Statins and Blood-Pressure Lowering Meds a Con?

[HappyHiker]

I was just reading the opinions of Duane Graveline, a medical doctor and former astronaut about statins and blood-pressure lowering medications. His web site is www.spacedoc.net if you want to read further yourself.

Anyhow, his opinion is that taking these drugs--especially statins such as Lipitor--is harmful to our health with very serious side effects, and explains why. He's written a book on the topic, too.

He's had his own bad experiences such as transitory memory loss while taking statins, which is how he began his exploration of the topic.

Startling to read, and changed my own opinion about having my own sometimes high BP treated with meds.

Anyhow, just passing along this info as I found it very interesting. Thought maybe you'd want to do your own exploration and see what you think.

[iris lily]

Jane? You there?

[JaneV2.0]

You rang?

All the reading I've done suggests only a small cohort of patients--middle-aged males with a history of heart attack--gain potential benefit from statin drugs. If there's any indication that women of any age get any benefit from taking them, I've never seen one. There are entire books written on what a huge marketing scam cholesterol-lowering drugs are (see Malcolm Kendrick and others), and I recently finished an excellent book called Overdiagnosed that laid out a solid (and quite conservative, by my standards) risk/benefit analysis of them. Destruction of muscle tissue is one nasty side effect of these drugs, and only a few of them add COQ10 to their formulation to help combat serious side effects.

If you're concerned about high blood pressure, there's no indication that slashing cholesterol levels (a bad idea, IMO, considering about 40% of our nervous systems are composed of the stuff) will help. If your triglycerides are low, the other numbers hardly matter--also IMO. Better to institute dietary changes, add gentle exercise, reduce stress--that kind of thing. No profit in that approach though, so pill-pushing prevails.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I was just reading the opinions of Duane Graveline, a medical doctor and former astronaut about statins and blood-pressure lowering medications. His web site is www.spacedoc.net if you want to read further yourself.


Anyhow, his opinion is that taking these drugs--especially statins such as Lipitor--is harmful to our health with very serious side effects, and explains why. He's written a book on the topic, too.

He's had his own bad experiences such as transitory memory loss while taking statins, which is how he began his exploration of the topic.

Startling to read, and changed my own opinion about having my own sometimes high BP treated with meds.

I don't see the connection (BP meds aren't usually statins). And even though statins are almost certainly way overprescribed and perhaps shouldn't be prescribed at all, I don't think you can generalize about ALL meds being bad. I mean yes fine, be SKEPTICAL of meds, but realize also what high blood pressure does to the human body, it damages organs, including your brain. The brain absolutely depends on blood and was never meant to have blood whizzing by at those speeds.

If you are trying to lower you BP through lifestyle alone, it seems to be weight loss is the most effective thing you can do, if you are overweight. But if that is what you are doing, with the hopes of eventually getting off the meds, it will probably be a long slow process (everyone knows weight loss doesn't come fast), and there is nothing wrong with taking the BP meds while you get there, and being periodically evaluated to see whether you still need them. Other than weight loss, it's hard to say what will help. Exercise and stress reduction sure, eating lots of vegetables (because they have lots of minerals to help with blood pressure), and for some people eating less salt.

I see the tradeoffs here as statins are more risky than high cholesterol, but I don't see BP meds as more risky than high blood pressure (I don't think they are very risky meds to begin with). And this is what I tell my mom also: to take the blood pressure meds her doctor has prescribed but not to go on the statins the doctor wants her on. Sure mom is obese, but I'm never going to change that. I just want her here mentally and physically (and not to have dementia due to high blood pressure, AND not to have dementia, and muscle wasting away, and lou gerhigs disease, and cancer due to statins!). Dementia runs in my family to such an extent it's not even funny.

[Catwoman]

I quit taking my statin drug about three weeks ago after undeniable evidence that it was responsible for very serious/painful joint issues I was having. The pain is substantially better and getting better all the time.

[HappyHiker]

I quit taking my statin drug about three weeks ago after undeniable evidence that it was responsible for very serious/painful joint issues I was having. The pain is substantially better and getting better all the time.

So glad you're feeling better...after reading the book excerpts and the articles--and there are numerous--I do believe I will run the other way if anyone tries to prescribe statins to me...nasty stuff it seems, with little to no benefit, but a slew of serious side effects.