The Dangers of Statin Drugs: Part 3

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http://www.mercola.com/2004/jul/28/statin_drugs.htm

 

The Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven't Been

Told About Cholesterol-Lowering Medication, Part III

 

By Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD

Originally printed at Weston A. Price

 

Honolulu Hearth Program (2001)

 

This report, part of an ongoing study, looked at

cholesterol lowering in the elderly. Researchers

compared changes in cholesterol concentrations over 20

years with all-cause mortality.34 To quote:

 

" Our data accords with previous findings of

increased mortality in elderly people with low serum

cholesterol, and show that long-term persistence of

low cholesterol concentration actually increases risk

of death. Thus, the earlier that patients start to

have lower cholesterol concentrations, the greater the

risk of death ... The most striking findings were

related to changes in cholesterol between examination

three (1971-74) and examination four (1991-93).

 

There are few studies that have cholesterol

concentrations from the same patients at both middle

age and old age. Although our results lend support to

previous findings that low serum cholesterol imparts a

poor outlook when compared with higher concentrations

of cholesterol in elderly people, our data also

suggest that those individuals with a low serum

cholesterol maintained over a 20-year period will have

the worst outlook for all-cause mortality [emphasis

ours]. "

 

MIRACL (2001)

 

The MIRACL study looked at the effects of a high dose

of Lipitor on 3,086 patients in the hospital after

angina or nonfatal MI and followed them for 16

weeks.35 According to the abstract: " For patients with

acute coronary syndrome, lipid-lowering therapy with

atorvastatin, 80 mg/day, reduced recurrent ischemic

events in the first 16 weeks, mostly recurrent

symptomatic ischemia requiring rehospitalization. "

What the abstract did not mention was that there was

no change in death rate compared to controls and no

significant change in re-infarction rate or need for

resuscitation from cardiac arrest. The only change was

a significant drop in chest pain requiring

rehospitalization.

 

ALLHAT (2002)

 

ALLHAT (Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment

to Prevent Heart Attack Trial), the largest North

American cholesterol-lowering trial ever and the

largest trial in the world using Lipitor, showed

mortality of the treatment group and controls after

three or six years was identical.36

 

Researchers used data from more than 10,000

participants and followed them over a period of four

years, comparing the use of a statin drug to " usual

care, " namely maintaining proper body weight, no

smoking, regular exercise, etc., in treating subjects

with moderately high levels of LDL cholesterol. Of the

5170 subjects in the group that received statin drugs,

28 percent lowered their LDL cholesterol

significantly. And of the 5,185 usual-care subjects,

about 11 percent had a similar drop in LDL. But both

groups showed the same rates of death, heart attack

and heart disease.

 

Heart Protection Study (2002)

 

Carried out at Oxford University,37 this study

received widespread press coverage; researchers

claimed " massive benefits " from

cholesterol-lowering,38 leading one commentator to

predict that statin drugs were " the new aspirin. " 39

But as Dr. Ravnskov points out,40 the benefits were

far from massive. Those who took simvastatin had an

87.1 percent survival rate after five years compared

to an 85.4 percent survival rate for the controls and

these results were independent of the amount of

cholesterol lowering. The authors of the Heart

Protection Study never published cumulative mortality

data, even though they received many requests to do so

and even though they received funding and carried out

a study to look at cumulative data.

 

According to the authors, providing year-by-year

mortality data would be an " inappropriate " way of

publishing their study results.41

 

PROSPER (2002)

 

PROSPER (Prospective Study of Pravastatin in the

Elderly at Risk) studied the effect of pravastatin

compared to placebo in two older populations of

patients of which 56 percent were primary prevention

cases (no past or symptomatic cardiovascular disease)

and 44 percent were secondary prevention cases (past

or symptomatic cardiovascular disease).42

 

Pravastatin did not reduce total myocardial infarction

or total stroke in the primary prevention population

but did so in the secondary. However, measures of

overall health impact in the combined populations,

total mortality and total serious adverse events were

unchanged by pravastatin as compared to the placebo

and those in the treatment group had increased cancer.

In other words: not one life saved.

 

J-LIT (2002)

 

Japanese Lipid Intervention Trial was a six-year study

of 47,294 patients treated with the same dose of

simvastatin.43 Patients were grouped by the amount of

cholesterol lowering. Some patient had no reduction in

LDL levels, some had a moderate fall in LDL and some

had very large LDL reductions. The results: no

correlation between the amount of LDL lowering and

death rate at five years. Those with LDL cholesterol

lower than 80 had a death rate of just over 3.5 at

five years; those whose LDL was over 200 had a death

rate of just over 3.5 at five years.

 

Meta-Analysis (2003)

 

In a meta-analysis of 44 trials involving almost

10,000 patients, the death rate was identical at 1

percent of patients in each of the three groups--those

taking atorvastatin (Lipitor), those taking other

statins and those taking nothing.44 Furthermore, 65

percent of those on treatment versus 45 percent of the

controls experienced an adverse event. Researchers

claimed that the incidence of adverse effects was the

same in all three groups, but 3 percent of the

atorvastatin-treated patients and 4 percent of those

receiving other statins withdrew due to

treatment-associated adverse events, compared with 1

percent of patients on the placebo.

 

Statins and Plaque (2003)

 

A study published in the American Journal of

Cardiology casts serious doubts on the commonly held

belief that lowering your LDL-cholesterol, the

so-called bad cholesterol, is the most effective way

to reduced arterial plaque.45 Researchers at Beth

Israel Medical Center in New York City examined the

coronary plaque buildup in 182 subjects who took

statin drugs to lower cholesterol levels. One group of

subjects used the drug aggressively (more than 80 mg

per day) while the balance of the subjects took less

than 80 mg per day.

 

Using electron beam tomography, the researchers

measured plaque in all of the subjects before and

after a study period of more than one year. The

subjects were generally successful in lowering their

cholesterol, but in the end there was no statistical

difference in the two groups in the progression of

arterial calcified plaque. On average, subjects in

both groups showed a 9.2 percent increase in plaque

buildup.

 

Statins and Women (2003)

 

No study has shown a significant reduction in

mortality in women treated with statins. The

University of British Columbia Therapeutics Initiative

came to the same conclusion, with the finding that

statins offer no benefit to women for prevention of

heart disease.46 Yet in February 2004, Circulation

published an article in which more than 20

organizations endorsed cardiovascular disease

prevention guidelines for women with several mentions

of " preferably a statin. " 47

 

ASCOT-LLA (2003)

 

ASCOT-LLA (Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial

-- Lipid Lowering Arm) was designed to assess the

benefits of atorvastatin (Lipitor) versus a placebo in

patients who had high blood pressure with average or

lower-than-average cholesterol concentrations and at

least three other cardiovascular risk factors.48 The

trial was originally planned for five years but was

stopped after a median follow-up of 3.3 years because

of a significant reduction in cardiac events. Lipitor

did reduce total myocardial infarction and total

stroke; however, total mortality was not significantly

reduced. In fact, women were worse off with treatment.

The trial report stated that total serious adverse

events " did not differ between patients assigned

atorvastatin or placebo, " but did not supply the

actual numbers of serious events.

 

Cholesterol Levels in Dialysis Patients (2004)

 

In a study of dialysis patients, those with higher

cholesterol levels had lower mortality than those with

low cholesterol.49 Yet the authors claimed that the

" inverse association of total cholesterol level with

mortality in dialysis patients is likely due to the

cholesterol-lowering effect of systemic inflammation

and malnutrition, not to a protective effect of high

cholesterol concentrations. " Keeping an eye on further

funding opportunities, the authors concluded: " These

findings support treatment of hypercholesterolemia in

this population. "

 

Stay tuned for Part IV