[the_omnivore] Latest Update from the Cholesterol Battlefield!

[Guest guest]

Latest Update from the Cholesterol Battlefield!

The last couple of weeks have been a little rough for proponents of statin drugs and angioplasty.

First, THINCS members Uffe Ravnskov and De Groot recently appeared on the Dutch TV show 'Radar', explaining why the cholesterol theory is complete hogwash. They also elaborated on why statins are a stupid idea for most of the people they are prescribed to.

The Dutch medical establishment was outraged. Not because Ravnskov and De Groot said anything that was untrue. The Dutch medical complex knows full well that they can't scientifically refute the arguments presented by Ravnskov and De Groot, so they are instead pinning their hopes on another strategy:

Censorship!

Yep, as a recent issue of BMJ explains, "Dutch doctors are calling for restrictions on television programmes that they claim deliberately use matters of patient safety to boost viewing figures."

The Dutch Cardiology Society complains that "the programme's assertions have caused great unrest among patients".

And so they should. Most people who are placed on statins have absolutely no business being on them, and are being placed at unnecessary risk of statins' numerous well-documented side effects. The inability of statins to lower mortality in women, the elderly, and males free of heart disease or diabetes is well-documented (Shameless plug: this is all described at length in my book The Great Cholesterol Con).

The following link to the BMJ article also contains access to commentary by several THINCS members on the Radar uproar.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/334/7594/604-b?etoc 

Also making news this week:

--In the METEOR trial, rosuvastatin halted atheroma progression during the 2 year study, an effect not seen in the placebo group. However, while no participants in the placebo group suffered serious cardiovascular events during the study, six participants in the rosuvastatin group had 8 serious cardiovascular events. Oh well, at least their cholesterol was lower...

See:

Effect of rosuvastatin on progression of carotid intima-media thickness in low-risk individuals with subclinical atherosclerosis: the METEOR trial 

--I reported in this newsletter a while back on Pfizer's latest multi-million dollar fizzer, the HDL-raising drug torcetrapib. A new paper in NEJM reports that, after 24 months, as compared with atorvastatin (Lipitor) alone, torcetrapib plus atorvastatin increased systolic blood pressure and had little effect on the progression of coronary atherosclerosis.

Similarly disappointing results were found on blood pressure and carotid atherosclerosis in folks with Familia Hypercholesterolemia.

The authors explain that "The lack of efficacy may be related to the mechanism of action of this drug class or to molecule-specific adverse effects."

In other words, it didn't work.

See:

Effect of Torcetrapib on the Progression of Coronary Atherosclerosis

Effect of Torcetrapib on Carotid Atherosclerosis in Familial Hypercholesterolemia 

--In the COURAGE trial, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) did not reduce the risk of death, myocardial infarction, or other major cardiovascular events when added to optimal medical therapy patients with stable coronary artery disease. There were 211 primary events in the PCI group and 202 events in the medical-therapy group. The 4.6-year cumulative primary-event rates were 19.0% in the PCI group and 18.5% in the medical-therapy group. Again, my book explains why both CABG and PCI are useless for the overwhelming majority of people they administered to.

See:

Optimal Medical Therapy with or without PCI for Stable Coronary Disease 

Cheers,

.