Dr Davis,

Please give us your take on KIF6.  I know that the data in some ways is preliminary.  All that I can seem to find is the 3 JACC articles in 1/08.  2 of them simply show a high prevalence of the arg/trp or arg/arg variant. But the study showing a statistical difference in MI/ Cardiac Death in as little as 30 months comparing 40 pravachol vs 80 lipitor is impressive.  Statins do save lives so they are ok with me.  It is just that the number needed treat/ number needed to harm ratio is too high.  KIF6 has the potential to cut the number needed to treat in half.

Co-incidentally I am about to go off my Crestor (40mg) for a "rest". I need to loose weight (5'7" and 195lb) but when I started my p90x program, I found that those annoying muscle aches in my left arm and right hand were such that I could not do a single pull up.  My Dr. asked that I stay on the higher dose of Crestor and supplement with CoQ10.  I will add CoQ10 to the fish oil, Niacin and vitamin D I am taking.  I'm going to start Vitamin K2 supplementation too (Canada does not allow high dose for some strange reason). But more than anything, recognizing some of the side effects I have read here, I think a break from Crestor is  overdue for me.

there is no shortage of criticism on this blog of statins and they certainly are over prescribed.  the real question is: when and only when should they be tried?  It would be helpful if you posted on this now that you have carefully gone in to some of the negatives of statins, but also, acknowledged their value.

What about women with high cholesterol without (overt) heart disease or a family history of heart disease? Some say that older women with high cholesterol live longer and better. This certainly has been true in my family. The women live to 90's without heart disease, total cholesterols 220-250 LDL certainly higher than the current "normal/optimal" but with high HDL and low triglycerides.

Hey there, Dr. Davis. Where are all the testimonials from people who have no side effects from statins and are doing just fine with lowered LDL levels?

Or does your profit incentive prohibit you from being fair and balanced, just like the pharmaceutical industry.

I dare you to publish this post. Not doing do will reveal your true intentions.

Steve and Bruce--

I am mindful of the fact that representatives of the pharmaceutical industry troll the blogosphere and internet in order to post comments to counter the rapidly growing rejection of the statin franchise. If you work for Pfizer, AstraZeneca, et al, I would kindly ask you to mind your own business.

If you do not, then please recognize that what I say is said because of the overwhelming influence of the drug industry. It is a David vs. Goliath world. The drug industry does not need to be defended. They would willingly take as much of your money and your insurer's money as possible. Their goals have little to do with health, but everything to do with profit.

If you have fallen victim to their brand of Kool Aid, then perhaps it's time for a little reality check.

Yet more scary but interesting stuff!

I was put on lipitor but had a (rare but reported) side effect that in retrospect was BG lowering over and above the reactive hypos I was already suffering

Switched to simvastatin and have been on it ever since, it appears to do exactly what it says on the tin, halves my LDL without affecting the lethal trigs and HDL (diet fixed them)

NOW I'm wondering if my apparent senility attacks are in fact not due to advancing age. In typing this I have already done several letter pair reversals. I actually forgot to make an appointment for my blood tests which ironically I am now going to blame on the statin (grins) I was going to drop them for a month prior to the next tests but maybe I am going to drop them now.

Why? I have also begun getting tinnitus. The trigger factor appeared to be NSAIDS, even ointment was bringing it on. Now I'm getting it even without these.

I suspect statin side effects are still rare compared to the percentage of people who don't get them BUT with an increasing statinised population there's a low percentage of a huge population now reporting in, hence the apparently increased incidence.

DR Davis:
i do not work for big pharma or any medical or health related profession, and am only interested when statins should be prescribed since my NMR results showed high small LDL despite my not eating wheat,using fish oils, taking D3 as you suggest. Since my Doc says statin time, i am only trying to get the best info in light of all negative publicity.
Perhaps you read my comment to fast; it was not advocating them, but asking since you in your post allude to possible cases when it should be used.  Your comment to me is therefore way out of line.

I fall on the side of believing that statins should never be prescribed.  From my understanding, while there's a slight indication that they can reduce cardiovascular events, they DO NOT reduce all-cause mortality.  This strongly suggests that they are mostly ineffective at doing what they're touted to do, and they introduce a new set of problems that can reduce the patients quality and length of life.

The purported benefits of statins, in all cases, can be beaten handily by a change of diet and supplements.

I think your personal practice is a testament to this, and yet you still leave several diet and supplement tactics on-the-table that could improve the results you could achieve. (I base this on reading every entry in your blog, and listening to your podcasts with Jimmy Moore.)

I love that you're well ahead of 99.999% of the other cardiologists.

I would like to know of any situation that you can quickly describe in which a statin makes sense.  I have an open mind about this, and perhaps you can convince me that such cases exist.

Stop press, dropped last night's statin and already the tinnitus is much reduced. It was never bad but was increasing and I thought its prevalence at night was due to quietness of the environment not to the fact I'd just taken the statin.

Now in the past I'd dropped the things for a month on month off trial which is why I am confident there were THEN no noticeable side effects.

SSRI poop-out is a well known phenomenon and the explanation used to be that while they upregulated serotonin, over time they would then downregulate dopamine in some individuals.

Most statin side effects I've heard of seem to be fairly instant, now I'm wondering if there's a similar temporal effect whereby some side effects don't develop for months or even years. This might explain why reports of problems are increasing over time even faster than the population is becoming statinised

Just wanted to report back on the break I have taken from 40mg Crestor.  Although I posted here on March 1st, I was really hesitant to stop since I was off on a business trip and not going to be too careful about diet.

Anyhow, full 10 days without Crestor and I have ZERO arm aches and have no issue doing chin ups (well, I can do some and all without the sharp "broken bone" pain).

I know I'm going to end up back on Statins as I really hate eating meat, but while I am trimming down, I will stay off them for maybe 3 or 4 months then get a blood test before asking the primary care phys for a dose recommendation.

An Appeal for Support and Conformation of MRI Results

My daughter has lived with ALS-like symptoms for almost 3 years. The worst of the symptoms began when her simvastatin was increased to 80mg in 2008.
Her MRIs show LESIONS in the brain stem, specifically in the PONS area of her brain.
Of course, her 4 physicians refuse to believe that a statin is involved. They are all satisfied with the diagnosis of “Ataxia”.

My Appeal is to all those who are/were on statins and have similar brain lesions as shown and documented in MRIs. Please reply here, or contact her father directly: Dr Stephen Arvay, stephenx11@cogeco.ca

What I am advocating is that statins be used carefully, after all efforts at correction of lipid/lipoprotein patterns have been made, with an assessment of true coronary risk (not such nonsense as the Framingham score). A more reasonable application of statin drug prescription would shrink the market from its current $27 billion to a tiny fraction of that.

when taking statins, follow doctors advice, take the drugs according to doctors prescription, the  drug carefully to be safe.

Finlaly! This is just what I was looking for.

Ya learn something new evreyady. It's true I guess!

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People like you and Dr. Eades have my complete respect precisely because you're not only willing but eager to adjust your advice in accordance with your understanding of the latest and best science.  Like you, Dr. Eades is constantly pointing out where he's adjusted his recommendations, whether from an earlier book or even just an earlier post.

Contrast that behavior with the latest diet study where Bray et al attempted to pass off a diet including daily rations of bagels, pasta, and bananas as "low carb."  How sad, how grotesque authority figures are when they cling to a pretense that there is nothing for them to learn!  And they led Harvard University, the New England Journal of Medicine and most of the "health" writers in the nation right into the briar patch!

Another thing to consider adding to the new book is something about periodontal/gingival disease which is a constant source of inflammation in the body leading to elevated CRPs.

Anonymous
Low 25(OH)D is associated with periodontal disease
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/80/1/108
Just reading the list of VDR sites here
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18777944 Vitamin D and the digestive system should be sufficient for people to realize it   may play a major role in our ability to deal with inflammation.

Dr. D., the Dr's. Eades have shaped my thinking about diet more than any other source, specifically their emphasis on carbohydrates and the  role of insulin in  disease.  I am thrilled that you admire each other, thus confirming my intuition about the worth of each of your approaches.  I also judge you and the the Eades to be of the highest caliber as debunkers. I may never meet any of you, but you are the team I regard as my primary health advisers, along with Dr. John Cannell.  May you all thrive, and may many others learn from you and thrive as well.  Though I found the Eades in the book store many years ago, I am so grateful that the Internet now provides us all with such a valuable tool to work for our own well being.  The more successful we all are  in this enterprise, the sooner our health care becomes truly our own, and the better it will be.  Onward!

seems to me that if you are far away from TYP goals of 60/60/60 that you should through diet/nutrition supplements just work towards those goals.  Why not just get frequent NMR tests and avoid any level of radiation?

I was born and brought up on newsgroups, used various forums and came late to the blogosphere. To you and the estimable Michael Eades I'd add Mark Sissons and Hyperlipid as must-reads. You all come at the same conclusions from different perspectives, and keep up with current work.

Your readers would like this

http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2009/02/cholesterol-presentation-between.html

Hi Dr. Davis.  
Another blog you may want to check out is "whole health source."
His latest post is about a recent study examining the effects of Vitamin K on heart disease.  Here's the link:

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/