Convincing Mom's "Conventional" Doctor to Back-off on Statins page

[wilberfan]

Mom just turned 80 and is in very good health. Her "cholesterol numbers" are such that her doctor wants her to start taking statins... [shudder] He's a very GOOD doctor--by conventional standards (and more open-minded than many)--and she thinks very highly of him.

I've managed to put the Fear of God into her with an article (from TIME magazine--thought it might carry more weight with her than anything from this or other paleo/primal sites)--which she forwarded to him. (She also mentioned she's really not at all keen on taking those drugs.)

Are there any sources that would be particularly credible and/or influential for a more-open-minded-than-most doctor about the latest thinking on statins and heart disease? Something that would carry more weight than a couple of paleo sites?! (I can see his eyes rolling with those!)

I know more an more physicians are jumping on board this new way of thinking... What could we use to persuade this guy to back off?

[Interesting side note: Not 10 minutes after sending my Mom the link to the TIME magazine article, I was talking to a friend of mine whose 86 year old mother went to the doctor that morning complaining that "...every bone in my body ached!...". Turns out her doctor put her on Lipitor a week ago!

[abstractpersona]

What sort of things usually convince your mom? Studies don't matter to my mother, all she cares is "what the person in the white coat says is good".

Would something like this help?
Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven

Is your mother open minded enough that if you tell her "high HDL=good; type A LDL= good; low trigs=good; so you're ok, mom", she will understand?

[wilberfan]

It's her DOCTOR we need to persuade at this point. I've succeeded in (scaring?) her enough to not want to take the statins. More problematic will be getting her to change the way she eats. She's better than most when it comes to eating--but eliminating grains? Eating way more meat and fat? That's going to be hard to get her head around. (She's even read Sisson's book (!)--but it's "easier" to maintain the status quo.

If her doctor were suddenly skeptical about the statins, I think it would help move her along to a lifestyle change?

[Mountainduck]

FDA just issued new warnings about Statins today. Lost redirect

Of course they spout the CW that “Their benefit is indisputable, but they need to be taken with care and knowledge of their side effects.” Really??? Memory loss, Type II Diabetes are indisputable benefits???

Your Mom just turned 80, and is in great health. If she is against them, is there anything wrong with just saying "NO"?

[Mountainduck]

OOps link is broke. try this one The Daily Nightly - FDA issues warning on statins

[Dirlot]

FDA adds diabetes, memory loss warnings to statins | Reuters
If the above don't work here is another link to the FDA's concerns.

[cancerclasses]

My number one source is the great Brian Peskin who always backs up his writing with a long list of references, mostly from physiology, medical & biochemistry textbooks. Just google 'brian peskin, statins' or 'Brian Peskin, cholesterol. Here's a good article to start with. http://goo.gl/T4OiF
And cholesterol « Life-Systems Engineering Science by Professor Brian Peskin
And http://goo.gl/VjDF5

Another good one is astronaut Dr. Duane Graveline whose NASA doctors almost killed him by making him start taking statins, his website is spacedoc.com

Good luck with that.

[RitaRose]

PubMed?

Is the use of cholesterol in mortality ris... [J Eval Clin Pract. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI

RESULTS:
Among women, cholesterol had an inverse association with all-cause mortality [hazard ratio (HR): 0.94; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.89-0.99 per 1.0 mmol L(-1) increase] as well as CVD mortality (HR: 0.97; 95% CI: 0.88-1.07). The association with IHD mortality (HR: 1.07; 95% CI: 0.92-1.24) was not linear but seemed to follow a 'U-shaped' curve, with the highest mortality <5.0 and ≥7.0 mmol L(-1) . Among men, the association of cholesterol with mortality from CVD (HR: 1.06; 95% CI: 0.98-1.15) and in total (HR: 0.98; 95% CI: 0.93-1.03) followed a 'U-shaped' pattern.

CONCLUSION:
Our study provides an updated epidemiological indication of possible errors in the CVD risk algorithms of many clinical guidelines. If our findings are generalizable, clinical and public health recommendations regarding the 'dangers' of cholesterol should be revised. This is especially true for women, for whom moderately elevated cholesterol (by current standards) may prove to be not only harmless but even beneficial.

Wish I could be more help, but my mom is a mess because of statin use, and she refuses to get off them. She tried for 2 days, and when it didn't fix everything, she went back on.

(Emphasis in quote mine)

[Brown Puppy]

Wilberfan, I'm in a similar situation except my mother is already on statins, has been for 2 or 3 years, and i want to get her off them. She likes her doctor but is willing to get a second opinion. Question is, how do you find another doctor who won't be so enamored of statins? I've looked at Jimmy Moore's low carb doctors list, but there are none in her town. Does anyone know how i could find such a doctor in Louisville, KY?