December 2th
2006
6:19 PM
I begain taking Caudet (1/2 Blood pressure med and 1/2 Lipitor) and after 1 year quite taking it. Reason: Increasing Muscle pains.... It begain in some of my joints, such as my elbow, shoulder and knees, then the pain migrated to a place in my lower back. I have some lower back issues from a major op back in 1983 (couple of disc removals). Some pain in the back when I over exherted the muscles but never presistant. While on Caudet though it got so bad I could not straighten up. I went to my doctor who took me off the med and by week 3 all pains in back and joints were gone. I knew nothing of the side affects of Lipitor nor had I ever looked them up. My symptoms would have been qicker attributed to the drug if I had only taken the time to learn more of the drug....Hope others read these post and understand that the statin class of meds come with serious potential for side affects.
-- By gsmith11 | Reply | Private Message me
May 1th
2008
1:17 PM
I noticed that the FDA turned down approval for Merck's Cordaptive. That was the niacin cholesterol drug that came with it's own chemical to control the side effect of facial flushing.
I noticed that they were in clinical trials for montelukast's effect on preventing heart disease. So I guess that Merck is trying to capitalize on the "inflammation" angle that is mentioned below. Who shows up for these clinical trials?
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00379808?term=%22montelukast%22+and+%22heart%22&rank=1
The surgeons can do liver and kidney transplants but there won't be enough organs to go around for all of us who get sold all of these drugs. But nobody does brain transplants. What are the people on montelukast long term going to do? And there will be many, many more of them if Merck gets approval for preventing heart disease.
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http://blog.pharmexec.com/2008/05/01/mercks-cordaptive-a-nasty-surprise/
"The Merck drug was a nice piece of innovation: Kim’s elves figured out what causes niacin’s worst side effect, facial flushing, and developed a spanking new chemical, laropiprant, to control it. But since the cholesterol market is not exactly under served by pharma, you could also surmise that FDA is getting bearish on innovation there (more about that later).’s John Carey, apparently the only reporter not to be surprised, offers a must-read analysis of the situation.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/apr2008/db20080429_182260.htm
“Add it all up and the FDA’s decision shouldn’t be seen as coming out of the blue. Cordaptive offers no big improvement over niacin alone—while introducing a new, unknown risk. And even the benefits of niacin’s effect on cholesterol may not be that big.”
“The decision also comes at a time when the very idea of cholesterol-lowering is under increasing scientific attack. Yes, doctors know that the statin class of cholesterol-lowering drugs, like Lipitor, do prevent heart disease and heart attacks. But there’s growing evidence that a big chunk of the benefits of statins comes from reducing inflammation,” writes John Carey.
-- By concernedcitizen | Reply | Private Message me