Red Yeast Rice...Anyone?

Hi Tani - I would suggest the pain will resolve of its own accord. I was on Artorvastatin @ 80mg for two years. It has been 2.5 yrs since I threw both the drugs and the quack away. After a roller coaster of multiple, snowballing issues - while the doc denied all of it and blamed me - I'm finally back to my old self again. The damage done was at a cellular level. This provides a two tiered advantage to the medical profession - the sweeping prescription of statins ($20 billion a year industry in the US alone), and the prescribing of other medications in an attempt to hide the ravages caused by statins. They tried it with me.  I won't describe what i would like to do to the doc in repayment for his negligence.

With regard your statement about cholesterol levels - they were manipulated some time ago by the greedy, interested parties. This was to enable the prescribing of statin drugs with impunity to absolutely anyone. The Big Pharma mantra is "every human being on the planet reliant on at least one of our products." And they know all the tricks on how to cheat the system.  

Hi Tani, 

First I would like to say that I am a medical biochemist specializing in lipidosis and autoimmune diseases and have been in the field for 40 yrs. In the late 70's I was a co-developer for the first commercially available test for HDL, one of the cholesterol derivatives.

For starters, due to your muscle pain I would stop taking Red yeast or any statin which causes extreme muscle pain. My intention is not to scare you but it's called Rhabdomyolysis.  (Read BayCol below) Just for the record, I would never tell someone to stop taking  insulin or blood pressure medication which could be fatal. However trying to stop or reduce the body's production of cholesterol with a statin has major ramifications. The human body does not produce cyanide or strychnine and pharma's views that cholesterol is bad has no basis as you will see in the expose by the Catalyst documentary below. The five major side effects of taking a statin or possibly Red yeast are, cognitive disorders (forgetting stuff), early onset of cataracts, type 2 diabetes, cancer and (your problem) muscular skeletal problems.  I can explain the chemistry behind each of the above mentioned side effects, but I don't want to put anyone to sleep. 

My following commentary is a long read, but I am making a preemptive attempt to answer almost any question that you may have on the subject plus addressing the reason why most doctors are clueless about how the statin scam started and why they don't stay up to date on major expose's by many universities showing how the pharmas cook the books. 

I am sending you this video regarding the Statin Scam that I have been proselytizing about for over 10yrs! I accidentally came across this recent Australian Expose on the subject while researching some info on another similar expose out the the University of South Florida which was on national(ABC) and local news Monday(Mar 2nd 2015). Since this is a video, and a great one at that, it is a lot easier to view than read, because I fully realize that most people are hesitant to read a lengthy article. To see the documentary just Google “Catalyst heart of the matter youtube” Part 2 immediately follows Part 1. Part 1 is a history of how this whole cholesterol debacle started and deals with the misleading information that has been dolled out about saturated fats over the last 30yrs. The details in this documentary are facts, not opinions. I was surprised to find out that Ronald Reagan and George McGovern were partially responsible for this fiasco back in the 80's. It will also show you the reasons why your physician orders it and it's not always for health reasons! Below, I copied the opening statement from the shows editor regarding the documentary. I have been forwarding this to my friends and relatives who understandably believe everything that their doctor says is gospel. Since the ABC affiliate in Australian took the site down due to pressure from the pharmaceutical industry, I would try to view it as soon as it is convenient for you. J

Dr. MaryAnne Demasi’s documentary on the criminal activity of the pharmaceutical industry regarding cholesterol-lowering statin drugs sent shock waves through the mainstream media in Australia at the end of 2013. Published in two parts on the popular news show The Catalyst (similar to 60 Mins), the pharmaceutical industry complained loudly after the first show, and requested the network not air the second episode, “Heart of the Matter Part 2 – Cholesterol Drug War.”

ABC Australia aired it anyway, but the pharmaceutical influence was apparently too strong, as they later announced that the network would remove the videos from their website.

After viewing the above documentary, you will lose your possible skepticism about stains and especially after reading the article below. There is ample amounts of verifiable data to support the atrocity that the pharmaceutical industry has sold to the American public. AND NO!!! This is not “conspiracy theory” nonsense. You are welcome to Fact Check everything.

Below is another example of a statin drug causing injury and death worldwide. The 200+ deaths attributed to this drug worldwide do not include hundreds which lost their kidneys and others that survived heart attacks. Further proof that statins are a high risk drug and a matter of FACT not someone's opinion. Bayer had to pay over $1,300,000,000 to settle a class action lawsuits before it was taken off the market.

Baycol: Recalled Anti-Cholesterol Drug Linked to Life-Threatening Muscle Injury

Californian Charles Young began taking the prescription drug Baycol in March 2000 to reduce his cholesterol. Soon, he began experiencing leg pains, which rapidly worsened to the point that he could not walk. Young's physician did not recognize the cause of the leg pains, and prescribed only pain medication. Young's condition continued to deteriorate, and one month he was admitted to the hospital. Within 24 hours of his admission, Young experienced complete kidney failure and was put on kidney dialysis. Subsequently, Young suffered a severe heart attach and died on May 24, 2000.

As events unfolded, the tragic death of Charles Young was one of multiple deaths and hundreds of serious injuries that have been reportedly linked to Baycol, known generically as cerivastatin. On August 8, 2001, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that Bayer, the manufacturer of Baycol, was removing the drug from the market because of 31 reports of fatal rhabdomyolysis, many of which were seniors. Later, in Europe, it was reported that additional people died after ingesting Baycol. By 2002, the number of deaths associated with Baycol worldwide had risen to over 200 worldwide..

Rhabdomyolysis -- also called rhabdo -- is a potentially life-threatening condition occurs when a large number of skeletal muscle cells die, which results in the release of a massive amount of muscle protein (known as myoglobin ) into the bloodstream. The muscle protein can become trapped in the kidneys, clogging up the filtering process of the kidneys and leading to kidney or renal failure. In addition, potassium released from the damaged muscle cells can cause malignant heart rhythms resulting in cardiac arrest.

GUESS WHAT, I took that crap(excuse my language) for about 10 days because one of the group practices that I was consulting for had a closet full of it. I asked one of the doctors if I could have some (free of course) and took it as prescribed. Within 10 days or so, I started experiencing violent chest muscle spasms which obviously scared the hell out of me. I thought that I was having a heart attack. I stopped taking it immediately and asked for an EKG to be done to see if I had any heart damage. Fortunately my heart was OK. Some time after this event is when Baycol made the national news and was recalled. So I am obviously speaking from personal experiences with the statin class of drugs.

Baycol's statin formulation was obviously a more dangerous form of satin than the other manufactures, but ALL statins have varying degrees of the same side effects. Namely, early onset type 2 diabetes, cataracts, cognitive disorders(memory loss, etc), cancer and muscular skeletal disorders..

The Uof S. Florida that exposed the scam in the US shows that statins only reduced the chance of a stroke by a WHOPPING 1% !?!?!?

The Univ of S Florida study, above, was picked up by the national media was just the most recent documentation of the drug companies fraudulent manipulation drug studies. I had seen several similar retrospective studies as long as 10yrs ago exposing the drug industries “cooking the books” exposes. The only difference was those early ones were never picked up by the national media. I became aware of them because I was in the medical arena and had seen articles written in various medical journals, magazines, etc which were expressing concerns about the drug companies methodologies for validating new drugs in general and statins in particular. What I never new was how all of this started until I came across the Australian exposé that I forwarded to you above. Specifically Part 1. If you've already seen it, showed the history of how the drug companies eventually gained the power to “Self Regulate”. As a result of Reagan drastically defunding the National Institute of Health’s budget, the pharmaceutical industry, thru Self Regulation has become the wolf guarding the proverbial hen house. This is not unlike Obama wanting to allow Iran to self regulate itself! Part 1 of the Australian show was the most clarifying and beautifully done piece of journalism showing in detail the historical sequence of events that got us where we are today. I had no clue prior to viewing how this mess got started. If that video doesn’t clear the air, what will? How could anyone argue against live shots from the 60’s thru the 80’s of scientist making totally bogus claims.

Regarding expected skepticism about the doctors and drug companies and reps being unscrupulous. The answer is actually very simple but not very obvious at first glance unless your in the medical environment. I actually don’t blame all of the docs or the drug reps for pushing there statin narrative and here is why. The docs are only regurgitating what the drug reps tell them about any drug. The problem at that point is two fold. First the drug reps generally have NO medical background and are highly trained to give “canned speeches” about their products. Plus the drug companies like to hire 5’9” blond reps, so the drs eyes are glazed over and the rep could sell them spoiled milk! All doctors (and I personally know several dozens in many disciplines) have long days and then have to do dictation for 2-3 hrs after the office closes. The last thing that they want to do at 7pm in the evening is read their own journals or research anything! They want to go home and see their family’s just like the rest of us and that does not include having to go to hospitals and visit their patients.

Check this out. Until the early 90's normal cholesterol levels were 200 mg/dl plus your age. So if you were 60 yrs old your normal would be up to 260 mg/dl. The pharmaceutical industry realized that they wouldn't have enough business, so they moved the upper normal range down to 200 mg/dl with no study data to validate or justify the change!! As a result of the arbitrary change,sales over a 3 year period jumped from 8 million to 38 million people tacking statins.!!!

I have told friends and family to show the Univ of S Florida and Baycol papers to their drs and see them squirm. If anyone really wants to know if you have plaque formation in your arteries just ask(don’t ask, TELL) your Dr that you would like to have a “LP-PLA2” blood test run. If this test comes out normal (less than 200 mg/dl) then there is absolutely NO REASON to be taking a statin. Those lipid profile test are useless because they are all based on the premise that Cholesterol and it’s derivatives are the villain. Think about all of this for a second. If it has been establish that the circulating level of chol is irrelevant and your LP-PLA2 test comes back normal. What in the heck is the point of taking a drug to control chol or it's derivatives. If you got this far down the page, THANKS FOR LISTENING (I mean reading!)

The bottom line on this whole subject is that Plaque formation on the arteries appears to be a genetic issue closely tied to high blood pressure and especially diabetis and has absolutely nothing to do with blood cholesterol levels. An annual LP-PLA2 test and fish or Omega 3 fish oil every week if you have an abnormal LP-PLA2 test.

Regarding Crestor's JUPITER Trial in 2008

The conflict-of-interest issue is a particular feature of the Dr de Lorgeril paper. The authors maintain that bias has been allowed to pervade the JUPITER trial, noting that 9 of the 14 authors have financial ties to the sponsor and the principal investigator--Dr Paul Ridker (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA)--has a personal conflict of interest as a coholder of the patent for the CRP test used in the study. The chair of the data safety monitoring board (DSMB), which made the recommendation to stop the trial--Dr Rory Collins--also comes in for criticism on this front, with the authors saying that he "has been, and still is, involved in many other industry-sponsored lipid-lowering trials, raising issues of conflict of interest.