Is there any safe drug? - High Cholesterol Message Board

Spin444 · 02-09-2006, 04:47 PM

My uncle is on Simvastatin (Zocor) and I've been sending him all of the information that I've learned. He says that he's suffering from most of the symptoms. He wonders if there is anything safe to take. Any non-statin alternatives that won't do so much harm??

Lenin · 02-09-2006, 05:36 PM

Spin,

All drugs have side effects.
There are alternatives to statin therapy. The trouble is that none of them will work as well as simvastatin.

So each of us makes a benefit risk analysis and determines whether taking a drug is worth doing. In the case of statins, the benefit for many is the avoidance of an early death.

Your uncle must make his choice. His doctor might be able to help him make it.

ARIZONA73 · 02-09-2006, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spin444

My uncle is on Simvastatin (Zocor) and I've been sending him all of the information that I've learned. He says that he's suffering from most of the symptoms. He wonders if there is anything safe to take. Any non-statin alternatives that won't do so much harm??

Yes, one such alternative is fish oil. In fact, I recall that there was a study which concluded that fish oil actually outperformed statins in preventing heart attacks. The surprising thing was (well, maybe it's not so surprising), fish oil proved to be superior even though it didn't lower cholesterol. I know I posted some information on this study a while back.

Spin444 · 02-09-2006, 07:16 PM

Lenin, It seems that statins also have the ability of contributing to an "early death". They shouldn't call myopathy, loss of sight and memory, etc., "side effects". They are effects, and sometimes, it seems, as common as the desired ones. I'll tell him about the fish oil. Speaking of oil - I think that the drug companies have been passing off the snake version of it for far too long. If we didn't all settle for what they've come up with to deal with "diseases"; if we didn't all ignore all of the dangers and chalk them up to some other cause; maybe they'd be forced to figure out how to help us in ways that would help us and not harm us. Oh yeh, they wouldn't make nearly as much money that way, would they. They have a vested interest in promoting so-called diseases and then developing drugs to "cure" them. Perfect evidence of this is all of the psych "disorders" dujour. When Eli Lily was losing it's patent on Prozac, for instance, it decided to invent PMDD and repackage Prozac as Serafem, a near perfect solution for this "mental disorder" caused by a woman's natural cycle. What a load. Nobody knew that they were taking Prozac. Big pharmas are the epitome of snake oil salesmen.

Lenin · 02-10-2006, 05:25 AM

Spin,

Those side effects that you call an "early death" seem to occur more on the internet (and amazingly usually among people who AREN'T taking statins) then among the 12 million people taking statins in the United States.
If the "early death" was as rampant as the crepe hangers with a computer would have it be, do you really think the drugs would be THE MOST POPULAR drugs in the world after all these years. The killer side effect that was dealt with by the FDA and Bayer years ago was rhabdomyolysis...it is rare to the point of non-existent with the current statins and every physician is alerted to watch for it and test for it.

If you looking for an allusin to "snake oil salesmen" I think the analogy works much better with BIG VITAMINO (or MEGA VITAMINO) where unproven "supplements" are peddled as cures for all disease without the requirement of a shred of proof...just skillful marketing.

Big Pharma as "evil" and greedy as it is, MUST provide proof of safety and efficacy before it can peddle it's wares.

Drugs have to WORK; snake oil doesn't have to and therefore DOESN'T!

So good luck finding your alternative, unless your question was purely rhetorical.

HAve you TRIED any, did they work as well as simvastatin? Did you die an early death? (That last WAS rhetorical)

Take fish oil by the shovelful and report back the results of your blood cholesterol, we can all benefit by your test. If it's still terrible you can always join the "cholesterol is good for you" camp.