Cholesterol lowering drugs

Category: Medicines

Type

Involuntary

Introduction and description

Cholesterol is an organic molecule. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a lipid molecule and is biosynthesized by all animal cells because it is an essential structural component of all animal (not plant or bacterial) cell membranes.  It is required to maintain both membrane structural integrity and fluidity.  In addition to its importance within cells, cholesterol also serves as a precursor for the biosynthesis of steroid hormones, bile acids, and vitamin D.

Thus without cholesterol, or if you have inadequate cholesterol, you may suffer from:

• Cell death and decline - Gradual degeneration of your cells, rapid ageing, and organ death, as there is nothing with which to repair cells
• Inadequate and disrupted hormone levels – steroid hormones include the  glucocorticoids, mineralocorticoids, androgens, estrogens, and progestogens. Steroid hormones help control metabolism, inflammation, immune functions, salt and water balance, development of sexual characteristics, and the ability to withstand illness and injury.  Without them one gets inflammation auto-immune disease, oedema, infertility, and impotence.  [The natural steroid hormones are generally synthesized from cholesterol in the gonads and adrenal glands.]
• Vitamin D deficiency – which impairs bone mineralization, leading to bone softening diseases as rickets in children and osteomalacia and osteoporosis in adults. Emerging evidence suggests vitamin D plays a role in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).  It has found to be associated with the advancement of cancers, for example; breast, colon, ovarian, and prostate.  Hypovitaminosis D is a risk factor for depression.  One study found low serum vitamin D concentrations in patients with schizophrenia.  The active metabolite of vitamin D3 (calcitriol) acts as a catalyst in glutathione production, and low glutathione levels have been implicated in several mental health disorders.
• Bile acid deficiency  - bile acids comprise about 80% of the organic compounds in bile. The main function of bile acids is to facilitate the formation of micelles, which promotes digestion and absorption of dietary fat, but they are increasingly being shown to have hormonal actions throughout the body.

So you may be malnourished, be weary and fatigued, get diabetes and your thyroid may suffer damage.

High cholesterol is a symptom and not a cause.  It means that something needs repairing – the body is simply supplying more because something is amiss elsewhere.

Thus the existence of these drugs should be seriously questioned and given the side-effects, of which more in a moment, their existence needs to be questioned sooner rather than later.

The types of drugs

• Bile acid sequestrants drugs - The bile acid sequestrants are a group of resins used to bind certain components of bile in the gastrointestinal tract. They disrupt the enterohepatic circulation of bile acids by combining with bile constituents and preventing their reabsorption from the gut. In general, they are classified as hypolipidemic agents, although they may be used for purposes other than lowering cholesterol.
• Statins– Statins are described elsewhere on the site. The use of bile acid sequestrants as hypolipidemic agents has decreased markedly since the introduction of statins, which are ‘more efficacious’ than bile acid sequestrants at lowering LDL -  low-density lipoprotein (commonly known as "bad cholesterol") in blood.  Incidentally there is no such thing as ‘bad cholesterol’.  LDL lipoproteins are used to fight bacterial infection.  If, for example, we get an invasive Staphylococcus aureus infection, LDL is used to bind a substance called  Apolipoprotein B to an S. aureus autoinducer pheromone, preventing signaling through its receptor. Mice deficient in apolipoprotein B are more susceptible to invasive bacterial infection.
• Fibrates – are another major group of cholesterol-lowering drugs.  Bile acid sequestrants are occasionally used as an adjunct to the statins and as an alternative to the fibrates because fibrates are ‘believed [sic] to increase the risk of rhabdomyolysis when used with statins’.
• Cholesterol absorption inhibitors  - are a class of compounds that prevents the uptake of cholesterol from the small intestine into the circulatory system.
• MTTP inhibitors - Drugs that inhibit MTTP “prevent the assembly of apo B-containing lipoproteins thus inhibiting the synthesis of chylomicrons and VLDL and leading to decrease in plasma levels of LDL-C”.

In the following sections the figures for spiritual experiences - hallucinations and deaths are shown by class of drug.  The figures are derived from the ehealthme website which compiles the ADRs submitted by doctors to the FDA and SEDA.

Although we have a section for statins, we thought it might be helpful to add a section on the deaths for the date this page was compiled, in order that a complete picture was available for cholesterol lowering drugs as a whole.

Cholesterol absorption inhibitors 

There is only one drug in this class Ezetimibe also known as Zetia

Zetia - On Aug, 7, 2015: 24,580 people reported to have side effects when taking Zetia. Among them, 322 people (1.31%) have Death

Ezetimibe - On Aug, 26, 2015: 3,419 people reported to have side effects when taking Ezetimibe. Among them, 73 people (2.14%) have Death

Drug	No of hallucinations
Zetia	111
Ezetimibe	16
	127

 MTTP inhibitors

There is only one drug within this class - Lomitapide (Juxtapid in the US and as Lojuxta in the EU).  This drug was only released in 2012/2013 and no figures are yet available for it.

Drug	No of hallucinations
Lomitapide	-
Juxtapid	-

 

Bile acid sequestrants drugs

The main drugs in this class are as follows:

Drug	No of hallucinations
Cholestyramine (Questran and other proprietary names)	11 + 9 = 20
Colestipol (Colestid, Colestipid)	12 + 9 = 21
Colesevelam (Cholestagel in Europe, Welchol in the USA)	22
Colestilan [BindRen]	-
Colextran	-
	63

 Questran - On Aug, 1, 2015: 1,927 people reported to have side effects when taking Questran. Among them, 26 people (1.35%) have Death

Cholestyramine - On Aug, 17, 2015: 1,681 people reported to have side effects when taking Cholestyramine. Among them, 46 people (2.74%) have Death

Colestipol - On Jul, 28, 2015: 425 people reported to have side effects when taking Colestipol hydrochloride. Among them, 3 people (0.71%) have Death

Colestid - On Aug, 23, 2015: 702 people reported to have side effects when taking Colestid. Among them, 15 people (2.14%) have Death

Welchol - On Aug, 27, 2015: 3,861 people reported to have side effects when taking Welchol. Among them, 32 people (0.83%) have Death

 If we take Welchol as an example drug within this category, according to eHealthme, the most common Welchol side effects are:

• Nausea  (281 reports)
• Muscle Aches (280 reports)
• Fatigue(253 reports)
• Constipation (247 reports)
• Diarrhea (236 reports)
• Headache (224 reports)
• High Blood Cholesterol  (222 reports)
• Weakness  (214 reports)

 It is interesting that despite taking the medication quite a number of people continue to have the high cholesterol.

Note:  Because this class of drug can also bind fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K, a person will get vitamin deficiency.  This may not be reflected in the above figures.

Fibrates

Although used clinically since the 1930s, if not earlier, the mechanism of action of fibrates remained unknown until, in the 1990s, it was discovered that fibrates activate PPAR (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors).  The PPARs are a class of intracellular receptors that modulate carbohydrate and fat metabolism and adipose tissue differentiation.  Fibrates are structurally and pharmacologically related to the thiazolidinediones, a type of anti-diabetic drugs that also act on PPARs.

Drug	No of hallucinations
Bezafibrate [Bezalip]	-
Aluminium clofibrate [Clofibrate other tradename Atromid-S)	-
Gemfibrozil	56
Fenofibrate and Tricor [Lipofen, Fenoglide etc]	87 + 113 = 200
Simfibrate	-
Ronifibrate	-
Ciprofibrate	-
Etofibrate	-
Clofibride	-
Clinofibrate [Lipoclin]	-
	256

 Gemfibrozil  - On Jul, 29, 2015: 9,693 people reported to have side effects when taking Gemfibrozil. Among them, 183 people (1.89%) have Death

Clofibrate - On Aug, 6, 2015: 65 people reported to have side effects when taking Clofibrate. Among them, 2 people (3.08%) have Death

Fenofibrate and other names [not all shown as many names]

• Fenofibrate - On Aug, 24, 2015: 8,861 people reported to have side effects when taking Fenofibrate. Among them, 104 people (1.17%) have Death
• Tricor - On Aug, 5, 2015: 15,003 people reported to have side effects when taking Tricor. Among them, 202 people (1.35%) have Death
• Lipofen- On Aug, 27, 2015: 76 people reported to have side effects when taking Lipofen. Among them, 2 people (2.63%) have Death

  Taking an example drug from eHealthme - Tricor -  and listing the most common side effects, they are:

• Nausea (1,199 reports)
• Weakness  (1,071 reports)
• Fatigue (991 reports)
• Dizziness  (869 reports)
• Pain  (854 reports)
• Breathing Difficulty  (821 reports)
• Chest Pain (779 reports)
• Diarrhea (729 reports)
• High Blood Cholesterol  (711 reports)

 It is interesting that despite taking the medication quite a number of people continue to have the high cholesterol.

Statins

Simvastatin marketed under the trade name Zocor,

• Simvastatin - On Aug, 27, 2015: 77,606 people reported to have side effects when taking Simvastatin. Among them, 1,277 people (1.65%) have Death
• Zocor - On Aug, 20, 2015: 60,356 people reported to have side effects when taking Zocor. Among them, 1,100 people (1.82%) have Death

Atorvastatin  marketed under the trade name Lipitor among others [not shown]

• Atorvastatin - On Aug, 23, 2015: 17,547 people reported to have side effects when taking Atorvastatin calcium. Among them, 251 people (1.43%) have Death
• Lipitor - On Aug, 8, 2015: 129,945 people reported to have side effects when taking Lipitor. Among them, 3,404 people (2.62%) have Death

Fluvastatin (trade names Lescol, Canef, Vastin)

• Fluvastatin - On Aug, 27, 2015: 617 people reported to have side effects when taking Fluvastatin. Among them, 12+20+29=61 people (1.94%) have Death [sodium and maleate].
• Lescol - On Aug, 27, 2015: 5,804 people reported to have side effects when taking Lescol. Among them, 104 people (1.79%) have Death

Lovastatin (Merck's Mevacor)

• Lovastatin - On Aug, 23, 2015: 11,632 people reported to have side effects when taking Lovastatin. Among them, 215 people (1.85%) have Death
• Mevacor - On Aug, 27, 2015: 3,639 people reported to have side effects when taking Mevacor. Among them, 44 people (1.21%) have Death

Pitavastatin/Livalo - On Aug, 16, 2015: 1,939 people reported to have side effects when taking Livalo. Among them, 22 people (1.13%) have Death

Pravastatin (marketed as Pravachol or Selektine)

• On Aug, 2, 2015: 8,522 people reported to have side effects when taking Pravastatin sodium. Among them, 83 people (0.97%) have Death
• On Aug, 5, 2015: 16,430 people reported to have side effects when taking Pravachol. Among them, 323 people (1.97%) have Death

Rosuvastatin, marketed as Crestor

• On Aug, 27, 2015: 1,376 people reported to have side effects when taking Rosuvastatin calcium. Among them, 23 people (1.67%) have Death
• On Aug, 7, 2015: 57,849 people reported to have side effects when taking Crestor. Among them, 629 people (1.09%) have Death

 

 Summary figures

Hallucinations -  Adding the figures for hallucinations, which excludes any figures from the statins, which are on a separate page, the total comes to 446

Deaths - Adding the figures for deaths , which includes the figures from the statins,  the total comes to 9,046

These figures are only for the USA, they exclude the figures from the rest of the world.

 

How it works

 Why do people get hallucinations?

Looking at the side-effects of all the drugs in this category, these are the symptoms of poisoning or to be more precise 'toxining'!

As high cholesterol is a symptom and not a cause, the poisoning could be being caused by the pathogen - for example the heavy metal or insecticide, pesticide or virus, bacteria or other pharmaceutical which is actually attacking the person, or it could be a direct result of the drug itself being toxic to the body.

Given that the body is an integrated system and not a set of receptors [as most chemists seem to believe], the knock on effects of this type of drug could be quite extensive, given all the purposes that cholesterol has.

 

Related observations

Hallucination

• Actigall and Ursodeoxycholic acid 017943
• Antara 018003
• Cholestyramine 018203
• Coenzyme Q10 018217
• Coq10 018221
• Fenofibrate 017540
• Gemfibrozil 017539
• Intense Sadness and Analyzing My Personality - DOI & Various by Psychedelic*Dreamer 016876
• Lipidil 019260
• Lipitor and Atorvastatin 001150
• Lopid 019273
• Lorelco 019277
• Lovastatin and Mevacor 001151
• Lovaza 019481
• Omacor 019802
• Pravacol and Pravastatin 015664
• Simvastatin and Zocor 001153
• Tricor 015760
• Trilipix 020238
• Vytorin 024181
• Welchol 024182
• Zetia hallucinations 005425

Out of time

Near death, Out of time, Out of body, Rebirth

• Intense Sadness and Analyzing My Personality - DOI & Various by Psychedelic*Dreamer 016876

In time

Synaesthesia, Pure or enhanced perception, Inter composer communication, Vision, Dream, Perception recall, Exploring group perception

• Danielou, Alain – On drugs you are possessed by the spirit being of the drug 022582
• Intense Sadness and Analyzing My Personality - DOI & Various by Psychedelic*Dreamer 016876