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My first book, Lipitor, Thief of Memory, was written after my two bouts of transient global amnesia (TGA) associated with the use of Lipitor in the years 1999 – 2000. Predictably at that time, I was focused on cognitive dysfunction and Lipitor.
I soon realized the adverse reactions involved far more than impaired cognition, including personality change, myopathy, neuropathy and a chronic neuromuscular degeneration similar to ALS and all statins were contributing to these adverse reactions, not just Lipitor.
It was in this climate that I wrote my second book, Statin Drugs Side Effects. This is when I learned what reductase inhibition really meant. The reductase step blocked by statins was at the very beginning of the mevalonate pathway.
This pathway to cholesterol synthesis is also shared by many extremely important biochemical substances, including coenzyme Q10, inhibition of which was the cause of many of these side effects.
One cannot reduce cholesterol by the use of statins without simultaneously blocking these other biochemicals sharing the mevalonate pathway. Then I learned that CoQ10 inhibition was contributing to increased mitochondrial damage and premature senility – the dark side of statins. My book, the Statin Damage Crisis was written to help people understand this.
Duane Graveline, MD, MPH
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