Researcher Says Benefits of Statins Like Crestor May Be Overstated

March 4, 2014, 8:00AM. By Gordon Gibb

Victoria, BCIn a tale of two extremes, a writer and Crestor patient weighs the advice of his doctor who advocates the use of 30 mg a day of Crestor due to a risk for heart attack and stroke v. the musings of a university policy analyst who thinks the widespread use of statin drugs is unnecessary for most people. In another example of two extremes is the label insert for Crestor itself, which lists a basketful of common and rare Crestor side effects (and many of them serious, such as the potential for diabetes) amidst a collection of smiling faces presumably meant to balance and dispel the adverse reaction gloom.

As for the recent release of new guidelines issued by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, Alan Cassels believes the guidelines can be interpreted two different ways. One interpretation would have even more Americans at midlife put on statins as preventative therapy, regardless of risk factors for cardiovascular issues or stroke. The latter would put even more people at risk for Crestor diabetes, which is one of the less-common adverse reactions (but a risk nonetheless).

But another interpretation, says the drug policy researcher at the University of Victoria, may result in fewer people taking Crestor, given that new guidelines have removed the emphasis for targeting numerical values with regard to optimum levels, and the ying and yang between good cholesterol and the so-called “bad” LDL cholesterol.

“The new guidelines, put out by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, are saying that targeting numerical values of what is considered ideal cholesterol is the wrong approach,” says Cassels, writing in the Winnipeg Free Press (11/25/13). “There are a lot of things that determine your risk of future cardiovascular disease, and any online Framingham calculator will help you put some numbers around what your personal risks might be. But just because something is a risk factor doesn’t mean lowering it will reduce or eliminate that risk.

“I can’t predict the effects of the new guidelines, but one thing that is very hopeful about them is they emphasize ‘patient preferences,’” Cassels writes. “When people realize that a daily statin for five years reduces the chance of a cardiovascular event by about one percent (or five to seven percent if you have already had a heart attack), they might come to the conclusion that statins aren’t worth the hassle, risk of adverse effects and the financial costs.”

Those adverse reactions include the rare risk for Crestor diabetes, as referenced earlier. Many a Crestor lawsuit holds that a plaintiff, observing healthy diet and exercise habits and who also keeps his or her weight in check and with no family history of diabetes, is suddenly saddled with the disease. He or she alleges Crestor was responsible.

Then there is the risk for Crestor rhabdoymylosis, which is a rare side effect that results in the breakdown of muscle tissue and absorption into the bloodstream. In rare cases, this can be fatal.

As it is - and this is all over the label insert featuring smiling faces as a backdrop for a plethora of warnings and precautions - common side effects such as joint pain and muscle aches may not prove life-threatening, but can adversely affect an individual’s quality of life.

Case in point - and I write this in the first person - is my right shoulder. I have been on Crestor since the summer of 2011. From an initial dosage of 10 mg per day, I was up to 20 mg per day by the following summer. A year later, I began having problems with my right shoulder (I’m right-handed, so I use that shoulder a lot…). Thinking it might be Crestor at fault, we stopped it for a month or two with my doctor’s blessing to see if there was any improvement. There wasn’t. Didn’t get any worse, but didn’t get any better, either.

I’m now into my eighth month of pain for which I see a physiotherapist twice per week. I baby the shoulder. I have changed my work areas to make them more ergonomic. I cannot point to any injury I might have sustained that might have precipitated the pain. I do not participate in team sports of any kind, so it’s not like I’m throwing baseballs. And yet my practitioner tells me that she finds me to have more pain with no apparent injury than patients she has with torn rotator cuffs. Anti-inflammatory drugs are no help. An MRI and ultrasound did not uncover any substantial reason why I am in constant pain.

Is it the Crestor that has done something to my shoulder? It should be noted that I’m up to 30 mg of Crestor a day now. And beyond my shoulder, I worry about side effects like Crestor diabetes. Meanwhile there is no history of heart disease in my family, my dad is still alive and active at 81 and takes nothing but a low-dose aspirin once per day.

Are these actually Crestor issues I’m dealing with? And what would Alan Cassels say to a guy like me? As for the new guidelines, would I be better to self-treat with a balanced lifestyle, healthy diet and exercise? I also don’t smoke. Never have. If I’m overweight, it’s only by about 20 pounds at most.

In the end, I always follow the advice of my doctor. But hypothetically, is it better for this patient to interpret the new guidelines in a such a way that my cholesterol levels would probably have the least impact on my risk for heart attack and stroke, and thus to come off Crestor? Or should I be included in the interpretation of guidelines that take the emphasis away from numerical values, in deference to statin use as an ongoing default for prevention? AstraZeneca, the manufacturer of my rosuvastatin, would have me do just that.

But is that the prudent thing to do?

Plaintiffs in a Crestor lawsuit for Crestor issues such as Crestor diabetes might tell you that it isn’t…