On Feb 3, 12:55*pm, "Ed Huntress" wrote:
"rangerssuck" wrote in message

...
On Feb 3, 10:18 am, "Existential Angst"
wrote:







The bigger point is, the world population is but a cageful of guinea pigs
for Big Med and Big Pharm... need I cite countless example after example
after example? Or the invention of disease just to sell drugs. Restless
Leg Syndrome, inyone?
No thanks, I've already got it. And I can assure you, it is no joke.
Now, the interesting thing is that I got RLS as a side effect from
another "safe" drug.

If you want to talk about drugs in search of diseases, take a look at
statins. They were looking for a drug to lower blood pressure. They
found that statins lower cholesterol. They knew that people with high
cholesterol levels had lower life expectancy, so they marketed the
hell out of this stuff. As far as I know, there has not been a single
scientific study that shows that lowering cholesterol levels by taking
statin drugs increases life expectancy. But they sell this stuff by
the boat load.

I'm trusting that Ed will correct me if I'm wrong about the statin
studies :-)

I've put that stuff out of my mind. I just take the suckers and hope I don't
keel over. So far, so good. g

It would be a ten-minute research job on PubMed, if you're bored today. All
you need for those efficacy tests is the abstract.

--
Ed Huntress

OK, I stand somewhat corrected, though didn't this whole thread start
with not trusting Lancet articles? And, when you start looking at the
side effects... well, it's better to just maybe put it out of your
mind and hope that you don't keel over.
---
Title:Efficacy and safety of cholesterol-lowering treatment:
prospective meta-analysis of data from 90 056 participants in 14
randomised trials of statins.
The Lancet
366.9493 (Oct 8, 2005): p1267(12). (7298 words)

Abstract:

Background Results of previous randomised trials have shown that
interventions that lower LDL cholesterol concentrations can
significantly reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) and
other major vascular events in a wide range of individuals. But each
separate trial has limited power to assess particular outcomes or
particular categories of participant.

Methods A prospective meta-analysis of data from 90 056 individuals in
14 randomised trials of statins was done. Weighted estimates were
obtained of effects on different clinical outcomes per 1.0 mmol/L
reduction in LDL cholesterol.

Findings During a mean of 5 years, there were 8186 deaths, 14 348
individuals had major vascular events, and 5103 developed cancer. Mean
LDL cholesterol differences at 1 year ranged from 0.35 mmol/L to 1.77
mmol/L (mean 1.09) in these trials. There was a 12% proportional
reduction in all-cause mortality per mmol/L reduction in LDL
cholesterol (rate ratio [RR] 0.88, 95% CI 0.84-0.91; p0.0001). This
reflected a 19% reduction in coronary mortality (0.81, 0.76-0.85;
p0.0001), and non-significant reductions in non-coronary vascular
mortality (0.93, 0.83-1.03; p=0.2) and non-vascular mortality (0.95,
0.90-1.01; p=0.1). There were corresponding reductions in myocardial
infarction or coronary death (0.77, 0.74-0.80; p0.0001), in the need
for coronary revascularisation (0.76, 0.73-0.80; p0.0001), in fatal
or non-fatal stroke (0.83, 0.78-0.88; p0.0001), and, combining these,
of 21% in any such major vascular event (0.79, 0.77-0.81; p0.0001).
The proportional reduction in major vascular events differed
significantly (p0.0001) according to the absolute reduction in LDL
cholesterol achieved, but not otherwise. These benefits were
significant within the first year, but were greater in subsequent
years. Taking all years together, the overall reduction of about one
fifth per mmol/L LDL cholesterol reduction translated into 48 (95% CI
39-57) fewer participants having major vascular events per 1000 among
those with pre-existing CHD at baseline, compared with 25 09-31) per
1000 among participants with no such history. There was no evidence
that statins increased the incidence of cancer overall (1.00,
0.95-1.06; p=0.9) or at any particular site.

Interpretation Statin therapy can safely reduce the 5-year incidence
of major coronary events, coronary revascularisation, and stroke by
about one fifth per mmol/L reduction in LDL cholesterol, largely
irrespective of the initial lipid profile or other presenting
characteristics. The absolute benefit relates chiefly to an
individual's absolute risk of such events and to the absolute
reduction in LDL cholesterol achieved. These findings reinforce the
need to consider prolonged statin treatment with substantial LDL
cholesterol reductions in all patients at high risk of any type of
major vascular event.


Source Citation
"Efficacy and safety of cholesterol-lowering treatment: prospective
meta-analysis of data from 90 056 participants in 14 randomised trials
of statins." The Lancet 366.9493 (2005): 1267+. Health Reference
Center Academic. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/
start.do?prodId=HRCA&userGroupName=bergen_remote.

Gale Document Number:A137547733