Re: Need advice on clinical trials

This is NOT how cancer research should be carried on

Well, I have to say I'm not overly convinced by some of the stuff
I've seen going on in the world of medical research these days either.
In the papers this fellow is faking his test results, that one is
leaning his numbers to match a conclusion, the other one there has an
unmentioned connection with a large drug company, etc. etc.
When I began looking into cholesterol and its effects on coronary
arteries I thought I was getting the results of highly intelligent,
well-thought out testing and conclusions. Then I read "The Cholesterol
Myths" by Uffe Ravnskov and I was led to believe many of the medical
workers were playing with the statistics and results to satisfy a pet
theory or large drug/food companies that had their checkbooks in mind.
Then I found a few doctors that also were saying Cholesterol is not the
big thing for stopping heart events like heart attacks, but
homocysteine is. (The medical community has now come to the point
where they will state that Homosteine level being high is a 'risk
factor' for heart disease'.) They say we have to take more Folic Acid,
Vitamin B6 and B12 and keep the homocysteine level down, which is aided
by a healthier diet with greens, etc.

The problem here is that for every doctor or respected member of the
medical community that says one thing, there is another that will say
the opposite. As patients, we are going to have to listen to what they
are saying, check into it and decide which one makes sense to us and go
with it. It's like ulcers; many of them were diagnosed as stress and
similar causes by reputable doctors until one courageous guy pushed his
idea that these ulcers were an infection cured by an antibiotic. When
he was finally listened to, I believe he won the Nobel prize, but it
took a while to get to that point while we all wallowed around in our
wrong diagnoses taking incorrect medicines for nothing.

I know this all sounds a bit off the wall, but I would suggest
doubting and researching almost any diagnosis you get from a doctor,
starting with a second opinion, then books and then the internet. In
my own experience, I might well have been in a bad way right now,
possibly dead, if I had believed the first 2 doctors I spoke with about
a particular physical problem.

Chris

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