Statins Increase Kidney Disease Risk by 30-36%

A large study, published in the American Journal of Cardiology has found that statins increase the risk of kidney disease by 30 - 36%.

The study included 43,000 people, with a median 6.4 year follow up. This follow up time is important because statin trials are typically only around 4 years in duration, and in some cases less than 3 years duration. So this new study gives us a rare insight into what happens in the real world with long-term statin use. 

Acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, and nephritis/nephrosis/renal sclerosis were increased in those who took statins.

Amazingly, one of the lead authors, Dr Ishak A Mansi, said: "patients who are taking statins should not stop taking them based on this study".  Probably, the study could not have been published if this comment was not included. Those people who follow this subject will know that this is a standard line printed in just about every statin study regardless of the actual data or outcomes. 

The authors did also say that there is an urgent need for more longer-term studies like this one in order to know what statins are really doing to people in the long term.

Also amazingly, at the same time, the United States Preventative Services Task Force has just come out officially stating their support for the widespread use of statins for people with low risk of heart disease. This task force did not mention the increased kidney disease, or the increase in arterial plaques, or the increased diabetes risks...etc., associated with statin use. 

The task force article (being pro-statins) has been picked up by some of the large media organisations. Unfortunately, the study showing the increased risk of kidney disease has not - not yet anyway. 

 

chronic nephritis 

chronic nephritis 

Different People: Different Diets

Its the time of year when many people start thinking about improving their lifestyle and eating more healthily. Some people will be tempted to follow one of the many fad diets.

This article is an excerpt from the Ebook 29 Billion Reasons to Lie About Cholesterol, and describes the need for an individual approach to nutrition.

A multi-billion dollar diet industry has emerged that includes an exhaustive range of fad diets. One of the main differences between each of these diets concerns the proportions of carbohydrate, protein and fat that is recommended. Some experts recommend a low carbohydrate/high protein and fat approach, whereas others advocate a high carbohydrate/low protein and fat program. The recommendations between different diets can be poles apart yet each program has numerous success stories in support of it. How can completely opposite approaches achieve the same results?

When the authorities establish nutritional recommendations for a whole country, they attempt to provide a simple ‘one size fits all’ set of guidelines. This certainly makes their job easier but unfortunately it bears no relation to the realities of nutritional science. If we look around the world we can see that different cultures have historically eaten very different kinds of foods. Genetically people adapted to the range of foods that were available to them in their immediate environment. Nutritional wisdom was passed down from one generation to the next and each successive generation remained healthy.

During the 1920s and 1930s a dentist by the name of Dr Weston Price travelled around the world to study the foods eaten by traditional cultures. His work is summarised in a classic book titled Nutrition and Physical Degeneration (1). Dr. Price studied a great variety of different cultures from North American Indians to Australian Aborigines and New Zealand Maori.

Within each of the cultures he studied, Dr Price found that people stayed healthy as long as they stick to their traditional diets – the foods that were eaten by their ancestors. However, whenever a group of people tried to follow a different diet, and in particular, consumed processed ‘modern’ foods, they became affected by the degenerative conditions that plague the industrialised world.

Our metabolisms evolve over tens of thousands of years. Modern technology has allowed people to migrate across vast distances but during this time our metabolic makeup has not changed a great deal. Here in the UK, as with many other countries around the world, we have a real melting pot of cultures and genetic heritage. This has resulted in a wide range of different nutritional requirements. Some people may be suited to the general high carbohydrate/low fat diet that is recommended to everyone. However, many other people will not be suited to this and they may need much more protein and fat than carbohydrate in order to have lots of energy and good health.

Over the last few decades experts have been trying to find the villain in our food. Some say it is carbohydrate, and others blame fat. As we have already seen, dietary saturated fat and cholesterol have bore the brunt of this approach. However, an assessment of nutrition from a global perspective reveals a number of case studies that may help us to learn more about the link between what we eat and our health. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss a few of these examples that demonstrate the need for an individualised approach to nutrition.


Alaskan Eskimos

In the early 1920s Dr Victor Levine from the Creighton School of Medicine planned a trip to Alaska to study the health of native Eskimos. In a New York Times article he was quoted as saying: “The Eskimos seem to be more capable of resisting disease and hardships than those of more southern climates. Yet they defy all the known laws of nutrition. They eat large amounts of protein and fats, but are short on other vital elements without which we in this part of the world could not live at all for any length of time” (2).

Indeed, the native Eskimo at this time was highly admired for having excellent health. Dr Western Price also commented on the health of the native Eskimo, by stating that it was amongst the best that he had encountered on his travels, and that he was “deeply concerned to know the formula of his [the Eskimos’] nutrition in order that we may learn from it” (1).

Another researcher: Dr Cleave, a surgeon captain in the Royal Navy, was interested in the low rate of heart disease in Eskimo communities. Dr Cleave observed that the Eskimo followed a highly carnivorous diet, being abundant in meat and fat, yet there was an absence of heart disease (3).

Dr Cleave studied many traditional cultures around the world. He documented the importance of wholesome natural foods and an evolutionary approach to nutrition. In particular, he was concerned with the effect of consuming refined carbohydrates such as white flour. These investigations led to the discovery of what Cleave referred to as the incubation period for degenerative disease. This is related to the amount of time it takes for signs of disease to become apparent within a community after people start consuming refined carbohydrates. Cleave generally found that this incubation period was 20 years for diabetes and 30 years for heart disease.

Back in 1974, when Dr Cleave published his book summarising his research (3), he had already begun to understand the mechanism by which high blood glucose (sugar) levels damage the arteries and cause heart disease. He also commented on the absurdity of the idea that saturated fat causes heart disease – stating that this idea has no logical foundation from an evolutionary point of view.

The findings of Dr Levine, Dr Price, Dr Cleave and many others, have since been confirmed by the increasing rates of disease in all countries that increasingly adopt refined foods and abandon traditional foods. Of the many examples of this, the story of the Eskimo is among the most striking. Since when native Eskimos abandon their traditional eating patterns and follow a western diet their rate of diabetes and heart disease increases drastically.

Native Eskimos in America now have a higher rate of disease than the general population. Having once been studied for their incredibly low rates of diabetes and heart disease, Eskimos who eat western foods suddenly be- come at high risk for these diseases. For example, native Eskimos are now 2.3 times more likely to have diabetes, 1.6 times more likely to be obese, and 1.2 times more likely to have heart disease than their white American counterparts (4).

The decline in the health of native Eskimos has been more rapid than what has been seen in other cultures. But this was predicted by Dr Price decades ago and it is exactly what would be expected when we look at nutrition from an evolutionary point of view. As stated above, the traditional diet followed by Eskimos consisted mostly of protein and fat based foods. These foods included large quantities of dried salmon (as each piece of fish was broken off it was dipped in seal oil), fish eggs, whale skin and the organs of sea animals. Other foods included caribou, nuts, kelp, and cranberries (1).

Native Eskimos from Alaska are given the same nutritional guidelines as the rest of the American public. They are advised to eat more fruits and vegetables (up to nine servings a day), eat whole grains, cut down on fatty foods and limit the amount of fat in their diet (5, 6).

Dietitians and other ‘experts’ focus on reducing the fat content of the diet, but surely attention should be given to the dissimilarities between the traditional Eskimo diet and the one which is now being advised. Traditionally, the Eskimo would simply not have any grain based foods available to them. Neither would they have access to the majority of fruits and vegetables that are found in warmer climates. Their metabolisms have evolved to thrive on protein and fat based foods – the foods that were available to them. Otherwise these people would not have survived.

It is curious that the most significant health problem among native Eskimos is diabetes. As we have seen in the previous chapter, one of the main contributing factors to the development of diabetes is having high blood glucose levels - being caused by a diet that has a high glycemic load. A high carbohydrate/low fat diet that contains grain based foods has a high glycemic load and causes blood glucose levels to rapidly increase after eating.

It is logical to suggest that native Eskimos are more susceptible to the adverse effects of a diet that has a high glycemic load. Their metabolisms have historically only had to deal with relatively small amounts of glucose. An Eskimo’s body is not used to dealing with the rapid increase in blood glucose that is associated with a low fat / high carbohydrate diet. It would take tens of thousands of years for them to adapt to this but it has been introduced to them suddenly in just a few decades.

North American Indians

American Indians suffer similar rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease as do native Eskimos (4). The traditional diet of the American Indian was in many cases almost entirely made up of the wild animals of the case (1). This included: deer, buffalo, bear, moose, and fish. A small amount of plant food from berries, wild celery and corn was also eaten (7). When Dr Price visited the American Indians who were following their traditional way of life he was shown how they managed to keep themselves free from diseases such as scurvy.

When a moose was killed it was opened up at the back and two “balls of fat” just above the kidneys were taken out and cut up into small pieces. Each member of the family was then given a piece to eat. The Indians knew that eating a small amount of this part of the animal would prevent them from getting scurvy (1). The “balls of fat” were in fact the adrenal glands of the animal. We now know that the adrenal glands provide one of the richest sources of vitamin C available from any food. The vitamin C available from the adrenal glands of the moose protected the American Indians from scurvy. They had discovered this nutritional secret long before ‘modern civilisation’ had built laboratories to measure the nutrient content of foods.

American Indians are advised to reduce their fat intake, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, eat low-fat cheese, skimmed milk, egg substitutes and soft margarines, and to cook with vegetable oils (7). Again, these guidelines rep- resent a diet that is very different from their traditional diet – which included a large amount of protein and just a small amount of carbohydrate. The glycemic load of the traditional diet would be much lower than the diet that is now being recommended to American Indians. Increasing the glycemic load in this way, can only increase the risk for diabetes and heart disease for these people.

In addition, low-fat foods that are more heavily processed such as low-fat cheese, skimmed milk and egg substitutes are not whole foods – they are denatured and low in vital nutrients. Whereas the meats that was traditionally eaten were packed with life supporting nutrients. A lower intake of vital nutrients further increases the risk for disease. For example, these nutrients are needed to protect the blood vessels and arteries from damage.

Australian Aborigines

Australian Aborigines are probably the oldest living race of people in the world (1). The traditional diet of the Aborigines depended on the district. Those who came from the coastal regions thrived on dugong, sea cow, shell fish and other types of sea food. This was supplemented with some sea plants. Whereas people living in the interior districts thrived on land animals (such as kangaroo and wallaby), eggs, insects, leaves, berries, peas and roots (1).

Dr Price found that ‘modern’ nutrition was having a disastrous effect on Australian Aborigines. After consuming ‘modern’ foods for a relatively short period of time the fertility of these people had reduced to the point where the death rate far exceeded the birth rate. In summary, Dr Price wrote: “They demonstrate in a tragic way in inadequacy of the white man’s dietary program” (1).

In the mid 1980s Professor Kerin O’Dea published an article in the journal Diabetes to document how a group of Australian Aborigines virtually recovered from diabetes in five weeks by returning to their traditional diet (8, 9).

Swiss – Loetschental Valley

At the time when Dr Price visited Switzerland, the most serious disease for the country as a whole was tuberculosis. However, the beautiful Loetschental Valley had not experienced a single case of this disease. The food here consisted mainly of rye bread and cheese. The cheese was eaten in slices as large (and thick) as the slice of bread and it was made from the milk of cows that grazed on the grass near the snow line of the mountains. This cheese contained natural butter fat, which was the pride of the people and revered for its life-giving properties. All of the dairy foods were unpasteurised and provided an excellent source of vitamins and minerals.

African Tribes

Although the Swiss of the Loetschental Valley thrived on a diet that contained a significant amount of grains (in the form of rye bread) certain African tribes have not fared so well. For in Africa, there appears to be a connection between the health of a particular group of people and the portion of the diet that is made up of grain based foods. Table 4A lists some of the African tribes that were studied by Dr Price. Generally, the tribes that consumed larger amounts of animal based foods were much more immune to dental cavities.

Among tribes who traditionally ate more foods of animal origin (which contained large amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol) it was not uncommon to find a complete absence of dental cavities. However, those tribes that extensively used cereal grains as food had around 6-7% of their teeth affected by dental cavities. It is widely accepted that dental health is a reliable indicator of nutritional status and general health. In addition, the tribes who consumed more animal based foods were generally physically stronger than those following a cereal or grain based diet.

Animal Vs Plant Based Food

Researchers with an interest in the evolution of dietary habits and how this relates to health have investigated traditional diets around the world. They have found a huge variety in the composition of traditional diets. For example, the amount of meat that was eaten ranges from 270 grams to 1,400 grams per person per day (10). Figure 4A illustrates the composition of various traditional diets. It can be seen that the percentage of the diet that was made up of animal foods and plant based foods varied tremendously.


Although there is tremendous variation in traditional diets, it has also been revealed that:
• 73% of hunter-gatherer societies ate more animal foods than plant foods
• 14% of hunter-gatherer societies ate more plant foods than animal foods (11)
In fact, across all hunter-gatherer societies, the median consumption was around 66-75% animal foods and just 26-35% plant foods (11).

It is well established that humans are omnivores (having the biological requirement to eat both animal and plant foods). However this data shows that animal foods would have been the preferred energy source for the majority of worldwide hunter-gatherers (11).

In addition, 97% of the world’s hunter-gatherers would have exceeded the fat intake that is recommended to people in the UK and America (11).

These facts can help to explain why the UK and America, along with other countries, are experiencing a rapid increase in the incidence of diabetes. Genetically, a large proportion of humans are not able to cope with a high carbohydrate/low fat diet. As mentioned above, the high glycemic load of this diet results in high blood glucose levels that can cause or contribute to diabetes.

High blood glucose levels can also damage the walls of the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart. Some of the mechanisms associated with this are discussed in chapter 12.
However, it would be inappropriate to suggest that diabetes and heart disease would be eliminated overnight by the ubiquitous adoption of a high protein/high fat diet. Since there are those people who do function best on a low fat / high carbohydrate diet. The challenge is try to establish what proportion of carbohydrate, protein and fat suits you as an individual.

Two Laws of Nutrition

The work of Dr Price and numerous other researchers over the last century has been remarkably consistent and has revealed two fundamental laws of nutrition.
These are:

  1. Food is most nutritious in its natural state (as described in the appendix)
  2. Each person has totally unique requirements for foods based on their genetic heritage and lifestyle. This applies to the macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein and fat) and to micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and trace elements).

These two simple rules should form the basis of any nutritional guidelines. If these laws are not obeyed, we can be absolutely certain that disease and degeneration will occur. Unfortunately, nutritional advice in the 21st century is heavily influenced by politics and commercial interests. While this is the case, the general public will be subjected to a continuous deterioration in health.

Finding Your Own Nutritional Requirements

Dr Roger Williams, the great biochemist who discovered many of the B vitamins, said that at the metabolic level we are all as unique as we are in our fingerprints (12). Our metabolic individuality determines our individual nutritional requirements. This individuality permeates a number of different levels within the body.

It is of course practically impossible to determine our own individual genetic heritage by working back through our family tree. In order to do this we would have to trace our heritage back for tens of thousands of years. We can however develop ways to measure how our individual metabolism is functioning today.

Rather than trying to find a simple set of nutritional recommendations to suit everyone, it makes much more sense to develop tools that enable individual people to determine their own individual requirements for foods. A range of these tools already exist. Although, in order to understand each metabolic level it may be necessary to complete several, or a range of metabolic tests.

This area of metabolic testing is also related to functional medicine - it is evolving all the time and beyond the scope of this book. Suffice to say that it is best to work with a qualified practitioner who is metabolic-individuality-inclined. Failing that, there is a great deal that can be done through trial and error and listening to the way your body responds to different amounts of protein, fat and carbohydrate.

The main purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate that a ‘one size fits all’ approach to nutrition will never work, and that the idea that everyone should follow a low fat diet is flawed.

This article is Chapter 4 from the Ebook 29 Billion Reasons to Lie About Cholesterol (2nd Edition). Please click here for more details..

Cholesterol in the Human Body

If we google 'cholesterol' of course we'll find thousands of images portraying it as "artery-clogging", but what about the real functions of cholesterol? 

I have created this one page info sheet / poster in an attempt to re-educate about the many things cholesterol is actually used for within the body.

Please send this A4 sized image to anyone you think is afraid of their cholesterol.

Suggestions:

-Print and use as a poster

-Email / hand out to friends and colleagues

-Fix to the front of your statin medication cupboard 

             JPEG version: cholesterol_poster_A4

             PDF version: cholesterol_poster_A4

 

In Memory of Jayanta Chatterjee

One year ago, my friend, Obhi Chatterjee completed his film about the business of dementia and alternative nutritional approaches to help with the condition. The film, You Must Be Nuts, explores the wealth of information available concerning nutritional therapies and presents it in an entertaining way. Obhi made this film because of his experiences helping his father, Jayanta, who suffered with the condition.

Seeing first hand, how some of the medications Jayanta was prescribed caused horrible side effects. Obhi investigated the nutritional alternatives, and managed to stabilise his fathers condition somewhat. For the first time seeing some improvements in daily functioning. However, unfortunately, the condition had already become severe and it was not possible to reverse it - either with medications or nutrition, and last Saturday, Jayanta passed away.

One of the topics included in Obhi's film is the benefits of coconut oil. This weekend, news reports in the mainstream media have finally caught up with the benefits of coconut oil, by highlighting a recent study showing coconut oil is the healthiest for cooking with. 

We all look forward to the day when the authorities put science before business interests when deciding nutritional guidelines.

Obhi's film is available to watch for free at the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QrrBX-6gp0

 

 

More Evidence Statins Are Harming Millions

Two new studies have shown that statins impair the immune system. One study (from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center) found that statins impair the immune response (1). And another study (from Emory University) found that statins can block the ‘effectiveness’ of the flu vaccine in the elderly (2). 

Of course, as always, the 'experts' are all saying that further research is needed and people should carry on taking their statins. However, they are conveniently ignoring the other data confirming that low cholesterol is bad for the immune system.

Back in 1997, researchers in the Netherlands published an article in the Lancet showing that in the case of the elderly, those with the highest cholesterol are best protected from cancer and infections (3). 

Other research, led by the University of California, has confirmed that derivatives of cholesterol play an important role in the immune system and could protect humans from a wide range of viruses, such as: Ebola, Rift Valley Fever, Nipah, and other deadly pathogens (4).


When the immune system is first exposed to a new pathogen, it develops (through the production of memory cells) the ability to recognise the invader when it next enters the body. This ‘memory’ of the immune system is provided by a clustering of T-cell receptors and cholesterol plays a key part in this process.

Therefore, is it really a surprise to find that the immune system and vaccines are impaired in those who take statins? 

 

References:

  1. Influence of Statins on Influenza Vaccine Response in Elderly Individuals
  2. Impact of Statins on Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Against Medically Attended Acute Respiratory Illness
  3. Total cholesterol and risk of mortality in the oldest old.
  4. Interferon-Inducible Cholesterol-25-Hydroxylase Broadly Inhibits Viral Entry by Production of 25-Hydroxycholesterol

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/idso-srq102715.php

 

Extended Interview - Professor Shah Ebrahim

Professor Ebrahim is one of the authors of the highly influential Cochrane review of statins. Followers of the statins saga will already be aware that the Cochrane group radically changed their opinion of statins between the first review in 2011 and the second review in 2013.

This video is almost one hour long, sorry, I did wonder if I should split it into three videos to make it more digestible. However, I think the video is useful in appreciating the mindset of those who dogmatically support mass statin use. In my mind, the striking features of the interview are:

  1. Support for Ancel Keys work, which is now widely known to have been fraudulent.
  2. A complete disregard for any suggestion that statins might be harmful in any way, despite the fact that Cochrane themselves admitted a serve lack of data on the adverse effects of statins.
  3. Complete refusal to accept that the ‘benefits’ of statins have been exaggerated - associated with this is the opinion that it is OK to use relative percentages, which we know only serve to mislead people.
  4. Complete refusal to accept that the huge commercial influences may be a problem.

By the way, for just one of the many examples why the commercial interests are a problem, please see this other video here, which features a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Former Editor of Major Journal Exposes Statin Conflict of Interest

Jerome P. Kassirer M.D., distinguished professor and former editor of one of the world's biggest medical journals discusses conflict of interest in statin guidelines.

At the same time, a Canadian group did an analysis on the same data and came up with the opposite conclusion (that statins are not beneficial in primary prevention) - the Canadian group had no ties with the pharmaceutical companies.

Since these guidelines were introduced there have been several updates - each time, the 'experts' recommended statins for more and more people, and each time the conflicts of interest have remained in place.

Shortly after the publication of his book, Professor Kassirer lost his post at the New England Journal of Medicine. 

Source:

Providence Medical Center

 

 

Professor Sultan Wins Highly Prestigious Award

Professor Sultan, who features in Statin Nation II, has been honoured with yet another award. On Tuesday March 24th he was awarded the Title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (ULBS) in Romania. 

This is the most prestigious title in the history of ULBS and was awarded to only five other dignitaries in the history of the University.


During the last 18 months Professor Sultan travelled to Romania on three separate occasions to perform complex thoracoabdominal repairs on eight patients with life-threatening aortic pathologies. He has also supported the cardiovascular clinical training programme at Polisano Clinic in Sibiu.

Those who follow the statins and cholesterol issues will be aware of Professor Sultan’s research article that was heavily critical of the widespread use of statins. 

It is time for the medical establishment to sit up and pay attention to pioneering doctors like Professor Sultan, who are moving way beyond the ill-founded cholesterol hypothesis in order to find treatments and innovative techniques that genuinely benefit patients. 

WORLD PREMIERE - STATIN NATION II, London, Saturday 28th February 2015

I am delighted to announce the world premiere of Statin Nation II.

Duration: 75 minutes

Brief Synopsis: The film is in three parts. Part 1 explains how health authorities around the world have continued to ignore the huge amount of data suggesting that saturated fat and cholesterol do not play a causal role in heart disease. Part 2 examines the current system of using risk factors for disease prevention - which of these risk factors are correct, and can a person be reduced to a short list of numbers? Part 3 moves beyond the system currently used and investigates the real causes of heart disease - proposing for the first time, an alternative model for thinking about the disease. 

The film includes interviews with 12 leading experts in this field, and was shot on location in the UK, USA, Denmark, Sweden, France, Lithuania, Australia, Egypt and Japan.

TICKETS: £9.95  per person 

Saturday 28th February 6:00pm to 8:00pm

LOCATION:  

CHARLOTTE STREET HOTEL, CHARLOTTE STREET, LONDON W1T 1RT.


Did Dan Buettner make a Mistake with his Blue Zones?

Dan Buettner is the author of Blue Zones, a book investigating some of the places in the world where people live the longest. Buetter attempts to unlock the secrets of a long healthy life by looking at the nutrition and lifestyles of people from certain parts of Peru, Italy, the United States and Japan.

The book has considerable merit in that it describes in detail many of the lifestyle habits that have been proven to promote longevity. However, Buettner appears to have made a gross error with regards to the nutritional aspects. In particular, I’m referring to his coverage of the Island of Sardinia, Italy.

Pork Dish Typical of Barbagia Region

Pork Dish Typical of Barbagia Region

The Barbagia Region of Sardinia, and Surrounding Area

The Barbagia Region of Sardinia, and Surrounding Area

The island of Sardinia not only has a large number of people who live to be more than 100, but it is also one of the few places in the world were men live as long as women. 

Most regions of Sardinia are associated with incredibly good health, however, the region that has been highlighted as having a particularly long life is called Barbagia. 

I have had the privilege of visiting Sardinia, and several other places associated with longevity, during the filming of Statin Nation II. In Sardinia, I found the traditional diet to be in stark contrast to what Buettner describes. He states:

"It’s loaded with homegrown fruits and vegetables such as zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, and fava beans that may reduce the risk of heart disease and colon cancer. Also on the table: dairy products such as milk from grass-fed sheep and pecorino cheese, which, like fish, contribute protein and omega-3 fatty acids. "

Unfortunately, this common myth about the traditional Sardinian diet has been copied by various websites and commentators. 

The cheese part is certainly correct. However, the Barbagia region is for the most part, up in the mountains, away from the coast, and traditionally the people who live there do not eat very much fish. Their diet manly consists of meat. Suckling pig being a particular favorite.

In fact, in 2011, Sardinians called for formal recognition of their diet insisting that the secret to a long life can be found in their traditional diet of lamb, roast piglet, milk and cheese”

Sardinian Market

Sardinian Market

I believe the reason why Buettner got it wrong was not because of a deliberate attempt to deceive, but more likely its another example of what happens when we look at the world through the current medical dietary dogma. After all, if you believe that meat and animal fats are bad for you, then by default you wouldn’t list them as contributors to longevity. Which is a shame because people might continue to be misinformed. 

Sardinia, along with many other so called paradoxes will be included in Statin Nation II.

Cholesterol Drug CRESTOR No.2 in USA Most Prescribed List

Experts who support the use of statin medications like to keep saying how cheap the drugs are now that Lipitor has gone off patent. Here in the UK, we can often find statements like.... low dose statins only cost £1 a month per patient. Statin supporters have even laughed at the idea that money is the motivation for lowering cholesterol, insisting that the market for statins is not that great.

Well overall, the annual cholesterol-lowering market is still worth US$29 billion. And IMS have just released figures for the most prescribed drugs in the USA.

Between July 2013 and June 2014 more than 22.5 million prescriptions were written for CRESTOR, generating US$5.6 billion for AstraZeneca in one year. 

I have commented on CRESTOR before, but this issue is so important, it can’t be mentioned too much.

Crestor has become so popular, because of the JUPITER trial. The results of the JUPITER trial are summarised below in the video excerpt from $TATIN NATION. 

An honest assessment of the published trial data shows that Crestor did not provide any meaningful benefit. That's before we even start to look at the adverse effects of Crestor, which included an increase in the risk for type 2 diabetes. However, the situation is even worse than we think.

An article published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2010 questioned the validity of the data from the JUPITER trial and raised concerns about the role of the company sponsoring the trial. Another article published in the journal Cardiology in 2011 raised similar concerns . 

The leading question is, what the hell happened to evidence based medicine?

For more on this, please see the MedScape article 

References: 

Ridker, PM et al, for the JUPITER Study Group. Rosuvastatin to Prevent Vascular Events in Men and Women with Elevated C-Reactive Protein. N Engl J Med 2008; 359:2195-207.

de Lorgeril, M et al. Cholesterol lowering, cardiovascular diseases, and the rosuvastatin-JUPITER controversy. A critical reappraisal. Arch Intern Med. 2010; 170:1032-1036.

Serebruany, VL. Extreme all-cause mortality in JUPITER requires reexamination of vital records. Cardiology. 2011; 120:84-8

Breast Cancer Issue - What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know Might Kill You

Many people would have seen the recent media reports claiming that high cholesterol is a risk factor for breast cancer. The suggestion being that statins could be used to prevent breast cancer in the future.

What Dr Potluri of the University of Aston, who did the study,  doesn’t know is that researchers from the USA have already studied the effect that statins have on breast cancer.

Researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Washington found that statin use was associated with more than double the risk for breast cancer (both invasive ductal carcinoma and invasive lobular carcinoma).

Nowhere in the media reports was this mentioned. Not even the spokesperson for Breast Cancer Campaign seemed to know about this.

Also, Potluri’s ‘study’ is not published anywhere! It was simply presented at a cardiology conference. So we have no idea what data he analysed or how it was analysed. We know that he used a cholesterol level above 200mg/dl as being high, but we also know that most women in the UK naturally have a cholesterol level above this number anyway and this is perfectly normal for UK women. In any case, what is a cardiologist doing looking at breast cancer data, and presenting this data at a cardiology conference? Surely, he is just fishing for research money.

Dr Potluri is a complete disgrace to his profession and the general public deserve better integrity from the media.

Reference:

Long-Term Statin Use and Risk of Ductal and Lobular Breast Cancer among Women 55 to 74 Years of Age Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 22(9); 1529–37. 2013 

 

Is UK Medicines Licensing Agency a Mouthpiece for Big Pharma?

 

Here in the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have recently issued a position statement on their website about statin medications. This has also now been issued as a press release to the media. This statement reads “...people should continue to take their statins as prescribed because their benefits continue to outweigh the risks of any side effects.”

The MHRA is the government organisation that licenses all medications in the UK - it decides if medications work and if they are safe. During the making of $TATIN NATION, I wanted to ask the MHRA about the scientific basis for the use of statins as ‘prevention’. Since none of the clinical trials have shown any life extension when used in primary prevention. However, the MHRA declined my invitation.

This new statement from the MHRA again makes the claim that “statins can save lives”. Therefore, on Tuesday this week I again requested an interview with them. The MHRA replied by asking for more information about the film - which I provided. After that, the line of communication went cold.

It is important to note that although the MHRA is a government organisation, it is not funded by tax payers - the regulation of medications part of the MHRA is funded by the pharmaceutical industry. This can be seen in the FAQs on their website. I think that people should be aware that the organisation that licenses medications in the UK is funded by the pharmaceutical industry. This obvious conflict of interest should be placed at the end of every statement that they publish.

The publication of the MHRA’s press release was prompted by recent media coverage about statin adverse effects and the now famous BMJ article

The BMJ article was placed in the line of fire by Professor Collins of the pharmaceutical industry funded Oxford group. Professor Collins said the BMJ article exaggerated statin adverse effects. A lot has been written about the BMJ article on the web, however, I feel one additional point is of note that has been missed concerning statins and muscle damage.

A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that statins block the adaptive response to exercise. 

When we exercise, we stimulate various physiological changes that make our cardiovascular system more efficient - this is one of the main reasons why exercise is a powerful prevention tool for many diseases. However, it has been shown that this adaptation is blocked in people who take statins. In short, statins prevent us from benefiting from exercise. This is just one of the many things that Professor Collins and the MHRA do not want you to know about.