In the face of overwhelming negative science the statin marketing
machine marches on, now suggesting that statins should be given
to middle aged men and women even though they don't have elevated
cholesterol. Apparently there is a critical mass of Big Pharma backed
statin-pushers who have hoodwinked a nation under the false pretense
of cardiovascular health and are now ready to go for the jugular.
I have a few questions for any statin believers who happen to read
this article: "If statins
are so great then why does your liver see them as a poison that
must be detoxified? Did your liver forget to read the American Heart
Association's press release?"
It is my opinion that statins do little more than put your cardiovascular
system in a wheelchair, especially when combined with other troublesome
medications
like blood pressure pills. There is a reason that the more aggressively
these medications are used, especially with diabetics, the faster
people die. It is a sad commentary on modern medicine that their
best efforts to promote quality of cardiovascular
health in the over 50 crowd is a collection of de-energizing
and de-pressurizing anti-survival medications that have the net
result of treating every person so managed as if they are Humpty
Dumpty about ready to fall off a cardiovascular cliff.
In the world of fast food medicine numbers on paper
are far more important than you, a dumbed down version of medicine
suitable for most of those now practicing the subject. Big Pharma's
task of brainwashing the American public into this system of health
is getting progressively more difficult. The generation of utterly
brainwashed older Americans has almost been completely wiped out
by these drugs. Those in their 60s and 70s are a little bit smarter,
but still far too many are in a trance when their doctors
speak. Those in their 50s are more likely to protest, but only so
far as to wish their doctors would incorporate more natural and
preventive solutions. The majority of Americans over 50 will still
jump off whatever bridge their doctor points to. Most of these drug-popping
people would laugh at how dumb anyone is for being in any cult,
not even able to see they are a part of the Big
Pharma cult making tens of billions in fraudulent profits every
year.
Think about it for a minute. How did Eli Lilly have the money to
buy ImClone for 6.5 billion dollars in cash during the worst financial
meltdown in the history of the United States? Answer: they stockpiled
billions of dollars by defrauding taxpayers with off label sales
of dangerous brain meds like Zyprexa and Cymbalta, preying on disadvantaged
individuals (both old and young) and collecting the money through
Medicaid and Medicare at taxpayer expense (and actually got themselves
included in the bailout to keep this scam going indefinitely). In
this new world of nonsense, the Wall Street Journal reported than
ImClone, on paper, is worth more than General Motors! And ImClone
sells near worthless biotech cancer
drugs that don't cure cancer but keep people alive just long enough
to bilk them of their entire life savings before they die ($30,000
for each 8 weeks of treatment). The Big Pharma motto is: Manage
symptoms, manage numbers, and never under any circumstances make
someone healthy so they don't need a drug.
The questionable practice of cardiovascular preventive medicine,
fueled by false "independent" groups like the
American Heart Association, is a main power behind the fraudulent
promotion of the 20 billion-dollar-a-year statin racket. Scientists
around the country shake in their boots at the notion of stepping
on any statin toes with the truth. Not that they really have to
worry, since almost all major medical marketing magazines (otherwise
known as scientific journals) refuse to run any study counter to
the statin propaganda
for fear of losing advertising dollars. Only in smaller journals
from other countries can we see any truth trying to poke its head
up out of the sand.
With that brief background, let's have a look at the latest round
of misinformation coming from the American
Heart Association and its friends. It's that time of year, the
annual meeting of the American Heart Association. Missiles are shot
at vitamin E,
while trumpets blare as the statin red carpet rolls out.
This year's propaganda showpiece is the Jupiter study. Here is
the official party line, so elegantly reported by the New York Times:
"A large new study suggests that millions more people could benefit
from taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, even
if they have low cholesterol, because the drugs can significantly
lower their risk of heart attacks, strokes and death. The study,
involving nearly 18,000 people worldwide, tested statin treatment
in men 50 and older and in women 60 and older who did not have high
cholesterol or histories of heart
disease. What they did have was high levels of a protein called
high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, or CRP, which indicates inflammation
in the body. The study, presented Sunday at an American Heart Association
convention in New Orleans and published online in The New England
Journal of Medicine, found that the risk of heart
attack was more than cut in half for people who took statins."
This sounds great, except the original risk in the study group was
negligible. The data actually means that 120 people would need to
take Crestor
for 2 years to prevent 1 heart attack or stroke.
At a cost of $3.45 a day, that's $300,000 for Big Pharma to stop
one problem. Excuse me, but the only news here is the potential
bilking of taxpayers and insurance companies.
Crestor, the statin drug used in this study, is the most toxic of
all statin
drugs. It works by overwhelming your liver's ability to clear
it. A Public Citizen petition to the
FDA to have this drug removed from the market was denied, as
the current FDA is nothing more than a gatekeeper for Big Pharma
profits. Unless corpses are showing up in droves at their door (as
with the statin Baycol) the FDA looks the other way no matter what
damage is being done.
The five-year Jupiter study was stopped after two years, under the
pretense of overwhelming success (normally studies are stopped because
of adverse effects). Since the side
effects of any statin are progressive and cumulative over time,
it is likely that the real reason the study was stopped was to publish
favorable results before the predictable adverse side effects had
time to manifest. Even in this short two-year period there was a
20% increased risk for diabetes
from taking Crestor – a fact that was conveniently downplayed.
This study will be used to promote the sale of dangerous statin
drugs to double the current number taking them (which is now at
17 million). First a person will need a test to see if they even
have elevated CRP,
which of course implies someone pays for the test. The leader of
the Jupiter study, Dr. Paul M. Ridker, by some strange coincidence
is the co-inventor of the CRP test. Does anyone smell a financial
rat?
Exercise Reduces CRP, Extends Life, and Doesn't Cost Anything
I'm all in favor of anyone reducing their inflammation level to
enhance their health. After all, life can rack up a lot of wear
and tear. There is no one pill that will fix the wear and tear in
your life. You need adequate rejuvenating sleep, good stress management
skills, a healthy diet, and exercise. It is actually a project to
be healthy. The time you spend at it extends your life, so the idea
that you don't have enough time to do healthy behaviors is illogical.
The most effective way to lower your CRP is to be physically fit.
Your aerobic capacity is a direct predictor of your CRP level. The
more aerobically fit you are the lower your CRP. This is not only
true for healthy people; it is true for people with type II diabetes.
Aerobic exercise has been proven to extend your life, rejuvenate
your heart, reduce virtually all inflammatory diseases of aging
– and it doesn't cost a penny. Now why should society pay excessive
money for statins for prevention when all people need to do is get
off their duffs and exercise? There is no combination of cardiovascular
drugs that can beat out aerobic fitness in any study showing extension
of quality life.
AHA Makes Sure to
Attack Vitamin EBig Pharma is always terrified that people will
take vitamins
that have virtually no side effects and are a fraction of the cost,
instead of their extremely dangerous drugs. Thus, part of the Big
Pharma agenda is to use the American Heart Association meeting to
not only promote statins but to directly attack vitamin E and other
antioxidants.
For example, back in 2004 when the statin powers wanted to endorse
lowering LDL
cholesterol to abnormally low levels, they simultaneously promoted
at their yearly AHA meeting bogus science saying that vitamin E
increased the risk of death! (A complete fallacy.) Outside the
AHA marketing meeting the chairman, Dr. Raymond Gibbons of the
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was holding a dog and pony
show press conference: "I spend all my time trying to tell patients
why they should not take vitamin E. Too often in terms of the supplements
there's very scant science. In this area, we have the science. Vitamin
E doesn't work." He implored his captive audience of reporters to
help him convince patients to stop taking Vitamin E and take the
"proven" drugs. The next day, all major media ran the story telling
consumers vitamin E was dangerous. Program effective. Damage done.
This wonderful formula of success is once again in play, this time
as the AHA tries to convince people without high cholesterol to
take statins. JAMA released their "big" vitamin E study just in
time for this week's AHA meeting. The study shows that vitamin E
and C don't help heart disease
in a large group of doctors. The vitamin E used in the study is
a worthless synthetic produced from coal tar by the German drug
company BASF, not at all a quality natural
vitamin E that would do the job.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out why these drug pushers are
trying to attack vitamin E and vitamin
C. In the Jupiter study Crestor reduced CRP by 37%. A daily
dose of 1200 IU of natural vitamin E (not synthetic garbage from
BASF) reduces CRP by 32% and 1000 mg of vitamin C a day reduces
CRP by 25%. It is also known that when individuals try to lose weight
on a higher fat/low carb diet their CRP elevates from 25% – 40%.
A combination of 1000 mg of C and 800 IU of vitamin E not only prevents
this increase of CRP during dieting; it reduces it by 32%. Vitamins
C and E are quite friendly to your liver, statins are not. And the
nutrients are far less costly than the drug.
While many Americans believe, like president-elect Obama, that health
care is a right, the reality is that no society can pay for drugs
and services that do not actually show true health as a result of
the treatment. Unless the use of a drug-based protocol can produce
a cure and a return of health in a definable period of time (meaning
the drug is no longer needed), there should be no obligation for
society to be burdened with the costs of the fraudulent practice
of medicine. Doing so amounts to a Big Pharma con job, with billions
of tax payer dollars winding up in companies who have produced nothing
of value. Numbers on paper are meaningless. Quality of health and
extended years of quality life are the only products of value. It
is time for Western Medicine to put up or shut up.
Related articles by this author:
The Vital Role of Cholesterol in Health, October 8, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
Statins Drastically Impair Healthy Muscle, September 29, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
Statins Increase Delirium Rate After Surgery, September 23, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
Vytorin Cancer Link Opens Can of Worms, September 3, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/conten...
Fish Oil Helps Heart Patients – Statins Don't, September 2, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
Low Cholesterol Increases Cancer and Death Risk, August 26, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
15% of Population at High Risk for Statin Injury, August 26, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
More Insane Statin Pushing on Children, August 7, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/freedo...
Cholesterol is Not the Cause of Heart Disease, August 7, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
Antioxidants Low in Coronary Artery Disease, June 29, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
Don't Forget Vitamin C for Your Arteries, June 28, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
Perverse Corruption as Doctors are Paid to Sell Drugs, June 20,
2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/freedo...
Western Medicine Fails Tim Russert, June 18, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/conten...
Did Statins Cause Senator Ted Kennedy's Brain Tumor? May 22, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/conten...
Low LDL Cholesterol Associated with Parkinson's Risk, April 13 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
Vytorin Fraud Blasted at Heart Meeting, April 1, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/freedo...
Tocotrienols – A Multi-Dimensional Nutrient Powerhouse, March 7,
2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/tips/a...
Cholesterol Medication Causes Tendon Ruptures, March 3, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
The Failure of Cardiovascular Medication, February 11, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/conten...
Low Levels of Vitamin E Linked to Declining Health of Seniors, January
23, 2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
Vytorin Fraud Places all Statin Therapy in Question, January 15,
2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/freedo...
Vitamin C Associated with 42% Reduced Risk for Stroke, January 14,
2008
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health...
The Statin Scam Marches On, December 10, 2007
http://www.wellnessresources.com/conten...
For a fully referenced version of this article:
http://www.wellnessresources.com/freedo...
