The Statin Damage Crisis

The Statin Damage Crisis arrived by post yesterday and I read it, cover to cover, yesterday.There are ways in which this book is a re-hash; Graveline openly declares it draws upon content of two of his earlier books, 'Lipitor: Thief of Memory' and 'Statin Drugs Side Effects'. Indeed I think it was interest in the need to revise 'Statin Drugs Side Effects' for a new edition that resulted in publication of this newer book and title.The 'Statin Damage Crisis' is generally a very slick text. It's concise, at times a bit scientific and technical where biochemistry is concerned, very informative and highly explanatory, comprehensible, and occasionally a bit repetitious. But it does what it says on the cover; it alerts the reader to the statin damage crisis - and its more than alert because it explains the 'what?, how?, and why?'. It does so without sensationalising matters, without hyperbole, and very convincingly through reason and explanation.The main thrust:# Cholesterol doesn't kill you.# Blanket prescription of cholesterol lowering drugs is not justified - it doesn't reduce incidence of CHD in most people.# Saturated fat doesn't kill you.# Cholesterol lowering drugs can reduce CHD events in certain patients - those who already have heart disease - but there efficacy does not arise as a consequence of lowering cholesterol.# Statins can lower cholesterol, they may reduce incidence of CHD in certain groups, but overall mortality rates from all causes can be 'flat' or actually rise. This is because lowering cholesterol, and/or interfering with cholesterol synthesis can give rise to other effects including increased incidence of cancer.# Homocysteine and processes of chronic inflammation better explain the mechanisms at work behind CHD.# Efficacy of statins is not a blanket efficacy and where there is efficacy it is not down to lowering cholesterol. On the positive side statins can act with anti-inflammatory effect.# Cholesterol is important for good health.# Cholesterol is the staring basis from which other important physiologic biochemicals are made.# Statins do not just impede the process of cholesterol synthesis.# Statins act at a point early in a chemical pathway nature gave us to synthesis some other important biochemicals.# Statins impede the production and synthesis of other biochemical factors with other important and health giving properties.# Statins impede the production of a biochemical with an important role in a healthy immune system.# Statins have many side effects. Impeding cholesterol production gives rise to a major side effect; memory of cognitive impairment. That statins also impair synthesis of other important biochemicals gives rise to the rest.# Statin side effects are being mistaken for dementia and Alzheimers.# Aside from certain anti-inflammatory properties the principle virtue of statins is just how profitable this class of drugs can be for the pharmaceuticals companies.# Welcome to 'pharmageddon!'Aspects of biochemistry and terminology that might be unfamiliar to the lay reader could be off-putting. The references to biochemistry and cell metabolism are helpful and instructive, if potentially unfamiliar. Gravelines argument is well constructed and his reasoning sound and easy to follow. I think I followed the bits that discuss the metabolism of cells without any more than the cursory knowledge Graveline imparts. Basically if one is unfamiliar with the references to cell metabolism and to biochemical synthesis or exchanges it should not detract from the worth of this book. It is possible to be carried along by the strength of Gravelines reasoning and the clarity of his explanation without prior familiarity with some of the explanatory concepts and terminology.There are, as I already indicated, elements of repetition. The chapters are well organised, constructed to be concise, and designed to concentrate on quite specific aspects of the argument but certain precepts and assertions do crop up in several different chapters. In the main, without being overly analytical about it, I spotted this element of repetition but considered it to be leveraging of the argument - meaning; arriving at similar conclusions but from different starting points. Chapters are generally quite short and the overall impression of the book is that it is concise. Its compelling, pace-y, interesting, well researched, and thoroughly absorbing. Above all I think Graveline is well informed, carries gravitas, sincere, well-intentioned, and largely correct. He stands head and shoulders above the deceitful antics of the pharmaceuticals companies, the cynical regard of those they bankroll, and the lazy reasoning and slap-dash policy making or reporting of government bodies who are supposed to regulate these affairs.Statins are the thalidomide of our time. We are guinea-pigs and cash-cows whose primary purpose for the corporate and profit agendas is to provide the income streams to feed the profits to preserve share price and shareholder value. Statins are poison, mostly: but profitable, immutably so.Welcome to the world of deceit and destructive economics.Parting thoughts:Incidentally, it all has to do with money. It has a lot to do with the design and attributes of money. It has a lot to do with the relationship money has to debt. And it has a lot to do with the durability of debt. I'd recommend reading Bernard Lietaer (The Future of Money), and/or Micheal Rowbotham (The Grip of Death) or viewing Paul Grignon ('Money as Debt' feature on YouTube).Don't be downbeat. Things are bad, but better IS possible if only we understand WHY things are bad. Its simple yet not readily comprehensible; better money would result in a better world.# Spacedoc has a helpful website.# I also recommend a visit to The Cholesterol Truth, a website largely authored by Dr John Briffa.

this book would have ten stars if I could award that many....actually its not the book but rather the author; Duane Graveline M.D. HE HAS CREDIBILITY AS HE IS BOTH A MEDICAL PRACTITIONER AND MEDICAL SCIENTIST, BUT ALSO WORKED AT NASSA as an astronaut, but more than that HE SUFFERED SIDE EFFECTS of the STATIN DRUGS.This is one of the first books of his I read. He tells his frightening story, but also others stories too, since he set up his web site [...] as he was sure his symptoms were from the drugs Statins, he was prescribed. When he asked his medical friends and collegues in NASSA and elsewhere he was pooh poohed...he has since gathered ten cart loads of evidence including evidence from the drug companies themselves and from the FDA, who seem to have overlooked much of it and certainly not acted upon it.His latest book gives a little more information about Duanes own problems. He found the side effects of Statins caused him many health problems, but for a time he was able to hold these problems at bay using supplements such as CoQ10; but in his latest book he updates us. Duane previously a very fit man, is now virtually wheelchair bound and cannot walk unaided, his health is deteriorating at rapid speed, he knows from his brief experience of taking Statin Drugs all those years ago. They will kill him, as they have others..(my mother)..and will do many more.If you read this book read his other books too, they are not replicating what is said before in his previous books they are updating you on new evidence and information. Welll worth investing in more than one of his books if not all.Statins are Dangerous Drugs but they make tens of billions of dollars each year for the drug companies. Alert yourself to the facts about Statins and avoid them at all costs...there are natural and simple alternatives out there, but most of all change your lifestyle and explore the reason why you have high blood cholesterol levels, if you do. (could be hypothyroidism as this is a symptoms of hypothyroidism) For those who have read my other reviews you may think me obsessed...well I hold up my hand and say yes I am. I am experiencing this nighmare myself and those close to me are suffering also. Knowledge is power, find out dont take my word for it.

Good book. Explains the 'Statin Crisis' simply and with great effect. Well researched with good references. Mentioned to my Doc because I stopped taking my statins and like most GPs that can't be bothered to research these drugs, he just dismissed it as useless heresay. There's a lot to be said for researching the effects of any medication you have been prescribed because the side effects can be devastating and the big Pharma companies bullys GPs and the BMA/med schools and even the Government etc. into towing the line - your bad health is big business!I recommend anyone taking statins of any kind to read this and you will be surprised at how many problems you have that are likely down to these drugs (read this DT article by a vascular surgeon http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/10717431/Why-Ive-ditched-statins-for-good.html)

Muy claro, estructurado y lleno de evidencia científica. Los médicos que tan alegremente recetan estáticas deberían leerlo para saber el daño que están provocando a sus pacientes.

Muito claro e conciso sobre os diversos efeitos colaterais causados pelas estatinas. Leitura recomendada para todos, sejam médicos ou pacientes. A experiência pessoal do autor é um exemplo rico de tudo que é abordado no livro.

Books like this that shed light on the downside of statins are so important. If I had known what I know now, thanks to books like this, I would never have begun taking a statin for slightly elevated cholesterol with no other risk factors for heart problems.

Here one statin injured MD speaks out. His truth is based on his own negativepersonal experiences with taking statins.Given his unfortunate case history little wonder that more than 30% of cardio patients stop taking their prescribed meds within a year. The fault however, lies no longer in medical doctors being too busy, nor necessarily with the pharmaceutical industries need to achieve billions in profit from annual sales. This time the greed is good principle is not the cause behind Dr. Graveline's having to suffer severe statin damage!The fly in the ointment of needing but not having more accurate and focused cardiovascular pill taking is due our current medical ignorance. The failure is insufficient pharmacogenetic testing and analysis before prescribing the usual highly potent and inherently dangerous standard cardiovascular and other related medicines.Dr. Graveline would not have had to suffer his losses of memories, nor would there be so many unnecessary out patients as "bleeders" at home and on operating tables, nor would there exist so much "unexplainable" gynecomastia, rhabdomyolysis and suddenly emerging diabetes type 2 if modern Western medicine's current drug prescriptions were pharmacogenetically based and much less hit or miss based.We have the needed tool already being developed within clinical genomics and its practical application to adult patient care. What is delaying the field of medicine from properly using it?Cromosome typing (Karyotyping) was developed way back in the 1950's; genotyping today is increasingly simple and inexpensive for determining individual genetic makeup at the single gene level. Not rolling out pharmacogenetics ASAP is becoming an increasing waste of patients lives, medical doctor's and pharma-manufacturing industry livelihoods. Creating more suffering rather then less suffering is like employing more intrusive procedures when less intrusive ones are available.

This book is rich of information about Statins and their side effects, more important give advices about supplements which can replace statins in their antinflammatory effect.