Dr. Mercola Interviews Dr. Graveline

[Biologist]

Hi, Everyone.

This was posted yesterday on Dr. Mercola's website. The audio file stopped three times when I listened to it yesterday. It may just be my computer connection, or may be a technical problem with the file. The solution for me was to forward the curser over the "bad spots" and continue listening to the interview. Excellent interview. Dr. Graveline is as sharp as ever. I like his approach for distinguishing between known fact and informed speculation on various issues.

*http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/12/dr-duane-graveline-on-cholesterol-and-coq10.aspx

I've partly been busy with my eighty-two-year-old father's debilitating hemorrhagic stroke from eight months ago. I learned that his cardiologist had him on 40 mgs of Lipitor (arguably equal to +/-60 mg of Zocor!) several months prior to it. And no co-prescription of, or advice for, CoQ10 supplementation, of course. As a potent platelet inactivator, the statin prevented clotting and exacerbated the stroke's damage whatever the initial cause which may well have been partially due to the statin. Serious medical malpractice in my book. That would be the case even if Dad had previously suffered a heart attack; he had not. The cardiologist may have damaged his career with that move while probably attempting to protect it legally in case Dad did happen to have a heart attack under his care where he could say: "But look at the incredible dose I had that elderly patient on!"

We'll see. However, if he decides to put him back on such an obscene dose of a statin (after I had the statin removed per his new doctor at Dad's new assisted living facility) on his upcoming cardiology check up, the cardiologist's career will be affected. He will get a website up from me. I will be advising the wayward cardiologist in a few days by certified mail to his practice.

I will then remove my father from the statin again, file a complaint with the board and prepare the cardiologist's new website. Interestingly, the cardiologist's buddy, Dad's new doctor, repeated twice to me on the phone that he himself (i.e., the new doctor) was no "Statin Zealot." The implication being that his cardiologist buddy was. I wonder how common these sociopaths and/or idiot clowns are in cardiology?

My own statin damage continues to improve over time, or maybe I am just getting better at dealing with it.

Good luck to everyone.

Biologist

[lars999]

Biologist,

Best wishes for dinging that cardiologist solidly and lastingly!!

I am becoming concerned about my own situation should I need to go into an assisted living facility some day in coming decades (I am 71 now). Stories like yours strengthens my resolve to create a best defence against just such malpractice and even shoddy practice.

What I am envisioning that my defensive will be a report consisting of a collection of clinical results showing clean arteries, lack of vulnerable plaque, excellent stress tests, excent pluminary function tests, specific blood chemistry results showing low real risk of arteriosclerosis and especially vulnerable plaque, etc. And, of course, pointing out that decades of "high" total cholesterol has not lead to arteriosclerosis, etc. and, that Lipitor and other statins are really bad new for me, NEVER to enter my body. Of course, there will be a proper legal document that puts doctors on notice about all of this and the consequences of their disobediance in presence of extensive data, absent an informed consent form signed by me.

From my personal experience, I would say that "statin-zealot" cardiologists are common. Some months back I started looking for a cardiologist that practiced "preventative cardiology" and found one. However, his only "preventative" methods were statins, a xerox copy of silly "mediteranien" diet and exercise. At least he got one out of three right!! He tried many times to relegate my statin experience to "rare occurance". I consistantly called his and other cardiologist's total willingness to prescribe statins for "everything" as totally indefensible and that I personally knew about 30 fellow statin victims.

I did manage to shake his world a bit via a "leg study", using doppler and imaging ultra sound, conducted in their facilities, that found no real evidence of plaque in my femoral or downstream arteries and a cardio-stress test on treadmill, also done in their facilities, with him in charge of test, which I passed nicely, but with effort (mostly shortness of breath). I insisted on and received signed copies of data and analysis for both tests, per my standard practice.

I have doubts that I will ever visit him again, even though I will not be following his advice on anything, unless I can convenice myself of its validity by comparison with other data. The two tests noted above were both at my insistance.

So far, my score on GP doctors is that they are 100% statin-zealots -- that is a 5-for-5 score. NONE of them knew that statins have been demonstrated in all major clinical trials to provide NO protection against first heart attack for men over 65 and women of all ages. Malpractice, malpractice, malpractice, malpractice, malpractice.

Again, best wishes for effective dinging!!

Please keep us informed,
Lars