Lipitor - The Human Cost

Lipitor - The Human Cost

Lipitor, a cholesterol lowering drug made by Pfizer and sold to millions of health conscious but ill informed patients, is one of the most profitable drugs the pharmaceutical industry has ever come up with. Sales account for a quarter of Pfizer's $ 32 billion annual sales. Expected to gross more than $ 10 billion this year, Lipitor is poised to become the largest-selling pharmaceutical in history, surpassing Pfizer's other wonder drug, v1agra.

But the price to society is much higher than a mere 8 to 10 billion dollars. Lipitor and other drugs in the statin class, such as Bayer's version Baycol - removed from the market by its maker - are not only lowering cholesterol. These drugs apparently ruin perfectly good lives with "side effects" that lead to slow degradation into physical disability. The story of Doug Peterson and other residents of Tahoe City may be coldly dismissed as "anecdotal evidence", but there is no excuse for scientific statistical sofistry. Every tragedy is real - when it happens to you, the risk is 100%.


Let's look at the pharmaceutical profit model for a moment. Drugs are developed and they have to be sold, otherwise - no profit. In the case of Lipitor and its similars, that means a market has to be created. Cholesterol, a beneficial substance in the human body, is targetted as a bad sign of impending heart disease. Drugs are promoted to "lower cholesterol". Mind you, not to prevent heart disease but to turn off the blinking warning lights. Billions are made, a huge empire of multinational corporations is built to "take care of our health" - by selling us drugs. National economies are all but bankrupted by the costs of health care, most of it to pay for drugs. What's more, national and personal economies are also bearing the cost - sometimes vastly greater than the mere cost of a prescription - of these drugs' side effects, the cost of drug induced illness and disability.

Who is responsible? The drug barons? The medical researchers? The media which never told us?Or none of them?

I like what Karla, Doug's wife, has to say: "We are hoping he is going to get better. That's our number one goal. Anger is a waste of energy at this point. We are trying to recover and get the word out."

Also Doug is taking the matter with a good deal of philosophy: "At this point, I consider myself lucky I'm not in a wheelchair," says Doug, who is currently in phsyical therapy. "There are no guarantees in life. Your birth certificate doesn't come with a warranty."

In other words: Do it yourself. The responsibility is ours. You can contact Doug by e-mail, if you think you can help get the word out about what is really happening.

Also see links on che cholesterol scam at the end of the post.

January 29, 2004

LIFE AFTER LIPITOR: Is Pfizer product a quick fix or dangerous drug? Residents experience adverse reactions

(Article originally found in Tahoe Tribune)


By Melissa Siig, Tahoe World Staff


At first glance, Tahoe City resident Doug Peterson looks like he is recovering from a stroke.

His speech is slurred, he has difficulty walking in a straight line, and he can't sign his own name. By afternoon, he is so fatigued he has to sit down for the rest of the day. When asked his age, Peterson says he is 52. His wife Karla, standing nearby, corrects him. He is 53.

Doug has never had a heart attack, and until the onset of the symptoms almost three years ago, was an active skier, biker and scuba diver. Now he is limited to walks on the treadmill. Doug traces his problems to a drug he started taking almost three years before his health began deteriorating - Lipitor. Two other Tahoe City locals have also experienced negative side effects from taking Lipitor or other statins, the name for a family of cholesterol-fighting pills.

While there is no concrete evidence linking Doug's health problems to Lipitor, after doing years of research, meeting with doctors and talking to other statin sufferers all over the world online, he and Karla are convinced of the connection. Pfizer, the maker of Lipitor, claims the drug is effective in lowering cholesterol and has minor side-effects. But as Doug and others would ask, is it worth it?


WONDER DRUG OR DANGEROUS PILL?

Doug, who has hereditary high cholesterol, was first prescribed Mevacor, a statin made by Merck, in 1998. Six months later, his doctor had him switch to Lipitor, which comes in higher doses, and upped his dosage from 10 to 20 mg. His cholesterol dropped from 285 to a low of 160.

"The doctor was very pleased," said Doug, "but meanwhile the symptoms started."

In the fall of 2000, Doug began having restless sleep patterns. His twitching and flying arms got so bad that Karla had to sleep in another room. One time, Doug even fell out of bed. The couple didn't think anything was seriously wrong until a few months later when Doug started slurring his words. This was followed by a loss of balance and the beginning of what Doug calls the "statin shuffle" - a slow, wobbly walk across a room. Next to slide was Doug's fine motor skills. It took him five minutes to write four words, much of which was illegible. Finally, he tired easily and his cognitive memory processing diminished. He had trouble following books with complex plots.

Confounded by Doug's illness, over the next two years the Petersons traveled all over California meeting with neurologists, internists and acupuncturists. Doug had MRIs, brain scans and neurofeedback tests done. Last February, Doug's doctor suggested he go off Lipitor to see if the drug was causing his health problems. After three weeks, the symptoms persisted, so the doctor put Doug back on the pill. Since Doug wasn't exhibiting the most common side effect, muscle cramps, and his liver function tests came back normal, the physician was doublly sure that Lipitor was not to blame.

Finally, last spring, a doctor in Pasadena suggested Lipitor could be the culprit. Doug went off the drug in May, and since then his symptoms have stopped their downward spiral and his health has slowly started to improve. According to Karla, his mind is sharper, his balance is better and his speech is more clear in the mornings, before he gets tired. But he still has a long way to go.

"Before, I was a good father and family person," said Doug, who has two children with Karla. "At this point, I can't do that much."

A former Navy diver and owner of Sierra Tahoe Computers, a repair and service business, Doug has had to cut down his work schedule because of his fatigue and loss of hand coordination. He is considering going on disability, but Karla remains optimistic.

"We are hoping he is going to get better. That's our number one goal," she said. "Anger is a waste of energy at this point. We are trying to recover and get the word out."


DID PFIZER DO ENOUGH STUDIES?

Since Parke-Davis (later acquired by Pfizer) developed Lipitor in 1997, it has become the number one prescribed cholesterol-lowering drug in the United States, with more than 18 million Americans having been prescribed the drug. New York City-based Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, derives a quarter of its $32 billion in annual sales from Lipitor, according to an article in SmartMoney. With sales expected to top $10 billion this year, Lipitor is poised to become the largest-selling pharmaceutical in history, surpassing Pfizer's other wonder drug, v1agra.

Lipitor is proven to lower total cholesterol by 29 to 45 percent. As with any prescription, it comes with a list of possible side effects, such as muscle pain or weakness and liver dysfunction. Pfizer's Web site states, "The most commonly reported side effects are gas, constipation, stomach pain and indigestion. They are usually mild and tend to go away." In a nine-month study of 2,502 patients, Pfizer found that more serious side effects, such as facial paralysis, colon inflammation and gallbladder pain, occurred in less than 2 percent of those treated.

Pfizer was unable to commment on reported adverse side effects in time for the Tahoe World's deadline.

The problem, say the Petersons, is that Pfizer has not conducted any long-term studies. Doug's health issues didn't start for two and a half years after he started taking Lipitor. Similarly, Tahoe City psychologist John Altrocchi, 75, was on Mevacor for around three years when he started to develop calf pain that became so severe he could hardly walk. He also experienced a case of temporary memory loss called transient global amnesia (TGA), which has been linked with statins. A day after watching the 1998 Super Bowl game, Altrocchi had no memory of the event.

"There's no way you could prove that Mevacor was responsible for the TGA, but it's very possible," said Altrocchi, who stopped taking the drug about three years ago and convinced his brother, a retired neurologist, to go off Lipitor. "Especially for older men, I think it's wise to get off statins right away. There is very little evidence they do much good."

While most symptoms seem to start after a few years, Ed Ontiveros of Homewood began having physical problems within 30 days of taking Lipitor. After experiencing muscle aches and weakness for a few days, the 75-year old fell in the bathroom and didn't have the strength to get up. Since going off the drug, he's had no problems.

"It [reduced cholesterol] is not worth it with the side effects," said Ontiveros. "You may not live as long, but you sure don't want to die earlier."

Doctors are quick to prescribe Lipitor, says Karla, because they perceive it as a magic bullet in the battle against cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death for Americans, and it's easier than prescribing a long-term regime of healthy diet and exercise. But the evidence that high cholesterol leads to heart disease is not conclusive, said Altrocchi, and there is even speculation that cholesterol provides protection for the brain and spine.


THE ROAD TO RECOVERY

The Petersons say Pfizer is too powerful to take on alone, but would consider joining a class-action lawsuit against the company. However, lawyers have told them a lawsuit is only possible if Lipitor gets recalled by the Food and Drug Administration. (Another statin, Baycol, was recalled by Bayor in 2001 after 31 people died of kidney failure while on the drug.) The Petersons filled out a complaint on the FDA Web page and encourage other Lipitor sufferers to do the same.

Frustrated by doctors who doubt the connection between Lipitor and health problems, the Petersons are awaiting the results of a study being conducted by Dr. Beatrice Golomb, a neurologist at the University of California-San Diego, on the effects of statin drugs. As reported by the Wall Street Journal this week, Golomb found that 15 percent of statin patients developed some cognitive side effects. In the meantime, the couple is focusing on Doug's recovery and staying positive.

"At this point, I consider myself lucky I'm not in a wheelchair," said Doug, who is currently in phsyical therapy. "There are no guarantees in life. Your birth certificate doesn't come with a warranty."

For more information, contact Doug Peterson at dwp22@hotmail.com or visit Drug Information Technologies at http://www.ditonline.com.


Here is an update from 12 February:

February 12, 2004

Letters to the Editor

Lipitor article draws debate

I've had some interesting conversations with community members after the "Life After Lipitor" article was printed on Jan. 29. I am not a doctor and do not want to give medical advice, but I believe that cholesterol-lowering statin drugs can harm some of the people taking them.

Statins are extremely popular drugs and we know that they are being prescribed to millions of people. Last year, more than $13 billion was spent on the two top selling statin drugs. U.S. citizens pay three times as much for medications than people in other first world countries, yet overall we have a shorter life expectancy (see Time magazine, Feb. 4, 2004.) So it is interesting to note that spending more on medications does not necessarily prolong life.

We are ultimately responsible for our own health. Heart attacks occur because of many different risk factors. Cholesterol is just one of many. Other factors include weight, age, stress, diet, smoking, exercise and family history. We still have a lot to learn about how to prevent and treat heart disease.

In the past, my doctors told me that statins did not have serious side effects. But when I read the very fine print about possible adverse reactions, I found over 130 side effects reported by the manufacturer. I realize that statins and most other drugs have side effects and there is a risk in taking any medication.

I believe the manufacturers report that 2 percent or less of statin patients develop most of the known side effects, while other researchers are reporting problems in up to 15 percent of patients. We do not know what the total figure will eventually prove to be, and it may be far greater than what we initially suspected. If you are one of the people who are harmed, then the percentage probably doesn't matter to you!

The side effects of statins seem to be related to several factors, including the age of the patient, dosage, type of statin, and duration of treatment. Some statins are far more powerful and therefore, I suspect, more likely to cause side effects than others.

To me, there seems to be three groups of statin patients. The first group includes the people who take the drug without any apparent side effects. The second group includes people who use statins but are developing side effects. Then there is the third group that took statins, had problems and stopped taking the medication.

If you are in the first group of patients and are tolerating your statin medication, please be aware of the possible side effects of the drug. They are listed in very fine print on the manufacturer's information sheet. If you are taking the drug and are developing unusual symptoms, consider the possibility that the problems may be related to your medication and know that the symptoms are likely to continue as long as you take the drug. For those of you who already experienced problems with the medication and stopped taking it, try to be patient. The more severe your symptoms, the longer it seems to take to recover.

Doug Peterson


Tahoe City

Lowering Cholesterol with a Healthier Way of Eating
How is high cholesterol defined? High cholesterol or hypercholesterolemia is defined as total cholesterol greater than 200 mg/dL with the high risk category greater than 240 mg/dL. At these levels, particularly when the ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol is greater than 4:1, risk of cardiovascular disease is significantly increased. The ratio of LDL: HDL should be at least 4:1 because each HDL can pick up and transport 4 LDL back to the liver. If I have high cholesterol levels, can a healthy way of eating help me lower them into a normal range? ...


See also:


Lipitor, Neuromuscular Degeneration, and Recovery
by Jonathan Campbell
Numerous adverse side effect reports have implicated Lipitor and other statin drugs as a probable cause for severe neuromuscular degeneration. Some people who have been using Lipitor for as little as six months report symptoms similar to Muscular Dystrophy, Parkinson's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis or ALS - Lou Gehrig's Disease - in which they are losing neuromuscular control of their bodies or losing significant muscle mass...

Cholesterol is NOT the Cause of Heart Disease
...an article on Dr Mercola's site for more background on cholesterol

THE TRUTH ABOUT CHOLESTEROL
By Dr. James Howenstine, MD. - February 20, 2005
Cholesterol is not really the villain portrayed in the pharmaceutical ads. It is actually a vital substance needed in every cell of the body...

Statin drug Crestor damages kidneys of patients, says Public Citizen
The statin drug Crestor is a highly dangerous prescription drug that causes an alarming rate of kidney damage, says Public Citizen, a consumer protection group. The drug, manufactured by AstraZeneca, is responsible for a rate of kidney disease 75 times higher than with other similar drugs.

Transient Global Amnesia – A Side Effect Of Statin Treatment

"You're my Wife?" Amnesia is Possible Side Effect of Statin Drug

The Vitamin C Foundation's Statin Drug Alert

Statinalert Org

Cholesterol Drug & Muscle Pain

Statins And Our Immune System

High cholesterol may protect against infections and atherosclerosis

Vitamin C beats statins in cholesterol - heart disease

Statin Drugs: The Ultimate Manifestation of Anti-Cholesterol Stupidity?

Statin Drugs - A Critical Review of the Risk/Benefit Clinical Research

Let them eat cake, butter, cream ... For decades the advice has been to cut cholesterol and protect your heart. Now some doctors think it makes no difference

Cholesterol Drugs Tied to Birth Defects U.S. government study finds an unusually high number of abnormalities in babies of women who took statins during first trimester of pregnancy

Cardiologists Overlook Lifesaving Discovery

Colesterol Myth - It's official: Statins proponents have lost their minds!

Lunatic Recommendations For Statin Drug Use

Consumer Group Seeks Cholesterol Drug Ban

AstraZeneca sends advisory on Crestor

Cholesterol drug warning issued

As Death Toll Rises, Consumer Group Calls For Ban on Crestor

More Insane Uses For Statin Drugs

Statin drugs can devastate your health
Muscle problems are the most common problems associated with taking the cholesterol lowering drugs, statins. A new study found that 98 per cent of patients taking Lipitor developed muscle pain and/or weakness...

The Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven't Been Told About Cholesterol-Lowering Medication, Part I

The Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven't Been Told About Cholesterol-Lowering Medication, Part II

The Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven't Been Told About Cholesterol-Lowering Medication, Part III

The Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven't Been Told About Cholesterol-Lowering Medication, Part IV

The Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven't Been Told About Cholesterol-Lowering Medication - References

THE HIDDEN ORIGIN OF STATIN DRUGS

Smart Money: The Lipitor Dilemma
There's little doubt that the world's best selling prescription medicine saves lives. But as more and more patients link the cholesterol pill to memory loss and crippling muscle pain, some doctors are starting to ask: Is America overdosing on Pfizer's wonder drug?

Lipitor, Severe Diabetes A Fatal Combination
The Pfizer-funded study compared the effect of a 20 mg dose of Lipitor versus a placebo on more than 1,200 type 2 diabetics who were severely ill over a four-year period. The main result was no surprise: Taking Lipitor made absolutely no difference in the participants' combined risk of heart attacks, strokes and death. Even worse, more than twice as many patients who took Lipitor suffered fatal strokes (27) than the placebo group (13).

The Hidden Truth About Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs
... is yet another weapon fit for your arsenal of intellectual self-defense against the myth that cholesterol causes heart disease and that, to protect your health, you must contribute your fair share to the $26 billion/year empire of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. The author Shane Ellison possesses a Master's degree in organic chemistry. After first-hand experience in drug design, he abandoned what he calls "synthetic medicine" to become an independent researcher, nutritional consultant, developer of product testing certification, and designer of numerous nutritional supplements. He is also a member of The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics.

...if I can cure this cancer with your WaterCure???

Dear Dr. Batmanghelidj,

First, I want to thank you profusely for writing that book! Your Body's Many Cries for Water. I can relate to your struggles with the medical establishment as I have opted for alternative methods other than chemo, radiation & surgery and have had to endure what I call the Western medical gauntlet, which is yet another story.

I don't know you, but I'm proud of you! You're one of the real heroes!

Some background : In April of 1997 I was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the left tonsil, which metastasized into the lymph nodes of the neck by Stanford tumor board. iwas told I was in the most dramatic way that I had a 15 to 30% chance of survival if I followed their recommendations. These were to have a radical neck dissection, which included removing of the 11th cranial nerve, part of the jaw, and a lot of tissue in my throat, then radiation and 16 weeks of chemo.  If I failed to follow recommended procedures my life span was expected  to be over within a short 5 weeks! No one would give me a straight answer on costa, but it was reluctantly and unofficially estimated at US$350,000 before the chemo. (By the way, I had an excellent health policy, which almost became my death sentence.)

After thoroughly looking at the options, I bailed out on the surgery, chemo, and the radiation.  I started an organic macrobiotic diet, got rid of the toxins in and around my house, cleaned up my lifestyle, used some herbs, exercise chi-gong, and eventually hyperbaric oxygen, which was very effective.

In the last 4 & a half years, I had the cancer looking like it was in remission, but then after a couple of years I slowly fell off the diet.  the cancer started up again with four new tumors. I stopped it on this second occasion with the same regimen for many months, but could not reverse it.  A doctor convinced me to cut back on the salt and in a few months I developed 6 more tumors. Up until now, I've never had much pain, or have ever lost a day of work. 20 days ago it has taken a jumpstart. Tumors have definitely grown. They may be encroaching on the carotid artery and probably the main nerve sheath. Some necrotizing tissue appeared on the tonsil, covering it within 3 days, possibly some bone loss in the jaw, and the worst part of it, some excruciating stabbing nerve pain that's off the scale. My latest prognosis was that within days I'd be sucked into the system with overwhelming pain or that I would bleed to death any time.

I just read your 1992 edition of Your Body's Many Cries for Water and got a strong feeling this cancer is due to long-term dehydration. I have drunk very little water in the past. I was given OxyContin for pain as well as Percocet.  I don't like feeling the drug stupor so I opted to try two glasses of water & a pinch of salt as your book suggested. Amazingly, the water is much more effective for this kind of core pain than the drugs !  in only 12 days, there is a change coming on the tumors. They appear to be shrinking slightly, in any case, softening and changing to smoother shapes.  The pain is dramatically disappearing.

This may be too early to say, but the necrotizing tissue on the tonsil seems to be clearing up.  Thanks to your book, I hope I've discovered this in time, that ordinary water may be the missing link.  Won't that be a testament if I can cure this cancer with your WaterCure? ? ? The race is on.

So far, I've let the pain dictate my water consumption once I've drunk a liter & a half. This has brought me to 3-4 liters a day. I am a 52-year-old scuba charter boat captain and in excellent shape, other than this pesky cancer.

Thank you
Respectfully,
E.C.

Chapter 8 MIRACLE HERBS

Chapter 8   MIRACLE HERBS

Right now, herbs are "hot." Major companies are going herbal. The AMA (American Medical Association) is acknowledging the value of some herbs. Herbs are being featured in the cover stories of major magazines such as Time and Newsweek. Sales of herbs are well into the billions of dollars a year. This is a time for
herbalists and alternative healers to celebrate. Right?

  Not necessarily.

  While many in the alternative health community have fought for recognition from the medical establishment, personally, I have been very wary of it. And now that recognition has come, I believe we are about to pay the price.

What specifically is the problem? The answer lies in one word: "co-option" (definition: to take over an independent minority movement through assimilation into an established group or culture).

   Standardization

  Almost everyone now believes that standardized extracts are a good thing. They answer the medical community's need for predictable doses and effects. All of the top herbal manufacturers
now promote their use of standardized herbs. To a large degree, though, I believe, it's a red herring. I'm not a big fan of standardization. Let me explain.

  To understand what standardization means, let's take a look at orange juice. The orange juice you buy in the store, either in half gallon containers or frozen concentrate, is actually a great example
of a standardized herbal product (oranges fitting in the broad definition of herbs).[1] The manufacturers of these juice products have been able to identify the "active ingredients" of orange
juice that are primarily responsible for taste. In the case of orange juice, those key ingredients are sugar (sweetness) and acid (tartness). Now the way standardization works with orange juice is
that if a manufacturer finds that a batch of oranges is not sweet enough, they'll blend that batch with a much sweeter batch to bring it up to the "ideal" sweetness. If that same batch is too acidic,they'll blend it with a batch that's less acidic, until their testing shows it's reached just the right level of acidity. That's why each can or container of orange juice you buy tastes pretty much like the
one you bought the week before. That's standardization. So what's my problem?

    Have you ever tasted a can of frozen orange juice or juice from a container that even comes close to the taste of good fresh squeezed?[2] That's the problem. While standardization can make
one batch virtually identical to the next, it can never make any batch as good as really good non-standardized fresh squeezed. Why?

   The reason is simple. The taste of orange juice is governed by far more factors than sugar and acid. It is the result of the interplay of dozens and dozens of natural flavors, esters, and oils which are beyond the ability of any manufacturer to control. It is a symphony of taste—a symphony that we cannot duplicate by tweaking one or two "active" ingredients. (And, in fact, tweaking is actually often deleterious in the sense that it destroys the "natural" balance of all those flavors and esters that are not standardized.

   Maybe a better example is wine. Has anyone ever been able to guarantee in a laboratory the taste of the best wines? Of course not. The taste of the wine is the result of the soil the grapes are grown in and the temperature and rains that occur in a given year. Now here comes an important point. While it's true that the quality of wine at any vineyard may vary from year to year, is it not also true that the best vineyards consistently produce the best wines? Some years, a great vineyard may produce superb wine. The next year, the wine may only be outstanding or really good. But isn't it true that a great vineyard will almost always produce a better tasting wine than Ripple—a standardized wine, if you will?

   And that's the problem with standardization. It lowers the bar of what we can expect from herbal formulations. Standardized formulas will never match the quality (and healing power) of a
non-standardized formula made from the highest quality herbs because the standardized formula seeks to control one, two, or three "identified" active ingredients at the expense of all the other"active" ingredients that we don't yet know about. Standardization "distorts" plant synergy, and it disrupts the natural ratios of active ingredients inherent in the plant itself and replaces them with "arbitrary" ratios as determined by today's researchers.

   And then, of course, in addition to everything else, our attempt to identify active ingredients is fundamentally flawed. The procedure used is right out of standard drug testing:isolate individual chemical components and test their effects one at a time. If a particular biochemical from an herb tests as "non-active," we can eliminate it from standardization of that herb. But what if that component has a different value in the grand scheme of things? What if, although it may do nothing by itself, its presence makes another component twice as effective? What if....

[1 An herb being defined as "any of various often aromatic plants used especially in medicine or as seasoning."]


[2 Keeping in mind that there are people who actually prefer the taste of Sunny Delight] 

An obvious question has to be occurring to you right now: "If what I'm saying is true, then why is 'everybody' standardizing their herbs?" And the answer is that standardization is the herbalist's
answer to traditional medicine's complaint that herbs are unpredictable. Another way of saying this, which may be more illuminating, is that standardized extracts make herbs more like
drugs. But as we've just seen, herbs are not like drugs. Herbs are not single chemicals. They are a synergistic blend of natural compounds. Once you acknowledge this, the whole idea of standardization is revealed for what it is: co-option.

    So what's the alternative? Well, one thing that we do know about herbs, through centuries of use, is that high-quality herbs have great healing powers. We also know that well-grown herbs are consistently high in all active ingredients—those that we can identify, and those that we won't know about for another hundred years. The bottom line, then, is that if you must guarantee something, then why not:

> Use high-quality herbs with their natural ratios of ingredients. This means, of course, that you can't "doctor up" poor quality herbs as you can with standardization.

> Guarantee a minimum level for all active ingredients (as we know them today).

  This alternative provides all of the advantages of standardization, and none of the negatives.

     An Interesting Development

   Several companies are taking standardization to the next level by running herbs through the same lab tests that prescription medicines must pass—called bioassays—to uncover just what biologically active ingredients they contain. Using certain test-tube experiments, for example, they can test whether chemicals interact with the brain pathways involved in depression. If the experiments
measure a response, that chemical is biologically active. Already, these companies claim that their new testing process has discovered that there are some five active ingredients that may help St. John's Wort ease depression—not the single ingredient, hypericin, which is currently the target of standardization.

   These companies are also looking to contract with supplement manufacturers to "guarantee" their herbal products. American Home Products, for example, has already begun marketing a series
of specially tested herbs under its popular Centrum supplement brand.

   And finally, these companies also plan to seek FDA approval to sell the most effective herbs as prescription drugs. This will allow doctors to sell, for a higher price of course, a "fully tested medicine version" of the same herbs you currently buy in the health store.
There are four fundamental problems I see with this whole process:

1. First, as we've already alluded to, no testing process in the world can test for the synergistic factor of all the biochemical components in herbs. No testing process can determine if a compound, even though it may not be biologically active itself, serves to increase the biological activity of another compound. That's why no testing process can match the skill of the professional herbalist (just as it cannot come close to matching the palate of the professional wine
taster) in determining the effectiveness of an herb.

2. It reinforces the paradigm of herbs as drugs (that is for symptom X, take herb Y) and puts herbal medicine in the hands of doctors (who, as a rule, have no understanding of herbal medicine) and takes it out of the hands of the herbal professionals.

3. It actually leads to the classification of herbs as drugs, as both companies are already looking to do.

4. It totally ignores the other aspects of herbal quality.

   Interestingly enough, this is not a new idea. We've gone down this road before—with disastrous consequences. The modern drug industry, as we know it today, was created out of herbal medicine. (The word "drug" itself actually comes from the old German word "droge," which was used to describe the process of "drying" herbs in preparation for use.) The apparent motive behind the development of pharmaceuticals was to create purer, more potent, and more effective "medicines." Unfortunately, as we now know, the net result was, in many cases, just the opposite—less
effective medicines with a whole range of deadly side effects. Pharmaceuticals, however, do offer one major advantage over herbs. They are patentable, and as such, generate billions and billions of dollars in profits for the companies that manufacture them—and the medical system that distributes them.

    Herb Quality

   Ninety-nine percent of the herbs used by American companies do not come from the US. They are imported from Eastern Europe and from many third-world countries such as India, China, and Mexico.

   Unfortunately, these countries use large amounts of insecticides and pesticides in the growing of their herbs. DDT is still commonly used in Asia and Mexico, whereas organo-phosphate nervegas
based insecticides are commonly used throughout Eastern Europe.

   It's also worth noting that most of the areas in which these herbs are grown in these countries are heavily polluted. The herbs are inundated by polluted rain and irrigated by polluted rivers. In
Eastern Europe, for example, there have been no environmental laws for decades. Rivers have been used as open sewers. Everything from chemical toxic waste to radioactive waste—no
joke—has been dumped into these rivers.

  The reason most American companies use these herb sources, regardless of the problems just mentioned, is that they are cheap. Good quality organic and wildcrafted herbs cost as much as 20
times more. Before you use any company's herbal formulations, you should learn where their herbs come from.

      Herbal Preparation

    There are a number of ways herbs can be prepared. In increasing order of potency, they are: 

Torn

There are times in our life that we experience the internal crossroad of doing what feels right in our heart and what external pressures expect us to do.
These challenges aid us in the development of our character.

"No! You are not amputating my hand! I will never allow you to cut off my hand! I need both of my hands! Please, please tell me that you are not going to cut off my hand!"

Silence, tears, and screams . . . she was in a state of disbelief and terrorized by the thought of amputation.

"If you want to take my hand, you'll have to wait until after I am dead! I am not some experimental animal. 
"Please, Dr. Ohno! Tell them not to amputate my hand! Please, please, I beg of you!"

This is a tragic story that I experienced at the same hospital three years later. She was a very young and talented girl with such a kind and friendly personality. She attracted many people, and everyone wanted to be her friend.  She was not only the promising star of her gymnastics team, but she was also a beauty with the heart of an angel.  She was as intelligent as she was lovely.  her parents had high hopes that she would enter medical school and become a doctor someday.  She mastered all of her subjects in school with high honors. Everything in her future seemed bright and promising.  No one could ever imagine that death was lingering beside her like a terrible , dark shadow. 

One day after she turned 15 years old, she began to feel a swelling and a hot spot in her shoulder.  At first she thought this was caused by an insect bite so she ignored it. However, the discomfort continued for over a month. She never complained about the symptoms to her parents or her gymnastics coach.  She was concentrating on her gymnastics competition that was soon to take place, and she didn't want to concern anyone needlessly. 
Although she continued to feel the pain, she ignored it, hoping it would eventually subside.

then, her bright future came to a halt.  It all became apparent during gymnastics practice, when in the middle of doing a routine cartwheel, she experienced a severe pain in her shoulder.  She ignored the pain and continued to practice another cartwheel.  This time the pain intensified and she felt a very strange 'crack' inside her shoulder.  The pain became severe.  It literally took away her breath .  She fell to the floor in excruciating pain, screaming, "Someone help me! I think . . .I think I broke my arm!"

Within moments she fell to the floor unconscious from the pain.  Her gymnastics coach and her friends immediately surrounded her. 
"Call an ambulance! Someone, quickly call an ambulance !"
The gymnastics coach then said, "No one move her!  Wait until the ambulance arrives.  We don't want to take a chance and cause more damage to her shoulder!"

Off and on she would awaken, scream out again in pain, and fall suddenly back into an unconscious state.

At the hospital, her X-rays were read by emergency room doctor, who told her, "Your humerus bone has been fractured. There is also a mass showing up in your X-rays and I feel we should take a closer look at it.  I suggest that we admit you into the hospital fora biopsy as soon as possible."

The next day the biopsy was taken and sent to the pathology department for analysis. When the doctor received the results from the biopsy, he went to the young girl and her family and reviewed the results of her biopsy.  They watched as the doctor opened the envelope containing the pathology report.  As his eyes scanned the report, the look on his face dramatically changed and he became very somber.  After what seemed like an eternity, he read the results to the young girl and her family.

"I am sorry to say that I have some very bad news.  The pathologist's report shows a tumor on the humerus."

Everyone was quiet for a moment.  Her father asked  , " Is the tumor benign . . . or malignant? 

"The tumor is malignant." The doctor added, "It is so far advanced that if we performed an operation to remove the tumor, her chance of living for five years would only be 20 percent. The X-rays also indicate that the cancer has already metastasized to the lung."

Her parents wept upon hearing the devastating news.  The young girl's eyes filled with tears, but she held her emotions. Upon hearing the news, the young girl and her parents went to another hospital to seek a second opinion.  Unfortunately , the prognosis was the same. They then proceeded to go to three more hospitals.  The prognosis from all the hospitals was virtually the same.  Finally, they returned to the University Hospital.

I was among the staff present when the young girl and her parents heard the recommendation from the professor, " We should amputate her arm from the shoulder immediately.  We need to perform the amputation as soon as possible, in order to increase her chances of survival."

The young girl responded emphatically, "No! This is my body ! My arm! My life!It's not your life! I will not consider amputating my arm, and I don't care what the consequences are! "

There was a long discussion between the girl and her parents and the professor over the amputation.  The tension in the  room was strong as the professor attempted to persuade her to have the amputation.  Her parents believed that if she went through with the amputation, it would help prolong her life. But the young girl was emphatic about her decision to not go through with the procedure.

"After I die you can amputate my arm for the tests you want to perform, but I will not allow the amputation while I am alive! Even though my mother is crying and trying to persuade me, I cannot agree with her. This is my body, not my mother's body. I am 15 years old and I will decide what is best for my body and my life!"

One last time the professor very sternly told her, " You should have the amputation and it has to be done immediately. If you do not go through with the amputation you will surely die very soon. You must reconsider!"

Once again, I was internally questioning the opinion of the professor.  I knew that her cancer had already metastasized to her lung and there was nothing that amputating her arm would do to help her live longer.  I wondered why he was so emphatic about recommending the amputation. 

I later realized that the professor wanted to perform the amputation because her tumor was very rare.  If the amputation were to be done while the girl was still alive , the tumor would also be alive.  The live tumor was necessary for his personal experiment research. 

The professor continued to pressure her to have the amputation.  However, she still refused.  The professor and her family finally gave up. The the professor offered his only alternative, the new anticancer drug.

The days to follow would present me with a similar scene of watching a patient in torment, as I would again be called upon to administer the anticancer drug to the young girl.  Once again, I was obeying an order from the professor.  An order to give a patient a painful drug that went against my personal and professional judgment. I struggled emotionally and mentally, moment by moment, torn between what i was expected to do and what I knew was the right thing to do. 

Three days after I had started injecting the anticancer drug into the young girl, the nightmare of her agony took hold. She had no appetite ; she experienced ongoing nausea and  vomiting. The fatigue from fighting her suffering was overwhelming. 

"Please, Dr. Ohno, please don't give me any more injections! I can't take the pain of the side effects anymore! My stomach feels like it's pushing its way up through my mouth.  i've had so many seizures!
"Please make this hell stop! Please! Stop giving me this drug!"

She was completely fatigued.  She was collapsing and sobbing. I watched as her face turned pale from the effects of the drug.  I witnessed her tough and fighting spirit fade into a lifeless agony.

She had huge sores in her mouth from the side effects of the drug.  the sores were so bad she could not swallow , let alone eat.  The seizures were intensifying. it was becoming more difficult for her to breathe.  Compounding her misery were other side effects of chronic headaches, fever and infection. medicine to help eliminate these was not  working.

"Help me Dr. Ohno ! I have already lost 20 pounds! I cannot eat anything, because nothing stays in my stomach. No one has any idea how much I am suffering ! Please stop giving me that drug! I know I am dying. I don't want to take this drug anymore!"

If the positive benefits had offset the negative side effects, I might have been more understanding and less resistant.  But this was not the case.  I began to feel that this drug was a monster. I felt that I was not a doctor, but I was being forced against my better judgment to administer this 'Devil's Drug' which was torturing and killing my patients !I would ask myself, "Am I really a doctor, or am I just a prisoner of the medical system?"

Question after question kept entering my mind , How can i stop giving my patients this horrible drug when I know it is torturing them? 
How can I stand by and allow myself to remain a part of this if I know it is wrong?
How can I continue to call myself a doctor when I think myself as a killer?

I knew for my own preservation and peace of mind that I had to do something else to help my patients.  I decided to commit myself to finding another way to help these people and hopefully by doing so, I would heal myself of the personal torment  I was living through.

Struggle can be a blessing in disguise.
There is no room to grow if the Universe does not present challenges. 

Dr. Yoshitaka Ohno. M.D., Ph.D. 

DO NO HARM

DO NO HARM

by Yoshitaka Ohno, M.D., Ph.D.

The Story of a Doctor's Struggle to Live His Vision of Humanitarian Medicine.

She looked at me calmly. She was almost too calm. She had surrendered herself totally to her decision. There was no fear in her voice or in her eyes. She was resolved in her conviction to die. She got up from her bed and closed the door quietly, wanting privacy so no one else in the hospital would hear.

"Please help me die, Dr. Ohno. Please show mercy and help me die. I have asked you to stop giving me the anticancer drug. I can't take it anymore! I know you don't want to watch me suffer. Every time you inject me with this drug, I know you are also suffering as you watch me suffer. The other doctors have always ignored me while I struggled with the agony. But your eyes have always shown me such concern. You are the only doctor who has shown me such compassion."

When I decided that my patients were being given too much of a dangerous drug, I decreased the dosage. But other doctors on the staff would change my order and raise the dosage without notifying me, because they knew that would make them look good to the Chief of Medicine.

She continued to talk to me as if I were her son. She stopped and took another sip of her tea. During the silence, I started thinking about what she was saying. It was true that I was struggling and I was showing the fatigue from my internal battle. I was not sleeping well. As tired as I was, I would lie in bed, unable to sleep. Then I would get up and sit at my desk. I would think about her and how I could help her. I often thought to myself, "Why did I become a doctor?"

When I first became a doctor, I seemed to be able to find ways to help my patients. But now, instead of being a healer, I felt more like a murderer. I knew my struggle would continue if I didn't find a better way to help my patients like her, who continued to suffer the pain and indignity of a death that I was causing.

As I watched this woman collapse in sobs while she continued to plead, a part of me was dying. But I knew that I now had to present her with the cruel facts. I spoke to her with tears in my eyes, as honestly and kindly as I could.

"Your cancer has already metastasized through your body, even to your brain. I am sorry but I am recommending that you go to hospice because there is nothing more we can do. The damage is irreversible. The more chemotherapy you are given, the sooner you will die. This drug not only kills cancer cells, but also destroys the healthy cells. You need to stop because the side effects are worse and are causing too much suffering."

Just then the Chief of Medicine of the hospital entered the room. He must have heard me because he said, "Dr. Ohno, I will take care of this patient. I can help her. Please have this patient signed over to my care."

The Chief of Medicine looked firmly at the suffering patient and began. "Dr. Ohno is right, but I think I can save you with a new drug I developed. It is still in the experimental stage, but it kills only cancer cells and has no side effects"

His words were totally unexpected by her. Her expression went from despair to hope. She began to cry with tears of joy. The Chief of Medicine stood there with the same arrogant and smug look I had come to know since arriving at the hospital. However, despite the deep emotion of hope that filled the room, I was both sad and angry. I knew that his anticancer drug had very strong side effects and would cause this poor woman even more suffering.

This was the first of what was to prove to be many rude awakenings for me. After years of medical school and training, of struggling to find humane ways to treat people, I was now facing the grim reality of having to allow my superior to treat patients as though they were experimental animals. It was obvious that he had no empathy for terminally ill people. I wanted desperately to step in and disagree, but I knew it would be futile and would spell the end of my medical career.

As I watched my patients suffer in agony from taking anticancer drugs, I was experiencing my own torment as well. I was becoming consumed with the memory of my mother's words to me after my father's death. The memory of that tragic period of my life started to overwhelm me. My father was a very famous surgeon who died when he was 42 years old. He worked long and hard to keep his hospital operating at its peak. His dedication cost him his life. He died of an aneurism during surgery.

This book is about the times in my life when I had to encounter many struggles in order to gain greater insight and appreciation of the final outcome. While I report the horrors I experienced during my years of practicing medicine in Japan, I also show how I was able to find a way to answer the cries of despair of my patients. This was not easy. It required that I make a decision that would put me at risk and force me to leave my practice. But during this process, I learned to become a better doctor, more concerned about the welfare of my patients rather than the rewards of fame and fortune, which, unfortunately, have become the driving force of modern medicine.

I did not have to take this road. It would have been easier to follow the program and do what my superiors told me to do. I come from a very prominent family in Japan and have always had choices and opportunities. But the values given to me by my family led to my decisions, which, though distressing at first, brought me to what I believe is my destiny.

I believe that there has always been an invisible force within me, guiding my direction and encouraging me to discover my true calling in life. As I have proceeded on my journey, there is one principal factor that has continually surfaced. This factor is contribution, the act of giving to others, directly from one's heart. This affects not only the recipient, but something of equal importance: the essence of our being.

I also believe, more than anything else, that my mission to help humanity is derived directly from giving people the awareness of how vitally important contribution is to the soul of the benefactor. My vision has become a vehicle that can assist people to gain an understanding that, as they direct their energies to give of themselves with a pure and open heart, they will ultimately fill an emptiness that resides deep within their spiritual center.

Through years of study and experimentation in seeking better ways of delivering good health care, I found the significant interrelationship between health and nature, and its impact on the quality of life. The best example is our precious water supply. After you read this book, you will become more knowledgeable about water; all water is not the same. You will learn that the quality, content, and even the structure of the water in your body can make the difference between sickness and health.

In order to test this theory, I tested many water sources. While I was conducting research in Japan, I discovered a naturally magnetized water that was being used by a prominent physician with his patients suffering from serious diseases, many which I had also been treating. As I observed and studied these patients, it became apparent that this water was unique and had therapeutic benefits.

We think of the human body as con...

Yoshitaka Ohno, M.D., Ph.D., Founder and President

Ohno Institute on Water and Health

Dr. Ohno is a native of Osaka, Japan, where he received his education and training in medicine and neuropathology. Early in his medical career, he began searching for ways to stop the suffering of his patients with diseases that could not be treated successfully by standard medicine, and thus had to be managed with multiple drugs. He began to realize that the side effects of these drugs were creating serious chronic problems, as well as increasing the body’s deterioration. After extensive study he became convinced that the condition of the body’s water was directly related to the state of the body’s health.

After leaving his medical practice, he continued his studies but found that the Japanese medical community was not placing much emphasis on chronic diseases found commonly among the aging population. He decided to enter the United States and accept a position at AMC Hospital in Denver, Colorado, where he could continue his research in geriatric pathology, including MRI studies on the relationship of water and cellular degeneration. His work led him to investigate the neuropathology of Alzheimer’s disease. As a result of his work, he received the Community Leadership Award from the Colorado Alzheimer’s Association in 1987 and the Humanitarian Award from the Alzheimer’s Disease International in 1993.

After returning to Japan in 1990, he discovered a naturally magnetized water that was being used by a prominent physician to treat serious, life-threatening diseases. As these patients recovered, Dr. Ohno became convinced that this water was unique. He pursued numerous clinical studies with this water, both in Japan and the United States. In 1998, Dr. Ohno founded the Ohno Institute on Water and Health, a non-profit research and education center for studying the effect of naturally magnetized water on health and aging. He has been requested as a speaker at several health conferences and has published several articles in professional journals on his findings.


Dr. Ohno resides with his wife and three children in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

Giving people hope in order to enjoy a healthier, longer, and fuller life has been Dr. Yoshitaka Ohno’s mission since he left his medical practice in Japan over 20 years ago. He knew he could not practice the kind of medicine that was causing so much suffering to his patients. Japan’s medical system had become much like other western systems. It involves mostly drugs and surgery. It supplies misery rather than hope.

Dr. Ohno’s journey away from conventional medicine led him to what his mother called "humanitarian medicine." It allowed him to bring together six generations of medicine from his father’s family, and six generations of spiritual leadership from his mother’s family. He felt very fortunate to be the product of what has led him to mind/body/spirit medicine. This new medicine is based on having a close relationship with nature. Unless we pay attention to our natural environment and respect it, there will be no life left for our future generations. We are already killing nature. Soon it will be too late.


This book is the story of one doctor’s struggle to live his vision of humanitarian medicine. It is a journey through the pain of modern medicine, and the arrival at a new way of offering hope to people who are suffering.

Paperback, 152 pages
Published November 1st 2001 by Authorhouse
Original TitleDo No Harm: The Story of a Doctor's Vision and Practice of Humanitarian Medicine
ISBN 075964053X (ISBN13: 9780759640535)

Edition Language English

The Secret To Healing Cancer Through Psychological And Spiritual Growth

A human being is more than just a physical body but consists of body, mind, social and spiritual dimensions. They must all be considered if one seriously seeks to heal the body.the modern medicine had many areas that needed to be expanded upon and improved and learn more about the effects of the human spirit and psyche on the physical body.

Cancer is much more than just a physical illness. Therefore relying on drug improvements and the current methods and philosophy of medical science to develop cancer treatment techniques is like climbing a tree to catch a fish.

When you red on there may be a resonant feeling of truth or you may wake up or enlightened  with a clear insight into your life. it does not matter whether it is you who has cancer or a friend, or a family member, or if you are an oncologist. I hope that this entirely new cancer treatment method derived from a very different understanding of cancer will lead you to a different thought paradigm. If you agree and are interested in promoting these concepts to fight cancer from mind and heart, you are welcome to join me and work with me and others like-minded .

Cancer is an illness that brings people face to face with mortality.

A new definition of Cancer - A Turning Point For A New Life. Cancer or any illness for that matter is a reflection of your life condition through your body. Cancer is not a cause, it is a result.
(Counter reads 20868461 @ 10:44AM, on 23/08/2016) The real causes of cancer are not what modern medicine thinks, such as carcinogenic food, chemical pollution, or free radicals, as some medical specialists have stated.

Take diet for example. Over emphasizing the belief that " eating carcinogenic food will cause cancer" only create fear in people and the stress from that fear will cause more harm to the body than the carcinogenic food itself. Thought, emotion and attitude towards life are much more deeply related to the body than the food we eat daily. Please remember : YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK, NOT WHAT YOU EAT.

Cancer is indeed a pathological change in genes. No doubt. However, what is the reason for this pathological change in genes? The biggest problem of present modern medical science is the fact that it is solely a material medical science. It is therefore not a true and complete medical science. The real cause of cancer cannot be found in the physical realm.

The real cause of cancer started in the realm of the human psyche. To put it another way, if the real cause in the realm of the psyche is not understood, not detected and not faced, any treatment that considers only the  body, the "physical matter" treatment, or so-called "generic technique treatment" only treat the symptoms, not the real cause.

This is why modern medical sciences so often reaches a state of "we cannot do anything more" with respect to curing cancer patients. When development of medical science not only takes our physical not only take our physical body into account, but also considers the role that the human psyche plays in physical health, it will then become a truly wholesome medical science.

Cancer should be seen as A Turning Point For A New Life in LIFE. This turning point is NOT about teaching you how to eat healthier food, or how to find more ways to defend yourself against cancer. This Turning Point is about teaching you HOW TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOR THE BEST. It obliges you to honestly re-examine your self your attitude towards LIFE, to make you question yourself and ask what do you live for and to realize what kind of lifestyle you have. Through this kind of awareness, one can harness the power of cancer-causing change in genes and redirect it towards healing and the creation of a desirable lifestyle.

Majority of people including majority of medical professionals do NOT see this point. The whole medical-education establishment is geared towards physical medical science.  Cancer is the result of the effect of psychic causes, manifested in the physical body. The real power, which has the ability to initiate this manifestation process, is the power of our psyche.

Newest Scam to Increase Drugs If You’re Older than 50

 

Story at-a-glance

• The odds are very high – likely greater than 1000 to 1 -- that if you're taking a statin, you may not even need it, and this is true regardless of age; there are better options for lowering your heart attack risk
• In the U.S., health regulators recently ruled that warning labels be added to statins because they can cause muscle weakness, diabetes, memory loss and depression
• The study was littered with conflicts of interest, as most of the trials were funded by the pharmaceutical industry, and some of the researchers even received money and recognition from drug companies
• In a related commentary, it’s stated that everyone aged 50 and over should take statin cholesterol-lowering drugs
• A new study suggested that the benefits of statins outweigh the risks of side effects, even for healthy people with a low risk of heart attacks and stroke.    
  By Dr. Mercola
  

  A UK Daily Mail headline from May 2012 read: "Why EVERYONE over 50 needs to be taking statins."ⁱ If you find the notion that taking medications should be construed as something for everyone, like drinking water or breathing air, as appalling as I do, then you will probably be equally taken aback by this lofty statement.
  But to blame the Daily Mail wouldn't be entirely fair, as they are merely reporting the results of a new study published in the Lancet.
  Media around the world picked up these findings, but reporters apparently missed the conflict-of-interest disclaimers at the end … which should make any logical person think twice before agreeing with them.

  Statins for Everyone Once You Reach Your 50th Birthday?

  Millions of people around the world take medications known as statins to lower their cholesterol. Typically, they are reserved for people considered to be at high risk of heart attack or stroke, usually (incorrectly) defined as someone with "high" cholesterol. The current value of the cholesterol-lowering drug industry is estimated at around $29 billion a year – but the pharmaceutical industry is still salivating at the thought of how big that number could get if statins could be prescribed to even more people.
  Well, they must have popped open their most expensive champagne when researchers came to this very conclusion in a recent issue of the Lancet...
  After reviewing findings from 27 trials that included people who were at low risk of heart problems, the researchers concluded that the benefits of statins outweigh the risks, to the extent that they may even benefit healthy people without high cholesterol and with little risk of heart attack or stroke. Currently in the UK, the drugs are only recommended for those with at least a 20 percent risk of heart attack or stroke in the next decade, but the researchers suggested the National Health Service (NHS) guidelines should be revised to include their use even in those without an increased risk.
  In a commentary also published in the Lancet, it's written that the most ""cost-effective" way to start prescribing statins to the masses is simply to give them to everyone once they reach age 50:ⁱⁱ
  

  "Because most people older than 50 years are likely to be at greater than 10% 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease, it would be more pragmatic to use age as the only indicator for statin prescription, as was originally proposed for the polypill."

  It is this statement that has transmogrified into the sensational media headlines that make it sound as though statins for over-50s should be the new status quo … but then, where is the mention of who funded all of this favorable statin research? It also makes one seriously consider the influences on the researchers that conducted this study. With so much money at stake it is very hard to believe that the drug industry did not have something to produce or manipulate the recommendations.

  Didn't Anyone Read the Conflicts of Interest Disclaimer?

  It's right there in black and white, at the end of the Lancet study -- the stated conflicts of interest:
  

  "Most of the trials in this report were supported by research grants from the pharmaceutical industry. Some members of the writing committee have received reimbursement of costs to participate in scientific meetings from the pharmaceutical industry. AK and JS have also received honoraria from Solvay for lectures related to these studies."

  This changes everything, as it's well known that pharma-funded studies are often manipulated to show positive results even when the opposite holds true. And researchers who are connected monetarily to the companies producing the products being studied are only all too happy – even if it's subconsciously -- to "massage" the data accordingly.
  In the video below, Dr. Beatrice Golomb, MD, PhD -- an associate professor of medicine and associate professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California at San Diego -- shares shocking information about the dark underbelly of medical science to help you understand how, and why, the "scientific method" has become so manipulated and willfully distorted by the drug industry.
  For starters, in order for scientific studies to happen, someone has to pay for them. The top funder for any drug trial is the pharmaceutical company that makes it, since the manufacturer is most invested in "proving" how spectacular its drug is.
  Dr. Golomb uses the case of statins as an example, stating that all of the major statin studies have been funded exclusively by the drug industry. Further, drug companies publish only a fraction of the studies they fund -- the ones that promote the "safe and effective" image of their drugs. Often those favorable studies are submitted multiple times, in a way that the reader doesn't realize it's the same study, obscured by different author lists and different details. If a study does not have findings that are favorable to its product, it is unlikely it will ever make it into a journal for publication.
  But, when a scientific study has findings that cast doubt on the efficacy of a drug, oftentimes the negative findings are morphed into positive ones through statistical and semantic manipulation.       Click link to read interview transcript :-

   http://mercola.fileburst.com/PDF/ExpertInterviewTranscripts/InterviewBeatricGolombApr302010.pdf
  

  When it comes to medicine, mere disclosure of conflict of interest is not nearly enough. Patients need unbiased advice when it comes to making decisions that can impact their very life, and physicians and scientists with financial ties to the drug industry should not be allowed to participate in research … let alone research that might be used to make broad policy and public-health recommendations …

  FDA Demands Warning Labels on Statins

  It's ironic that this new research comes in the wake of U.S. health regulators' orders to put warning labels on statins because they can cause muscle weakness, diabetes, memory loss and depression. The Lancet researchers felt it was more important to avoid heart attacks and strokes than to worry about possible side effects … but statins appear to provoke serious risks of chronic disease, including diabetes, through a few different mechanisms. One primary mechanism is by increasing your insulin levels, which can be extremely harmful to your health.
  Chronically elevated insulin levels cause inflammation in your body, which is the hallmark of most chronic disease. In fact, elevated insulin levels lead to heart disease, which, ironically, is the primary reason for taking a statin drug in the first place! It can also promote belly fat, high blood pressure, heart attacks, chronic fatigue, thyroid disruption, and diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and cancer.
  Statins also increase your diabetes risk by raising your blood sugar. When you eat a meal that contains starches and sugar, some of the excess sugar goes to your liver, which then stores it away as cholesterol and triglycerides.
  Statins work by preventing your liver from making cholesterol. As a result, your liver returns the sugar to your bloodstream, which raises your blood sugar levels.
  These drugs also rob your body of certain valuable nutrients, which can also impact your blood sugar levels. Two nutrients in particular, vitamin D and CoQ10, are both needed to maintain ideal blood glucose levels. The loss of CoQ10 leads to loss of cell energy and increased free radicals which, in turn, can further damage your mitochondrial DNA, effectively setting into motion a health-destroying circle of increasing free radicals and mitochondrial damage.
  There are no official warnings in the United States regarding CoQ10 depletion from taking statin drugs, and many physicians fail to inform you about this problem as well. Labeling in Canada, however, clearly warns of CoQ10 depletion and even notes that this nutrient deficiency "could lead to impaired cardiac function in patients with borderline congestive heart failure."
  As your body gets more and more depleted of CoQ10, you may suffer from fatigue, muscle weakness and soreness, and eventually heart failure, so it is imperative if you take statin drugs that you take CoQ10 or, if you are over the age of 40, or subject to excessive oxidative stress, the reduced version called ubiquinol. This is only a short list, as statin drugs have been directly linked to over 300 side effects,ⁱⁱⁱ which include:
  

  thy Anemia Acidosis Frequent fevers Cataracts S Cognitive loss exual dysfunction An increase in cancer risk Pancreatic dysfunction Immune system suppression Muscle problems, polyneuropathy (nerve damage in the hands and feet), and rhabdomyolysis, a serious degenerative muscle tissue condition Hepatic dysfunction. (Due to the potential increase in liver enzymes, patients must be monitored for normal liver function)
  Anemia
  Cataracts

   Pancreatic dysfunction
   Hepatic dysfunction. (Due to the potential increase in liver enzymes, patients must be monitored for normal liver function)
  

  Acidos Frequent fevers Cataracts is

  Cognitive loss	Neuropathy	Anemia
  Sexual dysfunction	An increase in cancer risk	Pancreatic dysfunction
  Immune system suppression	Muscle problems, polyneuropathy (nerve damage in the hands and feet), and rhabdomyolysis, a serious degenerative muscle tissue condition	Hepatic dysfunction. (Due to the potential increase in liver enzymes, patients must be monitored for normal liver function)

  Most People Don't Need Statins, Regardless of Age

  I've long stated that the odds are very high -- greater than 100 to 1 -- that if you're taking a statin, you may not even need it. To understand why you probably don't need a statin drug, you first need to realize that cholesterol is NOT the cause of heart disease. If your physician is urging you to check your total cholesterol, know that this test will tell you virtually nothing about your risk of heart disease, unless it is 330 or higher. HDL percentage is a far more potent indicator for heart disease risk. Here are the two ratios you should pay attention to:
  

  1. HDL/Total Cholesterol Ratio: Should ideally be above 24 percent. If below 10 percent, you have a significantly elevated risk for heart disease.
  2. Triglyceride/HDL Ratio: Should be below 2.

  Moreover, the waist-to-hip ratio, apolipoprotein a/b ratio, fibrinogen and an increasingly complex number of factors have been identified that, collectively, have far more relevance in determining your cardiovascular disease and/or cardiac mortality risk than any as yet to be identified lipid or lipoprotein in your blood. Is our lipid-obsession, then, really justified, or is it an integral part of a $29-billion statin drug industry that requires myopia and a general dumbing down of the medical community in order to perpetuate itself?
  The truth is, statins are some of the most side-effect-ridden medications on the market, and they frequently cause more harm than good. If you are interested in optimizing your cholesterol levels (which doesn't necessarily mean lowering them), and in lowering your risk of heart attack and stroke naturally, there are many strategies available for doing so.
  

  • Reduce, with the plan of eliminating, grains and sugars (including fructose) in your diet, replacing them with mostly whole, fresh vegetable carbs. Also try to consume a good portion of your food raw.
  • Make sure you are getting enough high quality, animal-based omega 3 fats, such as krill oil.
  • Other heart-healthy foods include olive oil, coconut and coconut oil, organic raw dairy products and eggs, avocados, raw nuts and seeds, and organic grass-fed meats as explained in my nutrition plan
  • Optimize your vitamin D levels using safe sun exposure, a safe tanning bed or a vitamin D3 supplement
  • Exercise regularly, especially with Peak Fitness exercises.
  • Avoid smoking or drinking alcohol excessively.
  • Be sure to get plenty of good, restorative sleep.

  References:
  

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• ⁱ UK Mail Online May 16, 2012
• ⁱⁱ The Lancet, Early Online Publication, May 17, 2012
• ⁱⁱⁱ GreenMedInfo.com Statin Drugs

Sources:

• UK Mail Online May 16, 2012
• The Lancet May 17, 2012
• Reuters February 28, 2012