Statins and ALS

The following is a link to an article regarding the relationship between ALS and statins from www.spacedoc.com

Another report was recently sent to me of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) associated with the use of statin drugs. There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that the numbers of reports I am seeing now are far more than usually expected in a group the size of my reporting population. One naturally wonders about this curious relationship with statin drugs and what the possible mechanism of action might be.

Recently a neuroscientist, V. Meske, reported in the European Journal of Neuroscience a very relevant study about the ability of statin drugs to cause neuronal degeneration. To refresh your memory statin drugs are designed to inhibit cholesterol synthesis [in the liver] by their effect on the mevalonate pathway. It seems that a consequence of the inhibitory effect of statin drugs on the mevalonate pathway is the induction of abnormal tau protein phosphorylation.




Tau protein phosphorylation goes on to form neurofibrillatory tangles, long known to be the prime suspect in causing the slowly progressive neuronal degeneration of Alzheimer's disease. Sometimes this process is accompanied by Beta amyloid deposition but more commonly not. Research scientists are now finding that this mechanism appears to be true for ALS and many other forms of neurodegenerative diseases as well. They have even coined a new word for this, the taupathies.

Statin associated taupathies or tauopathies may well be additional gross evidence of collateral damage to existing cellular chemistry that researchers were unable to predict when they originally created the Statins. All this from a class of drugs originally designed simply to inhibit the biosynthesis of cholesterol, which is a vital substance now proven to be irrelevant to the atherosclerotic process.

Now that we have been warned by Ralph Edwards of the World Health Organization, researchers are finally beginning to warn about the special tendency of neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS in statin users.

Reuters reported on 28 April 2008 that elevated lipid levels (also called hyperlipidemia and high cholesterol) appear to significantly improve survival in patients with ALS (aka amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). Investigators have found that when patients with ALS have a hyperlipidemic profile, their survival is much better. Further confusing traditional medical philosophy, when their LDL cholesterol level is high and HDL low, their survival is the best (just the opposite of prevailing medical opinion.)

Imagine, if you will, the effect on this type of person of a cardiologist or internist trying desperately to help them reach a "70" LDL cholesterol, using statin therapy. And further clouding this issue, few clinicians are yet aware of this relationship of neuro-degenerative damage and statins.




The World Health Organization report on this was almost one year ago. My own awareness was some 6 months earlier when I noted many ALS/statin reports coming into my repository. Where was the FDA that we had to get this information from WHO's Vigibase, rather than our own Medwatch? Had clinicians been alerted to this combination of extreme fatigue and muscle weakness with or without muscle atrophy they might have stopped the use of statins early in the course of toxic damage when possibility of remission exists.

Reuters reported that in this study, done at Hopital de la Pitie-Salpetriere, Paris, 286 healthy subjects were compared with 369 patients with ALS. ALS patients with relatively low LDL cholesterol had a 35 percent increased risk of death. The median survival in those with the higher cholesterols was 49.2 months compared with 36.7 months in those having the lower cholesterols, prompting the investigators to pose the question should they be using a fat diet for ALS patients. And predictably, they cautioned to avoid using cholesterol lowering drugs -- mainly statins.

ALS is an invariably fatal disorder of the nervous system. ALS is sometimes referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, after the famous baseball player who died of it. According to Dr. Vincent Meininger of the research group, "The relationship between survival and lipids was previously shown in a mouse model of ALS, with the mice living longer when they are fed a high fat diet." Even today some 20 years after statins first were marketed we are only scratching the surface of learning the true effects of this class of drugs on the body.

The following are personal experiences sent to me of ALS symptoms associated with statin use.
1.) My dad died on 6/1/06 at the age of 65 from a six-year battle with ALS. I said to my mom a million times that dad got ALS from taking Lipitor. When he was taking it he would wake up in the middle of the night from severe muscle pain and cramping. When he told his doctor about it, his doctor said, "Hey, I get aches and pains too, but that's life", then he doubled my father's dosage.

My dad finally was diagnosed with the ALS and kept taking the Lipitor because no one told him of any connection of his aches and pains and the Lipitor. He went from stumbling, to falling down, to walking with arm braces, to a walker, to a wheelchair, to total paralysis except for his hands. I watched him die from a disease that took away every bit of his pride and dignity because he needed help eating and going to the bathroom to being completely paralyzed and helpless. He was a proud, strong hard working carpenter and this disease turned him into a sobbing, completely petrified paralyzed person.

My dad worked for an "extremely" wealthy man who finally sent him to and paid for him to see one of the United States top neurologists after he was diagnosed. After seeing this doctor for a while I said to him that I thought my dad might have gotten ALS from taking Lipitor and the doctor said, "You see all of those folders behind me (there were hundreds)? He said, "Those are all cases that pharmaceutical companies have sent me of people who are in law suits because they think they got ALS from their cholesterol-lowering medications and they want me to read them all over and decide if I think that is the case or not." He said, "In your father's case, honestly I'm just not sure."

Well I know Lipitor gave my dad ALS no matter what anyone says. It took away my four small children's grandpa and memories they will never have with him. I just wish doctors would inform their patients before they prescribed them a medication of the side effects and risks of that medication so the patient could decide if they wanted to risk it or not. Maybe if someone told my dad this from the beginning he would have opted to lower his cholesterol in another way.

2.) The first neurologist gave Dad about an hour long electrode and needle test in arms and legs (we were in the room and watched) and provided us a medical/technical written report several full pages long to take to our second opinion. He was pretty sure it was ALS, but emphasized we needed to go to an ALS-specialized neurologist. Right now we are focused on his health and the battle against Lipitor.
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