I am new to this site, a retired Canadian nurse with high blood pressure and frequent PVC issues. I have read all of the British GP Dr. Kendrick’s books, and am curious about what sense others may have of his opinions. I know he has been vehemently dismissed by the medical establishment as anti big Pharma, a conspiracy theorist, etc.
But his views on statins and preventive medicine seem sensible. Any thoughts?
I have had numerous negative side effects from any statins I have tried and had a dreadful time on Bisoprolol - which I have discontinued.
Thanks!
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dicynth
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It doesn't look as though Dr Kendrick is very popular on this forum does it? Mind you only a few people have answered your post. I've never read any of his books, but it has piqued my interest now and I think I'll see if I can order one from the library. Did you find it interesting to read?
Hi Jean, Thanks for your response. The replies are as I expected them to be. I was curious to hear some British reaction as that is where Dr.Kendrick lives. It is bothersome that he was not aligned medically during the pandemic. I was unaware of that.
I read his books on statins, as I reacted badly to these drugs, and this piqued my curiosity to look into them further. (My husband has been on them for years with no problems, but my reaction was different ).
From other reading I have done, the use of statins is indeed indicated after a cardiovascular event ie secondary prevention. But it is less clear on primary prevention (especially for women), which would be my situation.
So on the premise that I refuse to take a preventative medication makes me feel ill, I just don’t!
My GP is not amused, but it is what it is. I’m hitting 70 this year, am active, babysitting my granddaughter and exercising daily. Also trying dietary methods to knock down the cholesterol.
Hi dicynth, I have not read the book but my thoughts and experiences with statins , bisoprolol and my doctor are exactly the same as yours! I am now off statins & bisoprolol.
I had my annual review with a more enlightened doctor last week and we agreed that I should continue with diet and exercise and in 3 to 6 months see if my cholestrol had reduced.
As regards bisoprolol my doctor did recommend cutting my dose to half but after further discussion regarding side effects we agreed i would discontinue. Note that I was prescribed this drug after my heart attack to slow my heart and hence protect it (I dont have PVCs so thats an important difference between you and I). However its a balance between side effects and the potential benefits of the drug.
I am now on ramipril and aspirin.
Please let us know how your discussions go with your doctor go. I have to say a lot of doctors have retired at my practice and I did really benefit from a discussion with a new GP!
I am greatly relieved to have had the GP agree to discontinue the bisoprolol. I was certainly surprised by the staggering side effects. It increased my PVCs tenfold. There is a helpful website for Johns Hopkins hospital in the US where I learned that although this medication is used to suppress ectopic beats, it can also be a causative factor when prescribed for hypertension. This fact is not evident in most articles. Go figure…
It is a relief to be done with the fatigue that it brought on.
As you wrote:"From other reading I have done, the use of statins is indeed indicated after a cardiovascular event ie secondary prevention. But it is less clear on primary prevention (especially for women), which would be my situation."
According to this study, "Statins and all-cause mortality in high-risk primary prevention: a meta-analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials involving 65,229 participants" it is abundantly clear in the conclusion that "This literature-based meta-analysis did not find evidence for the benefit of statin therapy on all-cause mortality in a high-risk primary prevention set-up."
So if you have no cardiovascular event, taking statins as a primary prevention is not a good idea, as you have experience adverse side-effects already!
Hi Outoftheblues. Thanks for your response. I am new to this site so unaware he had been “done to death”. I was just curious for a general reaction from people who have an interest in CV issues. Certainly not a good one! I agree with your assessment based on the pandemic comments. To answer your questions….I have had high BP for years, and “ frequent PVCs” according to the holter monitor. Echo was normal. These PVCs steeply increased with use of Bisoprolol so it has recently been discontinued. The PVCs are lessening, but are certainly still there.
Cholesterol moderately high. Side effects? Abdominal pain on Crestor, shooting leg pains on Lipitor, and abdominal pains again on Pravistatin. Very unpleasant.
Hi again Outoftheblues. Yes, according to my cardiologist, PVC’s generally are not treated unless “they affect your lifestyle “. ( his words). I will contact him if they continue at this present accelerated pace. Doing alot to stay healthy and keep BP down. Weight is normal. I do Pilates, aerobic exercise etc. at least 45 min a day. Diet is good- greatly reduced red meat!
Thank you for your recommendation re statin side effect roots. I am generally very healthy and active. I am fortunate that way, and cannot remember the last time I took a pain killer for anything. So the statins were definitely the causative factor. The shooting leg pains were bizarre.
Hi good luck with reducing your cholesterol without statins, and on the other hand a tad high on cholesterol may not do any harm at all. I take Simvistatin and as far as I am aware they do not disagree with me but suffer from anxiety and like you have frequent PVCs and the odd run of SVTs which I take 1.25mg Bisoprolol for. I am sure the Bisop makes the anxiety worse. I tend to agree that over prescribed medication is not a good thing and is very common in this day and age. You rarely see a GP take you off a medication and more than likely they will add more to your system at a whim, resulting in a situation where it is impossible to pinpoint the one medication or interaction that is causing you misery. Sorry for some of the blinkered responses you received on this issue.
Hello wischo - and thank you for your response. I agree with your comments on overprescribing, especially at higher age brackets. I was a visiting nurse and saw much of this “polypharmacy” - where patients were being medicated for the side effects of their prescribed medications. Pill upon pill….The trick is balance I suppose. Doing what you can with your life style but taking what is indicated for your problems. But more of a drug is not necessarily better. That is my predicament with my GP. She is young and very zealous. My trust level is not high and I find myself missing my now retired GP.
Agree about overprescribing. If I had taken the advice of a nurse about 6 months after my heart attack I would be on 7.5mg of bisoprolol (up from 2.5mg)!
Nothing to respond to really, I just felt the author got a very rude response from the members here. I also know that people are overprescribed medication by a combination of numerous people. For example your cardiologist may give you a few basic drugs for your heart and your GP may give you some more which he believes will help and back to another cardiologist etc etc. And nobody really takes the time to take you off what you may no longer need. This is more common than uncommon and as a patient you are not qualified to decide to stop taking one. I think to request a medication review every year with your GP or pharmacist might help.
I can only speak for myself, of course. I have been on shed loads of meds, having, in the last 2 years, on top of my diabetes, been through cancer, then heart attack then heart failure. What I have found is that the various consultants initially put me on a number of drugs and adjust them during my stay, then my GP is sent the discharge papers and adjusts the medications as we go along with her monitoring my health. She has taken me off quite a number of meds and adjusted the doses of near enough all of them depending on results. Just yesterday I was at an appt. with the cardiologist and explained about an increase in my problems with breathlessness and he asked for a blood test to measure BNP and depending on the levels of that he may recommend an increase in diuretics. What I am saying is that both he and my GP do reduce and adjust meds but base every decision on solid factual data. Indeed yesterday he was talking about possibly changing my dapagliflozin to a related drug which has a more marked effect on blood sugar but the same effect on my heart failure in order that I might possibly reduce diabetes meds even further.
I enjoy reading Dr Kendrick’s blog as it provides an alternative view which is generally dismissed by the medical establishment. He is certainly knowledgeable on the subjects he discusses and as he is fully trained medical doctor working as a GP I don’t think the description “quack” is accurate or fair. Oh and he is very funny which makes it the absorption of often “dry” facts and figures a lot easier. I still take my statins though!
Hello PhilGM. Thank you for your comments. I was curious to hear some opinions from “over the pond” on Dr. Kendrick. I saw him a number of years ago in a TV BBC interview, and the doctor who followed him onto the show absolutely excoriated him. Quite a hostile attack.It was interesting to read his books. As I have said, I reacted badly to statins, so I wanted to research the topic. And his views seemed to make sense. He is also not alone in his views.
But given his comments with respect to the pandemic, I’m afraid any credibility he may have had is now diminished in my eyes. 🤷♀️
Malcolm Kendrick is one of my heroes! He is not afraid to speak his mind. His views are backed up by other highly regarded specialists, to name one Dr Aseem Malhotra, Cardiologist in London. I have FH, two years ago i stopped taking statins after 30 years of use, last year my cholesterol was 9.5, I managed to get my cholesterol down to 7.3 without any medication!
Hi Midwalesgirl. Thanks for your reply. And congratulations on getting that cholesterol lowered! I’m hoping the changes I’ve made will do the same. But frankly, I don’t spend too much time worrying about it! Have a good day and stay well!,
Wow I thought I was the only one on here enjoying Kendrick’s post’s and books. Going against the mainstream is never going to make him popular! Nevertheless as I don’t have any noticeable bad effects from statins and had double figures cholesterol am still taking them! Depending on your history perhaps your level needs to lower? Mind you a friend whose level is 3.5 was told to go on them to get it even lower! They call Malcolm Kendrick’s views extreme!
I haven't read anything he's written but assume he's a bit like Dr. Mercola.
Mercola is also anti big Pharma, and in some ways he makes sense, but like everything the truth is somewhere in between.
Big Pharma have to make huge investments and these don't always pan out, so they try to recoup profits however they can, sometimes obscuring all the truth, but where would we be without the heart and cancer medications.
My AF is controlled by flecainide, a drug which can have serious side effects on some people, but it gives me my normal life back, I'll take the risks and not complain if it all goes wrong.
Being a controversial voice does not equate to being a quack. There has always been outspoken professionals that challenge the norm. He is a doctor just like yours, but is willing to present statistical fact , an inconvenient truth, why do you accept that as quackery. Statistics are facts, not opinions.
Dr. Kendrick has many podcasts on YouTube. As he is controversial it's up to you if you wish to search for them and watch them. Having listened to a few we might start with the following thought, "before you take a person's advice see what their advice has done for them" - he looks quite chubby not very slim as I first thought he would be, hmmm.
He does also state a lot of information and it would take a long time to find out quite what the accuracy is - he doesn't say on each statement where we can find the proof of his comment. I remember the 'memory man' on the radio in the 1960s though some people checking his answers found out he was wrong: Of course, hardly anyone would know if he was right and no internet in those days and early days of television.
I totally agree with Dr. Kendrick and recommend.the highly reputable book."Fat and Cholesteril don't cause heart attacks abd statins are nit the solution by many eminent ohydivians and edited by Dr. Paul Rosch.
The gist of Dr. Kendrick's book "The Clot Thickens" can be found in his own article in the Current Opinion on Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity, October 2022, Vol 29, Issue 5 "Assessing cardiovascular disease: looking beyond cholesterol"
A PDF copy of his article can be freely downloaded for your own assessment of his "thrombogenic" hypothesis, actually not his but a continuation of Karl von Rokitansky's model which was first proposed over 150 years ago, that that atherosclerotic plaques represent the build-up/metamorphosis of thrombi that have been deposited onto, then incorporated into the arterial wall.
HI.I HAVE READ DR. KENDRICK'S BOOKS AND FIND HIM VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE. I GAVE UP STATINS SOME 3 YEARS AGO AND MY CHOLESTEROL LEVELS ARE FINE!! I NOTE THAT STATINS ARE BY FAR THE BIGGEST EARNER OF ALL MEDS SO I BELIEVE THAT IS WHY BIG PHARMA AND GPs PUSH THEM SO HARD.
I AM NOT A HUGE FAN OF BIG PHARMA. I AM INTERESTED TO KNOW YOUR VIEWS ON BISOPROLOL AS I AM ON IT TOO. GOOD LUCK!!
Like you, I went off the statins due to too many side effects.
I was unwilling to take a drug that made me feel unwell, especially as it was being used for primary and not secondary prevention.
Regarding bisoprolol- there is much discussion about this medication on this site. I was using it for blood pressure control only. I cannot tell you how much of a zombie it turned me into! I lasted 4 and 1/2 months on it. I felt like I was in a fog, and got back pain which I never have. I was on 2.5 mgm. All symptoms disappeared after discontinuing the med.
I am now on a combination of amlodopine and Valsartan which is keeping the BP under control.
Some people do very well on bisoprolol. It may be the best thing for you. Work with your doctor for best results if you are at all worried.
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