The Los Angeles Times has some disturbing news about statins (Pravachol, Mevacor, Lipitor, Zocor and Crestor) which are taken by 24 million Americans largely to stave off heart attacks and strokes. The paper reports on a debate precipitated by three articles published recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine. One of those articles claimed that contrary to widely held belief, statins do not
drive down death rates among those who take them to prevent a first
heart attack. A second article doubted the influential
findings of a 2006 study, called JUPITER, that has driven the expansion
of statins’ use by healthy people with elevated blood levels of
C-reactive protein, a measure of inflammation. A third article suggested
potential ethical, clinical and financial conflicts of interest at work
in the execution of the JUPITER study and concluded the widely hailed
trial was “flawed” and raises “troubling questions concerning the role
of commercial sponsors.”
The Times quotes John Abramson, author of “Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of
American Medicine”: The best way to drive down the risk of developing
cardiovascular disease in the first place is to exercise regularly, not
smoke, drink in moderation and eat a healthy Mediterranean-style diet.
But, he added, “this message gets drowned out by the commercial
interests” of pharmaceutical companies who stand to benefit from
increased sales.”
What’s more troubling is that a study done in Denmark showed that 26% of the people that took statins for 2 years or more developed peripheral neuropathy. I’m proof that happens.
This isn’t going to stop the docs from prescribing them to almost anyone over the age of forty who has any cholesterol in their bloodstream. Statins are big business and knowing that they don’t do any good isn’t going to make the drug companies stop paying the docs to peddle the stuff.
Since the correlation between heart disease and high cholosterol levels (TC, LDL) is well established and the effectiveness of statins in reducing cholesterol levels and reducing coronary inflammation is also well documented, it will take a great deal more evidence than this to change clinical medical practice. For those on statins, do not fret and do not stop taking your statin medications.
“One pill makes you larger, one pill makes you small and the one that mother gives you don’t do nothing at all…Ask Alice when she’s ten feet tall…” as a refrain from a Jefferson Airplane song went in the late 1960s and stil holds true today.
Big Pharma is even bigger buisness, bringing in even more revenue than the oil industry. The commerical manipulations of the public and the medical community to over medicate, to prescribe drugs that eiether don’t do any good or that have adverse side effects that are worse than the original ailment as they preach in print ads and on television that you should be telling your doctor that you need this wonder drug even if your not ill and the governments unwillingness to regulate this out of control industry and thereby protect the American people has caused health care cost to rise to the point of being unaffordable by most and to the toxic drugging and murder of countless persons.
When medicine became a commercial product and stopped being a right, when health became a forgotten byproduct that often failed to materialize as a result of sales and keeping the numbers up the end clearly came into view but the ostriches, with our heads in the sand, shirking our personal responsiblities to investigate and learn and to demand our rights, chose not to see the same.
If you look in your medicine closet over your bathroom sink and note bottle after bottle of prescription drugs that you take twice a day and yet never feel better then close the cabinet, look into the mirror and see who is to blame.
Ignorance is to blame and such can be corrected. Apathy and inaction are symptoms which can be cured and who you put into office is the beginning of the rememdy.
more B.S. from sportsgeezer
Health care was never a right, and probably shouldn’t be considered so. In the past, docs took it upon themselves to take care of the needy that came to them. In today’s economy, any doc that attempted to do that in any kind of serious way would soon find him or her self unable to maintain a facility or take care of anyone. It’s the fact of life today that docs have to be more business-like, often bought up by growing hospital groups to survive.
The cost of equipment, the cost of trained staff, med school debt, the cost of insurance driven up by frivolous claims (foolish people expecting a perfect outcome every time or just plain dishonesty).
The idea that government can solve it is ridiculous.
Causation and correlation are two very different things.
My former doctor goes around, giving talks about the benefits of statin drugs.(Don’t tell me that he’s not getting some compensation for it!) I am having a lot of problems with weak facial muscles and was even told I probably had a toxic level of one drug (Lamictal) in my system. I left my doctor, who tried to insist that I stay on statin drugs, and told my new doctor that I did not want to take statins and would not sue her if I died of a heart attack! Maybe I’m being foolish, but I think patients have the right to refuse medications. Statins can even weaken the heart muscle, I’ve read.
I am a just 40 year old woman, with no family history of heart problems (even with a grandfather who STILL smokes cigarettes!), about 10lbs overweight, and blood pressure of 110/70 every time it’s taken…..I had my first blood cholesterol test last month and was told it was “too high”. A nurse called and insisted that I start on Crestor, without speaking to my doctor, and dismissed any concerns I had about side affects and trying diet and exercise first. She even told me I wouldn’t have any side affects except maybe I’d be a “little achy”. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???!!!
I am NOT taking that medicine, even before reading the article!! I agree that I should add more fruits and raw veggies to my diet, and move my body more, but I have NO heart symptoms! And WHY would I choose to be a little achy (yeah, right!), for some phantom benefit???