Posted by Michael DuBay on Oct 30, 2014
The Real Ice Bucket Challenge
Truth be told – ALS and Statins I don’t know about you but I accepted the “Ice Bucket Challenge” this past summer. Just prior to dumping the cold stuff over my head I specifically mentioned the Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis more commonly known as ALS website for others to gain information or to offer financial support. However, there’s something about ALS that you may not know and you probably won’t be hearing about it from the ALS Association or your doctor. That’s because a widely prescribed drug appears to have a very ugly connection to this terrible disease… Don’t Buy It For years the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been trying to write off all the side effects of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. It says that the “benefit” of taking these drugs outweighs the risks. But what if I told you that statin drugs might be triggering ALS, or a condition that strongly resembles it, in some people who take them. Even Pfizer, which makes Lipitor, noticed a “sign” in the number of cases of ALS in people taking the drug. However, Pfizer claims that after looking at all the data, all of a sudden there was no connection. The director of the World Health Organization’s Drug Monitoring Centre, Dr. Ralph Edwards, looked at the data in search of any “signal” that connected side effects with drugs. Why would I want weak muscles? If you’ve ever read the warnings on a bottle of one of these drugs, you know that it lists muscle pain and weakness as a side effect. The drug is also associated with peripheral neuropathy. Dr. Edwards thinks the statin-related muscle pain and weakness, and peripheral neuropathy might be the link to how statins trigger ALS. This ALS statin link should have been the last straw that stopped the widespread use of this drug once and for all. But instead, millions more “qualified” for a statin prescription… and that could change ALS from a “rare” disease into a very common one. We’re not going to stop the statin discussion just yet. Note: Prescribing statins is easy because cholesterol is measurable and folks are lead to believe that’s the main cause of cardiovascular disease. I sure wish doctors would talk to you about acid because that’s the real cause. There are some that feel that everyone over...
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