The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Sunday 17 April 2011

Statin use results in a 39% incidence of structural muscle damage

This post includes a synopsis of a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal 2009 Jul 7;181(1-2):E11-8

Study title and authors:
Association between statin-associated myopathy and skeletal muscle damage.
Mohaupt MG, Karas RH, Babiychuk EB, Sanchez-Freire V, Monastyrskaya K, Iyer L, Hoppeler H, Breil F, Draeger A.
Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Inselspital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19581603

The Great Cholesterol Con
Books:
Mohaupt notes that many patients taking statins often complain of muscle pain and weakness. The study examined the relationship between statins, myopathy (muscle weakness or pain) and muscle injury.

The study included:
(i) 44 patients with clinically diagnosed statin-associated myopathy
(ii) 19 patients who were taking statins and had no myopathy
(iii) 20 patients who had never taken statins and had no myopathy

The study found:
(a) there was a high prevalence of muscle injury in patients (25 out of 44) who had statin-associated myopathy.
(b) muscle symptoms normally improve rapidly after stopping statin therapy.
(c) structural muscle injury did persist in some patients even after they had discontinued statin therapy.

In this study patients taking statins had a 39% incidence of structural muscle damage.

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