The great cholesterol con

Slight problems..

doctors don't get paid extra to prescribe statins and statins are dirt cheap.

"Panic Nation" is another good read.

(on cholesterol)

Read Bad Pharma.

In the earlier years of the twentieth century high levels of cholesterol were taken as an indicator of thyroid disorder (hypothyroidism).

Treatment (in those days, with desiccated thyroid) would result in reduced cholesterol.

Further, people who are hypothyroid appear to be particularly prone to "side effects" of statins including muscle pain.

We also see far too much emphasis "You may have a greater risk of muscle breakdown at higher doses of simvastatin, particularly the 80mg dose. The risk of muscle breakdown is also greater in certain patients. Talk with your doctor if any of the following applies to you: ? you are more than 65 years old ? you have kidney problems ? you have thyroid problems ? you or close family members have a hereditary muscle disorder ? you are female ? you have ever had muscle problems during treatment with cholesterol-lowering medicines called ?statins? or fibrates ? if you consume large amounts of alcohol"

The Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC) says this:

"Before the treatment

All patients starting therapy with simvastatin, or whose dose of simvastatin is being increased, should be advised of the risk of myopathy and told to report promptly any unexplained muscle pain, tenderness or weakness.

Caution should be exercised in patients with pre-disposing factors for rhabdomyolysis. In order to establish a reference baseline value, a CK level should be measured before starting a treatment in the following situations:

? Elderly (age > 65 years)

? Female gender

? Renal impairment

? Uncontrolled hypothyroidism

? Personal or familial history of hereditary muscular disorders

? Previous history of muscular toxicity with a statin or fibrate

? Alcohol abuse.

In such situations, the risk of treatment should be considered in relation to possible benefit, and clinical monitoring is recommended. If a patient has previously experienced a muscle disorder on a fibrate or a statin, treatment with a different member of the class should only be initiated with caution. If CK levels are significantly elevated at baseline (> 5 x ULN), treatment should not be started."

Good idea to have Creatine Kinase (CK) level tested.

On Thu, 24 Oct 2013 20:14:51 +0100, "Jim Hawkins" wrote: You might also like to read Uffe Ravnskov on cholesterol. Also a medic, he has published two or three books questioning the whole cholesterol - saturated fat - heart disease theory. See his Wiki entry at

Statins are not all bad news. Recent medical research shows that for normal healthy people, they are not beneficial and don't do anything to reduce the risk of a heart attack. This is now well established and accepted. However, for those people who have already had a heart attack, or who are diabetic and are thus prone to heart attack, they do reduce the risks considerably. Why they work, isn't understood IMO. Of course, the medics will point to reduced cholesterol as the reason (they would, wouldn't they), but I suspect it's something else, and the reduced cholesterol happens as a side effect.

I don't think the whole business of diet and heart attack is understood, by a long way.

Their effects on men and women are also somewhat different.

I know about qof, the wife was a practice manager, thanks.

On 24/10/2013 20:14, Jim Hawkins wrote: ...

There is good evidence that people whose cholesterol is 3.0 or less do not suffer from certain types of heart disease. Whether statins are the way to achieve that or not is another matter.

Colin Bignell

one statin a day times 500,000 patients are NOT cheap.

yerrs..

the evidence could equally be that people with no heart disease simp0ly have lower chloresterol

Well, doesn't the GP practice get paid based on the proportion of patients they can justify placing on long-term treatments such as ACE inhibitors, low dose aspirin, lipase inhibitors and statins?

Quite. Correlation is not causation.

Maybe a few million a year, peanuts to the NHS.

As the data comes from comparing cholesterol levels and heart disease incidence in complete populations, rather than in individuals, that is rather less probable.

Colin Bignell

Welcome to adulthood. It puizzles me that so many are so resistant to the reality

NT

Obviously doctors get paid to prescribe, repeatedly.

NT