Do you know what the top-selling brand-name pharmaceutical in the United States is? It’s designed to protect you against heart disease, but recent research warns that it could be threatening your health due to serious side effects. We’re talking about rosuvastatin, with the brand name Crestor, which raked in almost $6 billion dollars in U.S. sales last year. American doctors wrote a staggering 22.3 million prescriptions for this statin drug, which is intended to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol.
With such huge numbers, it’s probable that your doctor has either recommended it to you or even prescribed it to you for either prevention or treatment of “high” cholesterol. But here’s the truth: as reported in the British Medical Journal by Sidney Wolfe, founder and senior advisor to the Health Research Group at Public Citizen, research into the benefits of rosuvastatin has never found reliable evidence that it significantly helps heart health.
What’s even more alarming is that there’s a growing collection of studies that show the drug is risky and can cause damaging side effects. Wolfe explains that although rosuvastatin does lower cholesterol more effectively than other statins, there’s no solid proof that lower cholesterol prevents heart attacks. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of cholesterol-lowering drugs for heart attack prevention was made on the basis of research that was stopped prematurely, and its heart benefits have been overly optimistic in Wolfe’s view.
Worse Side Effects Than Other Statins
Now, if you think that’s not bad enough, the side effects of rosuvastatin are worse and more frequent compared to problems linked to other statins. The drug can make you significantly more likely to develop diabetes and is associated with a devastating problem called rhabdomyolysis. This is a condition that breaks up muscle fibers and essentially melts your muscles from the inside. It also leads to increased protein in the urine, which can cause kidney disease and kidney failure.
In the past, the FDA has ordered AstraZeneca, the drug’s parent company, to stop distributing misleading information about the risks of Crestor. However, they have not taken any steps to remove the drug from the market.
And don’t forget, while Crestor may be the statin with the worst side effects, all statins can cause unwanted changes in your body. Studies on statin usage showed that nearly one in five people have to stop taking these drugs due to side effects. Additionally, statins can rob you of energy and heart power because they prevent your body from producing CoQ10, an essential nutrient for proper heart muscle function. This drop in CoQ10 can eventually lead to heart failure.
A Better Way to Improve Heart Health
Instead of taking statins, improving your cholesterol profile is a more effective way to boost your heart health. This means raising your HDL (good) cholesterol levels in relation to your LDL (bad) cholesterol. Higher HDL levels provide better protection for your heart.
The simplest way to increase HDL levels is with vigorous exercise.
A Harvard study that observed nearly 20,000 people over a period of 10 years found that exercising just three hours a week (less than 30 minutes a day) lowered the risk of heart attacks by 22%. The study, published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports Exercise, attributed this protective effect, at least in part, to increased HDL levels.
In fact, the study revealed that even moderate exercise increased HDL levels by 9% and reduced harmful triglycerides by 13%. Now go ahead and try finding a drug that can achieve those results!
So, before you rely on dangerous drugs like Crestor to protect your heart, consider making simple but powerful lifestyle changes like incorporating more exercise into your daily routine. Your heart will thank you for it.
