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Cholesterol is not the culprit the drug industry would have you believe. I've studied the cholesterol lowering drugs from the beginning and found some very interesting facts. Since then others are doing the same and coming up with the same results I did!

First let me tell you about my husband and his family – parents and 13 siblings – most have been prescribed cholesterol lowering medication within the last thirty years.  More than two-thirds of them have exhibited horrific side effects after starting and continuing a cholesterol lowering drug, some were life threatening had I not intervened they would be dead.  

Over those thirty years I have studied reactions to cholesterol lowering drugs and found an increase - in those taking the drugs - heart diseases, heart attacks or strokes! 

I also found that the drug companies who make those drugs actually tell you that fact, in a round-about-way, if you read the package insert that comes with your prescription, if the pharmacist remembers to put it in your bag.

They have "in small print" somewhere within that insert, usually toward the end or middle, that states; “This drug has not proven to prevent heart disease, heart attack or strokes.”  Only if you read that insert will you know that and less than one-half of one percent of people taking the drugs read that insert. 

They lie to the doctors and tell them the opposite of that! I discovered that the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing them have garnered billions of dollars while heart disease and strokes have risen, not lessened as it should have with the majority of people cholesterol lowering.  

When Lipitor, the first cholesterol lowering drug, came on the market it wasn’t prescribed until a person had cholesterol over 300, but that didn’t garner the drug industry enough money so they then told the medical world that cholesterol is dangerous if over 200. Then more prescriptions were written and more cholesterol lowering drugs came on the market along with heart disease, heart attacks, strokes and neurological and muscle problems. A few years ago they lowered the desired figure to 150.  

Let me tell you that if your cholesterol is lower than 250 to 300 you are truly in danger of heart attack, heart disease, stroke, dementia, poly neuropathy, muscle deterioration, liver disease and kidney disease or failure and a host of other organ failures. You will never see that written on a death certificate though!

When the first cholesterol drug came on the market I was a Medical Office nurse and handled triage in the office and patient home visits. Triage is when patients call or come in with complaints and I had to get their information and pass it to the doctor and then inform the patient what to do.   

Within the first six months of prescribing Lipitor I was getting calls from those patients complaining of brain confusion, memory problems, muscle aches and pains, muscle weakness, nausea and vomiting for no reason and then low grade fevers.  These complaints were diagnosed as rhabdomyolysis (muscle destroying  disease).  I'm pretty sure a couple of our patients died from side effects of the drug. My internist stopped prescribing the  cholesterol lowering drug and went back to niacin, when I brought his attention to what was happening with Lipitor patients.  

EVERY Statin drug that have come on the market, since the early 1980’s, exhibit serious side effects of which rhabdomyolysis is the most common complaint. rhabdomyolysis destroys muscle cells then releases them into the bloodstream and can cause severe muscle pain, frequently in the calves or lower back. In rare instances the effects are so severe a patient develops potentially fatal kidney or other organ failure.  Most carry black box warnings but doctors mostly ignore those warning or haven’t been told about it. 

What has come to light, over the last few years by scientist who became concerned, are cases of severe mental confusion and memory loss happening to many people. Some lost their memory and thought they were all the way back to childhood. Not a pleasant happening.  One person it happened to was a Dr. Duane Graveline an astronaut.  

As an astronaut, he was required to have annual physicals done at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. In 1999 his cholesterol hit 280 and he was given a prescription for Lipitor.

"When they suggested Lipitor (10 mg), I went along with it because I had no reason to be particularly worried about statin drugs," he says. However, it quickly became apparent that something was seriously wrong.

"It was six weeks later when I experienced my first episode of what was later diagnosed as transient global amnesia," Dr. Graveline says.

"This is an unusual form of amnesia wherein you immediately, without the slightest warning, are unable to formulate new memory and you can no longer communicate. Not because you cannot talk, but you can't remember the last syllable that was spoken to you. So nothing you say is relevant anymore. In addition, you have a retrograde loss of memory, sometimes decades into the past."

He "came to himself" about six hours later in the office of a neurologist, who gave him the diagnosis: transient global amnesia. He quit taking the Lipitor despite the reassurances from his doctors that the drug was not of concern, and that it was just a coincidence.

He had no relapses during the remainder of the year, but his cholesterol was still around 280 at his next physical. He was again urged to take Lipitor, and he relented and started taking it again.

"I admit I was concerned, but I had talked to maybe 30 doctors and a few pharmacologists during the interval," Dr. Graveline says. "They all said "statins don't do that." So I allowed myself to go back on statins but this time I took just 5 mg.

…Eight weeks later, I had my second, and my worst episode. In this one, I was a 13-year-old high school student for 12 hours... This is what convinced me, when I finally woke up, that something was wrong with the statin drugs. And yet, the doctors were, for years after that, still saying that this was just a remarkable coincidence.

This took me out of retirement and I've been actively involved in researching statin drugs ever since."

Within a week of Dr. Graveline putting up his website he received reports from 22 on the very same side effect but hundreds of others reporting on other cognitive damage from taking a statin drug… Then he started  receiving reports of personality disorders, muscle degeneration, pancreas and liver dysfunction, mood swings, sexual dysfunction and cataracts. All of these are backed up by a multitude of studies and testing.  That led to him  publishing a book about his discoveries called Lipitor: Thief of Memory.

 Example:

Before my employer doctor stopped prescribing cholesterol meds. a before I tracked what was happening to our patients, my husband developed Gall stones and was admitted. With blood tests his cholesterol was way over 800 and triglycerides more than 1200. This panicked the doctors in the hospital and they started him on cholesterol lowering meds. He took the medication for a few months but when I realized what was happening to our patients I took him off of it and he has never had it since. I have since learned that elevated cholesterol and triglycerides most often go with severe illnesses and is the basis of that a lot of people are erroneously being prescribed those drugs. He continues with cholesterol reading in the 285 to 425 range but when ultrasounds and MRI was done in 2007,  he was found to have clearer (12% - 14%) arteries than the average person who has 25% to 40% plaque.  He is 75 and still can do what most 30 year olds can do. Out run the neighborhood children and grandkids, walk around the top of walls when framing . Sex life is good! Weighs the same as when we were married 53 years ago! 

Natural treatments have almost no side effects other than longevity and strong body and mind! Try it! Need help deciding what you can do to stay or get healthy email  and ask!

***Lena Sanchez a happy Retired Medical Office Nurse/Administrator, Medical Office Consultant turned Alternative Health Consultant took charge of her life in 1992 substituted healthy drug-free alternatives getting actual pain relief after 30 years with fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue and never ending illnesses all kinds never solved with conventional medicine . Now committed to helping others do the same by educating on truly treating illness and disease rather than masking symptoms. See http://www.antibiotic-alternatives.com Other informative health articles regarding prevention and steps to take to be the healthiest you can be found at http://www.antibiotic-alternatives.com/free_health_articles_by_Lena_Sanchez.htm