For all the scares about cancer, heart disease is still the number-one killer disease in the West. The immediate causes of death are often heart attack and stroke,
Doctors are enthusiasts, who often seize upon an all-purpose product - the type of gadget that claims to hoover your livingroom, cut your grass, wash your dog and put out the rubbish.
'Heaven can wait' trills the advertisement for Zocor, a cholesterol-lowering drug from Merck. But for how long? might be the cynical rider.
A patient suffered from Shingles as when they started taking atorvastatin.
Heart failure is epidemic in the UK and US, and so is statin use. Millions of patients are taking statins, which are increasingly more potent and enthusiastically prescribed in ever-higher dosages.
Statins (HMG-CoA-reductase inhibitors) are known to cause a form of muscle pain and weakness, liver abnormalities and, in severe cases, rhabdomyolysis, a muscle condition that can lead to kidney failure.
My name is Mick. I am 50 years old and, for the past 10 years, I’ve been taking 20 mg of simvastatin per day to bring down my cholesterol - it was 9.5.
Re the Case Study in WDDTY vol 12 no 11, I too have had problems with simvastatin. I am 40 years old and have familial high cholesterol.
In response to MT (WDDTY vol 12 no 11, p 8) on simvastatin (Zocor), after blood tests, my GP informed me that my cholesterol was high.