Article: Crestor linked to patient death, company says - High Cholesterol Message Board

THEM · 01-10-2005, 01:21 PM

[ please do not post websites ]

I need to ask my doctor for a new drug to take.

ARIZONA73 · 01-10-2005, 05:00 PM

I don't think this is the first fatality from Crestor. Sometime last year I remember reading where a 38 year old woman also died from Crestor. Maybe we ought to start passing the stuff out to all the prisoners at Quantanimo Bay.

jtu91952 · 01-10-2005, 06:39 PM

Last week my cardio tried to force me to take crestor. I told her about all the news reports and she said but "you need to lower your cholesterol". Too bad, what difference does it make if i die from cholesterol (slowly) or crestor(quickly).
She said ppl should not listen to the news bcuz only a few ppl have trouble with statins. Well, it would be my luck im one of those ppl.

She gave me a script for niaspan(sp?) and pravigard(pravachol & asprin). I won't take neither.

ARIZONA73 · 01-10-2005, 08:19 PM

jtu91952,

Well, actually niacin is probably the best, and it is available over the counter. It's not expensive, and it is a great cardiovascular supplement. I personally think that it is far superior to any statin out there, and much safer. I've been taking it myself for nearly 20 years. I think that the benefits of simple, ordinary niacin far exceed any of the minimal benefits which may be derived from costly, and potentially dangerous statins.

Uff-Da! · 01-10-2005, 08:22 PM

jtu, why won't you take the Niaspan? I know that niacin taken by a diabetic has to be very carefully monitored because it CAN cause problems with glucose levels, but don't you take your blood sugar readings every day anyway? I would think you would be able to tell if the niacin was causing a problem long before anything serious happened. I'm taking just 750 mg. of an OTC niacin daily, and it has dropped my total cholesterol about 57 points and improved the other figures, too. I'm not diabetic, but that kind of drop can make a definite difference in risk of CVD.

And as to it's potential for liver damage, if your doctor ordered liver enzyme tests before you started, he knows you don't have a problem there or he wouldn't have prescribed it. Usually the doctor requests another blood test within 6-8 weeks or so after starting on niacin to make sure that individual isn't having a problem with it. That would catch any liver problem it might cause (which doesn't happen often even with the OTCs) long before it was serious. If the doctor failed to request a follow-up liver enzyme test, you should ask for one.