Washington, DCDr. Mohammad H. Chaudhry is a noted cardiologist who practices at the Heart Center in Takoma Park, Maryland. He has a few things to say about Lipitor and other statins like it. He has some things to say about how they work, what their side effects are and how lipitor mdl patients can get off the statin treadmill.
There may be some very good reasons to do that. Lipitor, which Dr. Chaudhry views as probably the number-one selling drug in the world with millions of people taking the statin in an effort to control so-called bad LDL cholesterol, carries some nasty side effects.
Atorvastatin type 2 diabetes is one, when otherwise healthy Americans with a manageable weight suddenly find their blood sugars going off scale. Such was the case with plaintiff Margaret Clark, who launched a Lipitor diabetes lawsuit this past April following a diagnosis for type 2 diabetes. At a healthy weight, according to most North American standards, Clark alleges that it was the Lipitor she was prescribed 10 years prior, in 2002, which served as the conduit for her newfound health concern.
Dr. Chaudhry, indeed, includes type 2 diabetes as a side effect of statins including Lipitor. Other side effects include liver problems, kidney problems, muscle and joint pain, and memory loss, amongst other adverse reactions. ABC News with Diane Sawyer devoted a segment on the tendency for Lipitor in some patients to trigger forgetfulness and memory lapses akin to Alzheimer’s disease. The Lipitor patient in the piece noted that within eight days of stopping Lipitor, her memory returned just as sharp as before.
“These drugs work by interfering with the synthesis of production of cholesterol by the liver,” Dr. Chaudhry says in a video statement, “and when [statins] do that they do it through a mechanism which interferes with the production of some essential proteins that we need.” It is because of this interference in the production of these proteins that Lipitor patients and other consumers of statin drugs develop side effects.
Various studies have attempted to quantify the risk factors for side effects such as kidney or liver problems, and joint and muscle pain, together with the potential for Type 2 diabetes - amongst other Lipitor side effects.
With a pointed focus on the kidney, an exhaustive Canadian study this past spring looked at the health records of no fewer than two million patients in the US, Canada and Britain, with an eye to determining whether patients on more robust doses of statins were at a higher risk of developing kidney problems.
According to Postmedia (3/19/13), researchers found nothing less. To that end, patients on high doses of Lipitor and other statins faced a small, but nonetheless increased risk of acute kidney injury as compared with those who took a weaker dosage. Patients who started high-strength statins were 34 percent more likely to be hospitalized for acute kidney injury than those who started low-potency statins in the first 120 days of treatment, the study found.
The study was conducted by the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES), and published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal). Meanwhile, various Lipitor patients having sustained negative changes to their overall health as the result of their use of Lipitor are looking to Lipitor Diabetes Lawsuits MDL in an effort to pursue compensation and achieve some form of justice from a manufacturer making healthy revenues from worldwide sales of Lipitor.
“By the way,” Dr. Chaudhry chimes in, “[Lipitor) produces approximately $12 to $14 billion for Pfizer every year.” He adds there are many ways in which to lower cholesterol levels naturally. Many health experts advocate the same thing.
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