Conscious Choice: Statins: The Memory Thieves

August 2004 | Choice Health

Statins: The Memory Thieves

Disturbing new reports of dangerous side effects of North America’s most commonly prescribed drug

by Duane Graveline, M.D., M.P.H.

You may recall Duane “Doc” Graveline from his work in the United States’ space program in the ‘60s. He received international recognition for his research on the health effects of zero gravity and was selected as a scientist-astronaut. Dr. Graveline went on to practice medicine as a family doctor in Burlington, Vt., and became a writer of medical and science-fiction thrillers. Today, however, Dr. Graveline is ardently writing about his factual experiences with cholesterol-lowering statin drugs and is warning of their devastating side effects that he encountered himself as a patient.

My cholesterol had been trending upward for several years, so during my annual astronaut physical at the Johnson Space Center, my doctor started me on Lipitor. All was well until six weeks later when, after my usual morning walk in the woods, my wife found me aimlessly wandering about the yard. I did not recognize her and refused to go into my home, which was totally unfamiliar to me at the time.

I “awoke” six hours later in the office of the examining neurologist with the diagnosis of transient global amnesia, cause unknown. My MRI several days later was normal. Since Lipitor was the only new medicine I was on, the doctor in me made me suspect a possible side effect of this drug and, despite the protestations of the examining doctors that statin drugs were not responsible, I stopped my Lipitor.

The year passed uneventfully and soon it was time for my next physical. NASA doctors joined the chorus I had come to expect from physicians and pharmacists during the preceding year — that statin drugs did not do this and, at their urging, I reluctantly restarted Lipitor at half the previous dose. Six weeks later I again descended into the black pit of amnesia, this time for 12 hours and with a retrograde loss of memory back to my high school days.

During that terrible interval, my entire adult life had been erased and I had no awareness of my marriage and four children, my medical school days, my 10 adventure-filled years as a U.S. Air Force flight surgeon or even my selection as scientist-astronaut. Many years of richly lived life had been stolen from my mind as if they had never happened. Fortunately, and typically for this obscure condition (as I later learned), my memory returned spontaneously. Transient global amnesia is the sudden inability to formulate new memory, combined with varying degrees of memory loss. Until recently, the most common “trigger events” for these abrupt amnesia cases have been sudden vigorous exercise, sex, emotional crises, coldwater immersion, trauma and cerebral angiography (contrast dye x-rays). In the past four years a new trigger agent has been added — the use of the stronger statin drugs such as Lipitor, Zocor and Mevacor. Transient global amnesia is the most extreme case of statin-associated cognitive impairment. Research and clinical evidence, as well as reports from distraught patients, reveal that symptoms far more common are increased senility, disorientation, confusion and unusual forgetfulness. These lesser forms of memory impairment can be easily missed in many individuals because, to a certain degree, it is an expectation as we age.

Statin drugs, while curtailing cholesterol, inevitably inhibit the production of other intermediary substances vital to maintaining good health. One of these is ubiquinone — commonly known as coenzyme Q10 (CoQ-10). Biosynthesized in the mitochondria, the cells’ tiny powerhouses responsible for cellular respiration and energy, CoQ-10 is mandatory for proper cardiac muscle function, as well as the health and well being of every cell in our bodies, including muscle cells and those of peripheral nerves. The pharmaceutical industry has long been attempting to develop a means to inhibit cholesterol production without interfering with CoQ-10 and other substances but has so far failed. The inevitability of significant, serious and even lethal side effects has been knowingly accepted and documented in many studies.

We have been led to believe that rapidly lowering our natural cholesterol levels through the use of statin drugs is a relatively innocuous process. Yet, cholesterol is perhaps the most important substance in our lives. It is not only the most common organic molecule in our brain, it is also distributed intimately throughout our entire body. It is an essential constituent of cell membranes, adjusting the fluid level and rigidity of this membrane to the proper value for both cell stability and function. Additionally, cholesterol is metabolized into other essential body steroids known as the steroid hormones and is therefore the sole source for the formation of the very powerful chemicals in our body that determine our sexuality, control the reproductive process and make possible our very existence.

Some three years ago, neurophysiologist Frank Pfrieger, Ph.D., of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, announced the discovery of the elusive factor responsible for stimulating the brain’s nerve cells to make the connections that are essential to learning and memory. This synaptogenic factor was shown to be cholesterol! The brain’s glial cells, which provide a kind of glue between nerve cells, are now known to synthesize cholesterol for the specific purpose of synaptic formation and function. The stronger statins of the Lipitor, Mevacor and Zocor class easily enter the brain and interfere directly with glial cell’s ability to synthesize cholesterol. This is considered to be the likely cause of the epidemic of memory dysfunction we now are seeing.

Significantly, we are learning that statin’s role in cardiovascular risk reduction may have little or nothing to do with cholesterol or LDL (”bad” cholesterol) levels. We are now discovering that our 40-year war on cholesterol through the use of drugs and a low fat/low cholesterol diet seem to have been grossly misdirected. Leading edge science is exploring inflammation as the true culprit of atherosclerosis (heart disease). Despite this rapidly growing reality, statin drugs have never been more aggressively marketed with consumers still desperately focused on cholesterol.

Duane Graveline, M.D., M.P.H., is author of Lipitor, Thief of Memory: Statin Drugs and the Misguided War on Cholesterol, available on his Web site: www.spacedoc.net.

This material is for information only and no part of its content should be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, recommendation or endorsement.

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