Sunday Telegraph

[ironic]

Article on statins in today's Sunday Telegraph by James LeFanu.

Remove the asterisk and copy and paste

*http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/25/nfanu25.xml

[xrn]

ironic:
Article on statins in today's Sunday Telegraph by James LeFanu.

Remove the asterisk and copy and paste

*http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/25/nfanu25.xml

xrn:
Hi ironic, it was not really much of an article and I could not see much of value in it, other than it was providing the URL to the spacedoc website (good). The few words which had been written by LeFanu are very unlikely to set the world on fire because they are just a couple of second-hand anecdotes.

I have tried to contact him but the Telegraph website is borked and almost unusable, despite several determined attempts on my part. There does not appear to be much in the way of contact addresses for the Telegraph journalists so I will have to write to LeFanu, care of the paper. I will see if he is interested in running a more comprehensive article. It is likely that he was just filling a small amount of free space.

Kind regards,
xrn

[xrn]

ironic:
We can only get publicity if we seek it. I have penned a reply to the editor of The Sunday Telegraph and, at the very least, I expect them to think about publishing it next week.

Dear Sir,

I am pleased to see that James LeFanu had written a short article about Statin therapy. Pressure of space may have precluded him from including one salient fact about Atorvastatin. Pfizer, the manufacturer, was conducting a recent phase 3 clinical trial, using the compound Atorvastatin/Torcetrapib. The independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (in the USA) was conducting a monthly analysis of mortality data. The concern was that there was an unexpected increase in the rates of patient death and Pfizer had to halt the clinical trial on December 2nd 2006. I have seen nothing from Pfizer by way of explanation as to what went wrong. Sadly, it is probable that the relatives of the deceased loved ones will end up fighting a class action if they are to be compensated.

More people, than are acknowledged by the medical profession, are suffering from the unwanted effects of statin therapy and it should be said that these effects are very serious. Much of the peer-reviewed medical literature suggests that statins are implicated in the manifestation of many unpleasant side effects.

The British Journal of Psychiatry reported in 1999 that 29,133 men aged between 50 and 69 years were studied for up to 8 years. The findings were that a low serum total cholesterol was associated with low mood, heightened risk of hospitalisation for major depressive disorder and death by suicide.*

Furthermore, a low serum cholesterol has been shown to be a robust predictor of death in the non-demented elderly in one study which was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics. Society **

"Statins have not been shown to provide an overall benefit in primary prevention trials" was the conclusion of the Canadian pharmaceutical publication, Therapeutics Initiative. The investigators had analysed 3 of the most major statin drug trials. The investigators had stated that "71 people would have to be treated with statins for 3~5 years to prevent one myocardial infarction or one stroke". ***

The medical literature is littered with investigators suggesting that statins may be a far more problematic drug group than was first thought. The pharmaceutical industry appears to be deaf. Having the pharmaceutical industry underwrite the cheques for the clinical research that confirms that the pharmaceutical company's products are required for the clinical management of any particular medical condition, is to open the system to abuses. It is long past the time when clinical research should be conducted by clinicians who are not taking the pharmaceutical industry's shilling (by having their research funded) if we are to see independent clinical research that has value.

(the asterisks denote appropriate references to published papers)

Kind regards,
xrn