I received a comment today that I feel compelled to post in its entirety as a cautionary tale for anyone contemplating going on statins (or any other drug, for that matter) for no good reason. This reader describes in much more detail than I ever could the agony of drug therapy gone wrong. And the realization that it was unnecessary drug therapy in the first place makes the experience even more devastating. I hope enough of you who are readers of this blog now realize that simply having an elevated cholesterol level is no reason to go on a statin.

The comment below demonstrates in vivid detail what happens thousands of times per day all over this country. People are prescribed drugs for the flimsiest of reasons. These drugs cause side effects. These side effects are treated with more drugs, which themselves cause more side effects. Which are treated with yet more drugs.

When patients go to a doctor for symptoms, the doctor feels the need to treat the symptoms. Often the symptoms can be treated by having the patient discontinue the drugs that caused the symptoms in the first place. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a variation of what happened to this unfortunate commenter. The symptoms are simply treated by prescribing another drug designed to quash those symptoms.

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Despite the fact that statin drugs are the best-selling medications in history, accounting for some $40 billion plus in sales world wide last year, they had a very bad week this past week. And it looks like their scrutiny is going to pick up a little.

The Vytorin trial that finally came to light late last week kicked off the cascade of bad news. It appears that the combination of a statin and Zetia, despite lowering cholesterol levels by 40 percent more than a statin, was no more effective than the statin alone in preventing problems. Which would lead anyone with critical thinking skills to wonder about the hypothesis that LDL-cholesterol is really a problem.

The next day the New York Times, in an article that wasn’t all that anti-statin, started thusly: Read more »

After the Enhance study came out Katie Couric interviewed Dr. Steve Nissen, a statinator of renown.

Although Dr. Nissen, who is the Chairman of Cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic, is upset over the findings of the Enhance study, it hasn’t dimmed his enthusiasm for statin drugs a whit. As you watch the video, note the quotes I’ve excerpted. They demonstrate how a famous cardiologist is firmly in the grip of the lipid hypothesis despite considerable evidence that the hypothesis has been built on a very shaky foundation.

Here is the video.

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A long awaited study – the Enhance study – indicates that the combination medicine Vytorin not only doesn’t stop the growth of plaque but may actually increase it, which isn’t particularly pleasing to Merck and Schering-Plough, the pharmaceutical giants that make the drug.

We’ve all seen the annoying commercials ad naseum. Cholesterol comes from two sources: Fettuccine Alfredo and your grandfather, Alfredo. The various people from whom you’ve allegedly inherited your tendency are dressed in outfits that kind of match the look of the foods that cause your cholesterol to increase. If you’ve been lucky enough to have avoided these ads, I’ve included one at the bottom of this post so that you can be as annoyed as the rest of us. I never watch TV other than the occasional football game (or in the case of this past weekend, every NFL playoff game), and I’ve seen the Vytorin commercials countless times. I’m sure it’s one of the most heavily run ads on TV.

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Once again the dishonesty or maybe sheer stupidity of scientists bowls me over. I got an email from an old patient a couple of days ago who is following a low-carb diet while under the care of a skeptical (to say the least) cardiologist. The cardiologist sent the patient an email with a link to a Cardiosource (an online resource for cardiologists) commentary on an article in this month’s issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The paper compared a standard high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet (HCLF) to a very-low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet (VLCHF) in terms of blood lipid changes. The Cardiosource commentary seized on the last two lines in the abstract of the paper.

…although both diets had similar improvements for a number of metabolic risk markers, the HCLF diet had more favorable effects on the blood lipid profile. This suggests that the potential long-term health effects of high- and low-carbohydrate weight loss diets remain a concern, and that blood lipid levels should be monitored in obese subjects with the metabolic syndrome.

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