Statin controversy

There’s also the ongoing statin controversy. These popular cholesterol lowering medications may have benefits in those with known cardiovascular disease, but are increasing prescribed for ‘primary prevention’, that is, in healthy people to prevent heart disease. While it sounds good, this ignores the fact that all medications have side effects and that the benefits in a lower risk population is by definition, much smaller. Taking a tablet to prevent a single episode of heart disease may mean treating hundreds or even thousands of people for decades unnecessarily.

Many doctors blame ignorance and the media for these phenomena, but this is simply a patronizing attitude. The truth is this. Many people simply do not believe doctors any more.

But why? The answer is $$$$. Simply, the public does not trust doctors because they know that many doctors, especially those in academic medicine and the universities are on the take. A terrific study from Dr. Vinay Prasad illustrates the problem precisely. He reviewed 37 ‘expert’ physicians who spoke on behalf of drug companies. Not surprisingly, they were all getting significant amounts of money from Big Pharma — a median of $39,316. These were not simply run of the mill doctors either.

There is a clear correlation between the number of articles they had written (or been cited) and the amount of money received. This means that these ‘experts’ are those professors and doctors at all the best universities all over the world. These are the doctors that lecture other doctors and medical students. In general, the more prominent a physician, the more money he is taking from industry.

Some are receiving hundred of thousands of dollars. One was literally off the chart, claiming a ridiculous $2.8 million dollars from Big Pharma. $2.8 MILLION!!!

The sad part is that everybody recognizes the inherent conflict of interest. If a doctors is getting millions of dollars from a drug company, then there’s a good chance that his public opinion reflects this huge payment and is not an unbiased opinion. Further, doctors often try to hide this huge sponsorship from the public eye, making them far less believable.

For example, if LeBron James appears in a commercial for Sprite, we know that he is being paid for it. We aren’t exactly surprised if we find out that he probably rarely drinks sugary drinks, because, well, it’s bad for athletic performance and he’s not stupid. But LeBron never tries to hide his sponsorship, and may well be proud of it. That’s not the case with doctors. They try to obscure this fact everywhere they go.

Read more