Statins: A Cure Worse than the Disease

The ads for cholesterol-lowering statin drugs – Lipitor, Crestor, Vytorin, and others – feel like a feeding frenzy. Their makers have turned a symptom -- elevated cholesterol -- into a disease that must be treated with urgency. It has paid off royally – Lipitor sales alone are now over $12 billion a year. The problem is that the "cure" is often worse than the "disease."

An article in the journal BioFactors (2005;25:147-152) described 50 cardiology patients who were plagued with a variety of symptoms, including statin-induced cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle that has nothing to do with cholesterol. Other common symptoms included fatigue, muscle pain, breathing difficulties, memory problems, and nerve disorders.

Statin drugs inhibit an enzyme involved in synthesizing cholesterol, but the same enzyme is also needed to make coenzyme Q10, a vitamin-like substance that was the basis of the 1978 Nobel prize in chemistry. CoQ10 is essential for life,r normal muscle function, and energy production in the body.

The 50 patients were treated with CoQ10, the dose averaging 240 mg daily, for almost two years. The prevalence of muscle pain among these patients decreased from 64 to 6 percent between their first and latest medical exam. Fatigue decreased from 84 to 16 percent, breathing difficulties from 58 to 12 percent, memory problems from 8 to 4 percent, and nerve problems from 10 to 2 percent. CoQ10 also improved heart function and reduced “statin cardiomyopathy” in half of the patients.

The pharmaceutical industry is well aware of the dangers posed by statins -- and the health benefits of CoQ10. Merck, the maker of the statin drug Zocor, owns two use patents (#4,933,165 and 4,929,437) that combine CoQ10 with statins to prevent and reverse statin-induced cardiomyopthy. To knowingly hurt patients and withhold treatment is nothing less than unethical.