Re: Statin-associated Muscle Problems


"Rita" <nitany_98@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:sdccb11n54jshhgl9b0obj3tthvbtmh97f@xxxxxxxxxx
> On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 19:48:27 -0700, jason@xxxxxxxxxx (Jason) wrote:

Let me add this article that appeared on Discover magazine June 2005. I just
saw this reprint posted on the board in the lab. I don't have the author as
it was a reprint and not mentioned . You have to be careful about what it
says with regard to who he is talking about.

The Doctor who Doesn't check his cholesterol.
"Bypass surgery belongs in the medical archives....No Western European
nation has as high a rate of bypass surgery and angioplasty as we do--and
they live longer"

For three decades Nortin Hadler, a professor of medicine at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been rigorously examining statistics
generated by his medical colleagues practices and arriving at startling
conclusions about their effectiveness. To take just one example, Hadler is
credited with leading a complete rethinking about the treatment of back
pain, which he finds excessive, He wrote the editorial accompanying a
landmark study in the Journal of the American Medical Association two years
ago suggesting that the benefits of surgery for back pain are overrated. He
has also taken on heart treatment, testifying before Congress and the Social
Security Advisory Board and publishing papers arguing that very little data
back up the value of modern treatments like bypass surgery and angioplasty.
He took his case about cardiac care and other health issues to the public in
The Last Well Person; How to Stay Well Despite the Health Care System
(McGill-Queens University press, 2004)

Q-You're 62-do you get your cholesterol checked?
H. I don't want to know. We have data that tell me if you stigmatize me by
labeling me somehow, it will change my sense of well being. I have nothing
to gain from that in this case. I would be infuriated if any doctor checked
my cholesterol without my asking and told me if it was up or down. I would
think that would be an abuse of science that offered me a chance of feeling
less well for no good reason.

Q Surgery is obviously invasive, but why do you object to the widespread
prescriptions of statins. the cholesterol-lowering drugs?
H. In men with normal cholesterol levels, the risk of death for those
between ages 445 and 65 over the course of the next five years is only a
fraction of 1 percent lower than it is for men with high serum cholesterol
in the same category. The most thorough study to date had some 3,000 men
with "high"cholesterol levels take a statin every day for five years, while
3,000 men took a placebo. When all was said and done, there was no
difference in cardiovascular deaths between the two groups. Statins do
reduce the risk of heart attack in those who have a strong family history of
people in their family having heart attacks very young-but that's a small
percentage of the population. You could argue, looking at the data, that
they're helpful for people who've already had one heart attack. But for
everyone else, the possible advantage is marginally and clinically
insignificant.

Q.Your arguments seem to demand a major rethinking of how we practice modern
cardiac care. Has the response from the medical community, many of whose
practices you condemn been fierce?
H. Not really. The book review in The Journal of the American Medical
Association, about as establishment a journal as you can find, was so
positive I'm convinced my mother wrote it.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Statin-associated Muscle Problems
    ... > nation has as high a rate of bypass surgery and angioplasty as we do--and ... > Q-You're 62-do you get your cholesterol checked? ... > they're helpful for people who've already had one heart attack. ... We respect those subscribers that ask for advice or provide advice. ...
    (sci.med.cardiology)
  • Re: "Statins caused my kidney failure"
    ... > prove lowering cholesterol had any effect on life expectancy. ... the latest two studies involving patients with heart ... > are being increased by statins and that this appears to be canceling ... > show a lower rate of non-fatal heart attack and stroke. ...
    (sci.med.cardiology)
  • Re: "Statins caused my kidney failure"
    ... > prove lowering cholesterol had any effect on life expectancy. ... the latest two studies involving patients with heart ... > are being increased by statins and that this appears to be canceling ... > show a lower rate of non-fatal heart attack and stroke. ...
    (sci.med.nutrition)
  • Re: Cholesterol Drug Has No Benefit in Trial
    ... risk of heart attack, angina (chest pain), stroke, and death from ... weakness you would continue to take statins? ... I don't take a large dose, but enough to keep my cholesterol numbers in some reasonable state. ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Lower-Your-Cholesterols Reward? A Heart Attack! Or Amnesia!
    ... If you want to increase your risk of a heart attack, ... take your statin drug every day. ... Statins lower cholesterol. ...
    (misc.health.alternative)