Are You Risking Heart Failure By Taking Statins?

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Myopathy, also known as muscle weakness or rhabdomyolysis, is a breakdown of muscle fibres that results in these fibres being released into the bloodstream. It’s a well-known fact that myopathy is one of the hideous side effects of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

This is a major concern, because the majority of people who use statins are doing so because they have been told by their doctors that lowering their cholesterol will prevent heart attacks and strokes...

However, I wonder how many people would continue to use these dangerous drugs if they knew that they have been linked to decreased heart muscle function (myocardial function), according to a study published in the journal Clinical Cardiology.

Heart failure knocking on your door

In the study, US researchers at the Department of Medicine, Michigan State University, evaluated the effects of statin therapy on heart muscle function in 28 patients. They found that there was significantly better heart muscle function in the control group, compared to the statin group.

Much as the researchers did not address the causes of decreased heart muscle function, it's a well-known fact that statins lower your levels of an important heart nutrient, Co-enzyme Q10(CoQ10), by blocking the pathway involved in cholesterol production. This is the same pathway by which CoQ10 is produced. Statins also reduce the blood cholesterol that transports CoQ10 and other beneficial fat-soluble antioxidants.

To put it plainly, statin drugs seriously mess with your body’s natural function and there’s no easy way to say this, the end result when your heart muscle function is weakened or decreases, is heart failure!

As statins deplete your body more and more of CoQ10, you’ll start suffering from fatigue, muscle weakness and soreness which may eventually lead to heart failure... since the heart is after all a muscle. Yet sadly, the mainstream is slow to admit that CoQ10 depletion is a major concern (and health risk) and that statin drugs play a major part in it.

Luckily, there is light at the end of the tunnel because in countries like Canada there are clear risk warnings of CoQ10 depletion on the labelling of statin drugs... The warning labels even note that this nutrient deficiency: "could lead to impaired cardiac function in patients with borderline congestive heart failure."

I can’t help but wonder, if one country can openly admit to this concern, why don’t we see this happening in other countries?

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Failing miserably

With Big Pharma’s mission to get almost everyone on the planet to take statins, the majority of people taking statins are doing so completely unnecessary. This is down to the simple fact that statin drugs were originally prescribed for secondary prevention. In other words, to help prevent a second heart attack or stroke if you'd already suffered one or if you have clear signs of heart disease.

However, after the publication of the JUPITER statin trial — which boasted that statins could lower the risk of heart attack by 54 per cent, the risk of stroke by 48 per cent, the risk of needing angioplasty or bypass surgery by 46 per cent, and the risk of death from all causes by 20 per cent — statins were all of a sudden being prescribed like sweets as a primary prevention. This is done under the mainstream’s guise to help prevent people with ‘certain risk factors’ of heart disease from having a heart attack or stroke in the first place... even if they are otherwise perfectly healthy!

Yet, since the results of the JUPITER study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, in 2008, numerous other studies have found no evidence to back up the JUPITER claim that statins can reduce your risk of death when used as primary prevention against heart disease! It also turns out that AstraZeneca (the makers of the statin drug Crestor) were sponsoring the JUPITER trial... and they even tried to bribe doctors involved not to reveal any negative outcomes.

If you are currently taking statins, considering the side effects involved and the fact that you may actually risk heart failure by taking these drugs, you need to ask yourself this question: Is it absolutely necessary that I should be taking these drugs?

I wouldn't be surprised if your doctor hasn’t informed you about the risk of CoQ10 depletion when you are taking statins. Suffice to say, he probably also did not tell you that you need to supplement with the best possible version of CoQ10 (known as Ubiquinol) in order to prevent irreversible damage to your muscles and heart.

Do you really want to continue taking a drug that might end up doing you a great deal more harm than good?

Dr. John Briffa, our contributing editor to The Cholesterol Truth, has written extensively about statins and the damage they can do to your health. On a much-related topic, Dr. Briffa discusses a new study that adds to the mounting evidence already questioning the benefits of using statins as a way of ‘saving lives’.

To read his latest post, click here:

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Sources:

‘New Study Shows Using Statins Actually Worsens Your Heart Function’ published online 22.06.11, articles.mercola.com

‘Statin therapy decreases myocardial function as evaluated via strain imaging.’ Clin Cardiol. 2009 Dec;32(12):684-9.

‘Statin therapy decreases myocardial (heart) function’ published online, greenmedinfo.com