statins attack muscles, ligaments, fascia, and tendons

“To our knowledge, this is the first study… to show that statin use is associated with an increased likelihood of diagnoses of musculoskeletal conditions, arthropathies [arthritis], and injuries”  Dr. Ishak Mansi from this month’s issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.

It’s not news that STATIN DRUGS cause muscle pain.  In fact muscle pain is their number one side effect.  However, it’s critical for you understand that referring to what is going on simply as “muscle pain” is missing the bigger picture.  The ‘trust us‘ side-effect warnings for Statin Drugs refers to this muscle pain as Rhabdomyolysis —– a problem that most people have never heard of.  Let’s take a minute and break it down into bite-sized chunks that are easy to understand.

Rhabdo means “with stripes“, Myo means “muscle“, and Lysis means “rupture“.  So, in a nutshell, Rhabdomyolysis infers that striped muscle (skeletal muscles — i.e. biceps, triceps, quadriceps, gluteus, etc, etc) are actually breaking apart at the cellular level and releasing their contents into the extracellular fluid, which eventually make their way to the blood stream.  The chief breakdown product of Rhabdomyolysis is something called ‘myoglobin’.  Myoglobin is an oxygen-carrying protein in the muscle that is analogous to hemoglobin, an oxygen-carrying protein found in the blood. 

SYMPTOMS OF RHABDOMYOLYSIS

How do you know whether or not you have Rhabdomyolysis?  One of the classic findings is going to be dark or “Coke-colored” urine.  But it is usually found via blood test long before the urine ever gets to that point.  The main symptom is pain.  Because muscle tissue is actually being broken and destroyed at the cellular level, people suffering with this problem are going to have muscle / joint pain, weakness, point tenderness, and even swelling of the affected muscles.  This means that patients / doctors can easily be fooled as I have several times over the years. 

Rhabdomyolysis can look just like artrhritis, a Rotator Cuff Problem, FIBROMYALGIA, a knee problem, or any number of other painful conditions.  This is why I always find out whether or not someone is on Statin Drugs (or for that matter, other drugs) before I do anything else.  By the way, certain other things like HYPOTHYROIDISM, DIABETES, AUTOIMMUNE CONDITIONS, CERTAIN ANTIBIOTICS, ANTI-DEPRESSION DRUGS, HARDCORE WORKOUTS, and drug or alcohol abuse can all contribute to the development of this problem as well.

WE ALREADY KNEW ALL OF THIS
WHAT IS THE NEW EVIDENCE FOR STATINS DESTROYING OTHER TISSUES AS WELL?

A study was published in this month’s issue of JAMA Internal Medicine (Statins and Musculoskeletal Conditions, Arthropathies, and Injuries) showing some extremely disturbing evidence.  Dr. Ishak Mansi and his team of researchers, working out of the The North Texas Health Care System (Dallas’ huge VA), showed that musculoskeletal adverse events and diseases are significantly higher in those taking Statins than in those not taking Statins (study size was over 46,000 individuals). 

The study concluded that, “Musculoskeletal conditions, arthropathies [Arthritis], injuries, and pain are more common among statin users than among similar nonusers.”  They went even further and clarified the term “muscluloskeletal conditions“.   They included, “all musculoskeletal diseases, arthropathies [Arthritis] and related diseases, injury-related diseases (dislocation, sprain, strain) and drug-associated musculoskeletal pain“.   Stop and think about this for a moment.  Not only are injuries to the MUSCLES, FASCIA, TENDONS, and LIGAMENTS significantly greater in those taking Statins, but so are the diseases affecting these tissues (not to mention bones), as well as adverse side effects of a wide variety of drugs. 

Interestingly enough, the main reason that this study was done in the first place was to “prove” that Statin Drugs had anti-inflammatory powers that could actually help people with arthritis and musculoskeletal pain.  Probably why one of the authors disclosed associations with AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Elan, Forest, Ortho-McNeil Janssen, and PFIZER.  It would be safe to say that these companies are now in full “Damage Control Mode”.  Fortunately for us, it is getting harder for Big Pharma to BURY STUDIES LIKE THIS.  To learn more about CHOLESTEROL, just click on the link.