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Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Diabetes

American Diabetes Association (ADA) promotes statin drugs to diabetic patients without a shred of "proof" that they actually help.

Statins (Pyramid Science)


Collaborative AtoRvastatin Diabetes Study (CARDS)
This study involved nearly 3000 people with Type 2 diabetes aged 40-75. It looked at the benefits of taking a 10mg dose of Atorvastatin (Lipitor) daily. None of the participants had heart disease at the start of the trial, but they did have an extra risk factor for developing it, such as smoking, high blood pressure, diabetic retinopathy or protein in the urine indicating diabetic kidney disease. For those taking the statin, the risk of heart attack reduced by 37 per cent and stroke by 48 per cent. These benefits were seen regardless of age, sex or whether the cholesterol level was high or low. The trial's "success" meant it was halted two years early.

  • Reports such as these create doubt: no participant had heart disease, yet the risk of heart attack was reduced by 37%. Smoking, high blood pressure... may indicate the potential for heart disease, but does not constitute evidence so how is this assessed for those without heart disease?
The Heart Protection Study (HPS)
The HPS study involved nearly 6000 people with diabetes aged 40-80. It looked at the benefits of taking a 40mg dose of Simvastatin (Zocor) each day. Just under half of the participants showed signs of cardiovascular disease, while half did not. It found this routine use of statins cut the number of heart attacks and strokes in both groups by a third.

  • How is this assessed for the group that did not show signs of cardiovascular disease. Heart attack is not a certainty for either group, even though the "under half" who presented with signs for heart disease may have a greater potential for a heart attack than the "half" that did not.

Benefits were also seen in people whose cholesterol levels were not high in the first place (less than 5mmol/l) and in those at the top of the age range.

The results are accepted as proof that statins can prevent cardiovascular disease, because they reduced heart attacks and stroke in people who did not have cardiovascular disease at the start of the trial.

Statins

see Science journal


The pharmaceutical industry gives
millions each year to the

American Diabetes Association

Original Article

In a widely publicized announcement by the American Diabetes Association that can only be called extremely dangerous health politics, the group has advised all diabetic patients to start taking statins regardless of whether they have high cholesterol.

The justification?

Because statin drugs, the Association insists, "...may have some other qualities that have not been tested."

You read it right: the American Diabetes Association wants everyone with diabetes to take an expensive prescription drug - for life, presumably - on the off chance that it might someday turn out to be helpful in some unknown way that has never been tested or scientifically supported.


This is medical madness, and if the FDA weren't
working so hard to protect the pharmaceutical
industry, they would step in and issue a statement
challenging this precarious advice by the ADA

Red yeast rice, a natural food supplement, lowers cholesterol far more effectively than statins. Can you imagine the outcry from the FDA if the American Diabetes Association suddenly announced that all diabetics should be taking red yeast rice based on the hope that it might help them in some unknown way? The FDA would immediately take to the airwaves, screaming,

"It's not proven!
It's dangerous advice!"

But when it's a drug that's being recommended to patients, against all scientific merit, the FDA stands back and says nothing. This is blatant medical dogma in action.

So what's the real reason the American Diabetes Association is pushing these statin drugs so hard without a shred of scientific evidence that they are helpful to diabetics?

Let's take a closer look: it turns out that the ADA receives millions of dollars each year in money from drug companies! Some of the association's top sponsors, giving at least $500,000, are some of the wealthiest pharmaceutical companies on the planet:


And that money, it turns out, buys a lot of influence.

The American Diabetes Association has become a propaganda machine for the pharmaceutical industry, just like the FDA.

  • Now they're hawking drugs to diabetics with absolutely no justification. They're not even pretending that statins are helpful to diabetics: they're saying that maybe, someday, they might be discovered to be helpful. In the mean time, they're saying, all diabetics should be chemical guinea pigs.
  • On top of all this, it turns out that statins are highly dangerous drugs: they interfere with normal liver function and block the production of sex hormones, among dozens of other documented side effects.

When will our country learn
that prescription drugs
are not the answer?


When there's no money to be made: DA

posted by Louis Brothnias @ 12:30 pm