To me this is perhaps as close as we have ever come to the true incidence of statin drugs side effects and it is very alarming. We know the usual breakdown of side effects - 40% cognitive, 40% muscle and 20 % all the rest but this is the first survey as to incidence that I feel I can believe.

All the other published reports of "negligible" side effects when thousands of people are placed on heavy doses of statin drugs is simply not believable when Pfizer's own data 12 years ago allowed us to project 5 cases of serious cognitive dysfunction for every 1,000 Lipitor users.

So, if you put 5,000 people on a statin you are going to get 25 cases of severe cognitive loss, say nothing of all your other problems. This is not my data, it is Pfizer's and it does not even begin to address the relatively minor cognitive issues associated with statin use, such as increased forgetfulness, confusion, disorientation or increase of pre-existing senility, which are reported much more frequently than the far more severe amnesias.

The Netherlands Radar Television show has just taken a hard stand on the statin drugs side effect issue and the wide-scale use of Statins in general. Recently they interviewed Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, author of "The Cholesterol Myths", triggering an intensely negative reaction from Pfizer Netherlands and the medical community and an intensely positive reaction from their thousands of viewers who appeared to know far more than their doctors about statin side effects. A debate is being considered but so far organized medicine has yet to accept, no doubt a reflection of increasing numbers of their own doctors now aware of the shortcomings of this class of drugs.

Duane Graveline MD MPH
Former USAF Flight Surgeon
Former NASA Astronaut
Retired Family Doctor