The BMJ censored my comment against statins and the MDs who promote those drugs

Unfortunately, we cannot publish this comment as it is potentially defamatory

Potentially defamatory? Which part of my comment deserves censorship? What is exactly the opinion that can’t be allowed in a BMJ blog?

bmj

«The protective effects of statins are not in doubt and are proportional to the degree of cardiovascular risk.»

«Statins remain among the most important advances in medical history»

According to the data from Collins et al., reducing your LDL 1 mmol/L with statins delays the death, each year, of 1 out of 500 people taking the drug.

People should stop trusting medical doctors.

NOTE about the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ (CTT) Collaborators:

«This group is part of the Clinical Trials Service Unit in Oxford, which has received hundreds of millions of pounds over recent years to conduct research on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies«.

Excerpt from: «How statistical deception created the appearance that statins are safe and effective in primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease». Expert Rev. Clin. Pharmacol. 8(2), 201–210 (2015)

Un Comentario

  2. Vicente

    From Collins et al. (Fig 6):

    Any death rate in control arm (% per year): 2.5
    RR (1 mmol/L decrease in LDL)=0.91

    2.5*0.91=2.275

    RR (%) absolute reduction = 2.5-2.275=0.225

    100*1/0.225 = 444 people need to be treated with statins for one year so 1 of them dies after that period, instead of during that year.

    1 out of 444.

    Unpleasant for statin pushers, isn’t it?

    NOTE: the original data (webfigure 8) shows a decrease from 2.47% to 2.27%, that is a 0.2% absolute reduction.

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  7. Vicente

    – The protective effects of statins are not in doubt and are proportional to the degree of cardiovascular risk.
    – 1 out of 500 people being treated for a year would die after that year instead of before that term (for a 1 mmol/L decrease in LDL)
    – NNT is 1 tool out of many. There’s no shortcut to a complex decision
    – The protective effects are not in doubt but it is a complex decision? 

    We, patients, deserve better.

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    • Vicente

      Oh, my!

      it’s not surprising that a man who has spent his whole life literally institutionalised should react like this to those who question both him and the very bases of his institution. […] An attack on his institution is an attack on him. And vice versa. Towered-ivory myopia is a wondrous malaise.

      Unfortunately for Sir Professor, the proliferation of the Internet has empowered independent researchers competently to partake in scientific analysis beyond those gates, despite the best intents of the gate keepers. This means that he must suffer impudent little barbarians – like you and me and everyone else here – who nip at his mighty heels and defy his haughty edicts, no matter how loudly he barks back. It must be very confusing for him, suddenly to have his citation-circle intruded upon by such “unwelcome externalities”.

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  9. Diego

    Hello Vicente, congratulations for your massive work in the blog! This is my first comment here, I’ve been following you for a while. Have you ever heard of this book?

    The Low Carb Myth: Free Yourself from Carb Myths, and Discover the Secret Keys That Really Determine Your Health and Fat Loss Destiny, by Ari Whitten.

    The title sounds at the very least, to be a little far from being impartial.

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    • Vicente

      Hi Diego,

      no, I hadn’t heard of it before. The authors use Guyenet, carbsane, Freedhof, David Katz, etc. as their sources of knowledge. That is all anyone needs to know about this book.

      Two minutes of reading gives me this.

      First excerpt from the book:

      It is a straw-man argument (see), but it is also a lie:

      Fatty Acids, Obesity, and Insulin Resistance: Time for a Reevaluation

      the literature suggests that NEFA concentrations do not increase in proportion to fat mass, with a clear corollary that lipolysis per kilogram fat mass must be reduced in obesity. This has been repeatedly seen in studies of adipocytes from obese individuals in vitro (66,67) and is associated with downregulation of the expression of the key enzymes of fat mobilization, hormone-sensitive lipase and adipose triglyceride lipase […] As adipose tissue mass expands, NEFA release per kilogram adipose tissue is downregulated, not increased.

      Second excerpt from the book

      Now you can read a couple of scientific experiments: this one and this one

      Third excerpt from the book

      How many scientific studies do you want that demonstrate that that idea is indisputably a lie?

      As I said before: Guyenet, carbsane, Freedhoff, etc.

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  14. Vicente

    This statement seems to be based on the authors’ opinions and belief rather than scientific evidence. The clinical studies included in the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ (CTT) meta-analysis upon which this claim is based did not achieve even half that level of cholesterol reduction in people whose risk of heart attack or stroke is less than 20 per cent over the next five years.4 So there is no scientific evidence for the magnitude of benefit of 2mmol/L reduction in a low-risk population; the estimates are based on projections, not fact.

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  15. Vicente

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