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Concerned
Scientists Dispute New Cholesterol-Lowering Guidelines
LUND
,
Sweden
, August 18/PRNewswire/ --
Statin Drug Treatment Carries Great Risk, Few Benefits
Recently revised cholesterol-lowering guidelines constitute a major risk
to
public health according to The International Network of Cholesterol
Skeptics,
(THINCS; www.thincs.org ), a non-profit organisation of doctors,
scientists
and researchers. The new guidelines, aimed at even more aggressive
cholesterol
lowering will result in millions more people being placed on
statins.
THINCS' members are deeply disturbed by the ever-increasing pressure to
lower
blood cholesterol levels, and the underlying commercial interests that
have
distorted scientific research in this area. THINCS warns that statins
have
been excessively 'hyped' by the pharmaceutical industry and medical
opinion
leaders who have, unfortunately, become little more than paid
advertorials.
These drugs have been shown to produce an alarming array of side
effects,"
states
Uffe Ravnskov
,
MD
, PhD, THINCS Chairman.
"Furthermore, the
public
and medical profession do not realise that statins only benefit a
small
and select portion of the population."
Ravnskov and his colleagues worldwide point out that in the elderly, in
women
of all ages and in men without heart disease, cholesterol-lowering
m measures
have not prevented a single death in any trial. Even in the highest
male
risk groups for heart disease, statin treatment resulted in 0.5 % fewer
deaths
per year only, and this small benefit was found in the most positive
of
all trials. Other major statin trials, e.g. ALLHAT showed no benefit at
all,
a fact that has been effectively buried.
Even a small effect would of course be worthwhile provided that the
treatment
was free from side effects. However, data gathered by the THINCS
group
show that statin drugs cause cancer both in animals and in human
beings.
Other side effects include liver damage, nerve damage, cognitive
decline,
and memory loss, and statin use during pregnancy may lead to more
serious
malformations than were seen after exposure to thalidomide.
Best known is muscle damage. In severe cases this causes kidney failure
which
has claimed the lives of several hundred people thus far, and resulted
in
one of the worst offending statins (cerivastatin) being withdrawn from
the
market.
Cardiologist Peter Langsjoen notes that statin treatment may lead to
heart
muscle weakening and heart failure. "It occurs because statin drugs
block
the production of coenzyme Q10, vital for the production of cell
energy"
says Langsjoen. "Evidence sent to the FDA shows marked reduction of
coQ10
in patients on statin drugs."
All of these side-effects have been seen at relatively low doses. New
recommendations
are to use increasingly high doses, and THINCS warn that this
will
result in even more complications of treatment up to, and including,
death.
Yet "to lower cholesterol even more is like chasing
windmills", says
Ravnskov,
"because any alleged benefits from statins has nothing to do with
lowering
LDL or cholesterol."
"Statin drugs have been aggressively promoted by the pharmaceutical
industry
and medical opinion leaders," says THINCS member Paul Rosch, MD,
President
of the American Institute of Stress. "The new guidelines were not
written
by disinterested scientists, but by members of the medical community
who
have received major grants from the pharmaceutical industry. The
recommendations
are based on distorted statistical analysis of relative risk
reduction
that mislead doctors and the public. They are designed to turn
healthy
people into patients."
A more exhaustive release with references to the literature and other
information
is available from THINCS' homepage www.thincs.org
Source: THINCS
Contact
persons: Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD (Sweden), www.ravnskov.nu/uffe,
ravnskov@tele2.se , telephone: +46-(0)46145022 or +46-(0)44352086; Paul
Rosch, MD, Professor (New York, USA), stress124@earthlink.net ,
telephone: +1-914-963-1200; Kilmer McCully, MD (Boston, USA),
Kilmer.McCully@med.va.gov , Telephone: +1-617-323-7700x5990; Joel
Kauffman, Professor (Philadelphia, USA), kauffman@hslc.org , Telephone:
+1-610-293-0594 ; Morley Sutter, MD, PhD, Professor Emeritus (Vancouver,
Canada), mcsutter@interchange.ubc.ca , Telephone: +1-604-263-5793;
Malcolm Kendrick, MD (UK), Malcolm@llp.org.uk , Telephone:
+44-(0)1625-578798 (day), +44-(0)1625-502001 (eve), +44-(0)1625 427642
(mob); Barry Groves, PhD (UK), barry@second-opinions.co.uk , Telephone:
+44(0)1993-830974
(20/8/04)
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