Mon, Feb-11-19, 08:48
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Plan: P:E/DDF
Stats: 225/150/169
BF:45%/28%/25%
Progress: 134%
Location: NC
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Statins for everyone over 75? The rogue voices fight back.
http://foodmed.net/2019/02/statins-...l-drug-industry
STATINS REVIVAL: PACT WITH DEVIL OR DRUG INDUSTRY?
Long article by Marika Sboros/Dr. Malcolm Kendrick/Dr. Zoe Harcombe at FoodMed.net.
Quote:
If you think robust evidence of serious health risks has dealt a terminal blow to the billion-dollar statin industry’s heart, think again. Statins are still the world’s most prescribed drug and the drug industry’s most profitable medicine ever.
In a new meta-analysis in The Lancet, [https://www.thelancet.com/journals/...942-1/fulltext] UK scientists attempt CPR on the drug’s ailing reputation. They want doctors to prescribe statins to more people over 75. They say that doing so will save 8000 lives annually. (That’s after some experts calling for doctors to put just about everyone, including children, on the drugs.) The authors also claim that statins produce “significant reductions in vascular events (heart attack and stroke) irrespective of age”. [Italics mine]
Independent researchers say those are false claims and the study is riddled with terminal errors. They also say the authors remain hopelessly conflicted with long-term links with drug companies.
Editors-in-chief of 24 major cardiovascular journals worldwide have joined the fray. In a co-ordinated defence of statins in an editorial in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA),[https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10....AHA.118.011838] they “sound the alarm that human lives are at stake”. They say the danger is from “medical misinformation” on statins that “travels faster through social networks than truth”.
‘Rogue’ voices
They say that risks about statins are overhyped and due to “rogue” voices. “In many instances, celebrities, activists, and politicians convey false information”, they say. And not uncommonly, “authors with purely venal motives participate”.
Dr Zoe Harcombe
British public health researcher Dr Zoë Harcombe sees things through a very different, independent lens. Harcombe has done intensive research into the cholesterol-lowering drugs. She once memorably called them “one of the biggest crimes against humanity that the pharmaceutical industry has unleashed”.
In a rapid-response critique of The Lancet study, she identifies material errors and false claims. Among others, Harcombe hones in on the study’s main recommendation of statins for those over 75.
She cites the “warnings and precautions” list on the package insert of Lipitor, the most prescribed statin: “Speak to your doctor, pharmacist or nurse before taking Lipitor if …. you are older than 70.”
Dr Malcolm Kendrick
Scottish MD Malcolm Kendrick says that The Lancet authors are hopelessly conflicted. And that it shows in their many false claims.
Kendrick has decades of clinical experience in treatment of CVD. He is also author of The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How To Avoid it.
His latest book due for release in June is A Statin Nation: Damaging Millions in a Brave New Post-health World.
Spoiler alert: Kendrick does not believe that a deficiency of statins causes heart disease.
In a shortened version of his latest blog below, Kendrick stops just a little short of saying that the researchers have made a pact with the devil. Instead, he says that they’ve made a pact with the drug industry. (Scroll down for a full version.) Continued at above link....
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