Run From Your Statin Recommending Cardiologist

Posted by Dr. Mark Sircus

There are new guidelines coming out of the world of cardiology from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology proving once and for all that cardiologists are idiots or worse. They simply, en mass, have abandoned their right to call themselves doctors. I really do not know what to call them but it would be easier to teach a butcher to practice rational and honorable medicine.

Their guidelines take aim at preventing strokes and heart attacks. The end result: twice as many Americans — one-third of all adults — would be told to consider taking statins, which lower cholesterol but also reduce heart risks in other ways. “The emphasis is to try to treat more appropriately,” said Dr. Neil Stone, the Northwestern University doctor who headed the cholesterol guideline panel. “We’re going to give statins to those who are the most likely to benefit.”

Under the new advice, one-third of U.S. adults — 44 percent of men and 22 percent of women — would meet the threshold to consider taking a statin. Under the current guidelines, statins are recommended for only about 15 percent of adults. Clearly the doctors and the organization making these recommendations are marching exactly in the wrong direction and even worse are seemingly wanting their patients to come down with cancer.

Cardiologists Disregard Cancer Implications of Statin Use

A recent study in the journal of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention reports that women who have used cholesterol-lowering statin drugs for more than 10 years have double the risk of two common types of breast cancer: invasive ductal carcinoma and invasive lobular carcinoma.[1]

One in four Americans take statin drugs, and the pharmaceutical industry has convinced both patients and doctors that these drugs will prevent health problems down the road.

Scientists have long known the toxic effects of statin drugs, and multiple animal studies have proven an association between statins and various types of cancers. Experts at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, US, also found the chances of getting invasive lobular carcinoma, which accounts for ten to 15 per cent of breast cancers, went up almost 2.5 times in some women on statins long-term.[2]

Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Dr. Thomas B. Newman and co-workers showed that all cholesterol-lowering drugs, both the early drugs known as fibrates (clofibrate, gemfibrozil) and the newer drugs known as statins (Lipitor, Pravachol, Zocor), cause cancer in rodents at the equivalent doses used by man.

Dr. Gloria Troendle, deputy director for the Division of Metabolism and Endocrine Drug Products for the FDA, noted that the cholesterol-lowering drug gemfibrozil belonged to a class of drugs that has repeatedly been shown to increase death rates among users. Moreover, Dr. Troendle stated that she does not believe the FDA has ever approved a drug for long-term use that was as cancer causing at human doses as gemfibrozil.

The Main Effects are the Side Effects

A significant number of people taking statins (between 3 and 15%) develop mild to crushing muscle pain that can lead to permanent muscle problems, severe kidney problems or death.[3] The drugs can cause severe liver damage, and some recent reports have linked the use of one statin to neurological and memory problems. Statins cause reductions in the muscle mitochondrial content of ubiquinone or Coenzyme Q10, an important part of the ATP-producing electron transport chain that employs the same precursor molecules as cholesterol.

The mechanism of statin drugs, disruption of mevalonate synthesis, prevents cells from making compounds that are essential for healthy cellular life and death. Liver cells begin to accumulate cholesterol and become distorted, while other cells all over the body lose their ability to know when it’s time be recycled or to divide. Disrupting the mevalonate pathway with statin drugs also prevents cells from making CoQ10, an essential component to energy production. Low CoQ10 results in muscle aches, muscle injuries, fatigue, and poor cardiac performance. Other statin side effects include diabetes, liver injury, hormonal imbalance, erectile dysfunction, depression, memory loss/dementia, and more.

Crestor has the worst side effect profile among all statin drugs and its approval was initially declined by the FDA. The drug used in the study, rosuvastatin (brand name Crestor), has been associated with muscle deterioration and kidney problems. In the study, those taking statins had a higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes – 3% compared with 2.4% of those taking a placebo. That’s a 25% higher relative risk among people with very little heart disease to begin with.

Statins have also been tied to changes in memory, concentration and mood, among other problems. Other side effects to statins include a degenerative muscle disease called myopathy, which can be fatal. Bayer pulled its statin — Baycol — off the market in August 2001 because it caused too many cases of myopathy. Baycol was linked to 52 deaths worldwide, including one in Canada.

The Real Reason to Run From Your Cardiologist

Western medicine’s obsession with cholesterol misses the boat entirely. The cholesterol heart disease connection that pharmaceutical companies use to sell billions of dollars of statin drugs is still largely theoretical, and not clinically borne out in practice whereas the case of magnesium is scientifically unassailable. The fact that 50% of people who die from heart attacks do not even have high cholesterol reveals a gaping hole in medical reasoning and cardiac care.

Magnesium, not statin drugs, is fundamental for the prevention and treatment of heart disease, diabetes, and arteriosclerosis; it serves as a natural calcium antagonist, normalizes blood pressure and irregular heartbeat. Magnesium is the ultimate heart drug and it is tragic that cardiologists do not universally acknowledge its full utility in the treatment of heart disease.

An astonishing 40 to 60 percent of sudden deaths from heart attack may occur in the complete absence of any prior artery blockage, clot formation or heart rhythm abnormalities, most likely from spasms in the arteries caused by magnesium deficiency.
Dr. Carolyn Dean
The Miracle of Magnesium.

Administration of magnesium eliminates angina pain, muscle spasms, keep blood flowing smoothly and prevent platelet stickiness. Magnesium also produces vasodilation by a direct action as well indirectly by sympathetic blockade and inhibition of catecholamine release. Magnesium dilates both the epicardial and resistance coronary arteries.[4] Magnesium also balances cholesterol and is essential for endocrine stability and function. Most importantly – magnesium prevents calcification of the heart tissues. Medicine just does not get any better than this. Magnesium is a dream medicine for cardiologists; its actions include almost everything on a heart specialist’s wish list.

There is no credible data to show that lowering LDL numbers with statins actually produces anything similar to the health benefits of magnesium. The magnesium approach to heart health is helpful, positive and safe. Using statins on the other hand could cost a person their life. Lowering LDL too low increases the rate of death.

It is not an exaggeration to say that miracles in cardiac medicine would be achieved if the overwhelming preponderance of magnesium deficiency — in adults, adolescents and the very young — were addressed instead of ignored. Dr. Sarah Myhill states: “There have been many studies showing that magnesium is clearly beneficial in heart disease. The trouble is the drug companies do not want to know. Magnesium is a serious competitor to their moneymaking pharmaceuticals. And so they set up a study to deliberately blacken the name of magnesium.”

Dr. Duane Graveline, Former USAF Flight Surgeon and NASA Astronaut says, “The fact that statin drugs are two-edged swords is known to few. It is no wonder doctors are confused about this class of drugs. When a statin reduces cholesterol, it is, at the same time, reducing synthesis of CoQ10, dolichols, selenoproteins, Rho, glutathione and normal phosphorylation by a similar amount. This, I believe, the cause of the thousands of side effect reports largely unknown to the medical community.” [5] Lowering LDL too low actually increases the rate of death from any one of several causes.

Vital Lessons for Cardiologists

In a study of postoperative ICU patients,[6] B. Chernow et al. found that the death rate was reduced from 41% to 13% for patients without hypomagnesemia (low magnesium levels). Other post-heart-surgery studies showed that patients with hypomagnesemia experienced more rhythm disorders. Time on the ventilator was longer,[7] and morbidity was higher than for patients with normal magnesium levels. Another study showed that a greater than 10% reduction of serum and intracellular magnesium concentrations was associated with a higher rate of postoperative ventricular arrhythmias. The administration of magnesium decreases the frequency of postoperative rhythm disorders after cardiac surgery.

Clearly, magnesium deficiency is a major risk factor for survival of CHF patients. In animal experiments, magnesium has been shown to be involved in several steps of the atherosclerotic process as well as magnesium ions playing an extremely important role in CHF and various cardiac arrhythmias.[8]

Magnesium is also required for muscle relaxation. Lower magnesium
levels can result in symptoms ranging from tachycardia and
fibrillation to constriction of the arteries, angina and instant death.

Due to lack of magnesium, the heart muscle can develop a spasm or cramp and stop beating. Most people, including doctors, do not know it but without sufficient magnesium, we will die. It is more than helpful to understand that our life span will be reduced if we run too long without sufficient magnesium in our cells and that the principle way our life is cut short is through cardiac arrest. Yet when someone dies of a heart attack people never say, “He died from magnesium deficiency.” Allopathic medicine is designed from the bottom up,[9] which means it ignores the true causes of death and disease. In the field of cardiology, this is telling!

Magnesium is an important protective factor
for death from acute myocardial infarction.[10]

Forty percent of all first heart attacks end in death! One of the most important actions of magnesium is its vasodilating effects, which improves the blood supply to ischemic areas and reduces infarct size. A ten-year study of 2,182 men in Wales found that those eating diets low in magnesium had a 50% higher risk of sudden death from heart attacks than those eating one-third more magnesium. In addition, high magnesium eaters were only half as likely to have any type of cardiovascular incident such as non-fatal heart attacks, strokes, angina (chest pain) or heart surgery.[11]

Pediatricians Take a Cut of the Action

Many doctors were incredulous about the aggressive new recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for warding off heart disease in children and for good reason..

In 2008 the AAP recommended wider cholesterol screening for children and more aggressive use of cholesterol-lowering drugs starting as early as the age of 8 in hopes of preventing adult heart problems.[12]

“What are the data that show this is helpful preventing heart attacks?” asked Dr. Darshak Sanghavi, a pediatric cardiologist and assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. “How many heart attacks do we hope to prevent this way? There’s no data regarding that.” Nor, Dr. Sanghavi added, are there data on the possible side effects of taking statins for 40 or 50 years.

“To be frank, I’m embarrassed for the A.A.P. today,” said Dr. Lawrence Rosen of Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, vice chairman of an academy panel on traditional and alternative medicine. He added, “Treatment with medications in the absence of any clear data? I hope they’re ready for the public backlash.” There is no long-term data on statin use in children. “We’re talking about potentially treating thousands and thousands of children simply to possibly prevent one heart attack,” says Dr. Sanghavi, from the University of Massachusetts. “That kind of risk benefit calculation is entirely absent from the A.A.P.’s policy.”