GETTING BOOTED FROM A DRUG INDUSTRY-SUPPORTED WEBSITE

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http://www.redflagsweekly.com/extra/2003_jul15P.html

 

 

 

July 15, 2003

 

GETTING BOOTED FROM A DRUG INDUSTRY-SUPPORTED WEBSITE

 

By Eddie Vos

 

Vos

 

Theheart.org, a large cardiology site that receives sponsorship from the drug

industry, is generally a well-regarded source of information for health-care

professionals. The editorial board lists 85 doctors in 19 countries. Three of

the eight editors, including the editor-in-chief, have declared they own stock

options in the website’s parent company.

 

I am not an MD, but I run health-heart.org, one of the top " heart disease " sites

(focusing on nutrition, health and heart disease: cause and prevention) you will

find via Google. I also have four references to my name in the medical search

engine, Medline. As such, I was granted access to the content of theheart.org

and to its Forum, a kind of chat room. Ordinary people looking for heart

disease, drug and device information regrettably are denied access to this site.

 

I contributed for some time to the Forum where doctors and other interested

parties discuss problems and strategies. I pointed out things such as the

benefits of omega-3 oils in the prevention of fatal irregular heart beat in a

heart attack (and there is medical unanimity about this). Other points I raised

were about the potentially enormous benefits of having low levels of a " blood

toxin " we all have, an amino acid called homocysteine. Again, there is unanimity

that the only treatment is a multiple-vitamin with high-dose B vitamins. So far

so good.

 

My troubles started when I pointed out that cholesterol pills of the statin

family (Lipitor, Zocor, Mevacor, Lescol, Pravachol, Crestor and the withdrawn

Baycol) have nasty side-effects, such as faint or massive muscle pain, and that

they have not been shown to prolong life in ordinary high-risk people, and may

even cause cancer.

 

Let me explain: Statins are crow-bars in your cell machinery making a

fundamental chemical called mevalonate. This chemical contributes to the

production of about 2 grams of cholesterol your body needs each day for

hormones, cell and brain function and digestive bile-acids. Moreover, other

vital stuff made from mevalonate is also no longer made in the same (sufficient)

quantities when statins are ingested. This list is very long and it includes the

likely anti-cancer agent squalene and the vital anti-oxidant and energy producer

CoQ10. Not enough CoQ10 and your heart, brain and nerve cells can die from lack

of energy or they can mutate from lack of DNA protection.

 

The problem is that statin drugs lower your CoQ10 (one of the things that makes

your " bad " LDL-cholesterol particle remain beneficial) as they do LDL. Blood is

like homogenized milk; all the fatty stuff travels in little balls. While CoQ10

keeps it healthy, you can damage LDL and make it " bad " by having these droplets

transport trans-fats, homocysteine or oxidized cholesterol from, for example,

dried egg or milk powder.

 

If, for example, Lipitor, the world’s largest selling drug, lowers LDL by 40%,

it also likely reduces your CoQ10, potentially resulting in muscle pain. For

instance, a Canadian (but amazingly, not American) drug ads warn this CoQ10

reduction produced by statins may be harmful in heart failure (if not cancer as

well). A large Italian study was conclusive about the huge benefit of

supplemented CoQ10 in heart failure, eclipsing the action of any existing drug.

Such supplementation may well resolve statin-produced muscle or joint pain.

 

My situation at theheart.org Forum appears to have become more problematic when

I pointed out that the three large statin trials in high-risk people published

in the last eight months did not prove to be life-saving. These trials are

referred to as PROSPER, ALLHAT and ASCOT. After a combined 45,000 patient-years

on statins, there was indeed some heart disease benefit in two of the three

trials but, here’s the kicker: the any-cause mortality was within about 0.1% of

those swallowing over 15 million dummy pills (Go to point 21 in this document

for full links and data)

 

Now, realize that you or the system spends about U.S.$1000 per year to be on a

statin, and that the PROSPER trial found significantly more cancer in the statin

group and that there are at least 3 reasons (squalene, CoQ10 and angiogenesis)

why that might make biological sense.

 

Now let’s get back to the fiasco at the Forum. Suddenly, one and then two of my

postings on these issues disappeared and the editor at theheart.org sent me an

e-mail, asking me to refrain from repeating my attacks on statins and the statin

trials. He said the site welcomed a diversity of opinion, but contributors who

repeated the same message in a number of different ways needed to be limited.

 

But then when I posted a critical reply to a person who I felt repeatedly argued

in favor of the benefits of statins, and in this case, a newly approved statin,

Crestor, I got booted from the Forum.

 

This particular statin can lower LDL by 65 %, and presumably will reduce CoQ10

as well - yet CoQ10 levels were not measured in Crestor

 

And so it happened. Information and access pulled. How often and how

systematically is negative trial data cleansed from the pages of the health web

sites that are trusted by many doctors?

 

Cardiologists, much like car mechanics [CARdiologists], need clean data and

theheart.org certainly provides a great deal of information about drugs and

devices in terms of " standards of care. " But often this information is really

about " standards of repair. " Both doctors and mechanics are very useful in

fixing damaged piping or replacing parts, but neither is very schooled in

resolving the underlying problem of rusted or deposit-filled piping or arteries.

Prevention, that is. One may by-pass or mechanically expand a local artery

blockage but all agree, this is only symptom relief, not life extension. This is

because the underlying processes continue.

 

Clearly, heart disease and other blood circulation conditions are not drug

deficiency diseases as they are made to appear in some promotions and the

science is solid that they may be caused, to a large extent, by low omega-3 and

B-vitamin intakes and for which no prescriptions are needed. The fatty " blocking

type " deposits in arteries appear to be unique to low-nutrient intake humans as

this phenomenon is not described in free-living animals.

 

Mortality data is surprisingly hard to find in most statin studies. For example,

the doubled mortality in the statin groups in the now 12-year old EXCEL study

was so well hidden, that I might bet your MD could not find it. Similarly, the

latest Lipitor studies were stopped while reporting cardiovascular benefit, yet

clearly before they would potentially reconfirm a zero all-cause mortality

benefit, or establish harm from CoQ10 lowering and from cancer.

 

Doctors need sound and varied information to make important judgments in order

to fix and prevent. The way to a cardiologist’s heart, I know, is via the

studies they should have read and may have missed. Medical web sites suppressing

information and access can cause harm to the profession and to patients.