RAMPANT DRUG MARKETING
In days to come, a perplexed generation will look at how we treated our diseases and wonder how any of us survived. The fourth leading cause of death today is from the lethal side effects of prescription drugs. And the pharmaceutical industry, having purchased the full compliance of our politicians, is running rampant in its indoctrination of us to accept, no, make that demand, its drugs. You don't need to watch TV for very long to encounter a commercial exhorting you to demand one "cholesterol drug" or another from your doctor. The FDA is cowed. With 50 percent of its payroll directly funded by Big Pharma, the limp wristed agency has become little more than a rubber stamp for them.
Big Pharma does not limit its offensive to TV Advertising. It adds credance to any of its claims by publishing "studies" in the medical journals. Since it owns these journals by means of its massive advertising in them, getting published is merely routine. One recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine glorifies Crestor, (rosuvastatin), the strongest of the cholestrol lowering drugs. The president of the American College of Cardiology, well compensated by Astra-Zeneca, manufacturer of Crestor, fervently proclaims that now it is a good idea to prescribe statin drugs for even those people with normal cholesterol levels!
THEY'RE TARGETING OUR KIDS TOO!
And just in case you haven't heard, the American Academy of Pediatrics has been persuaded to recommend cholesterol screening for infants as young as two, and if there are weight issues or a family history of heart attacks or high cholesterol, to put these kids on statins right then - for life! According to the New York Times, the AAP is backed 100% by "proponents." One of these "proponents," Dr Jatinder Bhatia, a member of the AAP nutrition committee, told the Times, "The risk of giving statins at a lower age is less than the benefit you're going to get from it." We don't know whose payroll Dr Bhatia is on. Doctors out there in the trenches are too busy, too harassed to investigate these recommendations for their true worth. They rely heavily on the information received from their pharmaceutical "detail" people, pharmaceutical manufacturers' representatives.
Now the whole idea behind this flawed approach is, ostensibly, to prevent future heart attacks. That's what the drug manufacturers would have us believe. However, the real evidence runs entirely contrary to these claims. No healthy individual, regardless of cholesterol level, has been shown to have avoided a heart attack by taking Crestor or any other statin drug. The only clear benefits of these drugs are to middle aged men who have already suffered a heart attack. No woman has ever benefitted from these drugs.
STUDIES TWISTED FOR EFFECT
Astra-Zeneca, manufacturer of Crestor disputes this, citing the recently published Jupiter Study. Here they claim that their drug Crestor has reduced the risk of serious cardiovascular disease or stroke by 50 percent. A very close examination of this study, with appropriate running of the actual numbers reveals a possible benefit of less than one percent for those taking this drug. According to Mark A Hlatky MD of Stanford University, 120 people would have to take Crestor for two years (at a cost of $1,259.00 per person annually) in order to prevent a single cardiovascular event, no matter how minor. Therefore, the cost to prevent each one of these events would be $ 302,160.00.
In the viewpoint of Astra-Zeneca, we should all be taking their drugs from cradle to grave, ignoring good health practices. As we head toward the inevitable heart attack produced by our lifestyle, we will then, if we survive, ultimately receive the benefits offered by their drugs. If we're men. Women are still left out in the cold.
There are better, safer, and more effective ways of preventing heart attacks or stroke. There are better, safer, and more effective ways of dealing with them after we've had one. These ways of course are studiously ignored by the drug makers. There is no profit in making an unpatentable product. So they go on to encourage us to live in the manner that will eventually put us at strong risk of cardiovascular disease. Then when the big event occurs, we will, if we survive it, ultimately reap the benefits of their offerings. If we're men. Meanwhile, why don't we all begin taking these drugs just for the fun of it?
