Home
I have made no secret of the fact, shortly after type two diagnosis and after having tests not normally carried out by the NHS, I was found to be suffering from atherosclerosis (coronary artery calcification) Angioplasty and two heart stents later, I am sorted and ready to rock and roll. The Cardiologist and my Doctor wanted me on statin drugs, and implied I was a dead man walking unless I took them. I refused them it was a good move, for many reasons. But here is the real mind blower, for type two diabetics, statin drugs increase coronary artery calcification by 50% yes you read that right. Here something I wrote a few years back.
One of the first words your Doctor usually utters after confirming your new membership of the diabetes club is statins. Whatever your cholesterol levels are it’s almost always too high. You see he gets financial inducement to get you on statins. Now it is a known fact many diabetics die from CVD in fact it’s the biggest killer for members of the betus club. Does he send you back for more tests to check your levels of atherosclerosis ? No is the short answer. Statins are the wonder drugs and most are cheap, cheap is good and atherosclerosis tests ain’t cheap. So let’s say you’re a typical type two, around forty to sixty years of age at diagnosis. There is a more than fifty-fifty chance you are suffering some degree of atherosclerosis, and the statins make it worse, much worse. I’m an atherosclerosis case as reported here in the past, I would not touch a statin with a ten foot pole.
"Statins are the world's most-prescribed class of medications. A staggering one in four Americans over the age of 45 now take cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Pravachol, Mevacor, Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor, and others. A majority of them are taking these drugs for primary prevention of heart attacks and strokes.
However, mounting research suggests this could be a critical mistake.
Most recently, two separate studies have concluded that progression of coronary artery calcification, which is the hallmark of potentially lethal heart disease, is INCREASED with statin drug use.
A new study in the journal Atherosclerosis1 shows that statin use is associated with a 52 percent increased prevalence and extent of calcified coronary plaque compared to non-users. None of the participants in the study – 6,673 in all – had any known coronary artery disease at the time of undergoing coronary CT angiography (CCTA) – a non-invasive method that allows you to see coronary atherosclerotic features, including plaque composition.
Arterial plaque is a hallmark of cardiovascular disease and increases your risk of all-cause mortality, so clearly, anything that increases calcification and stiffening of your arteries is wisely avoided. And statins seem to fall into this category.
These disturbing findings come right on the heels of another study published in the journal Diabetes Care,2 which discovered that type 2 diabetics with advanced atherosclerosis who are frequent statin users have significantly higher amounts of coronary artery calcification compared to less frequent users of the drug.
Furthermore, in a subgroup of participants who initially were not receiving statins, progression of both coronary artery calcification as well as abdominal aortic artery calcification was significantly increased when they began frequent statin use."
The authors concluded that:
"More frequent statin use is associated with accelerated coronary artery calcification in T2DM patients with advanced atherosclerosis."
Link to information here http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/10/15/statin-drugs-on-coronary-disease.aspx?e_cid=20121015_DNL_art_1
One of the first words your Doctor usually utters after confirming your new membership of the diabetes club is statins. Whatever your cholesterol levels are it’s almost always too high. You see he gets financial inducement to get you on statins. Now it is a known fact many diabetics die from CVD in fact it’s the biggest killer for members of the betus club. Does he send you back for more tests to check your levels of atherosclerosis ? No is the short answer. Statins are the wonder drugs and most are cheap, cheap is good and atherosclerosis tests ain’t cheap. So let’s say you’re a typical type two, around forty to sixty years of age at diagnosis. There is a more than fifty-fifty chance you are suffering some degree of atherosclerosis, and the statins make it worse, much worse. I’m an atherosclerosis case as reported here in the past, I would not touch a statin with a ten foot pole.
"Statins are the world's most-prescribed class of medications. A staggering one in four Americans over the age of 45 now take cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Pravachol, Mevacor, Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor, and others. A majority of them are taking these drugs for primary prevention of heart attacks and strokes.
However, mounting research suggests this could be a critical mistake.
Most recently, two separate studies have concluded that progression of coronary artery calcification, which is the hallmark of potentially lethal heart disease, is INCREASED with statin drug use.
A new study in the journal Atherosclerosis1 shows that statin use is associated with a 52 percent increased prevalence and extent of calcified coronary plaque compared to non-users. None of the participants in the study – 6,673 in all – had any known coronary artery disease at the time of undergoing coronary CT angiography (CCTA) – a non-invasive method that allows you to see coronary atherosclerotic features, including plaque composition.
Arterial plaque is a hallmark of cardiovascular disease and increases your risk of all-cause mortality, so clearly, anything that increases calcification and stiffening of your arteries is wisely avoided. And statins seem to fall into this category.
These disturbing findings come right on the heels of another study published in the journal Diabetes Care,2 which discovered that type 2 diabetics with advanced atherosclerosis who are frequent statin users have significantly higher amounts of coronary artery calcification compared to less frequent users of the drug.
Furthermore, in a subgroup of participants who initially were not receiving statins, progression of both coronary artery calcification as well as abdominal aortic artery calcification was significantly increased when they began frequent statin use."
The authors concluded that:
"More frequent statin use is associated with accelerated coronary artery calcification in T2DM patients with advanced atherosclerosis."
Link to information here http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/10/15/statin-drugs-on-coronary-disease.aspx?e_cid=20121015_DNL_art_1
