"New
Research on Statins may Give Answers for Polios"
Written by
Tessa Jupp RN from writings by Edward Bollenbach, for the Post Polio Network of
WA
Edward Bollenbach
BA, MA, Professor Emeritus in Microbiology and Chemistry, a retired
professor of micro-biology and chemistry from Connecticut USA is a polio
survivor himself. Articles he has
written on post polio can be found at his website www.angelfire.com/mi/nccc
Quotes below from some of his most recent writings on statins may help
us to understand this new research.
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“As
polio survivors, the question is how can we utilize these statin medications,
to lower cholesterol, without worrying about adverse muscle effects?
If one reads current medical literature addressing statin drugs to try
to find out what it is about statins that causes the adverse muscle effects one
will invariably find "It is not known". The probable answer to
the question of cause has been worked out simultaneously in Japan, Harvard, and
at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The biological roots of
statin muscle damage are similar, coincidentally, to the atrophy we
experience with polio.
Researcher's have performed a series of elegant experiments which reveal
how statins produce this muscle damage or myopathy in some patients.
Because of the new knowledge countermeasures are already being planned
to develop agents which will eliminate these troublesome muscle problems due to
statin therapy. However, Dr. Lecker of
Harvard, a leader in this group of researchers, couldn't provide an answer
regarding a medicine or substance one can take to eliminate the possibility of
myopathy resulting from statin drug therapy.
Instead he recommended a trial of Co-enzyme Q10, since this
important compound has multiple functions in energy production and is
decreased significantly by statins, as is cholesterol. Co-Q10 is not only used extensively by the
processes leading to myopathy, but it is reduced in amount during the same
process that lowers cholesterol concentration.
Statins themselves lower Co-Q10 blood concentration.
The biochemistry of muscle damage is complex. The aforementioned researcher's leading
explanation of this damage is that a gene within our DNA called atrogen-1 is
turned on by statins. Age also
turns it on. Diseases like cancer,
infection and polio can turn it on. Once it is on it provides the
information for the muscle fibre to produce an enzyme called Ubiquitin ligase
(Co-enzyme Q10 ligase).
This molecule binds with several Co-enzyme Q10 molecules until the
entire structure has a shape that allows it to snatch up small repair proteins
in the muscle. Once these proteins are bound they are deposited into a tiny
body called a proteosome, which breaks up these repair proteins into smaller
pieces.
This effectively removes the ability of the muscle to repair itself,
and atrophy (breakdown) of the muscle fibre occurs. Exercise inhibits
this entire process and more repairs can be made but if the exercise is too
intense, too frequent, or too long, the process is stimulated again.
Such intense exercise in the presence of a statin turns on atrogen-1
much more readily in most people. So
polios particularly, should be careful with extreme vigorous exercise while on
a statin.
When drugs like Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor, Mevacor among others,
are used, they slow the speed of cholesterol formation, and the amount of
cholesterol in the blood and muscles decreases.
Geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate, the chemical responsible for preventing
muscle problems, also decreases, and it does not function as it normally
does. This decrease is very likely
the cause of muscle-related problems.
I think physicians
should probably, if they do not already, take into account other medications
that a patient is using when prescribing a statin drug.
Because Lipitor,
for example, is broken down in the liver by a different chemical than
Crestor or some of the other statins. Other medications are also broken
down in the liver by other chemicals. If medications, like the heart drug amiodarone
or the hypertension drugs called calcium channel blockers, are taken together
with a particular statin like Lipitor, the chemical that breaks down both drugs
is the same, so the statin will not be broken down as quickly and will increase
in the blood. This may cause muscle soreness.
Some medication
interactions are stronger than others. One particularly powerful interaction is
with anti-fungal drugs called azoles. Using them while using statins can
increase the amount of statin in the blood significantly and increase the
probability of muscle problems.
Since there
are several different statins that use different liver decomposition chemicals,
patients should use a statin that is processed by a chemical in the liver that
is not being used by another medication they are taking.”