Re: doctors overprescribe costly cholesterol-lowering drugs for minimal benefits

Nobody ever accused the health system of practicing preventative
medicine. ;o)

rr


On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 11:25:56 -0700, "Robert" <RobertJ@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>
>"montygram" <nazztrader@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:1113329011.205127.165860@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Old news. Read the book, Heart Failure, and you'll see what I mean.
>
>Canada is doing an excellent job of saving money.
>They have a good idea in that they should wait for somebody to get heart
>disease before doing anything. It is much more cost effective.
>That eliminates all the guess work in using predictive risk factors. You
>just wait for them to get it. It is 100% sensitive and 100% specific in
>picking up heart disease. Wait for them to get it.
>The billions of dollars used in preventing disease are better spent with
>treating disease.
>>
>>
>> TC wrote:
>> >
>> http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/04/11/statins050411.html
>> >
>> > Improve cholesterol drug prescribing habits, medical team advises
>> > Last Updated Mon, 11 Apr 2005 22:07:11 EDT
>> > CBC News
>> > TORONTO - Current Canadian guidelines are leading doctors to
>> > overprescribe costly cholesterol-lowering drugs for minimal benefits,
>> > one group of researchers says.
>> >
>> > A high cholesterol level is one of the factors physicians use to
>> assess
>> > someone's risk of having a heart attack, along with age, smoking and
>> > blood pressure, among others.
>> >
>> > In 2003, Canadian doctors wrote more than 15 million prescriptions
>> for
>> > statins.
>> >
>> > In 2003, a special advisory group issued guidelines that recommended
>> > more people be considered at risk of dying from heart disease, and
>> > therefore treated with statins like Lipitor if changes in diet and
>> > exercise don't help.
>> >
>> > Now a group of researchers at Toronto's Institute for Clinical
>> > Evaluative Sciences, or ICES, say the guidelines should be revised.
>> The
>> > non-profit group uses population-based information to add knowledge
>> on
>> > a broad range of health-care issues.
>> >
>> > Dr. Douglas Manuel and his team contend the guidelines could see
>> > 500,000 more Canadians on medication, at a cost of millions of
>> dollars,
>> > while saving few lives in the long run.
>> >
>> > "If you're young and you're generally healthy, your risk of having a
>> > heart attack is going to be low no matter what your cholesterol level
>> > is," said Manuel, one of the authors of the study in Tuesday's issue
>> of
>> > the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
>> >
>> > The ICES team looked at Canadians aged 18 to 74 between 1988 and 1992
>> > who were considered at low risk for heart disease but who qualify for
>> > statin therapy under current guidelines. Their goal was to run a
>> > reality check, estimating how many such people would need to take the
>> > drugs to save one life.
>> >
>> > They concluded 19,600 people would have to take the medication for
>> five
>> > years to prevent a single death from heart disease. Potential
>> > side-effects of statins include muscle pain and liver problems.
>> >
>> > Statins already cost Canada's health-care system $1.6 billion per
>> year,
>> > according to IMS Health, a company that tracks prescription drug
>> sales.
>> >
>> >
>> > By tweaking the guidelines to treat everyone at high risk while
>> > de-emphasizing treatment for those at low risk, hundreds of millions
>> of
>> > dollars could be saved while potentially avoiding 1,000 more deaths
>> > from heart disease over five years, Manuel said.
>> >
>> > Current guidelines also fail to recommend statin treatment for 13 per
>> > cent of the highest risk Canadians, the team said.
>> >
>> > Cardiologist Dr. Jacques Genest of Montreal's Royal Victoria
>> Hospital,
>> > who helped write the cholesterol treatment guidelines, said there are
>> > flaws in the ICES study.
>> >
>> > "They based their assumption of cholesterol reduction on very old
>> > studies and not more recent data," said Genest, who is working on
>> > updating the guidelines to reflect research that suggests high-risk
>> > patients should be treated more aggressively.
>> >
>> > The study suggests people who are taking statins talk to their
>> doctors
>> > about what their real risk of heart attack is, and whether the drugs
>> > offer significant benefit in each case.
>> >
>> > They stress that statin therapy is appropriate for people at high
>> risk
>> > of heart attack, specifically those already diagnosed with heart
>> > disease.
>> >
>> > ******
>> >
>> > It is all a massive waste of money and peoples health to treat a
>> > non-issue like cholesterol with dangerous, expensive and ineffective
>> > drugs.
>> >
>> > A winfall for the pharmaceuticals that sponsored and engineered the
>> > establishment of these very low guidelines.
>> >
>> > TC
>>
>

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Bad LDL cholesterol may benefit elderly
    ... though it does say statins reduce the liklihood of strokes. ... While patients at high risk for cardiovascular disease ... > risk of heart disease--the elderly group in whom greater benefits and lower ... > "The idea that lowering cholesterol always reduces the risk of heart disease ...
    (sci.med.cardiology)
  • World wide study confirms heart disease lipid risk factors
    ... Cholesterol remains at the top of the risk factors for heart disease, ...
    (sci.med.nutrition)
  • Re: Scared 49 Year Old (Female)
    ... came up with a low risk of heart disease, ... articles about the relationship between high cholesterol, low heart ...
    (sci.med.cardiology)
  • Re: 13 super foods
    ... Sure they're high in fat, ... fat, which has been linked to a reduced risk of cancer, heart disease, and ... sugar, and are excellent for heart disorders," says Ed Bauman, Ph.D., ... Eating fish helps cut the risk of heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, ...
    (alt.support.diabetes)
  • Re: 13 super foods
    ... Sure they're high in fat, ... fat, which has been linked to a reduced risk of cancer, heart disease, and ... sugar, and are excellent for heart disorders," says Ed Bauman, Ph.D., ... Eating fish helps cut the risk of heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, ...
    (alt.support.diabetes)