The conventional medical establishment appears to be conflicted over Statin drugs. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which provides doctors in Britain with advice and guidelines about prescribing drugs recently advice an increase in Statin prescribing. Whereas previous advice was to prescribe them to any patient who had a 30% risk of a heart attack or stroke, they changed that advice to anyone who had a 10% chance.
This would have meant a considerable increase in the number of people taking Statins, particularly amongst older people. NICE said that it would prevent 28,000 heart attacks, and 16,000 strokes every year. So, something worth doing?
Well, unfortunately, doctors did not think so. A recent analysis by the GPs' magazine, Pulse, discovered that since the new NICE guidelines were given, prescriptions for statin drugs had shown only a 2% rise.
So why the discrepancy? Is there increasing conflict within the conventional medical establishment about Statins? And if so, what is the conflict about?
The problem concerns the safety of Statin drugs. Once, not many years ago, conventional medicine was telling us that these were miracle drugs, reducing heart attacks and strokes, but with little or no side effects. They were, we were told, entirely safe.
Indeed, it is that type of blue-sky thinking that underlay NICE's amended guidelines to doctors. The reason for this is not difficult to find. NICE, like most government sponsored health advisory bodies, is influenced, infiltrated and dominated by medics who have strong links with the powerful pharmaceutical companies. Therefore, most of NICE's advice is driven by the interests of these companies, whose major objective is to sell drugs to patients.
Yet the dangers of Statins is becoming increasingly obvious to an increasing number of people. There is growing numbers of people who are reluctant to take Statin drugs. Doctors meet with people every day. They are aware of this growing concern. And they cannot be unaware of the very serious evidence that is building against these harmful drugs.
In 2014, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) reported that it had received 730 adverse reports related to the five most prescribed Statins in Britain, namely Simvastatin, Atorvastatin, Rosuvastatin, Pravastatin and Fluvastatin. Yet it is well known that only about 10% of adverse reactions to drugs are reported - this, in itself, probably an underestimate. What this means is that in one year, in Britain, over 7,000 patients has been damaged by Statin drugs.
What damage is it causing? The side effects of Statins are now known to include:
This is a frightening list of serious illness and disease, all possible outcomes for patients who are taking these 'entirely safe' Statin drugs.
Concerns have also been expressed that the benefits of taking statins have been greatly exaggerated. Some research has questioned whether Statins can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes to the levels claimed.
Doctors are at the very end of the drug consumption line. They deal with patients who are taking them, and suffering from them. Little wonder, then, that some doctors have expressed concerns about the benefits of taking statin drugs, certainly for people who are healthy.
So why are doctors ready to defy NICE's new recommendations on Statins? GP's and NICE has different motivations and priorities. If NICE wants more people to take drugs, in the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, regardless of the harm they do to patients, the role of doctors is to put patient interests first. Perhaps it is unusual for them to do so. Doctors have been prescribing harmful and dangerous drugs to patients now for decades on the basis of the guidance and advice they have received. And, in the main, they have done so without serious questioning.
So is there change happening within the conventional medical establishment? Are doctors beginning to take a more independent line? Are they beginning the question some of the advice and guidance coming down from the pharmaceutical industry?
It would appear, in this case, to be what is happening. It is a real signs of conflict and disagreement within the conventional medical establishment. Whilst the production and management end continues to maximise the use, and over-use of harmful drugs and vaccines, the retail end is at least beginning to question the value of this single, but extremely important drug.
Can we expect more? Possibly. It is certainly time that the value of many other drugs and vaccines, whose harm and dangers are well known to anyone prepared to look, are seriously questioned.
Yet there is a problem with our doctors. If they did begin to question the value of drugs and vaccines more widely, what would they have left to offer patients? Conventional doctors have dismissed alternative medical therapies. They do not speak out sufficiently about the processed diets being served up to us by supermarkets and the Big Food companies. They are not on board, sufficiently, with the importance of exercise, or the environment concerns that affect our health. Their cupboard, without drugs, would be bear.
Real change will still have to come from patients, not doctors, who in order to tell us the truth will have to admit that they have been giving us 'medicines' that have made us ill for years! More people will have to become aware of the dangers of conventional medical treatment. More people will have to become aware that there are other routes to good health, and other medical therapies available that are safer, and more effective than what the conventional medical establishment are providing to us.
It is still going to be a long, laborious process. We have been indoctrinated by the conventional medical establishment for over 100 years. It will take time to understand that health does not come from a pill or an injection.
This would have meant a considerable increase in the number of people taking Statins, particularly amongst older people. NICE said that it would prevent 28,000 heart attacks, and 16,000 strokes every year. So, something worth doing?
Well, unfortunately, doctors did not think so. A recent analysis by the GPs' magazine, Pulse, discovered that since the new NICE guidelines were given, prescriptions for statin drugs had shown only a 2% rise.
So why the discrepancy? Is there increasing conflict within the conventional medical establishment about Statins? And if so, what is the conflict about?
The problem concerns the safety of Statin drugs. Once, not many years ago, conventional medicine was telling us that these were miracle drugs, reducing heart attacks and strokes, but with little or no side effects. They were, we were told, entirely safe.
Indeed, it is that type of blue-sky thinking that underlay NICE's amended guidelines to doctors. The reason for this is not difficult to find. NICE, like most government sponsored health advisory bodies, is influenced, infiltrated and dominated by medics who have strong links with the powerful pharmaceutical companies. Therefore, most of NICE's advice is driven by the interests of these companies, whose major objective is to sell drugs to patients.
Yet the dangers of Statins is becoming increasingly obvious to an increasing number of people. There is growing numbers of people who are reluctant to take Statin drugs. Doctors meet with people every day. They are aware of this growing concern. And they cannot be unaware of the very serious evidence that is building against these harmful drugs.
In 2014, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) reported that it had received 730 adverse reports related to the five most prescribed Statins in Britain, namely Simvastatin, Atorvastatin, Rosuvastatin, Pravastatin and Fluvastatin. Yet it is well known that only about 10% of adverse reactions to drugs are reported - this, in itself, probably an underestimate. What this means is that in one year, in Britain, over 7,000 patients has been damaged by Statin drugs.
What damage is it causing? The side effects of Statins are now known to include:
- Muscle pain, weakness (myopathy).
- Fatigue.
- Cataracts.
- Weight gain.
- Diabetes
- Kidney failure.
- Liver dysfunction.
- Memory loss, confusion and dementia.
- Parkinson's disease
This is a frightening list of serious illness and disease, all possible outcomes for patients who are taking these 'entirely safe' Statin drugs.
Concerns have also been expressed that the benefits of taking statins have been greatly exaggerated. Some research has questioned whether Statins can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes to the levels claimed.
So why are doctors ready to defy NICE's new recommendations on Statins? GP's and NICE has different motivations and priorities. If NICE wants more people to take drugs, in the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, regardless of the harm they do to patients, the role of doctors is to put patient interests first. Perhaps it is unusual for them to do so. Doctors have been prescribing harmful and dangerous drugs to patients now for decades on the basis of the guidance and advice they have received. And, in the main, they have done so without serious questioning.
So is there change happening within the conventional medical establishment? Are doctors beginning to take a more independent line? Are they beginning the question some of the advice and guidance coming down from the pharmaceutical industry?
It would appear, in this case, to be what is happening. It is a real signs of conflict and disagreement within the conventional medical establishment. Whilst the production and management end continues to maximise the use, and over-use of harmful drugs and vaccines, the retail end is at least beginning to question the value of this single, but extremely important drug.
Can we expect more? Possibly. It is certainly time that the value of many other drugs and vaccines, whose harm and dangers are well known to anyone prepared to look, are seriously questioned.
Yet there is a problem with our doctors. If they did begin to question the value of drugs and vaccines more widely, what would they have left to offer patients? Conventional doctors have dismissed alternative medical therapies. They do not speak out sufficiently about the processed diets being served up to us by supermarkets and the Big Food companies. They are not on board, sufficiently, with the importance of exercise, or the environment concerns that affect our health. Their cupboard, without drugs, would be bear.
Real change will still have to come from patients, not doctors, who in order to tell us the truth will have to admit that they have been giving us 'medicines' that have made us ill for years! More people will have to become aware of the dangers of conventional medical treatment. More people will have to become aware that there are other routes to good health, and other medical therapies available that are safer, and more effective than what the conventional medical establishment are providing to us.
It is still going to be a long, laborious process. We have been indoctrinated by the conventional medical establishment for over 100 years. It will take time to understand that health does not come from a pill or an injection.
