TRUTH ABOUT STATINS

This book was a fantastic eye opener. If you are feeling uncomfortable being on Statins for high cholesterol, I recommend this book.

As a Statin taker since 2006 after a stent in my heart, I started to get odd distractions, say I noticed I lost short-term memory whilst giving my training courses, then over the years, muscle discomfort or fatigue, tendinitis, gout, extreme pains in my shoulder blade, tingling in my left hand, etc, etc. Each time I went to my doctor I was treated for the symptoms I was presenting and not the cause. In January 2018 I was sent for another angioplasty and my Simvastatin was increased to 80mg per day. I began to slow down, walking like an old man, my ability to process information to follow ideas declined. I kept going back to my doctors who told me, what do I expect at 70 years old, I should retire from travelling the world giving talks and training sessions, and I was given more physical exercises to ease the pains. I started on occasions nearly passing out, going gray, ending-up in hospital twice. I decided to research statins, I had already had my doubts about them. I searched for literature on-line and books which gave facts that me as a non medical person would understand and was as much as possible unbiased. This book, one of many I am researching is well written by a real expert, yes I have researched the authors credentials, and analyses the trials and research undertaken with regards to statins. She shows how some of the results have been manipulated and misrepresented, how the pharmaceutical drug companies are in the business to make money, how the side effects are not being reported, and how our doctors are not looking at all the facts about statins before prescribing them to the general public. This is a book that is adding to my knowledge to make an informed decision on as to if I should continue taking statins drugs or find alternative solutions. A very good read and reference document.

Great information about statin drugs.

I must admit to being a bit of a crank when it comes to statin drugs. Whenever I was on them, I would experience muscle aches, but they weren't severe and I put that down to minor hypochondria on my part. But I became suspicious when I went off them at one point and experienced a small but significant weight loss. And then, when I went back on them, the weight came right back. Research into the subject of statins included this book, which is a real eye-opener. Dr. Roberts is not some New Age internet guru. She is a respected physician and teacher, the head of a Women's Cardiovascular Institute in Providence, RI. She is affiliated with Brown University. Her book is a clear-eyed look at the history and science of statins. What we learn from her book is that the glossy image of statin drugs is the result of voodoo mathematics and heavy-duty marketing. Voodoo mathematics? Well, to oversimplify, statistics can be manipulated to create the impression you want to create. For instance, if I were to say to you that Drug A will decrease your chance of dying of a heart attack by 30%, you'd say "Wow! A wonder drug! My chances of dying are decreased by 30%!" Who wouldn't want to take that drug, right? But if your chances of dying from a heart attack were only 1% to begin with, then your survival rate improvement is not 30% actually, it's more like one third of one percent. So how important is that one third of one percent when measured against the cost and potential health issues of taking a drug for the rest of your life? And the material gets really interesting when discussing women's health. Dr. Roberts provides evidence that not only do statins provide no protection to otherwise healthy women (with no comorbities to elevated cholesterol), but can actually be dangerous. Marketing: that's where things get really evil. I remember reading a statement by a pharmaceutical marketing executive. He noted that they didn't have a problem getting sick people to take their drugs and that success would be achieved when healthy people relied on their drugs. According to Dr. Roberts' analysis, statins are a perfect example of how pharmaceutical marketing creates just that situation where we now have doctors suggesting that, for instance, we should put statins in the water supply. She tells a compelling story of how doctors--some of them well-intentioned and others, not so much--have been co-opted by pharmaceutical companies into pushing drugs of dubious value and some real danger. If you are at all interested in the subject of statins, then this book is a must read and a great starting point for further research.

Statins caused havoc in my life. They are a problem drug and this book exposes why.