Liver damage and failure
A function of the liver is to make cholesterol according to the set point of the body. It has a genetically determined level of cholesterol it prefers, and it will try to maintain this level. The range is usually between 185 and 260, although it is not uncommon to have 300 or more. When it is inhibited from doing so by the force of medication, calamity strikes, and there may be severe liver damage.
Congestive heart failure
We know that statin drugs are incorrectly prescribed to keep people from heart attacks and strokes. Yet the heart is one big muscle and damaged like any other muscle in the body from these drugs.
Cognitive Decline
Studies have shown a link between drug-induced cholesterol and a decline in cognitive ability. Memory loss and various degrees of amnesia have been documented. Some of these people have been diagnosed by neurologists as having transient global amnesia.
Other serious neurodegenerative conditions are Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, dementia, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), and Muscular Dystrophy. People claim these diseases have to do with old age, but statin drugs, low-fat and low-cholesterol diets frequently are blamed. People affected often have low cholesterol and low LDL (the bad cholesterol). The observation has been made that people with higher cholesterols and higher LDL have healthier brains.
Duane Graveline, MD, wrote a book, “Lipitor: Thief of Memory,” which may be of interest to those of you suffering. He comes from the standpoint of his own experience taking statin drugs.
