Current Posts – 13 November 2014

Experts in Alzheimer’s disease agree that lifestyle plays a big part in your chances. Then they ignore the logical conclusion and devote massive research funding to developing a drug. Occasionally a small trial tests one or two lifestyle elements but what if you blitzed patients with an intensive package of all the things that could plausibly make a difference? That’s just what has been done and the results are very impressive. 

How naïve we’ve been. For months we have puzzled by the bizarre responses by senior medic Sir Rory Collins to scientific critics of his claim that statins benefit almost everyone. He never engaged with his critics just attacked. We believed in evidence based medicine but a paper by a government chief scientific advisor, explains why Sir Rory’s response makes sense. It’s not just the evidence, stupid.

We’ve written a lot about statins simply because these drugs are taken by more people than any other so their safety and effectiveness matters to million. But recent events have also provided a fascinating window on the power politics and commercial interests active in the background. Statin rebels have exposed several shortcomings in the official story but this week the empire strikes back.