Dangers of Statin Drugs

Lyle Hurd: Well, I am happy to welcome back Robert Kowalski author of, “The New 8-Week Cholesterol Cure.” I bet I have 20 friends that take statin drugs, yet I hear all of these...

Robert Kowalski: Just 20?

LH: Well, I don’t talk to everybody about it. But I understand that statin drugs are really not the panacea that they are made out to be and actually can be dangerous, could you talk to us a little bit about that?

RK: Well there is no question that doctors pass these out like sugar pills, they just write the prescription as soon as they see the cholesterol levels are up and there is no more of an effective way to get cholesterol levels down. I mean, boom, they write the prescription, take the pills and a few weeks your cholesterol is lowered with out even touching your diet perhaps even. Little emphasis is placed on those lifestyle behaviors as well. But, there is a dark side to the statin’s, when they were doing the first research on the very first statin drug they noticed that there was an ill-effect, the statin drugs work by inhibiting an essential enzyme that is necessary to produce cholesterol. So, if that enzyme is inhibited then you don’t produce as much of the LDL cholesterol. Now, that’s the good part. The side effect that we most commonly see is muscle aches and pains, now it is one thing to have a little muscle ache or pain and say well I must have pulled a muscle, I think I did a little too much walking last weekend or gardening or whatever and I feel stiff and sore. But left untouched and unchanged and continuing to take that drug can lead to permanent muscle damage throughout the body and also affecting the kidney. In fact one of the statin drugs called Baycol was taken off the market a few years back because 37 people died of kidney problems from taking that drug because of this exact mechanism of action. What is the answer to this? It’s simple; I truly believe that niacin is superior to the statin drugs without those kinds of problems.

LH: Thank you

RK: Thank you.