Doctors at Glasgow Royal Infirmary are using ultrasound to treat patients with bone fractures.

Research found healing time for severe fractures was reduced by more than one third.

Ultrasound was first developed as a diagnostic tool at Glasgow’s Western Infirmary in the 1950s.

Research has suggested the treatment encourages cells to remove bacteria, stimulates the production of new bone cells and encourages those cells to mature more rapidly.

Archive footage: University of Glasgow

View the Video

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate the association of chocolate consumption with the risk of developing cardiometabolic disorders.

DESIGN:

Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials and observational studies.

DATA SOURCES:

Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, PubMed, CINAHL, IPA, Web of Science, Scopus, Pascal, reference lists of relevant studies to October 2010, and email contact with authors.

STUDY SELECTION:

Randomised trials and cohort, case-control, and cross sectional studies carried out in human adults, in which the association between chocolate consumption and the risk of outcomes related to cardiometabolic disorders were reported.

DATA EXTRACTION:

Data were extracted by two independent investigators, and a consensus was reached with the involvement of a third. The primary outcome was cardiometabolic disorders, including cardiovascular disease (coronary heart disease and stroke), diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. A meta-analysis assessed the risk of developing cardiometabolic disorders by comparing the highest and lowest level of chocolate consumption.

RESULTS:

From 4576 references seven studies met the inclusion criteria (including 114,009 participants). None of the studies was a randomised trial, six were cohort studies, and one a cross sectional study. Large variation was observed between these seven studies for measurement of chocolate consumption, methods, and outcomes evaluated. Five of the seven studies reported a beneficial association between higher levels of chocolate consumption and the risk of cardiometabolic disorders. The highest levels of chocolate consumption were associated with a 37% reduction in cardiovascular disease (relative risk 0.63 (95% confidence interval 0.44 to 0.90)) and a 29% reduction in stroke compared with the lowest levels.

CONCLUSIONS:

Based on observational evidence, levels of chocolate consumption seem to be associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of cardiometabolic disorders. Further experimental studies are required to confirm a potentially beneficial effect of chocolate consumption.

Source

Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, Strangeways Research Laboratory, Cambridge CB1 8RN, UK.

Buitrago-Lopez A, Sanderson J, Johnson L, Warnakula S, Wood A, Di Angelantonio E, Franco OH.

(CBS) This story was originally published on Dec. 13, 2009. It was updated on July 25, 2010.

Thousands wait in vain for organ transplants; soldiers return from battle horribly maimed. There is only so much medicine can do, but we may be on the path to a new technology in which quite literally, we will be growing new body parts.

It’s called “regenerative medicine,” where cells in the human body are manipulated into regrowing tissue.

As we first reported last December, researchers have so far created beating hearts, ears and bladders. Biotech companies and the Pentagon have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in research that could profoundly change millions of lives.

Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Web Extra: Making Body Parts
Web Extra: Growing and Ear
Web Extra: Kaitlyne’s Story

Dr. Anthony Atala runs the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina. You name the body part, chances are Dr. Atala is trying to grow one.

“Currently at the institute we’re working on over 22 different tissues and organs,” Dr. Atala told 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer.

According to Atala, they are working on regenerating bladders, kidneys, lungs and more. “The possibilities really are endless,” he said.

“Are you suggesting a remarkable future when organs fail, we simply replace them and live to 120? 150?” Safer asked.

“Well, the hope for the future is that if you do have a patient who has organ failure, you don’t want that patient to die because you’re waiting for an organ,” Atala said. “People are dying every day on the transplant wait list. So the hope of the field is that some day we can provide replacement tissues and organs that can be used to help them survive.”

Atala presides over the world’s largest lab devoted to bioengineering body parts. He has made everything from components of fingers to kidneys – it’s enough to make Dr. Frankenstein jealous.

Atala says every organ in our body contains special stem cells that are unique to each body part. The key to regeneration, he says, is to isolate and then multiply those cells until there are enough to cover a mold of that particular body part.

Atala showed Safer a bladder that was growing in the lab. “And you can see here that we actually create the three dimensional mold first. This is actually coated with cells and it’s done one layer at a time. It’s very much like baking a layer cake.”

It’s sort of surgery as pastry making.

“But, how do those cells know – it’s a really stupid question, I understand – but how do the bladder cells know they should be functioning as bladder cells?” Safer asked.

“The cells know exactly what to do. Every single cell in your body has all the genetic information to create a whole new you. So if you place that cell in the right environment, it’ll be programmed to do what it’s supposed to do,” Atala explained.

He says some body parts are simpler to make than others.

“And you can see here the mold shaped like an ear. And then what we do is we start seeding these with cells. And then this is actually the fully engineered ear,” he said. “The molds are designed to degrade over time. So as the tissue forms the mold goes away.”

“If that was for a child, would that grow with the child?” Safer asked, looking at the mold.

“Yes,” Atala said. “The body does recognize them as their own and it does grow with the child.”

Depending on the body part, Atala says the whole process can take six to eight weeks.

Atala showed Safer a beating, engineered heart valve. He says that human testing of heart valves and blood vessels will begin within five years. He has already grown and transplanted livers in mice.

Asked if the mouse livers are functioning, Atala said, “Yeah. And the tissue actually starts making what you’re supposed to see. Like for the liver, we actually are able to see the functionality that you would expect from the liver.”

And there’s Kaitlyne McNamara, a college student who was born with Spina bifida which caused her bladder to fail. Nine years ago, Kaitlyne, along with eight other patients, received new bladders grown from their own cells outside the body.

She says the procedure changed her life. “I never even knew I could get this far. I’m just living a normal adult life.”

(CBS) In Pittsburgh, researchers are taking a different approach: at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine they are trying to trick the body into actually repairing and regenerating itself.

“I would imagine when people ask you what you do for a living, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to explain,” Safer asked Dr. Steven Badylak, the institute’s deputy director.

“No, it’s not. So, now, I just say we, I make body parts. It gets their attention,” Dr. Badylak replied with a chuckle.

He and his team are convinced that the key to regeneration is finding the switch in our bodies that tells our cells to grow when we are still in the womb.

“The accepted wisdom is that we’re born with what we have and that’s it. You know, the body doesn’t grow new parts,” Safer remarked.

“Well the human body. ‘Cause there certainly are examples of species that regrow their arms and legs like a newt or a salamander. But, as a human early enough in gestation, we can do the same things. We can regrow major body parts. Limbs even, if it’s early enough,” Badylak explained.

“In essence, is what you’re doing trying to find the key to turning that process back on?” Safer asked.

“Yeah,” Badylak said. “If we could make the body or at least the part of the body that’s missing or injured think that it’s an early fetus again. That’s game set and match.”

Badylak says he now has the material that might be a step towards that. It is called ECM (Extra Cellular Matrix), which he gets, from of all places, pig bladders.

Badylak told Safer ECM exists in all of us and in all species. “It’s loaded with signals that instruct cells to do things, as well as serving as a structural support.”

“And where do pig bladders come into it?” Safer asked.

“They are a convenient source because it’s a throwaway product for the agricultural community. And so, we can get rid of the cells. And the remaining Extra Cellular Matrix is proven to be very instructive to the body,” Badylak said.

Asked if humans are closely related to pigs, the doctor said, “Probably closer than we’d like to admit.”

He says that ECM could regrow virtually every tissue in the body.

When doctors at the University of Pittsburgh were treating a patient with cancer of the esophagus who was too weak to face complicated surgery, they turned to Dr. Badylak and his ECM.

“Our therapy of choice right now is to remove the esophagus and pull the remaining stomach up through the chest and attach it to what’s left in the throat,” Badylak explained. “So, the treatment’s as bad as the disease. So, what we have done is said, ‘Can we take a regenerative medicine approach to allow surgeons and go in and just resect the cancer? And instruct the remaining esophagus to regrow itself as opposed to respond to injury and form a scar?’”

(CBS) Dr. Blair Jobe operated on 76-year-old Erwin Schmidt last April.

Jobe removed the cancerous lining of the esophagus and inserted a sleeve of ECM. Instead of forming a scar that would block his esophagus, doctors believe the ECM instructed his cells to regrow a new lining.

Today Schmidt is cancer free. “I’m eating real good, I feel terrific, and I’m starting to put weight on. No pain, no nothing,” Schmidt told Dr. Jobe.

“So essentially you gave him a new esophagus,” Safer remarked.

“We’re very excited by this. And I think, you know, in my heart I feel that this will change the way we do things ultimately,” Jobe said. “But I think right now it’s too early to claim victory.”

Based on that success, Jobe and his colleagues hope to start a full clinical trial soon.

And then there is the military. The Pentagon has invested $250 million in regenerative research aimed at helping soldiers with severe battle injuries, regrowing muscle and skin for burn injuries, as well as transplant technology for lost limbs.

Dr. Steven Wolf is the chief of clinical trials at the Army’s Institute for Surgical Research.

“I would imagine that the patient group that you’re dealing with are a particularly positive one. They’re young, eager men who suffer these horrible losses and want to get as much of their lives together as they can,” Safer remarked.

“Absolutely. They want to go back. Most of these guys do. They say, ‘Hey, fix me up so I can go back,’” Dr. Wolf replied.

Beginning this month, Wolf is leading a clinical trial that could one day make that possible. Army surgeons will implant ECM in the limbs of severely injured soldiers in hopes of restoring muscle lost to roadside bombs.

“What we’re doing with this project is putting this ECM, in there, and then hoping that it populates and then it becomes muscle,” Wolf explained.

“It also, in a place like this, goes by the name of pixie dust, correct?” Safer asked.

“Right. Well, it is somewhat magical, isn’t it?” Wolf remarked. “The whole notion of, well, we’re gonna put this powder in there. And it’s gonna make a new thing. And there is a lot of biological support of that whole notion, so it’s not magic, you know. But it certainly seems that way.”

Asked what he is hoping to achieve with this research, Wolf said, “Well, we’re not gonna, you know, just show up and go, ‘Hey, okay, here’s your leg. We’ll stick it on.’ What we hope is that we can replace certain tissues that can improve function. That’s the first thing to do is make ‘em function as well as possible.”

(CBS) Which is what Isais Hernandez says ECM did for him: he was so severely wounded by a mortar round that amputation of his leg seemed likely.

Wolf operated on Hernandez last year as a first test of ECM in this type of injury. He placed ECM in Hernandez’ thigh, which grew entirely new muscle in a wound that had once exposed the bone.

His physical therapist Johnny Owens says the muscle growth is clear.

Asked if he feels the difference, Hernandez told Safer, “Yeah, I mean, it doesn’t feel, it doesn’t get as tired as quickly or shaky before. After doing some other workouts, I’d have to break. And now I don’t have to break anymore.”

“Must be giving you a lot of pleasure to see that kind of progress?” Safer asked Owens.

“It does, yeah,” he replied. “And this is one, early on, I think there’s a lot of potential to see bigger and better things.”

“When you saw that this, to some extent, worked, were you surprised?” Safer asked Dr. Steven Wolf.

“Part of my job is to be a scientist and to be somewhat objective, right?” Wolf replied.

“You’re also a human being,” Safer pointed out.

“Exactly. Exactly,” Wolf agreed, laughing. “Of course we were excited. You know, and that ‘Did it fail miserably?’ No. In fact, it seemed to work. Eureka!”

“If this works it could really change trauma medicine, yes?” Safer asked.

“In terms of muscle loss. Now all right, what happens if we put that by a nerve? What happens if we put that by bone? What happens if we put that by your heart? What happens by so? You see, it opens a lot of doors if it actually works,” Wolf said.

The military is also using regenerative techniques in hand replacements for amputees. Doctors at the University of Pittsburgh have successfully transplanted a hand taken from a cadaver onto the arm of Marine Josh Maloney who lost his right hand working with dynamite.

Using cell therapy and a bone marrow transplant from the donor, doctors were able to get Josh’s body to accept the new hand without many of the anti-rejection drugs that are almost always toxic.

Maloney says the surgery has given him his life back. To Dr. Wolf, it’s the least medicine can do.

“These guys, they were protecting us. They took the hit for us, and they deserve our respect for that reason,” Wolf said. “And from my perspective, they deserve our very best effort to do the best we know how to do, and then further, to do the best that we don’t even know yet how to do.”

Click Here to Watch the 60 Minutes Video, ‘Growing Body Parts.’

Objective

To determine whether ultrasound (US)-guided percutaneous needle tenotomy followed by a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection would result in pain reduction, functional improvement, or structural alterations in patients with chronic, recalcitrant tendinopathy.

Design

Part A was a retrospective observational study. Part B was a prospective observational study.

Setting

Outpatient academic sports medicine center.

Participants

To be included in the study, patients were required to have chronic (>3 months), recalcitrant tendinopathy treated with US-guided percutaneous tenotomy and PRP injection between January 2007 and October 2009. Fifty-one subjects met the inclusion criteria. Forty-one (80%) participated in part A of the study, whereas 34 subjects (67%) participated in part B.

Methods

In part A, subjects completed a survey obtaining anthropomorphic, demographic, pain, and functional data. Subjects’ platelet, hemoglobin, and white blood cell concentrations from their whole-blood and PRP samples were also obtained. In part B, subjects returned to the clinic for a diagnostic US, which was compared with their preprocedure diagnostic US.

Main Outcome Measures

The main outcome measures included changes in pain, function, and tendon characteristics.

Results

The tendinopathy location was in the upper extremity in 10 subjects (24.4%), was in the lower extremity in 31 subjects (75.6%), and had been present for a mean of 40 months. The mean postprocedure follow-up was 14 months, and the maximum benefits occurred 4 months postprocedure. There were mean functional and worst-pain improvements of 68% and 58%, respectively. Eighty-three percent of subjects were satisfied with their outcomes and would recommend the procedure to a friend. Although no tendons demonstrated a normal sonographic appearance after the procedure, 84% of subjects had an improvement in echotexture, 64% had a resolution of intratendinous calcifications, and 82% had a decrease in intratendinous neovascularity. None of the variables analyzed in this study demonstrated a significant correlation with pain or functional outcome measures.

Conclusions

In this case series, we found US-guided percutaneous needle tenotomy followed by PRP injection to be a safe and effective treatment for chronic, recalcitrant tendinopathy, and this treatment was associated with sonographically apparent improvements in tendon morphology. However, because of the intrinsic limitations of the study design and the heterogeneity of treated tendons, further research is required to corroborate our findings.

Sacramento – When a report came out in 2005 that researchers had found the stem cell origin of vertebrates in the human neck and shoulders, a new step toward vertebrae evolution had begun. That evolution is now moving forward with adult stem cell therapy.

Neurosurgery researchers, Kee Kim and Rudolph Schrot, of the University of California – Davis Health System, have developed a leading-edge stem cell therapy to relieve the debilitating pain that can occur following the removal of cervical discs.

The researchers used adult stem cells from bone marrow in order to promote growth of bone tissue for spinal fusion after surgery, used for numerous conditions like degenerative disc disease.

“For the past 50 years, bone marrow-derived stem cells have been used to rebuild patients’ blood-forming systems. We know that subsets of stem cells from the marrow also can robustly build bone. Their use now to promote vertebral fusion is a new and extremely promising area of clinical study,” said Jan Nolta, director of the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures, as published in Science Daily.

The purpose of spinal fusion surgery is to remove the cervical disc that is causing the pain, used in situations like degenerative disc disease where the cartilage that cushions the vertebra has worn away. Bone on bone occurs or herniated discs. By eliminating the disc, painful friction between the vertebrae and nerve compression is eliminated.

Spinal fusion is a surgery that connects two or more vertebrae in the spine, used for three reasons: improve spine stability; reduce pain; or to correct a spine deformity. Treating the spine problem prevents motion or movement of the afflicted spine area.

According to Mayo Clinic, common conditions that require spinal fusion are degenerative disc disease, broken or fractured vertebrae, spondylolisthesis, spine deformities, herniated disc, chronic low back pain, spinal instability or weakness. Sixty percent of patients who have spinal fusion surgeries develop chronic pain or persistent discomfort, with adequate spinal fusions failing in approximately eight to 35 percent of patients.

“A lack of effective new bone growth after spine fusion surgery can be a significant problem, especially in surgeries involving multiple spinal segments,” said Schrot, co-principal investigator for the study, also reported in Science Daily. “This new technology may help patients grow new bone, and it avoids harvesting a bone graft from the patient’s own hip or using bone from a deceased donor.”

UC Davis Healthy System reports that several clinical trials are under way in the UC Davis Spine Center, with a total of 24 volunteers to become enrolled throughout the 10 investigational centers throughout the United States. Kim is also planning on launching a clinical trial that will study how safe it is to inject stem cells into disc tissue to repair degenerated discs.

Read more at Digital Journal

Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were first discovered by Friedenstein and his colleagues in 1976 from bone marrow. The unique property of these cells was their potential to develop into fibroblastic colony forming cells. Since Friedenstein’s discovery of these cells the interest in adult MSCs has been progressively growing. Nowadays MSCs are defined as undeveloped biological cells capable of proliferation, self renewal and regenerating tissues. All these properties of MSCs have been discovered in the past 35 years. MSCs can play a crucial role in tissue engineering, organogenesis, gene therapy, transplants as well as tissue injuries. These cells were mainly extracted from bone marrow but there have been additional sources for MSCs discovered in the laboratories including: muscle, dermis, trabecular bone, adipose tissue, periosteum, pericyte, blood, synovial membrane and so forth. The discovery of the alternative sources of MSCs helps widen the application of these cells in different areas of medicine. By way of illustration, they can be used in various therapeutic purposes such as tissue regeneration and repair in musculoskeletal diseases including osteonecrosis of femoral head, stimulating growth in children with osteogenesis imperfecta, disc regeneration, osteoarthritis and duchenne muscular dystrophy. In order to fully comprehend the characteristics and potential of MSCs future studies in this field are essential.

Mafi R, Hindocha S, Mafi P, Griffin M, Khan WS.

SourceThe Hull York Medical School, Hertford Building, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK.

August 19, 2011

Aline Betancourt, a research associate professor with the Tulane Center for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine, is working to produce standardized stem cells that will either turn on or turn off the body’s inflammatory response. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)

Stem cells are cells that have not yet differentiated into ones that have a specific role in the body. Taking stem cells from the bone marrow of adult volunteers, Betancourt instructs them to produce the desired response by stimulating a specific receptor on them.

“Receptors determine the fate of the cell,” Betancourt says. “You’re telling them, ‘this is the mission to respond to inflammation or to produce inflammation when that would help the body heal.’”

Working in the Tulane Center for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine, Betancourt demonstrated that adult stem cells share the same receptors as immune cells, which signal a danger to the body.

“Immune cells and stem cells work together as partners — part of the same system,” says Betancourt. The two types of cells are in an intricate pas de deux inside the body to respond at sites of injury or attack by viruses, bacteria and other invaders.

The Tulane Office of Technology Transfer has assisted Betancourt in applying for a patent on this process to “educate” the stem cells.

Betancourt has launched a start-up company, Wibi+Works, to design and produce therapies using stem cells that specifically will target inflammatory diseases.

Melissa Androuny, a Tulane fourth-year MD/MBA student working as an intern at the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, helped conduct an analysis for Betancourt to determine which disease will be the first for her clinical trials: arthritis.

“My dream has always been to transfer my work into the clinic, so I’m always trying to find faster ways to do that,” Betancourt. With luck, she believes clinical trials using her designer stem cells will begin with arthritis patients in five years.

Since HIV was discovered 30 years ago this week, 30 million people have died from the disease, and it continues to spread at the rate of 7,000 people per day globally, the UN says.

There’s not much good news when it comes to this devastating virus. But that is perhaps why the story of the man scientists call the “Berlin patient” is so remarkable and has generated so much excitement among the HIV advocacy community.

Timothy Ray Brown suffered from both leukemia and HIV when he received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Berlin, Germany in 2007. The transplant came from a man who was immune to HIV, which scientists say about 1 percent of Caucasians are. (According to San Francisco’s CBS affiliate, the trait may be passed down from ancestors who became immune to the plague centuries ago. This Wired story says it was more likely passed down from people who became immune to a smallpox-like disease.)

What happened next has stunned the dozens of scientists who are closely monitoring Brown: His HIV went away.

“He has no replicating virus and he isn’t taking any medication. And he will now probably never have any problems with HIV,” his doctor Gero Huetter told Reuters. Brown now lives in the Bay Area, and suffers from some mild neurological difficulties after the operation. “It makes me very happy,” he says of the incredible cure.

The development of anti-retroviral drugs in the 1990s was the first sign of hope in the epidemic, transforming the disease from a sudden killer to a more manageable illness that could be lived with for decades. But still, the miraculous cocktail of drugs is expensive, costing $13 billion a year in developing countries alone, according to Reuters. That figure is expected to triple in 20 years–raising the worry that more sick people will not be able to afford treatment.

Although Brown’s story is remarkable, scientists were quick to point out that bone marrow transplants can be fatal, and there’s no way Brown’s treatment could be applied to the 33.3 million people around the world living with HIV. The discovery does encourage “cure research,” according to Dr. Jay Levy, who co-discovered HIV thirty years ago, something that many people did not even think was possible years ago.

You can watch Brown talk about his cure in this CBS video report.

(Brown: Eric Risberg/AP)

Despite the fact that the human body is a complicated, flexible and durable structure, many individuals incurring cartilage injuries during adulthood, painfully comprehend that this is one area of the body that fails to regenerate. However, scientists engaged in research at Northwester University believe a recent discovery allows joints to grow cartilage through the creation and advancement of a nanogel that stimulates bones marrow cells to facilitate this particular tissue growth.

The protein contained within the smooth cartilage that encapsulates the end of bones and builds joint connections is comprised of type II collagen. Researchers successfully developed a similar substance in the form of a bioactive nanogel. Following minimally invasive injections, the gel becomes a fibrous, but solid extracellular medium, similar to cells viewed during natural cartilage growth. The substance unites with specific key growth factors promoting regeneration and maintains a localized area. Stimulated bone marrow stem cells then naturally initiate type II collagen production. The nanogel medium serves as a nutrient through a slow process of deterioration while cartilage progressively builds. Eventually, naturally grown tissue completely replaces the nanogel matrix.

Though currently successful when implemented in animal testing, further testing and trials inhibit the substance’s use in humans for at least a few years. The timing of the discovery could not have arrived at a more opportune time as numerous Baby Boomers face the prospect of aging along with cartilage and joint degeneration. The ability for the body to manufacture its own cartilage encourages the possibility of increased physical activity for hundreds of thousands of adults.

Dr. Graveline has an interesting background that makes him particularly suited to speak on the topic of statin drugs. He’s a medical doctor with 23 years of experience whose health was seriously damaged by a statin drug. His personal questions brought him out of retirement to investigate statins, which he’s been doing for the past 10 years.

As a former astronaut, he would get annual physicals at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. In 1999 his cholesterol hit 280 and he was given a prescription for Lipitor.

“When they suggested Lipitor (10 mg), I went along with it because I had no reason to be particularly worried about statin drugs,” he says. “I had used it a year or so before my retirement, but I wasn’t a big user.”

However, it quickly became apparent that something was seriously wrong.

“It was six weeks later when I experienced my first episode of what was later diagnosed as transient global amnesia,” Dr. Graveline says.

“This is an unusual form of amnesia wherein you immediately, without the slightest warning, are unable to formulate new memory and you can no longer communicate. Not because you cannot talk, but you can’t remember the last syllable that was spoken to you. So nothing you say is relevant anymore. In addition, you have a retrograde loss of memory, sometimes decades into the past.”

He “woke up” about six hours later in the office of a neurologist, who gave him the diagnosis: transient global amnesia. He quit taking the Lipitor despite the reassurances from his doctors that the drug was not of concern, and that it was just a coincidence.

He had no relapses during the remainder of the year, but his cholesterol was still around 280 at his next physical. He was again urged to take Lipitor, and he relented.

“I admit I was concerned, but I had talked to maybe 30 doctors and a few pharmacologists during the interval,” Dr. Graveline says. “They all said “statins don’t do that.” So I allowed myself to go back on statins but this time I took just 5 mg.

…[E]ight weeks later, I had my second, and my worst episode. In this one, I was a 13-year-old high school student for 12 hours… This is what convinced me, when I finally woke up, that something was wrong with the statin drugs. And yet, the doctors were, for years after that, still saying that this was just a remarkable coincidence.

This took me out of retirement and I’ve been actively involved in researching statin drugs ever since.”

Statin Drugs: Not Nearly as Safe as You’re Told

Dr. Graveline has since published a book about his discoveries called Lipitor: Thief of Memory.

“In trying to reach an explanation, I called Joe Graedon and asked him if he had ever heard of any unusual reactions associated with statins,” Dr. Graveline says of his initial investigations.

He was directed to the statin effects study by Beatrice Golomb in San Diego, California, and his story was also published in a syndicated newspaper column. Within weeks, the web site he had created received reports of 22 cases of transient global amnesia, along with hundreds of cases of cognitive damage. At present, over 2,000 cases of transient global amnesia associated with the use of statins have been reported to FDA’s MedWatch.

But cognitive problems are not the only harmful aspect of these drugs. Other serious adverse reactions include:

•               Personality changes / mood disorders

•               Muscle problems, polyneuropathy (nerve damage in the hands and feet), and rhabdomyolysis (a serious degenerative muscle tissue condition)

•               Sexual dysfunction

•               Immune suppression

•               Pancreas or liver dysfunction, including a potential increase in liver enzymes

•               Cataracts

According to Dr. Graveline, a form of Lou Gehrig’s disease or ALS may also be a side effect, although the US FDA is resistant to accept the link found by their Swedish counterpart, and has so far refused to issue a warning.

“The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on this in July 2007 when Ralph Edwards, who directs the Vigibase in Sweden (the equivalent of the US MedWatch), reported ALS-like conditions in statin users worldwide,” Dr. Graveline says.

He has since forwarded hundreds of cases to MedWatch, but the FDA still has not been moved to act, and doctors are therefore unaware of the connection between this deadly disease and statin use.

“[W]e have anecdotal evidence that if you stop the statin drug early enough, some of these cases regress. That’s why we thought it was important that FDA issue a warning, but they haven’t,” Dr. Graveline says.

Today, all of these adverse effects, including the cognitive problems Dr. Graveline warned about 10 years ago, are supported by published research. MedWatch has received about 80,000 reports of adverse events related to statin drugs, and remember, only an estimated one to 10 percent of side effects are ever reported, so the true scope of statins’ adverse effects are still greatly underestimated.

For a more in-depth explanation of how statins damage your mitochondria and DNA, resulting in a variety of health problems, please listen to the interview in its entirety or read through the transcript as he discusses far more than I can include here.

How Statins Harm Your Brain Function

As is often the case with pharmaceutical drugs, the side effects end up teaching us new things about how the human body works. When statins first hit the market, conventional medicine was unaware of the importance of cholesterol for proper brain function. Now, researchers believe that statins’ adverse effects on cognition are due to cholesterol insufficiency.

Research also began to emerge in 2001 showing the importance of cholesterol in the formation of memories.

“Then we have… dolichols,” Dr. Graveline says. “[W]hen a statin is used, it blocks the mevalonate pathway to get at cholesterol inhibition. It works very beautifully. But in so doing, it blocks CoQ10, dolichols, as well as other major biochemicals…

[D]olichol is one that most doctors have never even heard of before, but it just so happens that dolichols are almost as important as CoQ10 and cholesterol in cell processing.”

In fact, dolichols are vital to a number of cellular processes, including:

•               Glycoprotein synthesis

•               Cell identification

•               Cell communication

•               Immunodefense

•               Neurohormone formation

Dr. Graveline goes on to explain that dolichols influence all the hormones involved with your mental condition, including your emotions and moods. And if you do not have sufficient dolichol, your entire process of neurohormone production will be altered—with potentially devastating results.

“[T]here are thousands of reports of aggressiveness and hostility, increased sensitivity, paranoia, depression and homicidal ideation,” Dr. Graveline says.

There are also numerous reports of suicide.

“This whole range of what I call personality- or emotion and behavioral responses have to do with the dolichol deficiency brought on by the mevalonate blockade,” Dr. Graveline explains.

“It’s not just something that occurs in an occasional person… You know we’re all the same and yet we’re all different… You give one medicine to 10 people and if you’re really lucky, in six of them it will do what it’s supposed to do. That’s the way it is with this. I expect there are some people that won’t get any effects of dolichol suppression because they have alternative pathways. The same thing probably holds for CoQ10.”

That said, it’s important to realize that your brain also requires cholesterol in order for memory formation to function normally. In essence, statins suppress a number of vital elements for proper brain functioning, including cholesterol, antioxidants and co-factors like CoQ10, and dolichol.

At the same time, statins also create mitochondrial DNA and cellular damage, including in your brain.

Your brain uses glial cells as factories for producing its own cholesterol on demand. Unfortunately, glial cells are affected by statins in the same way as your liver cells, or any other cell in our body. So if you take a statin, you’re also harming your glial cells and when they cease to function normally, that on-demand cholesterol capability also ceases and your brain can no longer function properly.

The Importance of CoQ10 or, if You’re Over 40, Ubiquinol

It’s now clear that if you take statin drugs without taking CoQ10, your health is at serious risk as statin drugs deplete your body of this essential co-enzyme. As your body gets more and more depleted of CoQ10, you may suffer from fatigue, muscle weakness and soreness, and eventually heart failure. Coenzyme Q10 is also very important in the process of neutralizing free radicals.

So when your CoQ10 is depleted, you enter a vicious cycle of increased free radicals, loss of cellular energy, and damaged mitochondrial DNA.

Unfortunately, the majority of people who take statins are unaware of their need for CoQ10, and physicians rarely advise their patients to take this supplement along with their statin—at least in the United States. It’s also important to supplement right from the start. According to Dr. Graveline, once the mitochondrial damage and mutations are formed they cannot be reversed—no matter how much CoQ10 you take.

So early intervention is key. (Dr. Graveline goes into further detail of how CoQ10 offers protection against mitochondrial DNA damage in this interview, so for more information, please listen to it in its entirety.)If you decide to take a CoQ10 supplement and are over the age of 40, it’s important to choose the reduced version, called ubiquinol.

Ubiquinol is a FAR more effective form—I personally take 1-3 a day as it has far-ranging health benefits. Dr. Graveline concurs with this recommendation.

As for dosage, Dr. Graveline makes the following recommendation:

•               If you have symptoms of statin damage such as muscle pain, take anywhere from 200 to 500 mg

•               If you just want to use it preventively, 200 mg or less should be sufficient

There’s also evidence that CoQ10/ubiquinol is beneficial for Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, and even cancer, and that large doses may be justified in those cases as well.

In addition, CoQ10 is believed to play an important role in preventing premature aging in general by preventing telomere shortening, which can slow or potentially even reverse the aging process. This is just one of the additional benefits of CoQ10, and one of the reasons why I take ubiquinol daily even though I’ve never been on a statin drug.

There are no reported side effects of CoQ10 supplementation, and neither I nor Dr. Graveline have ever heard of anyone overdosing on it. The only drawback is cost.

However, if you’re taking ubiquinol, here’s some cost-saving information for you.

Certified reduced ubiquinol is only manufactured by one company in the entire world, a Japanese company called Kaneca. They own the patent. So, as long as it’s certified ubiquinol, you can buy the cheapest brand you can find, because they’re all the same.

Other Valuable Antioxidants for Optimal Health—Especially if You’re Taking a Statin

CoQ10, or preferably the reduced version, ubiquinol, is at the top of the list of important supplements when you’re taking a statin drug. But there are also other antioxidants and nutrients that can be helpful. For example, selenium is also seriously inhibited by statin drugs, and selenium, along with magnesium, are commonly involved as co-factors in a variety of biological functions.

Other important nutrients include:

•               VitaminC

•               Vitamin D

•               Vitamin E—An emerging form of vitamin E called tocotrienol is 50 times more powerful than tocopherol, which has been used for the past 60 years. It also helps produce cholesterol and has other biochemical advantages

•               Alpha-lipoic acid

•               L-carnitine—which helps metabolize fats properly. Since about 70 percent of your muscles’ energy comes from fats, it’s important to have the ability to metabolize them. INSERT LINE BREAK According to Dr. Graveline: “If you take L-carnitine and find that you suddenly feel much better, then you’ve just proven you need it for the rest of your life because you’re one of those people who have a dysfunction in this capability; you don’t have the means to properly burn fats at our muscle level… naturally you would then get weak when exercising. So it’s useful for making a diagnosis. If nothing happens after three months of a good dose, then I would say you can forget about L-carnitine.”

The Sad Truth: Even Your Doctor has Been Mislead About Cholesterol

That said, aside from taking CoQ10 if you’re on a statin, your diet really should be your primary source of nutrients. (For vitamin D, you’d ideally get it from sun exposure.) Supplements are just that; supplemental to an otherwise healthy diet.

“I think that when you have a statin associated muscle or nerve or even brain dysfunction, this is where you’ve got to go because that’s where the trouble is,” Dr. Graveline agrees.

“[I]f it’s cholesterol inhibition, you just eat more eggs… I can’t believe I went 17 years and never ate an egg. I can’t believe how gullible I was. I was this young medical doctor; I marched to that band of the cholesterol-causation people… I did everything I was supposed to do, and it was all wrong. I can’t believe that I was led astray, maybe for 25 years of my practice! It’s so bad to have to look back and realize you’ve been treating cardiovascular disease erroneously because you were doing what you were asked to do.The sad truth is that cholesterol, our supposed enemy for 35 years, has nothing to do with cardiovascular disease. it is the most important biochemical in your body.

… We all listened to what amounts to brainwashing. The brainwashing that we got from 1955 on, to just recently… They have liberalized the diet stuff recently though, so people are back to eating eggs and drinking whole milk and eating butter. I went around recommending margarine for so long, and margarine is what’s causing disease—butter is what’s helping to cure it. It’s incredible!”

This is true for the majority of our conventional medical professionals. They simply do not know better… which is all the more reason to arm yourself with the information you need to take control of your own health. Shunning statin drugs and addressing your lifestyle is the way to go if you have high cholesterol. For more information, please see my statin index page which includes a plethora of free guidance and clear advice.

More Information

Dr. Graveline covers a lot of information in this interview, so I highly recommend you listen to the entire interview, or read through the transcript. You can also find more information on his web site: www.SpaceDoc.net .

Dr. Graveline’s site serves both as a tool for reporting statin complications, and a database of adverse effects, which are then forwarded to the appropriate agencies.