Cholesterol Panel Does Not Reveal Ties To Drug Companies

[Guest guest]

July 15, 2004

 

Cholesterol Panel Issuing New Aggressive Guidelines

Pointing To Wider Use Of Statins Does Not Reveal Ties

To Drug Companies Manufacturing Those Drugs

 

By RFD Editor Nicholas Regush

 

The latest U.S. cholesterol guidelines have no value.

There is no point in mincing words about this. Of nine

panel members, six had financial ties to the drug

industry. Did someone simply forget to cite these

ties? The chairman of the national Cholesterol

Education Program, a division of the National Heart,

Lung and Blood Institute, referred to the omission as

an " oversight. " This is hard to swallow. Furthermore,

even if the ties had been revealed, what difference

would this make? Are we to feel comfortable that most

of the panel members pushing highly aggressive

cholesterol guidelines have ties to manufacturers?

What nonsense this is to put together a panel with the

drug industry sitting on the shoulders of these

so-called experts.

 

It's hard to know what to do about all this. The

emotional brain cries out to see these people fired

from their academic posts for engaging in what many

people will feel is a high-level swindle. They are

playing with human lives - although they clearly do

not see it. Given past statements made by those caught

in the same circumstances, it appears that many

doctors and scientists think they somehow have the

ability to push aside powerful influences and make up

their minds in an " objective " manner (whatever that

could possibly mean these days).

 

Perspective On The Aggressive Use Of

Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs