Bad (Bogus) News on Cholesterol-Lowering Drug...
Crestor Side Effect Report Delayed
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&;u=/ap/20040804/ap_on_he_me/cholesterol_drug
To what lengths will the Big Drug Companies Inc. go in order to protect their profits? Do people really matter? Or just the "bottom line" on the balance sheet? What are people's lives worth in the corporate environment? Is this an example of "acceptable levels of collateral damage?"
Here is a quote from the article above: "Public Citizen's Dr. Sidney Wolfe charged that AstraZeneca delayed its reports to the FDA by as long as 97 days. The company ultimately reported that 19 Crestor users suffered an often life-threatening muscle-destroying condition and filed four reports of kidney failure."
The FDA requires drug makers to reveal reports of "serious and unexpected" side effects within 15 days of learning about them. This drug company counters that they are not bound by that rule, because they mention on their label that these side effects could occur. So it was O.K. for them to sweep this one under the carpet for a while, presumably so that the profits could continue...
Let's consider at this for a moment - the two "side effects" being bandied about here are rhabdomyelosis, a potentially lethal muscle-destroying condition, and kidney failure - also kinda worrisome. So, the drug company is effectively saying that these are not "serious and unexpected" side effects because they have noted on the product label that they are aware these things might happen? So just go ahead and take your chances, buy our drug - our executives need their bonuses, and it's expensive to pay all those "consultants" to give us such glowing reports?
The drug company goes on to whine, er, insist, "that that Crestor is no more risky than other cholesterol-lowering "statin" drugs", and the FDA agrees !
It seems that the big squabble is going to be over whether or not the drug company followed the FDA's rules - not whether people were harmed by the ingestion of a substance know to cause life threatening side effect in some people. That seems to be the mission of the FDA these days - to ensure that it's bureaucratic rules and red tape are obeyed and followed perfectly, and that it's authority is respected. Don't "Dis" the FDA is the watchword nowadays...
You can be certain that the FDA would not be as gentle with a natural supplement. The natural supplement industry has a long history of having highly effective and safe nutritional supplements stomped on by the FDA for the most minor of concerns, usually "bogey-man" scares advanced by "scientists" with connections to the drug companies who really don't want the competition.
One natural nutritional supplement that is giving the FDA fits these days is uniquely relevant to this article - it is Red Rice Yeast - a natural cholesterol-lowering substance that contains the very "statin" compounds that the drug companies are trying so hard to synthesize and promote, and that the FDA is working so hard to protect. Red Yeast Rice contains a family of compounds that inhibit the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase which is responsible for cholesterol production in the body. Unlike isolated “statin” drugs, Red Rice Yeast contains a mixture of related but different statins that act synergistically. As a result, lower (and presumably safer) doses of any one statin are taken. Red Rice Yeast has been shown to lower total cholesterol and triglycerides while raising HDL levels.
The drug companies would love to see Red Rice Yeast pulled off the market - and the FDA would love to help them - but there is a rub - to do so they would have to claim that it is harmful in some way (other than to their profit margins of course), but if they were to claim that Red Rice Yeast is harmful (and there has never been any complaint of side effects that we at Dr. Myatt's Wellness Club know of) then they would have to admit that the harsher, isolated, and stronger doses of synthetic statins are also harmful. They are caught between the proverbial "rock and a hard place" here - if those "weak and ineffective" natural statins were dangerous enough to be banned, what about the drug companies artificial "high potency" statins? Hmmm... They're gonna have to find another way...
That "other way" will be through government legislation - S. 722 - Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003 and H.R. 3377 - Dietary Supplement Access and Awareness Act are two bills that are being heavily supported by the drug companies and by the FDA because they would severely limit your access to natural dietary supplements - and anything else not created by the drug companies and blessed by the FDA. We urge everyone with an interest in preserving their freedom of health choice to visit this website: http://capwiz.com/nnfa/home/ and check out this legislation for themselves. There are also a bill that would preserve those very freedoms that S.722 and H.R.3377 would undermine - they are: S. 1538 - DSHEA Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2003 - please check this one out, and join us in supporting it. Full information on how you can become involved can be found on this website: http://capwiz.com/nnfa/home/ .
Prince Machiavelli would have been proud of the machinations of the FDA and the Big Drug Companies Inc. - and the tangled relationships between the two.
Meanwhile, if you are one of those people taking Crestor or any of the other very "popular" (read: "heavily marketed") synthetic "statin" offerings in an attempt to correct your cholesterol levels, why not consider safer alternatives. Check out our website at www.drmyattswellnessclub.com and learn more about cholesterol and treatment options and alternatives by clicking on http://www.drmyattswellnessclub.com/cholesterol.htm. If you are till not convinced, do an internet search for the term "rhabdomyelosis" - you will find some interesting and worrisome information...
Cheers,
Nurse Mark
Wellness Club website:
www.DrMyattsWellnessClub.com
phone:
1-800-DR.MYATT (376-9288)
fax:
1-520-723-9002
address:
Dr. Myatt's Wellness Club
P.O. Box 3109-RB, Casa Grande, AZ. 85222
9:45:54 AM 
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