Pain Research Newsletter
March 10, 2007
Cures
that Kill
(Preventable Causes of Death)
From the Pain Research Institute
By Darrell Stoddard, Copyright 2007
It seems
like an ultimate irony but the drugs most commonly
prescribed to save lives and the most widely used pain medication
in the World (thought to be the safest) can cause death.
This may
sound like a call for attorneys to chase ambulances but these
unknown killers will not be stopped until the truth is known.
Every ad you see
for cholesterol lowering statin drugs
(LIPITOR, CRESTOR, VYTORIN, ZOCOR,
MEVACOR,
LESCOL, ZETIA,PRAVACHOL, ADVICOR, and CADUET)
tell the side effects of unexplained muscle weakness or pain
indicating what they call a rare but serious side effect. The
serious side effect is a potentially fatal disease called
rhabdomyolysis.
The fluorinated*
statin drug Baycol was recalled because of the
number of deaths it caused, All statins have been known to cause
rhabdomyolysis.
been recalled but there are 200 more still on the market. Everyone
should read: "Baycol
- Another Fluoride
Drug Bites the Dust" on
www.mercola.com Regarding fluorinated drugs see:
www.bruha.com/pfpc/ and
www.bruha.com/pfpc/html/index_drugs.html
Rhabdomyolysis is the
breakdown of muscle fibers that are
toxic to the kidneys and may result in kidney failure and
death. Pharmaceutical companies state that rhabdomyolysis is
rare, but after seeing 3 people die who were taking statin drugs
(that had the symptoms of rhabdomyolysis), I am convinced it
is not rare and that most cases are unreported.
The take home
message is: If you or a loved one, who is
taking a statin drug, experience unexplained muscle weakness,
pain, loss of function, cramps, or brown urine, you should
stop taking the drug immediately.
If you have a family member die who
is taking statin drugs,
and if they experienced muscle weakness, pain, or loss of function
prior to their death, it is important that you have an autopsy
done to determine if the cause of death was kidney failure and
from taking the statin drug.
If the cause
of death is dtermined to be rhabdomyolysis, a law
suit should be filed against the pharmaceutical company, not so
you will get millions of dollars, but so these drugs will be recalled
and others saved from the same death.
If you do file
a lawsuit, you and your attorney need to know
that Duane Graveline, M.D. and former astronaut, is available
as an expert witness. Dr. Graveline is a World authority on the
health effects of statin drugs and probably the World authority
on the effects of low cholesterol on mental function (due to his
own life altering experience with a statin drug.)
Mental Decline and Cholesterol
Are you worried about
(you or a loved one) losing mental
function? If so, you need more cholesterol
not less. (Alzheimer's
is rare in people with normal cholesterol.) This information about
mental decline from low cholesterol comes from the January 2007
issue of the medical journal Archives of Neurology. Search:
"Cholesterol
Decline and Early Dementia" on Google
A wonderful
life saving or brain saving gift for you or for
someone you love (who is taking a statin drug), would be one
of Dr. Graveline's books: " Lipitor Thief of Memory" or
"Statin
Drugs - Side Effects and the Misguided War on Cholesterol." See
his website with more about statin drugs than you could find
anywhere: www.spacedoc.net
Thirty million people on statin druigs
and their doctors should see his website.
It takes a brave
man to be an astronaut and it takes a brave
man to threaten the 29 billion dollar income that phamaceutical
companies receive each year from the sale of statin drugs.
It may astound
you but cholesterol is required for the life
of
every cell in your body. You cannot live without cholesterol.
There is no cellular division, no renewal of cells (healing) without
cholesterol. How can anything be bad when your very life depends
on it? For more information see: Statin Drug
Pain Warning
(Number 10) at www.healpain.net
Statin drugs
do reduce the incidence of heart disease by
reducing inflamation in the arteries (the cause of heart disease)
not because they reduce the cholesterol the liver produces to
heal the inflamation. The answer is to reduce the inflammation
without the harmful side effects of too little cholesterol from
taking statin drugs. When we understand the role of cholesterol
in all biological processes, it becomes evident that high cholesterol
is a symptom of heart disease, not the cause.
What Everyone Taking Cholesterol Lowing Statin Drugs
Should Know
There are more than 21 side effects of cholesterol
lowering statin drugs.
They inlude:
Nausea
Irritability and short temper
Constipation
Problems sleeping
Hostility
Homicidal
impulses
Mental confusion
Rapid loss of mental clarity
Amnesia
Kidney failure
Heart failure
Liver damage
and abnormalities
Diarrhea
Muscle aching and weakness
Tingling or cramping in
the legs
Inability to
walk
Impaired muscle
formation
Erectile dysfunction
Shortness of Breath
Temperature regulation problems
Nerve damage
Neuropathy
Any of these side effects would be a good reason to stop taking
anything that lowers cholesterol.
Lowering your
cholesterol is not always a good thing to do no
matter how you do it. Most of the above
side effects are caused by
not having enough cholesterol, not because the cholesterol was
lowered with a drug.
The products advertised on the internet to
lower cholesterol
naturally without side effects, can be as harmful as statin drugs.
Cholesterol is so indespensible for all cellular functions that it
is
impossible to significantly lower cholesterol without side effects.
We've been so brainwashed about cholesterol being bad that the
anti drug folks have also got this one totally wrong.
The only way to reduce cholesterol without side
effects is to
reduce the bodies need for cholesterol, not by stopping the liver
from producing cholesterol or by blocking the absorption of
cholesterol in the intestines. See: "Statin Drug Pain Warning"
No. 10 at: www.healpain.net
All statin drugs not only reduce cholesterol but
reduce the
synthesis of an enzyme called Coenzyme Q10 which is vital for
heart function and for every cell and muscle. With all due
respect, if your doctor prescribes a statin drug and does not
also include the supplement CoQ10, he does not know enough
about the side effects of statin drugs to be prescribing them.
Regarding the need for CoQ10,
see: www.spacedoc.net/statins_CoQ10.htm
If your doctor does not
take you off statin drugs when
you experience muscle weakness, unexplained pain, loss of
function, cramps, or brown urine, he should not be practicing
medicine.
As busy as doctors are,
we can understand if they do not
know about Coenzyme Q10, but with a warning about the side
effects of statin drugs being included in every ad and on every
piece of literature, there is absolutely no excuse for continuing
a course of action that can lead to your death.
What Every Surgeon Should Know
The next issue is
just the basic biology of cellular division and
healing. I can't believe it has been overlooked, but as far as I know
no one else has even suggested it. It is this: Surgery should never
be
performed on anyone who is taking a statin drug. Cellular division
is a vital function of all healing processes and cellular division
cannot take place without cholesterol.
When we are injured or
when invasive surgery is performed,
the liver produces more cholesterol to heal the injury. If there
is not
enough cholesterol, the surgery could fail and the patient may never
recover (as happened to one of my best friends on Lipitor who died
on the operating table during open heart surgery).
Beatrice Golomb,
M.D., Ph.D., the principle investigator in a 5
million dollar NIH grant to study the effect of statin drugs, reports
that in one study, 98 percent of patients taking Lipitor and one-third
of the patients taking Mevachor (a lower-dose statin) suffered from
muscle problems. The statin drug companies claim the incidence
of
muscle pain and rhabdomyolysis is less than 1%.
There is either a gross exaggeration
or a total denial.
Pharmaceutical companies under report harmful side effects because
it would lower their vast revenues from the sale of statin drugs.
Doctors are inclined to deny any death caused by something they have
prescribed.
Evidence of under reporting
and denial of statin drug side effects
is the fact that there are still 30 million people taking them. It
will take
an informed public (plus nurses, physical therapists, and other care
givers.) watching for mental decline and loss of function in patients
on statin drugs, to make a difference.
Tylenol May Also Be A Killer
(Known as Paracetamol outside the USA and Canada )
Tylenol (Acetaminophen)
is the most widely
used analgesic drug
in the world. Most people,
including many doctors, have been misled
into thinking it is a safe medication because it does not cause
gastrointestinal bleeding. This is true. What is not widely known is
that it can still be deadly.
Consider the following
medical fact: Overdoses of Tylenol
(combined with other medications that contain acetaminophen) can
cause liver failure and death. Using data
compiled from 1990 through
1999, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimated
that acetaminophen overuse in the U.S. results in an average of 458
deaths, 26,256 hospitalizations, and 56,680 emergency department
visits each year.
The cumulative effect of long
term use of Acetaminophen
(Tylenol, Paracetamol), even at recommended doses, can also be
harmful and possibly fatal.
A study authored by Gary Curhan, M.D., published in
the
Archives of Internal Medicine July 26, 2004 found that habitual
use of acetaminophen may cause a decline in kidney function.
One in 10 of the 1697 women studied
over a period of 11 years
experienced a 30% decline in their kidney's filtration function.
Women who had taken between 1,500 and 9,000 tablets over their
lifetimes raised their risk of kidney impairment by 64%. Dr. Curhan
suggests a need for the medical community to consider alternative
pain therapies that may help patients avoid long-term dependence
on these drugs.
If a loved one dies who
has taken Tylenol regularly for an extended
period of time, I believe an autopsy should be done to see if the cause
of death was liver or kidney failure. If so, a law suit should be filed,
not so you can be awarded large sums of money but to prevent the
death of others. (For more information about Tylenol see my book
Pain Free for Life.)
Non-Steroidal-Anti-Inflammatory-Drugs (NSAIDs)
NSAIDs include aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, Nuprin),
naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn, Anaprox) available over the counter
and the prescription drugs Celebrex, Bextra, and Vioxx. (Vioxx was
recalled because it caused an estimated 26,000 to 55,600 deaths.)
In December,
2004, the National Institutes of Health announced
it was suspending the use
of Aleve from a study after finding patients
taking the drug, when compared to those taking a placebo; have a 50
percent greater chance of suffering strokes or heart attacks. For this
reason, the FDA now recommends that Aleve should not be taken for
longer than 10 days.
The Archives of Internal Medicine June 2000
issue reported that the
use of NSAIDs caused a greater than 10-fold increase in the risk of
congestive heart failure (CHF) in patients with a history of heart
disease. In those without a history of heart disease, the
use of NSAIDs
still increased the risk by 60%. The authors speculate that if their
results are correct, it means that NSAIDs are responsible for 19% of
all
hospital admissions for CHF. This means that NSAIDSs cause 1 in 5
Heart Failures.
There are 400,000 new cases of congestive
heart failure diagnosed
each year in the U.S. If NSAIDs cause 19%, that would be 76,000
people who dieeach
year after a median
survival of 3.2 years for
males and 5.4 years for females.
Gary Allen
Green, M.D. of the UCLA School of Medicine, reports
that gastrointestinal bleeding from NSAIDS account for 103,000
hospitalizations and 16,500 deaths per year in the United States. The
warning signs of gastrointestinal bleeding, are black or tarry stools.
Deaths from NSAIDs
are grossly underreported. The above figures
include only those who die from internal bleeding in a hospital that
were reported. It does not include those who die with congestive heart
failure outside of a hospital. Wherever and whenever older people die,
most often the doctor reports, "death from causes incident to age."
If the person took a lot of pain meds there is a chance they had a
heart
attack from NSAIDs or bled to death internally.
When a loved
one who took many pain meds dies, an autopsy
should be done to determine if the cause of death was internal bleeding.
If so, appropriate lawsuits should be filed. Heart attacks from taking
NSAIDs would be harder to prove.
Drug Warnings Issued 2-26-07
A study published
in the Archives of internal Medicine found that
aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen can raise blood pressure.
16,000
men who did not have high blood pressure were followed for a 4 year
period.
Men who took acetaminophen
(paracetamol) regularly, were 34
percent more likely to have high blood pressure. Men who took aspirin
were 26 percent more likely to have high blood pressure and those who
took ibuprofen and naproxen, the increased risk was 38 percent. Men
who took 15 or more NSAID pills a week were 48 percent more likely
than non-users to have high blood pressure.
In response to the study,
Graham MacGregor, M.D., professor
of cardiovascular medicine and chairman of the UK Blood
Pressure Association, stated that high blood pressure is the biggest
cause of death and disability in the UK (would be true in the US
also).
Another study, from the
American Heart Association (also released
2-26-07) published in
the journal Circulation, reported that with the
exception of aspirin, there is strong evidence that NSAIDs are associated
with an increased risk of heart attacks and stroke.
Elliot Antman, professor
at Harvard Medical School stated,
"We
are specifically recommending that NSAIDs should be used as a last
resort." Only after all non-medicinal measures are exhausted should
pain medication be considered; starting with the least risky first
(aspirin
or acetaminophen) at the lowest efficacious dose, especially for short-
term needs. Next would come ibuprofen (Advil,
Motrin, Nuprin,
Medipren) or naproxen (Aleve, Anaprox, Naprosyn), and as a last
resort the Cox-2 drug Celebrex.
The report stated, "If
100 patients who have had heart attacks in
the past or are at risk for heart disease take NSAIDS for a year,
researchers would expect to see six additional deaths in this group."
Did you get the
Message? Even over the counter drugs can be
deadly, especially when they are used for more than 10 days.
Steroids (corticosteroids) for pain
The potential side effects
of steroids for pain include: Increased
appetite and weight gain; deposits of fat in chest, face, upper back,
and stomach; water retention, swelling, and edema; high blood
pressure; diabetes; black and blue marks; slowed healing of wounds;
osteoporosis; cataracts; acne; muscle weakness; thinning of the skin;
increased susceptibility to infection; stomach ulcers; increased sweating;
mood swings; depression; adrenal suppression and crises. Some
of the
side effects are just cosmetic but many of the side effects can lead
to
death.
Narcotics (Opioids) for pain
The side effects of narcotics
are too numerous to mention, death
being one of them. (Drug addicts kill to get narcotics and chronic
pain patients say they will kill themselves if they can't get them.)
A
neighbor of mine, who was a handicapped athlete and nationally
known motivational speaker, died from a fentanyl duragesic pain patch
that broke. Fentanyl as you may remember was what accidentally killed
all of the people in the Moscow theater hostage incident. And we give
it for pain?
This newsletter is about "Cures
that Kill." It turns out that what
we have been told for fifty years to prevent (cure) heart disease,
is the
biggest killer of all. Avoiding all trans fats (margarine, vegetable
shortening, and foods made with hydrogenated and partially
hydrogenated vegetable oil) could prevent from 72,000 to 228,000 heart
attacks and strokes each year. This shocking revelation is from the
Harvard Medical School and New England Journal of Medicine. See:
"Killer in the Grocery Store" No. 17.5 at www.healpain.net
If you add up the number
of deaths from statin drugs, heart
attacks strokes and gastrointestinal bleeding from taking NSAIDs,
the number of deaths from steroids and narcotics, the number of deaths
from unnecessary medical X-rays (See No. 12 at www.healpain.net), and
the number of deaths caused by trans fats (in every grocery store and
restaurant), the numbers are staggering, It could be as many as 250,000
to 600,000 each year.
These preventable causes
of death could even exceed the total number
of deaths each year from cancer or heart disease. Prevention of heart
disease or cancer is far more important than a cure. Prevention is
free.
The total cost of cures would be billions of dollars.
Learn how to prevent
60% of all heart disease and 50% of all cancer,
by going to www.healpain.net
and clicking on No. 12.
Learn how to prevent
75% to 94% of all breast cancer by going
to www.healpain.net and reading articles No's
13, 14, & 15.
"Cures that kill," may
not be what people want to hear. We would
not deliver such a negative message if we could not offer a better
way.
Fifty Billion Dollar Medical Mistake
The World market for analgesics
(pain medications) is more than 50
billion dollars a year. We believe this is a 50 billion dollar mistake
for
two reasons: Virtually every one of the medications is harmful and
can
cause death. And virtually every one of the medications is treating
the symptom of pain not the cause. You can find guaranteed,
cutting
edge alternatives to harmful pain medication at the:
Pain Research Institute
Leading the World in Drug-Free
Pain
Treatments that "Do No Harm"
www.healpain.net E-mail: stoddard@healpain.net
Phone: 801-377-3891
You can save lives and help reverse the "Fifty Billion
Dollar Medical
Mistake" by forwarding
this Newsletter to everyone on your mailing list
and by telling others. Report
deaths and adverse drug side effects to the
FDA at: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/index.html"
Free training to administer
Drug-Free Pain Treatments that "Do No
Harm" is available if you provide 25+ chronic, intractable pain
patients
at $80 each for the treatments. Call 801-377-3891 for more information.
May we give a lecture to your
medical society, pain support group, civic
club, church organization, or at your health food store?
If you would like to be on
our mailing list, send an E-mail with the
word "ADD" to stoddard@healpain.net We cannot send our
newsletter unless you ask. It would be spam.
Preventing Heart Disease and
Reducing Inflammation Without Side Effects.
1. Avoid and totally eliminate all trans fats from the diet. (margarine, shortening, and foods made with hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil) See: Killer in the Grocery Store at www.healpain.net
2. Avoid and totally eliminate all pain medications. See: www.healpain.net for guaranteed, cutting edge alternatives to harmful pain medications.
3. Do not smoke cigarettes, exercise regularly, and control your blood sugar and blood pressure without drugs.
4. Avoid all unnecessary medical X-rays. See: No 12 A Major Cause of Cancer and Heart Disease Your Doctor, Dentist, or Chiropractor Does Not Want You to Know at www.healpain.net
5. Do not drink chlorinated water. It costs nothing to do this. Simply let the water sit out without a lid on it for two hours to let the chlorine evaporate, or you can run it through a carbon filter. Chlorine in the drinking water is one of the major reasons why 77% of our solders killed in Korea had coronary artery disease. The Korean and Chinese solders who boiled their drinking water had no signs of heart disease.
6. Do not drink distilled or reverse osmosis water or drink acidic soft drinks. The heart must have ionic minerals to function. Distilled water has no minerals and revere osmosis water has almost none. Such waters are electrically dead. See No. 12: Early Death Comes From Drinking Distilled Water at www.healpain.net
We recommend drinking Ionic alkaline water. You can get this from a water ionizer of by drinking the bottled water known as Essentia that has a ph of 9.5. No other bottled water even comes close. Soft drinks, distilled and reverse osmosis water have a Ph level of less than 3.
7. Eat an alkaline, high fiber diet - Meat sparingly, whole grains, and lots of fruits and vegetables. For an alkaline diet, see No 7: Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Alzheimer's: Causes (?) and Treatment at www.healpain.net
8. Do not take supplemental iron or eat foods fortified with iron and donate blood regularly if you are a post menopausal women or a man. See: Too Much Iron in Your Blood? Then donate a pint. It may protect you against heart disease, from MedicineNet.com and WebMD Also see: Risks and Side Effects of Iron Therapy from the journal Kidney International (1999) 55, both articles by Jerome L. Sullivan
9. Take supplements of folic acid and vitamin B-12 and B-6 to lower homocysteine levels in the blood. See book: Heart Revolution: The Extraordinary Discovery That Finally Laid the Cholesterol Myth to Rest and Put Good Food Back on the Table, by Kilmer McCully, MD. The answer to heart disease is lowering homocysteine levels and inflammation in the arteries, not lowing cholesterol produced by the Liver. See Life Extension Magazine interview with Kilmer McCully at: http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag97/nov-cover97.html
Disclaimer: The contents of our website and this E-mail are based on the opinions of Darrell Stoddard and the sources cited. The information given is not intended to replace medical advice from a qualified health care professional. Unless indicated, the evidence provided is only anecdotal and not substantiated by controlled scientific studies. Please share this information with your physician and seek his/her opinion before embarking on any course of treatment. We send it not as medical advice but only for educational purposes and to disseminate health care information from the Pain Research Institute.
Darrell Stoddard, Founder - Pain Research Institute www.healpain.net Phone 801-377-3891
Regarding all of the above methods to prevent heart disease, See: No. 17 Stopping The Number One Killer And Why Our 44 year old Son Died at: www.healpain.net
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