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  #1   ^
Old Mon, Feb-11-19, 08:48
JEY100's Avatar
JEY100 JEY100 is online now
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Default 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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  #2   ^
Old Mon, Feb-11-19, 09:22
GRB5111's Avatar
GRB5111 GRB5111 is offline
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Good article.

From Kendrick:

Quote:
Well, of course, it was the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists Collaboration (CTT) from Oxford. Run by Professor Sir Rory Collins and Professor Colin Baigent. They do almost all these meta-analyses on statins because they hold all the data. So, no-one else can really do them. . . . The CTT is in this hallowed position because they made a pact with the dev… sorry …they made a pact with the pharmaceutical industry to take hold of all the data on statins from all the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture statins and collate the data.

The CTT are very closely associated with the Oxford Clinical Trials Service Unit (CTSU). The CTSU is run by, and has employed, most of those in the CTT. Collins and Baigent, etc.

The CTSU is a clinical trials unit. Last time I looked, it had obtained nearly £300 million in funding from the pharmaceutical industry for running clinical trials on various cholesterol lowering medications.

The CTT will not let anyone else see the data they hold. Including all the data on adverse events [side-effects] and serious adverse events. It is kept completely secret.

Anyway, my point here is that the CTT is a horribly conflicted organisation that has been paid, directly or indirectly, a great deal of money by the pharmaceutical industry.

And he goes on with a link to provide more details of the conflicts of interest of this unholy "marriage."

Wow! This is what we're faced with today on many levels for those who are attempting to achieve and maintain health. Whether it's propaganda financed along with payouts to the "experts" by pharma, or food policy positions with distorted health facts, it requires people to become knowledgeable and vigilant, because it's hard to trust information any longer in our information age. The dream of having massive information available due to improved technology comes with a huge price. It requires people to become much more knowledgeable to simply sift through fact, fiction, and know the difference.
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  #3   ^
Old Mon, Feb-11-19, 09:42
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cotonpal cotonpal is offline
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It's all so horrifying, the damage that is being done to people in the name of medical "science".
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  #4   ^
Old Sun, Mar-10-19, 21:57
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Merpig Merpig is offline
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My dad was prescribed statins at the age of 75 for no valid reasons (IMHO) and although we finally got him off them my sister and I are both convinced that it was awful side effects he suffered, not all of which were fully resolved, that led to his eventual death several years sooner than we felt he should have gone.
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  #5   ^
Old Sun, Mar-10-19, 22:41
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Ms Arielle Ms Arielle is online now
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Merpig, sorry for your loss. My dad died far too early too. He was on some 16 prescription drugs, that my brother the pharmacist had to organize in such a way the meds were taken as prescribed. He developed a GIi bleed and died in the ICU over several days, after just getting out of the hospital a few days earlier.

Brother and I talked at the funeral......the meds added up to overkill. 65 is too young to die. Was one a statin? I dont know. Likely.

Last edited by Ms Arielle : Mon, Mar-11-19 at 07:23.
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  #6   ^
Old Mon, Mar-11-19, 04:04
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s93uv3h s93uv3h is offline
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Sorry for your loss Merpig.
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  #7   ^
Old Mon, Mar-11-19, 07:18
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bluesinger bluesinger is offline
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My DH and I have been married 15 years. He has two heart conditions, one congenital (bi-cuspid valve.) The other is AFIB. He is Norwegian, and that equals STUBBORN. He chooses drugs , but has taken my advice against statins so far, as his lipids are "okay."

I'm absolutely certain that eating LCHF would make him more healthy, but once a person becomes scared he/she will die, the pharmaceutical companies have them. Once the drugging begins it's very hard to get the courage to stop.

How can I stand by and watch him medicate himself into decrepitude? I have no choice, as we don't get to force other people to do what we want with their health. I hint, I hold my good health up as an example. I mention articles and subjects I'm studying. I'm 3 years older than he is and in much better health, but he is adamant. "The doctors know more than we do."

I'm fascinated by his choice to go along with their advice, as he is a revolutionary in all his other opinions. Just has a blind spot about his own mortality.

What will happen to my right to choose my own health care? I'm about to turn the corner to 74. Will I be forced to use statins against my will or be denied my Medicare benefits? What's next? Forced chemo if I'm diagnosed with cancer? The food police forcing us to eat SAD?

It's all pretty scary for me as an average (read "not rich") person.
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  #8   ^
Old Mon, Mar-11-19, 07:25
Ms Arielle's Avatar
Ms Arielle Ms Arielle is online now
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It is unfortunate that scaring people is the tactic. While I'm not afraid to die, confronted with that some years ago so dying no longer a fear, the docs still use tactics to berate patients into their choice of treatment.... forgetting that patients actually have choices.
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  #9   ^
Old Mon, Mar-11-19, 08:04
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QueenBee2 QueenBee2 is offline
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blues..I believe it's going to come to that.
Now, insurances are charging extra if you are 'overweight'.
Pretty soon....they'll be charging extra for diabetes, heart conditions, previous cancer diagnosis...etc.
We can't be 'excluded' for previous conditions, but they can charge more.
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  #10   ^
Old Mon, Mar-11-19, 08:10
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khrussva khrussva is offline
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I'm more afraid of dying a slow, miserable death than of dying in general. I fear being a burden on my family, both physically & financially. I was beginning to live that nightmare as a result of my previous diet & lifestyle. Eating the SAD certainly wasn't going well. Everyday was misery and struggle - the zest for life was gone. Even more dreadful was the realization that things were only going to get worse if I didn't change the course I was on. I'm exceedingly happy that I did find a way out of that mess.

Today I'm very active. I feel 30 years younger. Life is certainly looking up. Given what I've read about the common, often debilitating side effects of statins combined with the controversial, shady evidence of minimal benefit (at best), I see no reason for me to go down that road. If I'm wrong, let me die quickly. If I'm making the right choice, then I expect to have many happy, healthy years in front of me before I keel over and die. Choosing the slow & miserable path is not something that I want to do ever again.

Last edited by khrussva : Mon, Mar-11-19 at 09:55.
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  #11   ^
Old Mon, Mar-11-19, 09:22
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GRB5111 GRB5111 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bluesinger
What will happen to my right to choose my own health care? I'm about to turn the corner to 74. Will I be forced to use statins against my will or be denied my Medicare benefits? What's next? Forced chemo if I'm diagnosed with cancer? The food police forcing us to eat SAD?

It's all pretty scary for me as an average (read "not rich") person.

I have the same concerns being on Medicare. Those looking to enforce Standards of Care (SoC) on patients, and they're out there, pose a real threat that is all based on questionable research and information supporting the interests of those selling prescription drugs. The pretzel logic is that if I refuse to take something that should keep me healthy, thus, in the minds of those defining the SoC, potentially incur the costs of further healthcare due to noncompliance, I may lose my insurance. I'm resigned to the fact that those of us who have paid our whole working lives into Medicare may be threatened with use it and receive prescribed drugs per the SoC or lose it and not receive the insurance we've been guaranteed. My decision, should it come to this, is to accept the prescription, fill the prescription, and never consume the prescription. Sad that it might be this way.
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  #12   ^
Old Mon, Mar-11-19, 09:41
Merpig's Avatar
Merpig Merpig is offline
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Rob, totally agree. If it comes to that I’ll also take and fill the prescription and just stuff it into a drawer somewhere. What a waste, but if that’s what it takes I’ll do it.

I have Hashimotos and already face the issue that Medicare will not pay for the only medicine that works for me - Armour thyroid. They absolutely will not cover it AT ALL thus no part D drug plans are allowed to pay for it either. They will only pay for synthroid which I spent a couple miserable years on, to no affect, before I found someone willing to prescribe Armour. So I now pay $90 for a three-month supply but luckily I can still afford it, and I’d rather pay $90 for something that helps my condition than $2 for something that doesn’t! 🤪
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  #13   ^
Old Mon, Mar-11-19, 09:51
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s93uv3h s93uv3h is offline
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Plan: Atkins & IF / TRE
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Quote:
Originally Posted by khrussva
I'm more afraid of dying a slow, miserable death than of dying in general. I fear being a burden on my family, both physically & financially. I was beginning to live that nightmare as a result of my previous diet & lifestyle. Eating the SAD certainly wasn't going well. Everyday was misery and struggle - the zest for life was gone. Even more dreadful was the realization that things were only get worse if I didn't change the course I was on. I'm exceedingly happy that I did find a way out of that mess.

Today I'm very active. I feel 30 years younger. Life is certainly looking up. Given what I've read about the common, often debilitating side effects of statins combined with the controversial, shady evidence of minimal benefit (at best), I see no reason for me to go down that road. If I'm wrong, let me die quickly. If I'm making the right choice, then I expect to have many happy, healthy years in front of me before I keel over and die. Choosing the slow & miserable path is not something that I want to do ever again.
Well said.

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  #14   ^
Old Tue, Oct-08-19, 06:21
JEY100's Avatar
JEY100 JEY100 is online now
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A new statin study on osteoporosis ...depends on the dose. There are so many threads on Statins And Diabetes, Heart Disease, Muscle pain, ALS, I stuck this new one here.

https://www.enmnews.com/2019/10/08/...ur-bone-health/
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