Fit Or Fat: Nutrition and Exercise

Patients Find Statins Can Have Side Effects

Posting Date: 04/18/2005

No one should ever stop cholesterol-lowering medicine without consulting a physician. Some doctors, however, have a hard time believing that these miracle medicines could have unacceptable side effects. Another reader reported:

?I have been on cholesterol-reducing medication for some time. I had been telling my doctor that my medication was doing something to my muscles and he would not believe me.

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?I changed doctors and the new one discovered that my muscle enzymes were 800 (normal is 200). He took me off the medicine and my enzymes came down, though they are not yet normal. When I went on a different statin, they climbed back up again.?

If you would like to learn more about the dark side of statins, you may be interested in a radio interview we conducted with several physicians who have studied such issues. To order a CD of this one-hour conversation, please send $15 to: People?s Pharmacy (CD-523), P. O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027.

Physicians know that life-saving drugs like penicillin can sometimes cause life-threatening reactions. It?s time to recognize that even great drugs like statins can cause some people serious harm.

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Joe Graedon is a pharmacologist. Teresa Graedon holds a doctorate in medical anthropology and is a nutrition expert. Their syndicated radio show can be heard on public radio. In their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them in care of this newspaper or e-mail them via their Web site: www.PeoplesPharmacy.org.