A Statin Drug Can Murder Your Mind

Who Should Take a Statin?

The benefits of the statin were so striking that a monitoring board stopped the trial in midcourse so that the placebo group could get the medicine, too. Those who got the statin had 54 percent fewer heart attacks, 48 percent fewer strokes and 20 percent fewer deaths from all causes. The participants included men 50 and older and women 60 and older with no history of heart disease or high cholesterol. But they all had high levels of CRP, and many had such other risk factors as high blood pressure, obesity and smoking. Whether the statin helped because it reduced normal cholesterol to even lower levels or because it reduced CRP levels is not clear.

The rah-rah blind cheerleading of this New York Times Editorial(!) is very disturbing.

It ignores the accounts of many people whose lives have been devastated by the side-effects of statin drugs.

I was on my way to being one of those people.

The human body is the most complex system we have ever encountered. Apparently some people are able to escape the worst possible side-effects of these drugs. Others, like me, cannot.

It’s vital to know what these possible side-effects are and to be extremely vigilant in determining if they are creeping up on you. For that’s how they happen: in very, very small steps that are invisible until they impact in a very, very big way.

See my prior posts here for how Simvastatin nearly ate my mind. I’m still not convinced that I’ve been able to reverse all of its effects. We don’t have the scientific tools to measure that. And in my own case, I lack the pre-statin brain scans, etc, that could show any Before & After differences.

There is one thing I’m thoroughly convinced of: All cases of Alzheimer’s disease should first be treated by removing statins from a victim’s daily routine. Re-cholesterolize the brain and see if that makes a difference. I think we’d see many cases of Alzheimer’s disappear — or at least dramatically improve — when statins are withdrawn.

Previously here:

Iron Lady Thatcher: Dementia
Writer Terry Pratchett Has Alzheimer’s
Statin Drugs: Brain Changes?
Statin Drugs: What You Must Know
Was My Brain Screaming To Itself?
Statin Drugs And Ersatz Alzheimer’s
Statin Drugs: More Fraud
James Kendrick Describes His Stroke
Statin Drugs: Two Notes
Statin Drugs: No Blood
Statin Drugs: Does V.P. Dick Cheney Take One?
Statin Drugs: Jarvik Ads Withdrawn
Statin Drugs: More Better!
Statin Drugs: Pain For Nothing
Statin Drugs: Survey
Simvastatin Made Me Insane
Simvastatin: This Happened To Me Too!
Simvastatin Vs. My Mind
Stopping My Statin
Give Me Back My Mind!

Iron Lady Thatcher: Dementia

Britain’s “Iron Lady” Thatcher has dementia: daughter

LONDON (Reuters) – Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher — once known as one of the world’s most formidable political minds — has been suffering from dementia for the past seven years, according to her daughter, Carol.

Carol Thatcher tells in her memoirs of how her 82-year-old mother, nicknamed the “Iron Lady” for her tough reputation, often struggles to remember things and repeats questions.

In a memoir serialized in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, her daughter paints a picture of a very different woman from the political heavyweight who strutted the world stage in the 1980s.

“The woman who had dominated discussions for so long could no longer lead debates or keep up with the thread of a drinks-party conversation,” she wrote.

“On bad days, she could hardly remember the beginning of a sentence by the time she got to the end.”

I disliked her politics greatly, but loved her. She had backbone!

With all of these announced cases, I’d really like to know if Simvastatin is in the mix. How many years and how many more people will suffer before the connection is widespread and can be ruled out?

I’m still having intermittent days when I have to discard lengthy posts because the words get lost in distant mist.

Previously here:

Writer Terry Pratchett Has Alzheimer’s
Statin Drugs: Brain Changes?
Statin Drugs: What You Must Know
Was My Brain Screaming To Itself?
Statin Drugs And Ersatz Alzheimer’s
Statin Drugs: More Fraud
James Kendrick Describes His Stroke
Statin Drugs: Two Notes
Statin Drugs: No Blood
Statin Drugs: Does V.P. Dick Cheney Take One?
Statin Drugs: Jarvik Ads Withdrawn
Statin Drugs: More Better!
Statin Drugs: Pain For Nothing
Statin Drugs: Survey
Simvastatin Made Me Insane
Simvastatin: This Happened To Me Too!
Simvastatin Vs. My Mind
Stopping My Statin
Give Me Back My Mind!

Statin Drugs: Cancer Link?

Cholesterol-lowering drug ‘may increase cancer risk’

The drug called Inegy is taken by thousands of people in the UK and the drug regulator is studying research which has linked to indicated a link to increased cancers and deaths from cancer.

It is a combination of the statin simvastatin and ezetimibe for use in patients whose cholesterol cannot be controlled by one drug alone.

Emphasis added by me.

That mind-rotter, Simvastatin!

The American Food and Drug Administration issued a statement saying preliminary findings from a study has shown found the drug did not reduce cardiovascular problems as expected and a larger percentage of patients on the drug were diagnosed with and died from all types of cancer than those on the placebo during the five year study.

The FDA did not say how big the alleged increased risk of cancer was and said is not advising that patients should come off the drug nor that doctors should stop prescribing it. Its statement said other trials have shown no increased risk of cancer in patients using the drug.

The final report from the trial should be available to the FDA in three months and it expects the analysis to take further six months after that.

This is one of those things that can go either way. Either science or money will win.

This makes me laugh:

“We are committed to working with regulatory agencies to further evaluate the available data and interpretations of those data; we do not believe that changes in the clinical use of Vytorin are warranted. Of course, patients taking Vytorin should talk to their doctor if they have questions.“

Emphasis added by me.

And what exactly is the doctor supposed to know that the research doesn’t?! Doctors aren’t researchers! Some never even keep up with journals!

Previously here:

Statin Drugs: Brain Changes?
Statin Drugs: What You Must Know
Was My Brain Screaming To Itself?
Statin Drugs And Ersatz Alzheimer’s
Statin Drugs: More Fraud
James Kendrick Describes His Stroke
Statin Drugs: Two Notes
Statin Drugs: No Blood
Statin Drugs: Does V.P. Dick Cheney Take One?
Statin Drugs: Jarvik Ads Withdrawn
Statin Drugs: More Better!
Statin Drugs: Pain For Nothing
Statin Drugs: Survey
Simvastatin Made Me Insane
Simvastatin: This Happened To Me Too!
Simvastatin Vs. My Mind
Stopping My Statin
Give Me Back My Mind!

Writer Terry Pratchett Has Alzheimer’s

Pratchett criticises drugs ruling
Author Terry Pratchett has criticised a decision to limit the drug Aricept through the NHS to people in the later stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

He told the BBC’s Panorama programme the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s ruling “feels like an insult” and needs a rethink.

Nice decided the drug was not cost-effective in the early stages.

Pratchett, who has sold 55 million books worldwide, has PCA, a rare early-onset form of the disease.

He was diagnosed with PCA, which affects the back of the brain and therefore vision and motor skills, in December 2007.

I didn’t know this.

Sticking my nose in, I wonder if he’s also on a cholesterol-lowering medication?

If he is, he should ditch it and see if there’s improvement.

Good luck, Terry.

Previously here:

Statin Drugs: Brain Changes?
Statin Drugs: What You Must Know
Was My Brain Screaming To Itself?
Statin Drugs And Ersatz Alzheimer’s
Statin Drugs: More Fraud
James Kendrick Describes His Stroke
Statin Drugs: Two Notes
Statin Drugs: No Blood
Statin Drugs: Does V.P. Dick Cheney Take One?
Statin Drugs: Jarvik Ads Withdrawn
Statin Drugs: More Better!
Statin Drugs: Pain For Nothing
Statin Drugs: Survey
Simvastatin Made Me Insane
Simvastatin: This Happened To Me Too!
Simvastatin Vs. My Mind
Stopping My Statin
Give Me Back My Mind!

Statin Drugs: Brain Changes?

Statins Have Unexpected Effect On Pool Of Powerful Brain Cells

Neuroscientists found that statins, one of the most widely prescribed classes of medication ever used, have an unexpected effect on brain cells. Researchers looked at the effects of statins on glial progenitor cells, which help the brain stay healthy by serving as a crucial reservoir of cells that the brain can customize depending on its needs. The team found that the compounds spur the cells, which are very similar to stem cells, to shed their flexibility and become one particular type of cell.

The new findings come at a time of increasing awareness among neurologists and cardiologists of the possible effects of statins on the brain. Several studies have set out to show that statins provide some protection against dementia, but the evidence has been inconclusive at best. Meanwhile, there is some debate among physicians about whether statins might actually boost the risk of dementia. The new research published in the July issue of the journal Glia by Steven Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., and first author Fraser Sim, Ph.D., provides direct evidence for an effect of statins on brain cells.

Emphasis added by me.

How much anecdotal evidence will they need before they finally have to admit the mind-rotting side-effects of these drugs?!

“These findings were made through experiments done in cell culture using human brain cells and exposing them to doses of statins used widely in patients. But this research was not done in people. There are a great number of questions that need to be explored further before anyone considers changing the way statins are used,” Goldman added.

Emphasis added by me.

Hey, the research, so-called, is happening right now in millions and millions of people. All of you just fail to notice what’s going on!

Previously here:

Statin Drugs: What You Must Know
Was My Brain Screaming To Itself?
Statin Drugs And Ersatz Alzheimer’s
Statin Drugs: More Fraud
James Kendrick Describes His Stroke
Statin Drugs: Two Notes
Statin Drugs: No Blood
Statin Drugs: Does V.P. Dick Cheney Take One?
Statin Drugs: Jarvik Ads Withdrawn
Statin Drugs: More Better!
Statin Drugs: Pain For Nothing
Statin Drugs: Survey
Simvastatin Made Me Insane
Simvastatin: This Happened To Me Too!
Simvastatin Vs. My Mind
Stopping My Statin
Give Me Back My Mind!

Statin Drugs: What You Must Know

This is a long article that’s a must-read for anyone who has been placed on a cholesterol-lowering medication. There are things in it I hadn’t encountered in other articles on the Net.

Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven’t Been Told About Popular Cholesterol-Lowering Medicines

From my own experience, I highlight this:

Cholesterol is vital to proper neurological function. It plays a key role in the formation of memory and the uptake of hormones in the brain, including serotonin, the body’s feel-good chemical. When cholesterol levels drop too low, the serotonin receptors cannot work. Cholesterol is the main organic molecule in the brain, constituting over half the dry weight of the cerebral cortex.

Emphasis added by me.

When I stopped my statin and deliberately increased my cholesterol, the serotonin rush I got was astonishing. My brain felt as it had when I was a child!

Unfortunately, that level of serotonin didn’t last. It makes me wonder.

And no no no, I’m not interested in any of those selective-serotinin reuptake inhibitors!

Let me take a swipe at them while I’m here tilting at part of the establishment:

‘But,’ I said, ‘now that I am well I haven’t written a story or poem in six months. And worse, it doesn’t even bother me that I haven’t. I am only bothered by not being bothered.’

In the long run, the cure called Prozac doesn’t fill your mind so much as empty it of its contents and then leave you, like a pitcher, waiting to be filled.

— Prozac Diary by Lauren Slater; pages 77, 81

Oh yeah, that serotonin rush shifted me into pure bliss.

I’d rather be a sullen writer than a blissful non-writing eejit.

Previously here:

Was My Brain Screaming To Itself?
Statin Drugs And Ersatz Alzheimer’s
Statin Drugs: More Fraud
James Kendrick Describes His Stroke
Statin Drugs: Two Notes
Statin Drugs: No Blood
Statin Drugs: Does V.P. Dick Cheney Take One?
Statin Drugs: Jarvik Ads Withdrawn
Statin Drugs: More Better!
Statin Drugs: Pain For Nothing
Statin Drugs: Survey
Simvastatin Made Me Insane
Simvastatin: This Happened To Me Too!
Simvastatin Vs. My Mind
Stopping My Statin
Give Me Back My Mind!

Was My Brain Screaming To Itself?

In another context, I had to revisit a prior post here: Self-Confidence Vs. Self-Delusion.

In reading it just now, this jumped out at me:

This is why I excoriate The Secret and things like it. They make it far too easy for someone to fall into the horrible trap of self-delusion. It’s a trap that is very, very difficult to escape — because it’s all inside your head and it seems real. But it’s a mirage, an hallucination.

It made me recall what I wrote here: Simvastatin Made Me Insane

I have never had something like this occur in my life. I’ve been in possession of my head. For the past two years, I wasn’t. My mind was taken from me and reconfigured in ways I never thought could happen. Even though I felt something was wrong, I didn’t feel as if it was happening to me — it felt like me. But it wasn’t me.

Clearly a Philip K. Dick moment.

Statin Drugs And Ersatz Alzheimer’s

Blood test that gives ‘a six-year early warning’ of Alzheimer’s

Said by its creators to be 90 per cent accurate, the test measures the blood for proteins which can indicate the risk of brain disease, according to a report in Chemistry & Industry magazine.

I wonder what it would show when taken by someone who’s experiencing fake Alzheimer’s as a side-effect of being on a statin drug?

Previously here:

Statin Drugs: More Fraud
James Kendrick Describes His Stroke
Statin Drugs: Two Notes
Statin Drugs: No Blood
Statin Drugs: Does V.P. Dick Cheney Take One?
Statin Drugs: Jarvik Ads Withdrawn
Statin Drugs: More Better!
Statin Drugs: Pain For Nothing
Statin Drugs: Survey
Simvastatin Made Me Insane
Simvastatin: This Happened To Me Too!
Simvastatin Vs. My Mind
Stopping My Statin
Give Me Back My Mind!

Statin Drugs: More Fraud

Journal Issues Warning on Two Cholesterol Drugs

CHICAGO — Two widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs, Vytorin and Zetia, may not work and should be used only as a last resort, The New England Journal of Medicine said in an editorial published on Sunday.

The journal’s conclusion came as doctors at a major cardiology conference in Chicago saw for the first time the full results of a two-year clinical trial that showed that the drugs failed to slow, and might have even sped up, the growth of fatty plaques in the arteries. Growth of those plaques is closely correlated with heart attacks and strokes.

Emphasis added by me.

My cardiologist just last week, after telling him I stopped Simvastatin, recommended Zetia!

I said No.

So OK then. That does it for me.

I will never again be on a cholesterol-lowering drug.

Not ever.

I stated earlier that I would be publishing my lipid test results for the past several years. I held up on that because I had a test recently, post-Simvastatin, and wanted to add that. I intend to post later this week.

Previously here:

James Kendrick Describes His Stroke
Statin Drugs: Two Notes
Statin Drugs: No Blood
Statin Drugs: Does V.P. Dick Cheney Take One?
Statin Drugs: Jarvik Ads Withdrawn
Statin Drugs: More Better!
Statin Drugs: Pain For Nothing
Statin Drugs: Survey
Simvastatin Made Me Insane
Simvastatin: This Happened To Me Too!
Simvastatin Vs. My Mind
Stopping My Statin
Give Me Back My Mind!

James Kendrick Describes His Stroke

Having a stroke- from the inside

After the stroke hit I remained sitting in my chair in the office for a short bit and at some point I realized that I was out of my body looking down at myself. I remember that clearly because I saw that I was leaning far to the left while sitting, as if I couldn’t figure out how to straighten myself up. I told myself mentally to “sit up straight” and was instantly back in my own body.

This is absolutely gripping reading.

James also described his heart surgery in a previous post.

If you’ve come here to read up on Simvastatin, you are probably worried about your heart and circulation, so these are must-reads.