PART 2 IN A FOUR-PART POST 

I stopped by the friendly, neighborhood Borders bookstore this morning in order to enjoy a cup of coffee and to count books. I was specifically interested in the books that were written by medical doctors and that had as their primary subject matter the prevention and/or reversal of heart disease. This particular Borders store had forty-nine different books that met the criteria.

After counting the books, I then went to the index of each book, located the pages associated with the use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs such as Lipitor, and then I read what each of those physician-written books had to say about the use of those drugs. It was a highly enjoyable way to spend a morning, and the morning would have been perfect had it not been for an anal-retentive bookseller hovering around me and fussing over the books being placed back on the shelves in correct order. He ignored my assurances of my understanding of the term “alphabetical by author.” Maybe he just had too much time on his hands.

If a physician has been successful in publishing a book about heart disease and that book is being marketed at Borders, then I think that it is safe for us to assume that the physician-author is something of an expert on the subject of heart disease. So it may interest you to know that not one of the forty-nine expert physicians that I consulted this morning would recommend the use of Lipitor or any other cholesterol-lowering statin drug in treating or preventing heart disease. One of the physicians did admit that she prescribes Lipitor occasionally, but only after the patient has demonstrated no ability to maintain their own health.

And so the presumed experts in heart healthcare do not recommend the use of Lipitor and yet it is the most prescribed drug in the U.S. and it continues to grow in popularity. What is wrong with this picture?

I have worked in the medical field for a number of years. There is a joke that my colleagues and I would ritualistically tell each other after dealing with a particularly obtuse physician. One of us would ask the question, “What do you call the guy who graduates last in his class from medical school?” and everybody would respond with, “You call him 'Doctor'.” The point is that there are numerous physicians out there that provide an inferior brand of healthcare to their patients. I plan to discuss in a later article on this site the many reasons why physicians provide inferior healthcare, but for now we will discuss just the biggest problem associated with the prescribing of Lipitor.

I am convinced that if a conscientious physician would just take the time to become fully educated on the science behind how Lipitor works, then that physician would immediately curtail or eliminate the prescribing of Lipitor to their patients. The myriad of side effects are well-documented but we should review them here so that we can discuss the real issue.

1.) People using Lipitor have a 7% greater risk of cancer mortality.

2.) Lipitor increases the risk for depression.

3.) Lipitor causes rhabdomyolysis, a severe degenerative muscle disease that can lead to kidney failure and death.

4.) Lipitor commonly causes mild muscle aches and pains, flu-like symptoms and back pain.

5.) Lipitor causes memory problems and joint pains.

6.) Lipitor causes impotence, abdominal pain, dizziness, and constipation

All of the foregoing side effects are serious enough and certainly demand consideration, but I believe that they are all secondary to the most serious and fatal consequence of prolonged consumption of Lipitor: congestive heart failure. In order to understand why Lipitor causes congestive heart failure, we need to understand how it works, so let's review that now.

Lipitor works by inhibiting the work of an enzyme that produces LDL cholesterol in the liver. This enzyme is known as HMG CoEnzyme A reductase. Inhibiting this enzyme reduces the body's synthesis of cholesterol, but unfortunately this same enzyme, HMG CoEnzyme A reductase, is required for the body's production of the critical enzyme CoEnzymeQ10. Without HMG CoEnzyme A reductase, synthesis of CoEnzymeQ10 is greatly depressed.

CoEnzymeQ10, also known as ubiquinone, is found in every cell in the human body except for red blood cells and eye lens cells. CoEnzymeQ10 plays a critical role in energy production and performs powerful antioxidant activities. So when a person takes Lipitor, they are very likely to lower their LDL cholesterol, but at the same time they are depriving their body of a critical life-sustaining enzyme. This would be similar to a person adding water to their gas tank in their car in order to make sure that their gas lines stay clean. While the water may very well clean the gas lines, it will also rob the gasoline of it's ability to produce energy, and the car won't run. Sure, Lipitor may keep your arteries clean, but it will do it at the expense of energy production, and the place where the energy-producing qualities of CoEnzymeQ10 are most important is the heart.

The correlation between heart failure and CoEnzymeQ10 deficiency is well established. If a person is suffering from congestive heart failure, they will be shown to be deficient in CoenzymeQ10. One of the books that I read at Borders was a book by a cardiologist named Dr. Sinatra, and his book is The Sinatra Solution. In his book, Dr. Sinatra states that cardiologists “must think of congestive heart failure as an energy-starved-heart.” The heart is energy-starved because it is deprived of the CoEnzymeQ10 that it needs.

If you take Lipitor, you are starving your heart of energy, and if you deprive your heart of energy for a long period of time, you will eventually hear your physician state that you have congestive heart failure. There are only two options available to a person with congestive heart failure: eventual death or a heart transplant.

My first article concerning Lipitor discussed the marketing of Lipitor by using the inventor of an artificial heart, Robert Jarvik, as a pitchman. Is it coincidence that the inventor of an artificial heart would be pimping a drug that destroys your God-given heart? I find it difficult to believe that Jarvik or Pfizer would be so evil, but large amounts of money can strangely influence people. Actually, the massive ego of Jarvik probably allows him to believe that his artificial heart is actually better than the one that God created.

Over the past year I have heard from a number of physicians who are now treating patients for congestive heart failure secondary to use of Lipitor. The number of cases of heart failure due to the use of Lipitor will continue to grow until somebody, either the lawyers or the FDA, notices and does something about the problem. But nobody needs to wait for the lawyers or the FDA. You can take control of your own healthcare. Rather than taking the poison, Lipitor, you can eat right and exercise in order to reduce your cholesterol. We will discuss the many choices that are superior to Lipitor in our next article.


Part One of Four: THE MARKETING AND DANGERS OF PFIZER'S LIPITOR; A FOUR PART SERIES
Part Two of Four: LIPITOR:  THE POISON THAT CAUSES CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE
Part Three of Four: LIFESTYLE CHANGES THAT ALLOW YOU TO AVOID LIPITOR

See Also: IF YOU CAN'T ARGUE WITH THE FACTS, JUST SCREAM "CONSPIRACY THEORIST" AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS

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