July 8, 2002
STATIN-INDUCED CARDIOMYOPATHY
INTRODUCTION TO THE CITIZEN?S PETITION ON STATINS
By Peter H. Langsjoen, MD
The medical profession has, after more than 30 years of excellent propaganda, successfully created the wholly iatrogenic - "pseudo-disease" dubbed "hypercholesterolemia" and the associated malady "cholesterol neurosis". After decades of dismal failure to cure this "disease" of numbers with low fat diets and a host of cholesterol lowering drugs, the medical profession stumbled upon the magic bullet, the cure for this dreaded artificial disease - statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors). First released on the US market in 1987, statins have rapidly grown into one of the most widely prescribed class of drugs in history. Statins do three things:
1. They block the body's ability to make cholesterol, thus lowering the blood level of cholesterol, thereby curing cholesterol neurosis. Doctors and patients equally neurotic have immediate gratification. The "evil" high cholesterol has been dramatically lowered and the future is bright and promising. So far...so good.
2. Unrelated to their cholesterol lowering, statins have been found to have anti-inflammatory, plaque-stabilizing properties which have a slight benefit in coronary heart disease.
3. Statins kill people - lots of people - and they wound many, many more. All patients taking statins become depleted in Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), eventually - those patients who start with a relatively low CoQ10 levels (the elderly and patients with heart failure) begin to manifest signs/symptoms of CoQ10 deficiency relatively rapidly - in 6 to 12 months. Younger, healthier people who's only "illness" is the non-illness "hypercholesterolemia" can tolerate statins for several years before getting into trouble with fatigue, muscle weakness and soreness (usually with normal muscle enzyme CPK tests) and most ominously - heart failure. In my practice of 17 years in Tyler, Texas, I have seen a frightening increase in heart failure secondary to statin usage, "statin cardiomyopathy". Over the past five years, statins have become more potent, are being prescribed in higher doses, and are being used with reckless abandon in the elderly and in patients with "normal" cholesterol levels. We are in the midst of a CHF epidemic in the US with a dramatic increase over the past decade. Are we causing this epidemic through our zealous use of statins? In large part I think the answer is yes. We are now in a position to witness the unfolding of the greatest medical tragedy of all time - never before in history has the medical establishment knowingly (Merck & Co., Inc. has two 1990 patents combining CoQ10 with statins to prevent CoQ10 depletion and attendant side effects) created a life threatening nutrient deficiency in millions of otherwise healthy people, only to then sit back with arrogance and horrific irresponsibility and watch to see what happens - as I see two to three new statin cardiomyopathies per week in my practice, I cannot help but view my once great profession with a mixture of sorrow and contempt.
Statin-induced CoQ10 depletion is the topic of a recent petition to the FDA requesting that this drug/nutrient interaction be identified in a black box warning as part of statin package insert information. A comprehensive review of animal and human trials addressing this issue has been submitted to the FDA as a supporting document. We, of course, do not expect any response from the FDA, but 10 years from now when the full extent of statin toxicity becomes painfully evident, at least we can, in good conscience, know that we tried and who knows, sometimes small sparks may spread in dry grass.

See Also:
Cholesterol Drugs And The Depletion Of Coenzyme Q10: A Review Of Human And Animal Data.
By Peter H. Langsjoen, MD
Citizen Petition: Needed - A Change In The Labeling Of All Statin Drugs

Very good article,with some valid points.What I see missing here are his answera to 2 questions.The first is What do you tell heart attack patients? and secondly.What do you tell your patients in regards to their cholesterol?

Great article by a doctor who has actually done some investigation into this problem , a lot of what he said is well known by us here on the board who have been thru statin hell . Statins weaken muscle and what is the most important muscle in your body ? Your heart of course , you are lowering your cholesterol and killing your heart at the same time . Nice side effect . As I have been saying all along we will see more problems with statins in the future years once these "wonder drugs" are studied further .

Yeah,a good article but as it was pointed out,he provided no answers to the problem.
Yes viperegg22 you do have a point,but what do you tell people to do who have the clogged arteries and are heart attack survivors? You just took all hope they may have had away from them.So,what have you done after your heart attack?

Originally posted by Gooba:
Very good article,with some valid points.What I see missing here are his answera to 2 questions.The first is What do you tell heart attack patients? and secondly.What do you tell your patients in regards to their cholesterol?

Here is what I would tell them. First off, if you smoke, quit smoking. Second, improve the quality of your diet by eating more whole unprocessed foods including meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts, and fruit, and cut back on the processed foods, sugar, refined carbohydrates, and hydrogenated vegetable oils. Third, I would recommend moderate exercise, at least 30 minutes of light cardio or resistance exercises 3-5 days per week.

For the large majority of people, those changes will do more to improve your cardiovascular health than the statins with none of the negative side effects.

Alan

Originally posted by arkie6:
Here is what I would tell them. First off, if you smoke, quit smoking. Second, improve the quality of your diet by eating more whole unprocessed foods including meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts, and fruit, and cut back on the processed foods, sugar, refined carbohydrates, and hydrogenated vegetable oils. Third, I would recommend moderate exercise, at least 30 minutes of light cardio or resistance exercises 3-5 days per week.

For the large majority of people, those changes will do more to improve your cardiovascular health than the statins with none of the negative side effects.

Alan

The Doctor did not answer those questions.For whatever reason he avoided going into a possible solution.
I do give you credit for at least trying.What you said about changing diet,exercise,etc is all great advice.the problem with that is that there are alot of heart attack survivors who follow that regimen and their numbers are still high.It may work with a large majority of people who have NOT had a heart attack.It does not work for the majority of people who HAVE had a heart attack.So,what do you tell those folks.The only viable alternative is what drugs are available to help us.I think TB asked a pretty good question.What have you done after your heart attack?

this really was a very good article. However, I wonder, if one takes 100 mgs of cq10 enzyme a day, will this be enought to combat the depletion with the statin drugs??

The amount of coenzyme Q10 required to combat the effects of statin drugs will undoubtably vary from individual to individual. The amount of CoQ10 your body produces peaks in your twenties, and then gradually declines with age. So, the older you are the lower your levels are likely to be. Couple this with a statin drug, and you've got a real potential problem on your hands. While 100mg may be adequate for one person, someone else may require 200 or 300mg or more. It's time these narrow-minded doctors got their heads out of the sand and started testing patients' blood levels of CoQ10. If you are taking a statin drug, I believe it's best to take between 200-300mg to be on the safe side. And don't forget, just because you may be taking 200mg of CoQ10 does not mean that you are absorbing it all. You may quite possibly be absorbing only 50% of what you take. Now, there is a hydrosoluble form of CoQ10 available which is supposed to be better absorbed. This is what I am taking. It's called Q-gel and it is made by Tishcon Corporation.