Are Statins Causing the Rising Rates of Heart Failure?

Quietly, another colossal drug debacle flies under the radar of the mainstream media. Last week, The New England Journal of Medicine¹ reported that blood pressure medication is not effective in the treatment for the rapidly rising rate of heart failure in patients over the age of 65. This means that Western Medicine has no treatment for a relatively recent problem – one that I believe is a side effect of taking statins.

Research presented last month at the yearly American Heart Association² meeting was the first to report on the alarming trend that heart failure has more than doubled in the past twenty-six years, getting worse each year. The worsening rates directly parallel the increased use of statins, although the researcher did not bother looking at this obvious likely cause.

However, one very alarming aspect of the statistics that were reported is that the annual rate rose 55% in women compared to 20% in men. Why is that important? It is well known that women are likely to follow the advice of their doctors and men often don’t – and now-a-days that advice is to take a statin. It is possible bone drugs, which have been linked to atrial fibrillation, could also be part of the problem. However, the burden of proof is on statins until proven otherwise.

Your heart is a muscle, and statins are toxic to muscles. Cardiomyopathy from statin use has been reported for decades. I, even as a nutritionist, have spoken to a number of individuals in recent years who developed congestive heart failure after taking statins. Statins are known to block Q10 production, a nutrient vital to heart muscle function. A number of new studies indicate that statins inappropriately activate genes that damage muscle. For decades doctors have simply given one drug to treat the side effects produced by another - a strategy that has met its match with the slow and insidious poison known as a statin.

Once again, the FDA snores on duty while 450,000 unexplained new cases of heart failure, compared to 1980 levels, pile up each year.