(Mercola.com) -- Tens of millions of Americans are taking cholesterol-lowering drugs - mostly statins - and some "experts" claim that many millions more should be taking them, including children as young as eight.

I couldn't disagree more.

Statins are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, that is, they act by blocking the enzyme in your liver that is responsible for making cholesterol (HMG-CoA reductase).

The enzyme that these drugs block is actually responsible for far more than making cholesterol.

It also makes CoQ10 which is vital for your mitochondrial health.

-- Statin drugs increase your likelihood of suffering exercise-related injury, according to a recent study, and the harmful effect increases with age

-- Several recent studies have also concluded that statins can increase your risk of developing diabetes. One meta-analysis found that one out of every 498 people who are on a high-dose statin regimen will develop diabetes as a result of the drug, but the risk may be as high as one in 255

-- Statins provoke diabetes by raising your blood sugar- and insulin levels, and by robbing your body of certain valuable nutrients, such as vitamin D and CoQ10, which are both needed to maintain ideal blood glucose levels

-- Like thalidomide, statin drugs are a class X drug with regard to pregnancy, meaning they are contraindicated and should NOT be taken by pregnant women

-- If you’re on a statin drug, you MUST take CoQ10 to alleviate some of the most dangerous side effects

The fact that statin drugs cause side effects is well established - there are now 900 studies proving their adverse effects, which run the gamut from muscle problems to diabetes, to birth defects and increased cancer risk.

Now you can add exercise-related muscle damage to the ever growing list of harmful side effects.