{"id":96707,"date":"2009-12-23T16:00:52","date_gmt":"2009-12-23T21:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blisstree.com\/?p=136814"},"modified":"2009-12-23T16:00:52","modified_gmt":"2009-12-23T21:00:52","slug":"statins-aren%e2%80%99t-vitamins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/96707","title":{"rendered":"Statins Aren\u2019t Vitamins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m surprised that the FDA is considering approving the use of <strong>statins for people without high <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blisstree.com\/articles\/qa-cholesterol-concerns-for-women\/\">cholesterol<\/a>.<\/strong> They&#8217;re taking a look at an advisory panel&#8217;s recommendation to approve the use of statins for people with normal cholesterol, but with other risk factors like high levels of C-reactive protein, believed to be a marker of inflammation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-136831\" src=\"http:\/\/images1.blisstree.com\/files\/2009\/12\/statin-gold.jpg\" alt=\"statin-gold\" width=\"500\" height=\"287\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The advisory panel recommended extended statin usage primarily based upon results from the Jupiter trial, which was funded by AstraZeneca &#8212; the people who make Crestor. Am I the only one who feels <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blisstree.com\/articles\/are-statins-drugs-of-the-rich\/\">statins<\/a> are so poplar mainly because there&#8217;s money to be made? Yes, I know that drug companies don&#8217;t have the same funding issues as other sources of research funding. And I&#8217;m aware of the research supporting statin usage to prevent heart attacks and strokes, but I&#8217;m not convinced the benefits outweigh the risks for everyone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The potential price of taking statins<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Most people who have considered the idea of taking a statin for high cholesterol know that the drugs aren&#8217;t risk free. They may lower cholesterol, but sometimes at the cost of some serious side effects. And now people with normal cholesterol might take statins too? I&#8217;m not a scientist, but it seems like we all need to take a deep breath and get a little less excited about these drugs. They aren&#8217;t vitamins, after all.<\/p>\n<p>Some statin side effects impact quality of life. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mayoclinic.com\/health\/statin-side-effects\/MY00205\">Mayo Clinic<\/a>, muscle pain is the most common side effect reported. It can be tough to put up with muscle pain for the sake of lowering cholesterol if you&#8217;re otherwise heart healthy. Some people taking statins may also experience digestive issues. I tried a 40 mg Zocor generic and could barely move from the stomach cramps. Days later, I still felt like my stomach had been used as a punching bag.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the merely annoying side effects, statins can actually kill you. Rarely, muscle pain can signal a very serious and sometimes deadly side effect of statin use: <strong>rhabdomyolysis<\/strong>, muscle damage which may lead to kidney failure and liver damage. It&#8217;s this rare, but life-threatening side effect that makes me scratch my head at the thought of taking this serious drug if you don&#8217;t have to.<\/p>\n<p>According to Mayo Clinic, you&#8217;re at greater risk of experiencing <strong>side effects from statin usage<\/strong> if you&#8217;re female, have a small body frame, suffer from type 1 ot type 2 diabetes, take multiple cholesterol-lowering medications, or if you&#8217;re age 65 or older.<\/p>\n<p>Read more about this issue at CNN: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2009\/HEALTH\/12\/22\/statin.cholesterol.fda\/index.html\">FDA considers statin use for those with normal cholesterol<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Do you think the FDA should approve the use of statins for people without high cholesterol?<\/p>\n<p>(Image via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sxc.hu\/photo\/1245005\">stock.xchng<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Post from: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blisstree.com\">Blisstree<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.blisstree.com\/articles\/statins-arent-vitamins\/\">Statins Aren&#8217;t Vitamins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m surprised that the FDA is considering approving the use of statins for people without high cholesterol. They&#8217;re taking a look at an advisory panel&#8217;s recommendation to approve the use of statins for people with normal cholesterol, but with other risk factors like high levels of C-reactive protein, believed to be a marker of inflammation. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}