On 9/22/2012 9:31 AM, Jez Cunningham wrote:
> Another example of what Chuck's been telling us for ages...
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/21/drugs-industry-scandal-ben-goldacre
He doesn't go the next logical step, though:
"In 2007, researchers looked at every published trial that set out to explore
the benefits of a statin. These
cholesterol-lowering drugs reduce your risk of having a heart attack and are
prescribed in very large quantities. This
study found 192 trials in total, either comparing one statin against another,
or comparing a statin against a different
kind of treatment. They found that industry-funded trials were 20 times more
likely to give results favouring the test
drug."
It is logical from this brief summary to question whether statins do in fact
"reduce your risk of having a heart
attack". It also might raise the question in the reader's mind whether they
actually reduce cholesterol levels. No clear
evidence in such a summary, just the logical possibility that the stated
benefits may not exist.
If you really want to see the extent of our whole drug culture, read
//Manufacturing Depression by /Gary Greenberg. /His
history of the development, testing and marketing of anti-depressants is quite
depressing in itself. The title refers
not just to the manufacturing of anti-depressants, but to the manufacture.
invention, of a disease that mostly does not
exist, at least not in the form generally described, in order to sell drugs
that don't cure it.
Non Medicated Moose
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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