Earlier this month I posted a blog entry regarding Public Citizen's (the consumer group founded by Ralph Nader) petition to the FDA to pull Crestor from the market as it increased the risk of a fatal muscle complication over 600 percent relative to all the other statins combined.

It couldn't be clearer that this drug needs to be pulled from the market, yet the FDA rejected the petition. There is simply no reason to have it on the market as it provides no advantage over any of the other statin drugs currently on the market.

To add insult to injury, statins are rarely ever needed to control high blood cholesterol. The best way to treat high cholesterol isn't with a drug that could potentially do great harm (and ALL of the statins are risky, not just Crestor). Two primary strategies that work well over 99 percent of the time if properly implemented are:

• Daily cardiovascular exercise

• Low-grain, low-sugar diet (as elevated insulin levels--often caused by diets high in grains and sugar--are a primary driving force behind high cholesterol.)

But going back to the insanity of the FDA decision, even one of the FDA's own physicians, Dr. David Graham, agrees that it is one of the six drugs that needs to be yanked. The FDA is already in major hot water for all the mismanagement, death and destruction they have unleashed on the public recently. For instance, 55,000 deaths from Vioxx when the evidence was clear that it should have NEVER been approved. I voiced these objections more than one year before it was approved. I sure look like a fortuneteller, seeing that I wrote the following in 1999:

"I would strongly advise against using these drugs [COX-2 inhibitors]. I suspect there is a high likelihood that they will be pulled from the market when the increased cardiac deaths are recognized."

Mercola.com 1999 archive issue

Please note that this was 18 months before the drug was approved and FIVE YEARS before it was finally taken off the market. As far as I can tell I was the first person to sound a warning about Vioxx publicly.

And now, the FDA is getting it wrong again big time. It's hard to believe they are choosing to keep Crestor on the market in light of all the bad PR they have been getting. I suspect major heads will roll from this decision, which clearly seems related to obvious conflict of interest financial ties to the drug companies. Crestor has sales of close to $1 billion a year--and that buys lots of influence at the FDA. I used to listen to Peter Paul & Mary (see picture above) in the early 60s and one of their great songs was "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

I am reminded of this song because one of the chorus lines is:

"Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn?"

Yes indeed, when will they ever learn?

Related Articles:

The Truth About Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs (Statins), Cholesterol and Health

Crestor and Other Statins: Are They Really Worth the Risk?

The Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven't Been Told About Cholesterol-Lowering Medication

USA Today Exposes Conflicts of Interest in FDA Drug Approvals