Current Posts – 25 Mar 2014

A big trial is underway to test if putting obese patients on a very low calorie diet using nutritional shakes can reverse diabetes. Our contributor Hannah Sutter explains why this 40-year-old weight loss program that has an unimpressive track record is unlikely to be the answer. She wants to know why a more plausible approach using a low carbohydrate ketogenic diet is being ignored. Commercial interest is a plausible answer.

Should many more of us be taking statins and if so what’s the evidence it is a good idea? NICE suggests that their guidelines should be changed to make millions more eligible for the drug. But they are basing their recommendation on the work of a far less well known body -The Cholesterol Trialist (CTT) Collaboration, a highly respected research group in Oxford. An HealthInsightUK investigation – CTT House of statin secrets - has found the CTT is worryingly secretive and has limited information about side-effects.

HealthInsightUK has a number of contributors who are experts in statins. Here three of them – Dr John Briffa, Zoe Harcombe and Aidan Goggins respond to the CTT investigation. They explain why side-effect data is unreliable and disagree about whether it is in the drug companies interest that the risk of side-effects is downplayed or is that part of cunning plan?