Maybe your doctor told you that your cholesterol is a little high. He or she told you to take a small, daily dose of a cholesterol-lowering statin drug. But now, you feel tired all the time. Your muscles hurt. Your memory isn’t as sharp. And your sex drive has hit an all-time low.
This story isn’t unusual.
In fact, in addition to this known list of unwanted side effects caused by statin drugs…we can now add cataracts.
According to two new studies, statin therapy significantly raises the risk of developing cataracts. Plus, very often, the cataracts are so severe they require surgery.
The first study followed 162,501 elderly men and women who went to eye doctors for cataract surgery between 2000 and 2007 in British Columbia, Canada. The researchers found patients who used statin drugs had more than 30 percent greater risk of developing cataracts. And one drug stood out from the bunch: Crestor. Patients who took that blockbuster drug had nearly a 50 percent increased risk of developing cataracts.
In the second study, researchers followed 45,065 elderly men in the U.S. who developed cataracts between 2001 and 2011. Turns out, men who took statin drugs increased their risk of developing cataracts by about 10 percent.
But not to worry, said the study authors, led by Dr. Stephanie J. Wise. “Cataract surgery is effective.”
So go ahead and take a dangerous drug with zero benefits that may require you to undergo eye surgery.
Once again, that’s modern healthcare in a nutshell.
The cardiologists help keep the eye doctors busy. And the eye doctors are so busy already that you can’t get an appointment for a real problem, such as diabetic retinopathy, which can cause sudden blindness. And for which there is no easy surgery.
Also, I have a few questions for the wise Dr. Stephanie J. Wise…
If you say the results of your research don’t really matter anyway…if you’re going to recommend continuing to prescribe toxic drugs regardless of your findings…then why bother to do the research at all? Why use up more research funding without any purpose or benefit to the taxpayers who pay for it?
In an editorial that accompanied the article, the authors admitted that statins also cause Type II diabetes. But they say statins only appear to cause Type II diabetes and cataracts in those who are already predisposed to these problems.
Well, there’s another great bit of wisdom.
We’d all be so much the wiser if we had any good evidence that statins actually benefit anyone. But they don’t. They don’t prevent cardiovascular disease. And they certainly don’t prevent deaths.
Worst of all, cataracts are only the latest problem associated with statins.
Thankfully, more and more doctors are beginning to see the statin problem more clearly…
As I reported in December, the new cholesterol guidelines have prompted hundreds of non-cardiology doctors to actively examine the actual evidence on statins. And they’re getting their patients off these dangerous, largely useless drugs.
Unfortunately, it’s not enough just to stop taking statins. The damage they cause in your body doesn’t all go away on its own. But you can reverse it. I’ve written in detail about the dangers of statins drugs, what you can do to avoid them, and how to recover from them in my special report The Insiders’ Guide to a Heart-Healthy and Statin-Free Life, which is available on my website. This is life-saving information that anyone who is currently taking statins–or has ever taken them–needs to know. So please, don’t miss it.