Cholesterol Drugs Depress Body Functions. Cause Pain, Loss of Mental Functions, and Even Temporary Amnesia.

Statins are a class of drugs with names like Lipitor, Zocor and Crestor. Sales of these drugs are over $19 Billion per year. They are given to reduce cholesterol which is thought to prevent heart disease. Unfortunately, these drugs have serious side effects and can create pain in many patients as well as interrupt essential bodily functions.

Cholesterol is a waxy substance that is important part of cell membranes. It is needed to produce Vitamin D, and sex hormones like testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen, as well as adrenal hormones like cortisol and aldosterone. Cholesterol is important for healthy nerve function and the myelin sheath of nerve cells. Cholesterol moves through the body in the blood stream and is found in the plaque associated with heart disease. Statins are thought to help reduce heart disease by reducing cholesterol, however, new research indicates that lower cholesterol does not reduce heart disease. Some researchers suggest that statin drugs reduce heart disease temporarily by lowering inflammation in the blood vessels.

Statins do reduce cholesterol by interrupting a biochemical process that creates the molecule mevalonate. Normally, mevalonate is turned into squalene (an antioxidant that has high anti cancer properties), cholesterol, dilochol, and the antioxidant co-enzyme Q10 (Co-Q10). While the function of dilochol is not well understood, Co-Q10 is necessary for energy production, nerve conduction, and muscular integrity. When we are deficient, symptoms will include exhaustion, cloudy thinking, muscle spasms leading to wasting of muscles including the heart. Personally, I became aware of these side effects from my patients who were put on these drugs, some of which take years to develop.

Dr. Duane Gravelin is a medical doctor who was prescribed Lipitor for his high cholesterol. He documents his rapid decline in health and rise in pain in his book, Lipitor: Thief of Memory ^[1]. In it he also describes his loss of mental function as well as an episode of transient global amnesia, a condition where the new memories can not form in a person’s mind. His wife found him wandering around the yard not being able to recognize her or know whose house he was in. Fortunately his memory returned six hours later. He went off of the medication, only to go back on it after a year. After a second episode of amnesia, he has become a researcher and staunch critic of statin drugs.

If you are taking statin drugs, you should immediately supplement with Co-Q10. In his book the The Great Cholesterol Con ^[2], Anthony Culpo states that it is unethical to prescribe statin drugs without also prescribing Co-Q 10. Talk to your doctor about getting off of stating drugs or at least the smallest dose possible (enough for the anti-inflammatory effect, but not enough to shut down the mevalonate pathway). Talk to me about natural anti-inflammatories without dangerous side effects. If you decide to go off of the statin drugs make sure that you do so gradually, there are articles online that have recommendations ^[3].

More information:

Statin Drugs Side Effects and the Misguided War on Cholesterol ^[4] and

The Statin Damage Crisis ^[5] by Duane Gravelin, MD ^[6]

Dangers of Statin Drugs ^[7] by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD (article)