Articles Index-Integrated Healthcare
 
Patrick Quanten MD Independent Health Adviser
 
Lipid Regulating Drugs
 
Anion-exchange resins:
Clestyramine, colestipol
They interfere with the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. They cause gastrointestinal side-effects, such as constipation, but also diarrhoea,
as well as nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. An increased bleeding tendency has been reported too.
The risk of drug interference with all other medication is very high.
 
Fibrates:
Clofibrate, bezafibrate, ciprofibrate, fenofibrate, gemfibrozil
All can cause muscle inflammation.
Other problems mentioned are severe kidney and liver impairment, which can lead to biliary cirrhosis, gallbladder disease. Side-effects include gastrointestinal symptoms, itching, skin eruptions, impotence, headache, dizziness, fatigue, hair loss, anaemia, pancreatitis, heart fibrillation.
 
Statins:
Atorvastatin, cerivastatin, fluvastatin, pravastatin, simvastatin Liver tests should be carried out before and within 1 - 3 months of starting treatment and thereafter at intervals of 6 months for 1 year, unless indicated sooner by symptoms or signs suggestive of liver toxicity. Patients should also be advised to report unexplained muscle pain. Muscle inflammation is more frequently seen with combined treatment protocols including fibrates, nicotinic acid and immunosuppressants such as cyclosporine or methotrexate. Further side-effects include headache, abdominal pain, flatulence, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting.
 
Nicotinic acid:
Acipimox, nicotinic acid These cause peptic ulcers, vasodilatation, flushing, itching, rashes, heartburn, epigastric pain, nausea, diarrhoea, headache, malaise, dry eyes, bronchospasm, anaphylactic shock.
 
All the above information comes from the pharmaceutical industry and is supplied to all doctors. But there is an awful lot more known about the cholesterol lowering drugs.
1. In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Thomas B. Newman MD, MPH and co-workers show that all cholesterol-lowering drugs, both the early drugs known as fibrates (clofibrate, gemfibrozil) and the newer drugs known as statins (Lipitor, Pravachol, Zocor), cause cancer in rodents at the equivalent doses used by man.
2. Evidence from the cholesterol-lowering drug trial known as CARE (Cholesterol And Recurrent Events) showed that Pravachol™ reduced the chance of suffering from a heart attack by an absolute reduction rate of 1.1%. This miniscule benefit was accompanied by a 1500% increase in breast cancer among women taking Pravachol. An increase in cancer rates among Pravachol users was also shown in the drug trial known as PROSPER.
3. It is rare that cancer would show up in most other cholesterol-lowering drug trials. Drug company-funded studies for these drugs are conveniently short in nature, typically 5 years or less. It can take decades for cancer to develop. Therefore, cancer rarely shows up. In fact, even heavy smoking will not cause lung cancer within 5 years. Yet it is a well-known fact that smoking leads to lung cancer. Therefore, as long as statin drug trials last only 5 years, this side effect will continue to fly below the radar.
4. Dr. Gloria Troendle, deputy director for the Division of Metabolism and Endocrine Drug Products for the FDA (Food and Drug Administration - USA), noted that the cholesterol-lowering drug gemfibrozil belonged to a class of drugs that has repeatedly been shown to increase death rates among users.
5. Published in Nature Medicine, Dr. Michael Simons of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston shows that statin drugs mimic a substance known as vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF). The biochemical VEGF promotes the growth of new blood vessels. This benefit is quickly negated by the potential for growth of cancer. The British Journal of Cancer reports that VEGF plays an important role in the spread of colorectal (bowel) cancer. Further, for those who already have tumours, VEGF and compounds that mimic VEGF significantly diminish that person's survival time.
 
The story of the "cholesterol" disease is a non-entity. There is no cholesterol disease, only toxicity. And furthermore, the treatment for the non-existing disease creates a variety of extremely serious health problems.
 
An example of modern times!
© By Patrick Quanten MD
 
Back