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By Dr. David Brownstein
Be still my beating heart. One day after writing a blog post describing how taking a statin for six years gives you three or four more days of life, CNN publishes an article titled, “Global study lays groundwork for daily statin usage to prevent heart disease.” (1) This study is referred to as the HOPE-3 trial. The author of the CNN article was summarizing the findings from a New England Journal of Medicine Study released today. (2)
(BTW: This study was funded by Big Pharma Cartel member AstraZeneca who, you guessed it, makes Crestor—the statin drug used in the study.)
Could I be wrong? I have been stating that statins fail nearly 99% who take them, yet the CNN article stated that those who took Crestor (when compared to those that took a placebo) for nearly six years had a 24% reduction in heart attacks, strokes or heart-related deaths. Furthermore, the authors of the study stated, “The HOPE-3 trial provides evidence to reinforce some current guideline recommendations and to influence future guidelines.”
I am not sure what guidelines the authors want to reinforce, but perhaps they meant the Dr. B guidelines. The Dr. B guidelines have said for years that statin drugs fail nearly 99% who take them. Let’s see if the HOPE-3 trial findings agree with my guidelines.
You see, in HOPE-3, 3.7% of those that took a statin drug over 5.6 years had a heart attack, stroke or suffered a heart-related death compared to 4.8% who took a placebo. The CNN article correctly stated that this was a 24% reduction in the statin-treated group (3.7%/4.8%). However, the reported 24% reduction is a relative risk reduction. As I have taught medical students, residents, and other physicians for years, the relative risk ratios are used by Big Pharma to make a poorly performing drug look better than it actually is. In fact, the relative risk concept is meaningless in a clinical study. It provides no useful information for the clinician to decide whether a particular therapy is useful or not.
More here http://blog.drbrownstein.com/1201-2/
Be still my beating heart. One day after writing a blog post describing how taking a statin for six years gives you three or four more days of life, CNN publishes an article titled, “Global study lays groundwork for daily statin usage to prevent heart disease.” (1) This study is referred to as the HOPE-3 trial. The author of the CNN article was summarizing the findings from a New England Journal of Medicine Study released today. (2)
(BTW: This study was funded by Big Pharma Cartel member AstraZeneca who, you guessed it, makes Crestor—the statin drug used in the study.)
Could I be wrong? I have been stating that statins fail nearly 99% who take them, yet the CNN article stated that those who took Crestor (when compared to those that took a placebo) for nearly six years had a 24% reduction in heart attacks, strokes or heart-related deaths. Furthermore, the authors of the study stated, “The HOPE-3 trial provides evidence to reinforce some current guideline recommendations and to influence future guidelines.”
I am not sure what guidelines the authors want to reinforce, but perhaps they meant the Dr. B guidelines. The Dr. B guidelines have said for years that statin drugs fail nearly 99% who take them. Let’s see if the HOPE-3 trial findings agree with my guidelines.
You see, in HOPE-3, 3.7% of those that took a statin drug over 5.6 years had a heart attack, stroke or suffered a heart-related death compared to 4.8% who took a placebo. The CNN article correctly stated that this was a 24% reduction in the statin-treated group (3.7%/4.8%). However, the reported 24% reduction is a relative risk reduction. As I have taught medical students, residents, and other physicians for years, the relative risk ratios are used by Big Pharma to make a poorly performing drug look better than it actually is. In fact, the relative risk concept is meaningless in a clinical study. It provides no useful information for the clinician to decide whether a particular therapy is useful or not.
More here http://blog.drbrownstein.com/1201-2/
