Oh, those Statins!

There are two types of cholesterol: the kind you get from your cousin Kenny and the kind you get from that delicious crispy chicken. We have all heard this commercial numerous times.

The point behind this though is that high cholesterol is something that needs to be fixed, whether it is dietary cholesterol or blood cholesterol [also known as serum cholesterol].

The solution: statins.

To be honest, I did not know that the term to describe cholesterol lowering drugs was called a statin, but after doing some research, I discovered an A+ vocabulary word. Some common statins are Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor.

Why am I ranting on about statins? Well, there have been numerous reports about adverse side effects to these drugs. Paul Rhoades, 57, was on statins to lower cholesterol. While taking statins, Paul started to experience memory loss, muscle weakness, and most importantly, he became dependent on a wheelchair. So what?

Well, many studies have been done and the results are shocking. One study concluded the following risk "Risks: Statin drugs can memory loss, depression, sleep disturbance, sexual dysfunction and a rare lung disease."

Another headline that I came across was something along the lines of: Statins: Risk of stroke and total mortality.

I will never take any drugs that have side effects of death, but that it just me.

I am planning on looking into the research of statins more in depth and I will report back to my blog when I find new information.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1262130/Statins-Doctors-fear-effects-devastating.html#ixzz10EK7labc

My goal this week is to become more informed about harmful things, and since I used to be an avid Lipitor user, I think it is crucial to let others know about the risks they are taking.

Next week, I want to investigate why the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme has such an awful effect. 

For now, don't stop enjoying your crispy chicken.

My first discovery

Well I used some common knowledge to create the statement: as you age, you increase the amount of prescription drugs you use. Whether this was true or not, I was not sure but after furthering my research, I did in fact discover that on average, older people take an average of four to five prescription drugs a day along with an average of two daily over the counter drugs. A lot? I thought so. And then I thought about my grandma whom has arthritis, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. It occurred to me at that point that is it indeed realistic to be on multiple prescriptions at once. That being said, I decided to see if any research has been done to see if taking multiple drugs has any effect on aging.
What I discovered:
Many drugs that are being taken by the elderly are preventative drugs, although there are an occasional few drugs that are prescribed to treat the usual constipation or infection. However, a new fact to me is that elder people are more that twice as likely to experience side effects of drugs than younger people are. This is due to primarily two reasons: the amount of water in your body, and the changes that your kidney experience. Water, what does water have to do with experiencing side effects? Well, the water in your body is responsible for dissolving some drugs, and if the amount of water decreases, then the drug takes longer to dissolve. This may cause problems because multiple drugs may be trying to dissolve at once and have a reaction, which would cause a side effect. The second reason that more side effects are experienced in older folks is that the kidneys and livers slow down. Just like a marathoner collapses after racing those long hard 26 point something miles, our kidneys and liver try and collapse and not work properly towards the end of our race of life. What is the relevance of this? Well, the liver is in charge of metabolizing drugs and prepares them for their departure from our body via our kidneys, and as you age, the liver becomes less susceptible to alter drugs, and when that happens, our weak kidneys have trouble eliminating the drugs from our system.

That being said, as we age, our body has trouble completely eradicating drugs from our body. The build up of drug remains can create problems and alter the lifespan of the elderly. I will get more into that next time, but for the time being, I must say goodnight because I have a 10K test tomorrow and although I may not be a marathoner, I still do not want to collapse when I finish.