Sue Says No to Statins
I had dinner a couple of weeks ago with a friend of mine I’ll call Sue, a 50-year-old woman with high cholesterol who was started on Lipitor. Shortly thereafter she became very seriously constipated. When it had lasted 10 or 12 days she went to the emergency room, where she was successfully treated. Sue had never had been constipated in her life and couldn’t understand it—until it dawned on her that this problem began immediately after she started to take Lipitor. She didn’t know Lipitor could cause constipation, and her doctor certainly never mentioned it to her. She simply put two and two together and asked her doctor about it. Sure enough, the Physicians’ Desk Reference (PDR) states, “The most frequent adverse events thought to be related to atorvastatin [Lipitor] are constipation, flatulence, dyspepsia, and abdominal pain.”
Her doctor took her off Lipitor and put her on a different statin, Zocor. Within days she developed pustules, itching, and redness of her skin. Again, this was new to her, but this time, she realized there might be a connection to her drug. She went back to her doctor, who looked at the PDR, and guess what? It says right there in black and white that Zocor can cause eczema, itching, and rash. She stopped taking Zocor, and her skin problems went away.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, the renowned 19th century physician and humorist, once stated, “I firmly believe that if the whole material medica could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind and all the worse for the fishes.” When it comes to statin drugs, I couldn’t agree more with Dr. Holmes. This is why here at Whitaker Wellness, when a patient walks in taking a statin, it is stopped on sight.
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD
Remarkable Benefits of Flax
James from Tennessee, got a real wake-up call when he learned his cholesterol measured a scary 288 mg/dL. Instead of drugs, he decided to give flaxseed a try. He mixed ¼ cup of ground flaxseed in juice and drank it once a day, an hour before his main meal. After only 15 days, his cholesterol fell to 232, and six months later it plummeted to 188. His cholesterol wasn’t the only thing that dropped—during those six months he lost 33 pounds. James also noted remarkable improvements in his energy level, skin, hair, and vision. He commented, “I just feel better than I did 10 years ago.”
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD
