My Rehovot ( ISSN 1817-101X )

by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich

A 71-year-old woman who went into clinical death after nearly drowning off an Ashdod beach three weeks ago has fully recovered, thanks to intensive treatment at Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot.

Her doctors called it a "medical miracle" that she regained conscoiiusness and showed dramatic improvement.

The fact that she received 40 minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the beach and that her body temperature from the cold water slowed her heartbeat helped her survive.

Dr. Steven Melnick, head of the hospital's internal medicine C department, said hospital staffers "never give up" on such patients.

Read full article at JPost.com

Labels: Rehovot Health, Rehovot Medical Services

Swimming Season Death TollOne person drowned off the Atlit beach, one in Caesarea and two in Ashdod: Four people drowned this weekend at various beaches across the country.

The body of 61-year-old Michael Levine was pulled from the waters at the Ashdod port Saturday morning. His family had notified police he was missing after going swimming in the area. At Metsuda Beach in Ashdod the body of a 21-year-old Rehovot resident was pulled from the waters. The young man disappeared on Friday after being carried to sea while swimming with a friend.

Meanwhile, at Kashatot Beach in Caesarea, a beach that is not designated for recreational swimming, the body of 49-year-old Alexander Blau from Hadera was found adrift near the coast. Israel Radio reported that police were investigating the circumstances which led to his death.

At another beach near Atlit, also undesignated for swimming, Magen David Adom medics were called to treat a 50-year-old man who had been pulled ashore by bystanders. The man died after medics failed to resuscitate him.

As a result of the recent rash in swimming accidents, MDA has asked that all citizens take a first aid course to learn mouth-to-mouth resuscitation skills.

Source: Four drown at beaches across country Jpost.com (9 June 2007) [FullText]

Labels: Rehovot Health

Police will recommend indicting senior officials at Hartzfeld Geriatric Hospital in Gedera and Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot for allegedly performing illegal experiments on elderly patients under their care, police sources said yesterday. Four of the officials, including Dr. Shmuel Levy, deputy director of Kaplan-Hartzfeld, were arrested last October following a complaint by the Health Ministry concerning alleged immoral and illegal experiments on elderly patients. In one experiment concerning the effects of psychiatric medications on the appetites of geriatric patients, 12 of the 41 participants died.

Source: Yuval Azoulay. News in brief. Haaretz.com (29 April 2007) [FullText]

Labels: Rehovot Criminal, Rehovot Health

So far 13 people have commented on the Daily Mail story Statins: The Truth (29 Jan 2007):

I was searching for risks as well as benefits for a statin my Dr prescribed. Now I know that since I lowered the cholesterol on my own, it is better to keep trying to raise the good HDL without the drugs. Thank you. - Ilene, USA

For years I had high cholesterol and I was on Pravachol but my reading was 250 total and the doctor didn't change my medicine. Then I had a heart attack in 2005 and they put me on Zocor 80 mg. I have been on it ever since. I watch my foods and try not to eat a lot of fats high in cholesterol. I have my total cholesterol down to 163, but I am still told to have to take the Zocor. I feel that I should be able to get off of the medication now. What do you think? I just feel it didn't prevent me from having the heart attack and that I changed my eating habits that is why my cholesterol is down now not because of the Zocor. I worry about it all the time I don't want to take the medication anymore. It makes me irritable, moody, and I am more forgetful it seems. Please help me? - Margaret Epperson, Mentor, Ohio USA

There are always alternatives to man-made drugs for everything man/woman can get. However, the alternatives are not patentable and therefore do not make money for pharmaceutical companies. Enough said. - Peter, Chesterfield

The truth about statins is out there and has been so for a long time. The real news however is that most prescribing doctors don't know much about cholesterol, or what really causes heart-disease, or how statins work, or why they cause more problems than they solve. Doctors are still stuck in the pathetic diet-heart hypothesis of the 1950ies; that cholesterol and saturated fat clog up the arteries, and if we can just lower the cholesterol we will save lives. Statins are developed from this disaster of mental reasoning, and it has nothing to do with good science. Sorry doctors, you have been tricked, saturated fat and cholesterol are natural foods for humans (mother’s milk is packed with it). Why not tell your patients to stay away from the unnatural stuff, such as sugar and refined starches? If you require simplicity, that would be it. Sugar is the real killer in this context. Wake up, do your homework and save lives. - J Michael Nicholls, Alingsås, Sweden

I was prescribed Lipitor 3 years ago and most of the side-effects that are listed on the leaflet I have experienced and they are getting worse. I take 20mg a day. For the last couple of years, my level has been 4.mml/l which I understand is OK. I am very angry with my doctor for not following me up. I had an accident several years ago and suffered a lot of pain, which was very similar to the side-effects of statins. I have almost recovered from the accident, but my symptoms are becoming worse. Talking to a hospital pharmacist, the advice was that I take 10 mg a day for a week or so and then reduce down to none. I have not had any indication and have been negatively tested for coronary heart disease, diabetes, vascular problems caused by illness (only the accident). I am hypertensive but I notice that a side-effect of Lipitor is water retention! For the water retention, I was prescribed a diuretic which in turn caused a build up of uric acid in my joints... - Anne Whitburn, Sutton, Surrey, England.

Oh how I would love a brave newspaper to ask all statin users if they have have experienced muscle pain, weakness, lack of energy, lack of sex drive, memory problems or any of the other common effects of lowered cholesterol. The vast majority of sufferers are told by their doctors that what they are experiencing is just due to advancing years. - Jane Dawson, Isle of Islay

I was taking lipitor 10 mg my cholesterol was 8.0 it came down to 6.5 so my Dr increased the dose to 20 mg. I then started to experience deafness and vertigo, I was sent for a MRI scan and was told I had nerve damage, my hearing would not improve would I like a hearing aid. I then started to experience a lot more side effects,rhinitis,leg pains, tinnitus and dry throat. I reported to my Dr and asked if it could be the statins, I stopped them for a while and my hearing came back so Dr tried other statins which within 2 days made me deaf again. I have now stopped taking them and my hearing is back to normal. My sister in law was also on 20mg Lipitor and she woke in the night and both her arms had gone dead, she asked her Dr and he said to stop the Lipitor and this problem stopped. - Rosemary, Surrey, UK

About 3 years ago I had a cholesterol reading of 6.4, my Doctor prescribed LIPITOR 20mg, I lost 5 stone in weight, and after 12 months my reading had increased to over 9. My doctor increased my dosage to 40mg, my reading for two subsequent years has been 3.7 and 4. I am 34 years old and have a very healthy lifestyle now, Statins helped me and I have no side effects at all. My cholesterol was hereditary though, this might make a difference? - Hal Jaffer, London, England

My doctor has recently increased my statins (Simvaststin) dose from 20 to 40 mg. For no other reason than "This is the standard dose". I have heard, from another doctor, that 40mg is CHEAPER than 20 mg! Perhaps there is a reason after all. I am not entirely happy about it...
- Colin Maguire, Manchester, England.

I'm 60; after two heart attacks and an unsuccessful heart bypass operation I've been on 40mg Lipitor daily for about five years. Although my cholesterol levels have reduced from around 6.5 to 4.2, the side effects from this drug have been a big problem. The worst of these are the bouts of nausea which arise about three times weekly and last for several hours. Previously, I drank a small amount socially perhaps twice a week (never more than two beers) but now I seem to have developed an intolerance to even the smallest volume of alcohol (feelings of nausea again) and have thus abstained entirely. Attacks of muscle aches have also arisen from time to time. At my Dr's suggestion, I've tried other medication but they are far less effective at reducing cholesterol - so realistically, I'm stuck with the statins and all the side-effects. After reading your article about other effects (cognitive problems; liver damage) I've decided to flush the whole lot down the loo and trust in nature! - Paul, Weston-super-mare, Somerset

I have been on statins for approx 10 yrs after it was discovered I had inherited a cholesterol problem. My readings were at the time 9.6 after being on statins 10mg for apprx 6 months the reading had dropped to 4.6mg. Then my doctor told me I had to change to a different make as they were cheaper and these were 40mg. The only problem was I had severe side effects. So I have gone back to my other tablets as with the new ones my cholesterol level went up by to 5.6 so it just proves the government are penny pinching with peoples lives at risk. - Pauline, Cornwall

I am a 54 year old woman and have been taking Simvastatin for approximately 3 to 4 years and have Type 2 Diabetes. I have suffered considerably from brain fog but honestly believed it was the onset of an early dementia. After reading your article I realised that the brain fog was due to the statins. I stopped taking them straight away and within a week found a huge benefit in my memory. I feel a conned. I was never asked about muscle weakness and am concerned that I have had a history of muscle cramps in my legs and feet since the age of 14. I feel tons better regarding my memory and will not be going back on to the statins. - Cynthia Burtenshaw, Haverhill, England

I have suffered from IBS for over 10 years, sometimes very acutely, having to leave funtions ect in great pain. On learning that taking statins could have side effects I stoped taking them as an experiment and, bingo, my IBS dissapeared. - Alec Daniels, Surrey

Source: Readers comments on Jerome Burne Daily Mail article "Statins: the truth" [FullText]

Labels: Rehovot Health

by Jerome Burne

Those who are taking statins to lower their cholesterol may well be confused about whether it is worth it and how safe they are.

Also see: Statins' Mind-Boggling Effects. CBS Evening News (24 May 2004) [Free FullText and Video]

Last week an article in the medical journal The Lancet claimed the drugs don't benefit women or elderly men if they don't have a cardiovascular problem, while for younger men, taking statins only slightly reduces the risk of heart attack if they'd never had an attack.

Also see...
• Have we been conned about cholesterol?
• Statins won't prevent women getting heart disease, claim doctors
• Are statins really the wonder-drug that everyone says they are?
...at article source

And then Dr Malcolm Kendrick claimed in these pages that statins were useless because, he argued, heart disease isn't caused by raised cholesterol. He also warned they could have side-effects.

The medical establishment, however, insists that statins are important in combatting heart disease.

It argues that more of us should take statins -and that the benefits outweigh the marginal risk of adverse effects. To help you make sense of all this, JEROME BURNE addresses the vital questions...

Should I be taking a statin?

All the experts agree that if you've had a cardiovascular problem, such as a heart attack, taking statins is worthwhile because it does reduce your chances of having another one.

Statins are designed to reduce levels of lowdensity lipoproteins(LDLs) or 'bad' cholesterol - which fur up the arteries and lead to heart disease (although Dr Kendrick believes statins are effective for different reasons, most likely by reducing inflammation).

About four million Britons are taking statins. GPs are recommended to prescribe the drugs to anyone with a 20per cent risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the next ten years.

Then last November researchers at Oxford University recommended mass prescription of statins - claiming that people as young as 35 with even just a one per cent risk of a heart attack or stroke could benefit, gaining an extra nine months of life expectancy.

Two million more people would then be taking the pills.

At this point sceptics point to the risk of side-effects - this is known as risks-benefits analysis. If your chance of having heart disease is very small then the risks of sideeffects from a drug to stop it should also be very low.

So if you have some risk factors for heart disease - such as being overweight, having raised cholesterol, or if you are a man over 55 - is it worth getting low-dose statins from your local pharmacy?

With The Lancet research suggesting the benefits of statins for women and older men are almost non-existent, we need to consider if the risks still outweigh the benefits.

The two widely-recognised risks are muscle pain and weakness (myopathy) and damage to the liver, but these are said to be very rare; a small risk far outweighed by the benefits. A study by Dr Jane Armitage of Oxford University, involving 20,000 UK volunteers, found 'no significant side-effects at all'.

But Professor Beatrice Golomb of the University of California San Diego disagrees.

She found that muscle symptoms are common with statin drugs.

"There's a multibillion-dollar industry ensuring that you hear all the good things about statins," she says.

"But no interest group ensuring that you hear the other side."

She is particularly concerned with the effect of statins on our moods and memory.

"It's common to find patients on the drugs who report trouble finding the right word or forgetting what task they are supposed to be doing," she says.

In a recent paper, Professor Golomb also described patients who were irritable, hostile and had short tempers while taking statins.

Some even had road rage or homicidal impulses. She has also dealt with patients who developed temporary amnesia and cognitive problems.

"After a couple of months of statin use," she says, "one top accountant could no longer balance a cheque book and was fired."

To find out how common these side-effects are and who's likely to suffer from them, Professor Golomb launched a website last autumn on which she's posted a questionnaire called the Statin Effects Survey. She wants patients to report their experiences of statins, good or bad.

She believes that data on sideeffects is lacking because trials are designed to show the benefits of the drugs, not to detect problems.

Her concerns are shared by Swedish physician and cholesterol expert Dr Uffe Ravnskov [as well as based in Rehovot Alexei Koudinov, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Science journal Neurobiology of Lipids].

Writing in the British Medical Journal last year, he noted that two of the big statin trials deliberately excluded patients who had suffered side-effects in pre-trial tests, and then claimed that the number of side-effects reported was low.

Earlier this month American research suggested that statins, because they lower cholesterol, could put patients at greater risk of Parkinson's disease.

But it's not all negative. It was recently reported that statins could be a potential treatment for virulent flu strains such as H5N1, which has killed 148 people in Asia.

At one point it was also suggested that statins might reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, although this has not been proven.

More recently statins were found to slow smokinginduced lung damage.

How do I reduce the statin risks?

The official line is that patients should not stop taking statins. As Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said last week: 'There is overwhelming evidence that statins save lives by preventing heart attacks and strokes.'

But what if you are taking statins because you've had a heart attack and are worried about potential side-effects? Dr Peter Langsjoen, a researcher at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler, Texas, believes he has a simple and practical solution.

Ever since statins were launched, it's been known that they have also dampened production of a vital enzyme called CoQ10 (also known as Q10); like cholesterol, it's made in the liver. Q10 is found in almost every cell in the body and is essential for energy production in the muscles.

So giving patients a supplement of Q10 could reduce side-effects.

Several years ago Langsjoen published a study in which patients with high levels of cholesterol but no evidence of heart disease were given the best-selling statin Lipitor.

A staggering 71 per cent of them developed a problem with their heart muscle that goes with heart failure.

Giving them a supplement of 300mg of Q10 reversed the problem for over half of them.

Many people now take Q10 along with statins as a precaution. If you are on statins and feel they may be causing muscle-related problems or brain fog, Professor Golomb suggests asking your doctor about stopping the drug or reducing the dose.

"If he or she won't do that," she says, "you could agree to increasing the dose for a little while and observe what happens to your symptoms." What if I'm not in a high-risk group?

For those not at a high risk of heart attack there are plenty of diet and lifestyle options for improving the health of your heart. The first is exercise - universally recommended for reducing the risks.

Next, get your doctor to check your levels of an amino acid called homocysteine. High levels are a risk factor for heart disease, independent of cholesterol.

To reduce homocysteine, increase your intake of B vitamins with green vegetables, or look for a supplement containing B6, folic acid and B12.

You could also increase your intake of plant sterols, found in seeds, nuts, and beans, as well as soluble fibre found in oats barley and aubergines - these also lower cholesterol.

A small study in the American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition last year found that plant sterols lowered cholesterol more effectively than statins.

The B vitamin niacin has also been shown to lower LDL cholesterol, along with two other markers for heart disease - lipoprotein (a) and fibrinogen - and raise the supposedly beneficial HDL cholesterol.

Omega-3 fatty acids are also important for the heart. Many studies show they bring down cholesterol and reduce inflammation linked with heart disease.

Finally, try curcumin found in the spice turmeric. Curcumin has been found to reduce the stickiness of platelets in the blood and relax arteries.

Several trials are currently testing its effectiveness.

Source: Jerome Burne. Statins: the truth. (29 Jan 2007) Daily Mail [FullText]

Also read: Readers' Comments

Labels: Rehovot Health