In his seminal work, Dr. Brownstein provides the readers with an accurate and revealing perspective of the true nature of statins, using his usual clarity and straight forward style. He delivers the clinical support and evidence to help the readers understand the dangers and distortions of statin therapy even while this drug is intensively promoted throughout the world in a close nexus among the big pharma, medical practitioners, the governments, thought leaders, academics, medical journals in an unprecedented marketing ploy as there is big money involved that suits all stake holders.
Statins, considered a panacea for all types of cardiovascular diseases, protection of heart health and prevention of heart attacks so far, is no longer a wonder drug as over 1000 law suits have been filed in the USA against Pfizer, the pioneering drug manufacturer worldwide, which is now marketed in different brand names by several pharmaceuticals, all claiming that Lipitor caused diabetics, loss of memory etc. Statin medications are ineffective for the vast majority who take it. It neither reduces heart attack nor mortality rate significantly. It’s side effect profile is unacceptable. This is contained in a sentinel book titled “The STATIN DISASTER, FIND OUT THE TRUTH” by a Michigan based American celebrated physician Dr.Brownstein, who as a clinician, researcher and faculty has written 13 books on drugs, human health and life style that are subject of research studies in medical sciences.
The book has permeated public knowledge to escalate legal challenges against statins viewed now as a world scourge. Ten years of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American drug regulator, whose findings are considered as a benchmark for efficacy of drugs across the world, data reveal the staggering extent of serious reactions associated with statins. Dr. Brownstein has witnessed hundreds of tragic cases of statin injuries including those veterans who survived war only to be damaged by misguided and unnecessary cholesterol therapy drugs.
In his seminal work, Dr. Brownstein provides the readers with an accurate and revealing perspective of the true nature of statins, using his usual clarity and straight forward style. He delivers the clinical support and evidence to help the readers understand the dangers and distortions of statin therapy even while this drug is intensively promoted throughout the world in a close nexus among the big pharma, medical practitioners, the governments, thought leaders, academics, medical journals in an unprecedented marketing ploy as there is big money involved that suits all stake holders.
That the pharmaceutical industry has managed to convince the physicians and public that statins play a vital role in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, is amazing. It is a modern wonder of marketing and public relations that the pharmaceutical industry has succeeded in spite of the cold hard evidence against the statins. According to hard evidence adduced by Dr. Brownstein, statin drug shows only an absolute benefit of1-2 percent leaving 98-99 per cent people disadvantaged. He enumerates how big pharma pull this off to convince everyone that statins are beneficial because of meticulously groomed thought leaders who are paid handsomely to show the slides and put their names on articles created for them. It is also because of the total control of medical education from first year medical school to all levels of post-graduate training, the influence that big pharma exerts over the medical journals via advertising dollars, or the staticians. That is how pharmaceuticals kill more people than the diabetics or Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Brownstein says that drugs undergo rigorous trials but clinical significance is conflated with statistical significance that harms people.
Talking of prescription drugs Dr. Brownstein says nearly all prescription medications work by poisoning enzymes or blocking receptors in the body. The book, therefore, states that one cannot poison a crucial enzyme or block an important receptor for the long term and expect a good health. His studies of ten years of data from the FDA on the effects of statins reveals startlingly devastating results that mention about 50 adverse effects of statins. Two of the most common adverse effects of statins are fatigue and muscle aches and pain. Some other adverse effects of statins are: ALS or ALS like syndrome, aneurysm, atrial fibrillation, autoimmune illness, Bell’s Palsy, breast cancer, cancer, cataracts, CoQ10 depletion, dementia, depression, diabetics, exercise limitations, Guillain-Barre, gynecomastia, heart failure, hepatic dysfunction, hepatitis B reaction, hyperkalemia, hypertension, increased risk of infection, inflammatory myopathies, irritability/aggression, kidney damage, liver pathology, lupus, macular degeneration, memory loss, myalgia, myopathy, myositis, neuropathy, new difficulty walking, oroantral fistula, pancreatitis, Parkinson’s disease, peripheral neuropathy, prostate cancer, rhabdomyolysis, renal insufficiency, rippling muscle disease, sexual dysfunction, serotonin receptor depletion, skin cancer, spermatozoa dysfunction, sleep difficulties, tendinopathy, testrone deficiency, thyroid disorders and weight gain.
Dr. Brownstein’s book comprises 13 chapters in about 300 pages beginning with his own case study explaining in minutest of details efficacy and harmfulness of statins. Foreword of the book has been written by Dr. Philip Blair, Colonel, Medical Corps, US Army (retired). The book makes interesting reading and enables patients take informed decisions while consulting specialist physicians. The way forward for cardiovascular patients as suggested by the impugned book is a modification in life style, a fitness regime and, of course, a positive attitude to take care of heart problems and for a healthy life!