How apathy saved a life

John from California left this comment recently on my Wacky statin effects post. He tells such a vivid, compelling story that I had to pass it on.



I started taking statins a couple of years ago. A friend told me that he heard that they caused Alzheimers-like symptoms. I didn't think that I exhibited any effects like that, so I pretty much ignored it, except to raise the issue with my doctor.

During the last two years, I gradually lost interest in pretty much everything. It wasn't that I was forgetful, I just didn't much care about anything. Didn't care about my hobbies, quit my job, only paid bills when I felt like it, left a rental property vacant for 1 1/2 years and other similar issues.

I am normally a pretty active person with lots of pursuits. When I spoke to my doctor about my 'lack of interest and motivation', she suggested putting me on testosterone and later a mood enhancer. (I'm 60 and I lost my wife to breast cancer about 3 years ago, so I guess the thinking was either that I was going through male menopause or just depressed over her passing.)

Although I never had the muscle aches or liver problems that are considered the side effects of statins, gradually I began to feel weaker (not uncommon at 60) and more lackadaisical in my approach to bills and responsibilities. I also began suffering continual intense tinnitus and insomnia. I became crankier and more vehement in my dealings with other people and dangerously aggressive while driving.

Oddly enough, my lack of concern with paying bills led to the pharmacist telling me that Blue Shield had canceled me. Although I could easily have called the doctor for a prescription for $5 statins through KMart, I just couldn't be bothered, so I discontinued my medication.

It's been about 2 1/2 weeks since my prescription ran out. Within 4 days I began feeling better and my thinking became clearer. I no longer have tinnitus, my good mood has returned and I actually accept life's small annoyances again. Finally, I feel better physically and am more motivated. (Unfortunately, now I have to clean up all the financial garbage I've accumulated in the last year or so.)

If you take statins and begin to suffer any of the symptoms that I've noted above. Tell your doctor to take you off for a month. If your symptoms improve, you'll know why.

Although I no longer have medical insurance, one requirement of the coverage was that my cholesterol be controllable with statins. I'd rather have a heart attack or stroke and die than to go back to being the useless walking zombie that I was.


Imagine the consequences of of everyone take a statin drug, even "putting it in the water," advocated by some of my colleagues.

Make no mistake about it: The widespread, indiscriminate use of statin drugs is not without profound implications for many people. The popular notion of "the more statin agent, the better" that has propagated, thanks to the billions of dollars spent on marketing and "research," will lead to more unfortunate experiences like John.

Statins are drugs with real effects and very real side-effects.

Comments (7) -

  • Dr. B G

    2/28/2009 5:22:00 PM |

    Hi,

    How curious!!!

    What good timing -- I just posted on statins and how they can make one dumber.

    (It's for Jeq our resident TYP 'brainiac' with an IQ surpassing 300+  *haa he*)

    -G

  • Dr. B G

    2/28/2009 5:22:00 PM |

    Hi,

    How curious!!!

    What good timing -- I just posted on statins and how they can make one dumber.

    (It's for Jeq our resident TYP 'brainiac' with an IQ surpassing 300+  *haa he*)

    -G

  • Anonymous

    2/28/2009 6:45:00 PM |

    I experienced the same kind of zombie-like life for the 1 1/2 years my doctor vehemently insisted I be on statins.  In addition, I suffered horrible aches and pains that made every day pure misery... M I S E R Y !

    The 'light bulb moment' occurred while driving down the street one day (at 25 miles per hour, with other drivers honking and passing and me wondering what the problem was...) when the thought popped into my head: "So THIS is what it feels like to be 85 years old!"

    At the time I was a 56 year old woman with two teenagers still living at home...

    There IS life after statins... and I am living proof of that.  I have fully embraced the TYP program and feel much better physically and empowered mentally... and looking forward to the future!

    madcook

  • Anonymous

    2/28/2009 8:42:00 PM |

    My story, similar enough:  On Lipitor since 1997, and pretty sure I had no side effects.  Hey, I am a man, I don't complain.  Work has gotten real challenging (but they pay me well).  At age 52, 2 years ago, I was fed up with working hard, cranky, and wanted to quit.  Very low tolerance for frustration.  A year ago, I hit a low spot again, but knowing that quitting was not an option, I started pestering my wife about things married people quarrel about other than money.  No matter how great she was, every month or so I would get in a complete funk about it.  Meanwhile, my brother had an MI, freaking me out, so at my doctor's suggestion I doubled the Lipitor dose (to 40mg a day), bringing LDL below 100 and total chol. to 162 (40% below what God's original design of me produced).  Plus, I ached a lot after exercise with severe "arthritis" in my hip, and these pains took days to go away, and still I got mad every few weeks at my wife and otherwise into a depressed funk (one morning I wrote an essay about suicide, which was much on my mind).  Mood swings could be sudden.  She finally asked whether it might be the Lipitor, which I dismissed as very unlikely because I wanted to believe I was controlling my anger and depression better at that point (not really so) and besides everyone knows that statins have very few side effects.  But, I did poke around a bit, and saw that kooky internet people seemed to have a lot of statin side effects, including depression.  So, I thought I would quit, as an experiment.  Like the JUPITER study, the results were so stunning I had to end the experiment in just 48 hours, except unlike JUPTIER, the clear result was that statins are nasty poisins that were ruining my life.  I quickly concluded that no statin would again pass my lips.  Depression, gone immediately (I am now 45 days off Lipitor).  Relationship with wife, great (maybe "saved" is the word).  Athletic performance, vastly better (adjusted for my modest natural abilities), with aches reduced vastly.  Ability to withstand frustration, zoomed way way up.  I feel totally different, and better; I think of my high cholesterol as my friend, protecting my from the abyss.

    The other exciting thing is that I was depending on Lipitor to prevent heart disease, but I see now that it was only a raffle in which I had one ticket, with 75 or 100 other ticket holders in the NNT raffle (to prevent a survivable coronary in the next ten years, but not to prevent death -- that is not a prize in this raffle).  There are obviously way better things I can do for prevention, at low cost and no negative side effects (plenty of positive ones, though).

    I feel ten years younger.  I refer to quitting Lipitor as my "miracle cure."  I feel a moral obligation to warn others.  

    Barkeater

  • moblogs

    3/1/2009 10:55:00 AM |

    When queing up monthly for medicines at my local pharmacy I've lost count at the amount of times the person ahead of me is told by the pharmacist their statin is out of stock and to come back in a few days.

    Every time someone goes for a British healthcheck their likelihood of being put on a statin is virtually guaranteed because 'average' local, total cholesterol is allegedly high.
    My local GP only seems to care about total cholesterol and not HDL amount or LDL particle size.

  • Dr. William Davis

    3/1/2009 1:34:00 PM |

    Thanks, everyone, for sharing your stories.

  • karl

    3/2/2009 5:44:00 AM |

    I'm wondering if Crestor can cause anxiety and depression? I just had stents put in and know that learning of heart problems alone can cause emotional problems.

    BUT -  I notice the anxiety and depression at the same time every day and feel fine other times of the day.

    I think I would rather be on Niacin...

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Low HDL makes Dr. Friedewald a liar

Low HDL makes Dr. Friedewald a liar

There's a $22 billion industry based on treating LDL cholesterol, a fictitious number.

LDL cholesterol is calculated from the following equation:

LDL cholesterol = Total cholesterol - HDL cholesterol - triglycerides/5

So when your doctor tells you that your LDL cholesterol is X, 99% of the time it has been calculated. This is based on the empiric calculation developed by Dr. Friedwald in the 1960s. Back then, it was a reasonable solution, just like bacon and eggs was a reasonable breakfast and a '62 Rambler was a reasonable automobile.

One of the problems with Dr. Friedewald's calculation is that the lower HDL cholesterol, the less accurate LDL cholesterol becomes. If it were just a few points, so what? But what if it were commonly 50 to 100 mg/dl inaccurate? In other words, your doctor tells you that your LDL is 120 mg/dl, but the real number is somewhere between 170 and 220 mg/dl. Does this happen?

You bet it does. In my experience, it is an everyday event. In fact, I'm actually surprised when the Friedewald calculated LDL closely approximates true LDL--it's the exception.

Dr. Friedewald would likely have explained that, when applied to a large population of, say, 10,000 people, calculated LDL is a good representation of true LDL. However, just like saying that the average weight for an American woman is 176 lbs (that's true, by the way), does that mean if you weigh 125 lbs that you are "off" by 41 lbs? No, but it shows how you cannot apply the statistical observations made in large populations to a single individual.

The lower HDL goes, the more inaccurate LDL becomes. This would be acceptable if most HDLs still permitted reasonable estimation of LDL--but it does not. LDL begins to become significantly inaccurate with HDL below 60 mg/dl.

How to get around this antiquated formula? In order of most accurate to least accurate:

--LDL particle number (NMR)--the most accurate by far.

--Apoprotein B--available in most laboratories.

--"Direct" LDL

--Non-HDL--i.e., the calculation of total cholesterol minus HDL. But it's still a calculated with built-in flaws.

--LDL by Friedewald calculation.

My personal view: you need to get an NMR if you want to know what your LDL truly is. A month of Lipitor costs around $80-120. A basic NMR costs less than $90. It's a relative bargain.

Comments (5) -

  • Mike

    3/18/2007 1:52:00 AM |

    What is shocking is that enormous prescriptions for statins are written based on the calculated LDL.

  • Dr. Davis

    3/18/2007 1:16:00 PM |

    Yes, $22 billion last year, in fact. All prescribed for a number that is a crude estimate, sometimes a complete fiction. Imagine your state trooper ticketed you because his radar device said you were doing 60 mph when you were really doing 35 mph.

  • Anonymous

    2/6/2008 1:37:00 AM |

    Why NMR over the other tests Berkeley Heart Lab or VAP?

  • Anonymous

    7/2/2008 7:02:00 PM |

    I don't understand.  If in this example, the doctor (wrongly) thinks the LDL number is 120mg/dl, how does that cause the prescription of Lipitor? Unless I'm reading it backwards, and the doctor is actually telling the patient their LDL is 170mg-220mg, but unwittingly, it's actually 120mg/dl.

    And, if a low HDL causes the LDL number to be inaccurate, does that also cause the total cholesterol number to be inaccurate too?

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Heart scan curiosities 2

Heart scan curiosities 2



This is an example of a so-called "hiatal hernia", meaning the stomach has migrated through the diaphragmatic hiatus into the chest--the stomach is literally in the chest. This example is an unusually large one. Hiatal hernias can cause chest pain, indigestion, and a variety of other gastrointestinal complaints. Heart scans are reasonably useful to screen for this disorder, though very small ones could escape detection by this method.

Sometimes, you can actually hear the gurgling of stomach contents (the common "growling" stomach) by listening to the chest. Large ones like this actually crowd your heart (the gray structure above the circled hernia), irritating it and even causing abnormal rhythm disorders. The dense dark material within the hernia represents lunch.

I would not advocate CT heart scans as a principal method to make a diagnosis, but sometimes it just pops up during a heart scan and we pass it on to the person scanned.

Comments (2) -

  • Anonymous

    8/2/2007 5:42:00 PM |

    Awesome, just awesome.Brilliant blog that has helped me ALOT so I am eternally grateful. Phil

  • Anonymous

    10/4/2007 2:01:00 AM |

    I just had a heart scan. 44 year old female with family history of heart disease.  Both parents in 40's with heart attacks/by-pass surgery...My cardiologist ask if I had ever been diagnosed with a hiatal hernia and the scan looked somewhat like the one you show.  It looked like I had one Big Heart!  He told me to follow-up with my PCP.  I did, he is new for me and not sure I see eye-to-eye with him, but he insist a hernia can not show up on a heart scan, I told him, I saw it, I saw the scan, I saw the white circle...I have had GERD for 5-6 years now, nausea almost every morning on top of the reflux in the morning and my family always complain how long it takes me to eat! Guess what, I'm having an upper GI in the morning.  Thanks for this information...I thought maybe I was loosing my mind!

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