils (fatty-acids is the correct term) since way back (from books - how quaint), long before I got an internet connection. I was already familar with the myths surrounding the "dangers" of cholesterol and saturated fats (and the converse "benefits" of unsaturated ones). But it was the internet that let me read up about statins. There's nothing particuarly complicated or subtle about what they do - they block the action of an enzyme in the liver and thus interrupt a 'cascade' of (normal) processes which includes the synthesis of cholesterol and several other vital molecules. Which is just insane. Substances which cause injury by blocking or interrupting normal functions in the human body are genrerally regarded as poisons.
Want to know what "memories are made of"? They're made by the creation and rearrangement of synapses, the connections between neurons (brain cells), and synapses are made from .... cholesterol. In fact, one of the most common molecules (apart from water) making up your brain is .... guess what?
Niall was unquestioningly trusting and deferential to his G.P. (physician), as are most, and I knew he was taking several kinds of pills, so I asked him to show me what meds he was on - there were three, including (IIRC) the usual - blood pressure, a beta-blocker etc., and sure enough..... Lipitor, 40mg daily. He couldn't remember how long he'd been taking them, thought it might have been "a few months", but later his niece told me he'd been on them for about 15 months, so he'd started them right about the time I'd noticed he'd begun to lose it.
I told him what I'd found out, that he should stop. He listened, but of course there was no way he was going to do it (disobey his doctor? Disobey authority?) - he went back to his quack and got what they call "bland assurances" (he was offered Simvastatin instead of Lipitor). What I had to do was print out some literature, wihch I left with him. He stopped a couple of days later and never took them again.
I'd known him for nearly 3 years before he started taking Lipitor, saw him most days, and I was in a position to see him start to fall apart before my eyes. Even if he was in his late 60's, there's no way someone just starts to age that fast, mentally and physically at the same time. No way.
The bad news is that it can take months or even years to recover from some of the effects, and even worse, some of the damage might be irreversible (mitochondrial DNA mutation - permanent damage to muscle, connective tissue and others).
Not an exaggeration; I reckon statins are probably the most malevolent con ever pulled by the drug companies. They're certainly one of the most profitable - from what I can gather, they're making 10's of billions a year from them globally (I remember figure of 20 billion p.a. mentioned back in 2008, and that was when about 1.5 million people in the UK were on them, it's nearer 4 million now). If and when they finally get brought to brook, the damages they'll end up paying out will be peanuts compared to what they'll have siphoned off health organisations and medical insurers while their patents are running.
Why do they do it? Because "health care" to them is nothing but "disease management", and the bottom line is that the sicker people get the more drugs the pharmas sell and the more money they make. I’m not being too cynical for you, I hope?
Basically, statins are are now being handed out to practically everybody in nations which can AFFORD the usual inflated prices the pharmas charge for patented drugs, for no reason at all other than an arbitrary threshhold for blood-serum cholesterol determined to be "too high", most people being completely unaware of the ubiquity of cholesterol in the body as a whole, or the mechansim by which statins accomplish what they do.
I've recently seen articles in the press in which "experts" (also known as a "pharma-whores") contend that EVERYONE over the age of 40 should be given them, and even more absurdly, that they should added to certain foods as a "supplement" (yeh - we're all statin deficient!). This is obviously nothing but propagandising of the crassest sort, attempting to reinforce the bare-faced lie that statins are a completely benign "wonder drug".
"Have you never had day's illness in your life? Do you suffer rude health, a sharp mind and a limber, flexible body? You must be statin-deficient! Make an Appontment with your physician now and get yourself a daily dose of our new wonder-drug! Statins! - now you too can experience the joys of premature decrepitude!"
What prompted me to post this is that I've recently (for the last 2 years or so) been acaquainted with a man of 55 (oddly enough his name is Neil), not much older than me, who in many ways is like someone 10 or 20 years older. When I visit him in his 2nd floor home, I walk up the stairs and then have to wait for him as he drags himself up them. And here's the kicker - he has no diagnosed physical disabilites and he was a climber/mountaineer for much of his younger life!. The other day I discovered that he too has been taking Lipitor for - he can't remember, he only knows it's been "for ages".
I haven't bothered providing citations, because a search for "statins side effects" will provide so much material that it's hard to even begin to choose one. Amongst much else, you'll find the internet awash with anecdotes similar to mine.
And who should I believe - The Man, or my own lying eyes?
(BTW - I know this is just begging to be moved to the CT forum.)
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