When Big Pharma finally admits statin muscle pain is real, watch out!
For years it’s been the worst-kept secret in mainstream medicine — and now it looks like Big Pharma is coming clean.
Sort of.
If you’re one of the countless people who have been suffering extreme muscle pain or weakness while taking statins, you were probably told the drugs weren’t causing the problem.
You may have even been told it was all in your head.
But now, for the first time, a drug company study has proven that the side effect is very real — and serious.
The only problem? The solution they want you to try could be even more dangerous.
In fact, it may even end up destroying your brain.
That’s what the Cleveland Clinic’s world famous Dr. Steven Nissen had to say about his new study, funded by drug giant Amgen, on statin-induced muscle pain.
Wow, nothing gets by this guy, huh?
I mean, come on. Big Pharma has spent years trying to wish away all the muscle problems statins were causing. They’ve called them a normal part of aging — and even tried to claim the issues weren’t real, even as they slowly (and in very fine print) started adding warnings to statin labels.
So if you’re wondering why a med manufacturer would go out of its way to confirm something that has driven untold numbers of statin users to flush their Lipitor or Crestor down the toilet, there’s a very good reason for that.
I’m talking about PCSK9 blockers — the next generation of billion-dollar cholesterol meds to hit the market. If Amgen has its way, you’ll be trading in your run-of-the-mill generic statins for these drugs instead.
And if that happens, you’ll be jumping right from the frying pan into a very dangerous fire.
PCSK9 blockers, two of which were just approved by the FDA last year, aren’t your father’s statin. In fact, they’ve managed to make those risky, old-school cholesterol meds look as benign as milk and honey.
PCSK9 blockers Repatha and Praluent will lower your cholesterol all right, straight down to the alarm-sounding basement danger zone. The drugs were patterned after a rare genetic disorder that causes sufferers to have a “broken” PCSK9 gene that can send their cholesterol dangerously low.
In other words, some very sick people.
And so far, what we’ve learned about these meds is downright scary.
How does delirium, amnesia, trouble thinking and reasoning and even dementia sound to you? Those are some of the possibilities that researchers from Johns Hopkins discovered when they took a long, hard look at the trial data on PCSK9 blockers.
In one trial, patients were three times more likely to have serious cognitive problems! It’s like the 600-pound gorilla in the room that even the FDA can’t ignore. Back when these drugs were still in the initial clinical trial stage the agency sent a letter to the companies developing them warning of “neurocognitive adverse events.”
Despite all that, Repatha and Praluent got the FDA green light to be injected into millions last year.
If there’s one good thing you can say about these drugs, it’s that they cost a small fortune — around $14,000 dollars a year. And that’s been the saving grace that’s kept lots of Americans from getting an Rx for them.
Which brings us back to Dr. Nissen and his new study (which, again, was paid for by Amgen, the company that makes Repatha) admitting that statin side-effect sufferers aren’t so crazy after all.
“Statin intolerance has been one of the most vexing problems” for doctors, he said. But, “We’ve given them an alternative.”
And that alternative, Dr. Nissen claims, is either Repatha or Praluent.
Well, thanks for nothing.
Because it looks like this so-called solution may be asking patients to choose between the torment of constant pain and weakness and their ability to think. And that’s not a choice that anyone should be asked to make.
I’ve been telling you for years that so-called high cholesterol is one of the most over-treated conditions out there — they keep changing the guidelines just to sell more meds. So if you’re taking any cholesterol-lowering drugs, it may be high time to get a second opinion on what your best course of action really is.
And it just may be doing nothing at all.
Sources:
“Study confirms what millions taking statins have said for years” Jericka Duncan, April 3, 2016, CBS, cbsnews.com
