Lipitor Neurological Side Effect: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Alzheimer's
CategoriesLipitor and other statin drugs are well known for their degradation of muscle tissues and the sometimes excruciating pain that comes with this. What is less well known is that the progression of this muscle wasting side effect may lead to a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig's disease or motor neurone disease, described as a chronic, progressive, almost invariably fatal neurological disease.
Duane 'Spacedoc' Graveline, author of Statin Drugs Side Effects: the misguided war on cholesterol
Statins are the absolute best sellers in the pharmaceutical armamentarium against "high cholesterol" which in itself is not a disease but has been heavily promoted as an indication of future cardiovascular trouble.
The use of these drugs is associated with serious side effects, most prominent is a degeneration of the muscular tissue and debilitating pain that comes with it. If you have any doubt whatsoever about this, please read two earlier articles on this site:
and
Lipitor: Side Effects And Natural Remedy
Quite apart from the damning information in the articles themselves, you will see that literally hundreds of readers have added accounts of their personal experiences of the side effects of the statin drugs they are taking.
This can no longer be put this down to lack of information about the effects of these drugs. The pharmaceutical producers are hooked on the billions they are making and are doing everything possible to make the FDA and other regulatory agencies look the other way. Doctors are largely being kept in the dark as well. Perhaps you can help to bring the carnage to an end by copying this article plus the two earlier ones and making your doctor pay attention. There is little hope that the FDA or any other regulatory agency will act as long as the pharma manufacturers say that "everything's ok". We need a doctors' revolt.
But let's take a closer look now at nerve degeneration as a possible statin side effect. Duane Graveline, who is a former NASA scientist and astronaut as well as a medical doctor, has an explanation for the neurological effects of statins and it's not just theoretical. He has encountered many cases that suggest this is really happening.
Read his report here, including several accounts of ALS patients:
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ALS AND STATINS: EPIDEMIC?Another case just reported to me of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) associated with the use of statin drugs. Only a year ago the numbers of case reports of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis reported to my repository was a trickle - now it is a relative flood. There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that the numbers of reports I am seeing now are far more than usually expected in a group the size of my reporting population. One naturally wonders about this curious relationship with statin drugs and what the possible mechanism of action might be.
Recently a neuroscientist, V. Meske, reported in the European Journal of Neuroscience a very relevant study about the ability of statin drugs to cause neuronal degeneration. To refresh your memory statin drugs are designed to inhibit cholesterol synthesis [in the liver] by their effect on the mevalonate pathway. It seems that a consequence of the inhibitory effect of statin drugs on the mevalonate pathway is the induction of abnormal tau protein phosphorylation. Tau protein phosphorylation goes on to form neurofibrillatory tangles, long known to be the prime suspect in causing the slowly progressive neuronal degeneration of Alzheimer’s disease. Sometimes this process is accompanied by Beta amyloid deposition but more commonly not. Research scientists are now finding that this mechanism appears to be true for ALS and many other forms of neurodegenerative diseases as well. They have even coined a new word for this, the taupathies.
Statin associated taupathies or tauopathies may well be additional gross evidence of collateral damage to existing cellular chemistry that our researchers were unable to predict when they originally created the statins. All this from a class of drugs originally designed simply to inhibit the biosynthesis of cholesterol, which is a vital substance now proven to be irrelevant to the atherosclerotic process.Very few primary care physicians are familiar with the association of statin drug use with ALS and most are disinclined to use warnings from websites such as mine about statin drug side effects, saying they are anecdotal. These “anecdotes” are the patient’s histories! Doctor Ellsworth Amidon, my Vermont College of Medicine professor of medicine, used to say, “Heed well the words of your patients, my young doctors, they are telling you the diagnosis.”
Most physicians feel that the pharmaceutical industry is on guard for side effects such as this and if no black box warning is out, the drug is safe. This is terribly naïve. Nor is FDA’s Medwatch an effective monitor of drug safety. My personal experience with Medwatch is that it is an adequate repository only. As an example, primary care physicians were denied the existence of statin associated amnesias until Wagstaff et al reported in Pharmacotherapy their 60 cases gleaned from a Medwatch review in 2003. I can only hope that readers of this paper, especially those having relevant symptoms, will bring this subject to the attention of their doctors. Print out this paper for them and urge them to check their own literature.
My first case report will demonstrate how carefully guarded the drug industry is about this relationship. “Hundreds of folders” might be an exaggeration but, as a specialist in both family practice and preventive medicine, even [the existence of] ten folders frightens me.
Duane Graveline MD MPH
Author, Statin Drugs Side Effects: the misguided war on cholesterol
www.spacedoc.net
spacedoc@cfl.rr.com
- - - - -Recent ALS patient case reports
“My dad died on 6/1/06 at the age of 65 from a six-year battle with ALS. I said to my mom a million times that dad got ALS from taking Lipitor. When he was taking it he would wake up in the middle of the night from severe muscle pain and cramping. When he told his doctor about it, his doctor said, "Hey, I get aches and pains too, but that's life", then he doubled my father's dosage. My dad finally was diagnosed with the ALS and kept taking the Lipitor because no one told him of any connection of his aches and pains and the Lipitor. He went from stumbling, to falling down, to walking with arm braces, to a walker, to a wheelchair, to total paralysis except for his hands. I watched him die from a disease that took away every bit of his pride and dignity because he needed help eating and going to the bathroom to being completely paralyzed and helpless. He was a proud, strong hard working carpenter and this disease turned him into a sobbing, completely petrified paralyzed person. My dad worked for an "extremely" wealthy man who finally sent him to and paid for him to see one of the United States top neurologists after he was diagnosed. After seeing this doctor for a while I said to him that I thought my dad might have gotten ALS from taking Lipitor and the doctor said, “You see all of those folders behind me (there were hundreds)? He said, ”Those are all cases that pharmaceutical companies have sent me of people who are in law suits because they think they got ALS from their cholesterol-lowering medications and they want me to read them all over and decide if I think that is the case or not.” He said, “In your father's case, honestly I'm just not sure.” Well I know Lipitor gave my dad ALS no matter what anyone says. It took away my four small children's grandpa and memories they will never have with him. I just wish doctors would inform their patients before they prescribed them a medication of the side effects and risks of that medication so the patient could decide if they wanted to risk it or not. Maybe if someone told my dad this from the beginning he would have opted to lower his cholesterol in another way.”- - -
“Sadly, I did not stop taking the Lipitor in time. After feeling back to normal for a short time I took a sudden downturn and was diagnosed with ALS last week. I am losing strength and mobility every day. I would like to join any lawsuit against Pfizer.”
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“The first neurologist gave Dad about an hour long electrode and needle test in arms and legs (we were in the room and watched) and provided us a medical/technical written report several full pages long to take to our second opinion. He was pretty sure it was ALS, but emphasized we needed to go to an ALS-specialized neurologist. Right now we are focused on his health and the battle against Lipitor.”
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“My neurologist has done a complete turn in his diagnosis. A few weeks ago he told me that he didn't think that my speech and swallowing problems were caused by Lipitor and that he thinks that I DO have ALS! Well, he calls my problems "atypical" ALS because I have d teriorated slowly. At this point in time I have had problems for almost three years. Currently, I can barely speak and my speech is pretty unintelligible. Further, I have such great difficulty in swallowing that I can only eat pureed food and I have lost a lot of weight. I am tired a lot, feeling weak and my breathing has declined somewhat. I have been off statins for 2 1/2 years and that has not restored my vigor.”- - -
“I am a veterinary pathologist, that does a lot of neuropathology, and unfortunately, I am the patient with neurologic issues currently. I have been on Lipitor 40mg qd for 6 years (increased from 20 mg qd 2 years ago). Over the past 2 years, I have noticed increased weakness, extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, and very significant loss of muscle mass (postural muscles, laryngeal muscles, legs/arms, etc.). The loss of muscle mass in the lower legs has led to significant edema, which was the main clinical signs that my physicians were focusing on to try and explain. After some consideration, I became convinced that I had ALS. I have also experienced short-term memory loss, have trouble finding the right word, have trouble dictating my biopsy cases fluidly, and have significant depression. I have a referral with a neurologist tomorrow for an initial evaluation.”
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I came across your website while doing some research concerning the side effects of cholesterol medication. My mom has been taking cholesterol medication for 15 years now. Recently the past couple months she has been showing signs of ALS. These symptoms include muscle weakening in the arms, tingling, twitching, slurred speech, fat
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