Confirmed Again: Statin Drugs Calcify The Coronary Arteries
Sayer Ji,
ContributorActivist PostA new study published in the journal Atherosclerosis found that statin
use is associated with a 52% increased prevalence and extent of
coronary artery plaques possessing calcium.
[i] This study, published on August 24th, was preceded only three weeks
earlier by one in the journal Diabetes Care, which found that
coronary artery calcification "was significantly higher in more frequent statin users than in less
frequent users," among patients with type 2 diabetes and advanced
atherosclerosis.
Coronary artery disease is one of the primary risk factors for heart
attack and cardiac mortality, and calcification marks the end-stage of
atherosclerosis, the gradual plaque-driven narrowing of the arteries, as
the lumen (opening of the artery) can no longer compensate for the
obstructive build-up of plaque by expanding, once the calcification
process has taken place.
Statins are increasingly recognized to have profound cardiotoxic
properties, despite their widespread use in the prevention and treatment
of heart disease.
Here are several ways in which this chemical class of cholesterol-lowering drugs adversely affects heart health:
- Statin drugs deplete the heart muscle of coenzyme Q10, a fundamental
cofactor for mitochondrial energy production (the heart muscle cells
have one of the highest mitochondrial densities (approximately 5,000
mitochondria per muscle cell, versus 50 for skeletal muscle), and
therefore are most susceptible to statin-induced coenzyme Q10 depletion, and subsequent mitochondrial dysfunction.
- Statins increase the risk of type 2 diabetes,
a condition whose hallmark pathology is high blood sugar-induced
endothelial dysfunction, which is the beginning stage of cardiovascular
disease, as it leads to damage in the arteries, only after which
cholesterol-containing plaques form.
- Statin drugs are muscle-damaging (myotoxic) and nerve-damaging
(neurotoxic). The heart is a highly innervated muscle (densely packed
with nerves), indicating that statin drugs are uniquely toxic to heart
tissue.
- Statin use is associated associated with an increased prevalence of microalbuminuria, a well-known marker of vascular dysfunction, affecting both cardiovascular and kidney disease risk.
Unfortunately, cardiotoxicity is only the tip of a massive iceberg of
statin-induced poisoning. There are over 300 known adverse health
effects of statin drugs in the biomedical literature. Click the link to
view the research on
statin drug poisoning.
For natural, evidence-based alternative to statin drugs, visit our
biomedical archive on over 125 natural foods, spices and herbs with
cholesterol-modulating properties.
Source:-
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/09/confirmed-again-statin-drugs-calcify.html