Vitamin C Saga: How a small expert group fought back against NHS misinformation
2By Jerome Burne Whenever government […]
By Jerome Burne Whenever government […]
By Jerome Burne Sometime next […]
By Jerome Burne A murder mystery […]
Last week a massive piece of research extolling the benefits of statins was published in the Lancet. Its headline message was that the benefits of statins are hugely underestimated and far outweigh any harm. It had found that only 2 people per hundred suffer side effects while 15 people per hundred avoid strokes and heart attacks.
It came garlanded with the full majesty of the medical profession. Thirty pages long with 28 authors, 300 references and a declaration of interests that filled 44 lines of small type and mentioned more than 20 of the largest pharmaceutical companies. This juggernaut was designed to bury the widely publicised doubts about the effectiveness and safety of these drugs already prescribed to 6 million people.
One of the alarming and intriguing things about the cholesterol lowering drugs statins is the vigour and ferocity with which supporters defend them. It’s alarming because it makes it almost impossible for both doctors and patients to get accurate information about their risks and benefits. Intriguing because it is so unscientific.
The complicated and confusing debate about statins – are they worth taking or not; are they safe or do they have nasty side effect? – has suddenly plunged into anarchic and uncharted territory by the claims of a new rival drug.
That old adage ‘Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me’ looks like a perfect description of why the heart disease establishment should be hanging its collective head. Having totally bought into one cholesterol-lowering class of drug – statins – it now looks ready to open its arms and pockets equally wide to embrace a new improved more powerful son of statin drug – the PCSK9 inhibitors – that will drive that deadly fatty stuff right to the floor.
Professor Sir Rory Collins, the austere director of the institute in Oxford that produce much of the evidence supporting the increasing use of cholesterol –lowering statins, is in hot water once more. Last week he declared that he intended to investigate himself.
Recent Comments