Statin side-effects that the pharmaceutical industry appears not to want you to know about
Posted on 11 November 2009
There is generally unbridled enthusiasm in the medical establishment for cholesterol-reducing drugs known as statins. While they do have the ability to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes, they don
Published November 11, 2009 . Filed under: Brain and Behaviour, Food and Medical Politics
[...] John Briffa wrote a post worth reading on his blog today about the significant side effects of statin drugs, and the [...]
November 12, 2009 @ 3:25 am
I’ve been taking statins ever since I had stents fitted ten years ago and for the last three have had Peyronie’s disease, a kind of erectile dysfunction in which the tunica sheath becomes inelastic through plaque build up with reduced length (and where this is uneven, some bizarre curvature rendering penetration impossible), mine is straight but significantly shorter with consequent unsatisfactory intercourse. GP and urologist have tried me on viagra and its alternatives with no effect – it’s not the erectile tissue that needs treatment but the surrounding tube. Options?
November 13, 2009 @ 8:46 pm
Perhaps indifference should be officially recognised as a chronic illness, John?
Medicine and pharmaceuticals are branches of ‘science’ that have been questioned by some for some time as having been ‘hijacked’ by the commercial agenda and what you discuss above would apparently be an example.
Due to a comparative lack of independent funding the direction of scientific research is drawn towards issues that have commercial prospects within the science and at the frontiers of ‘noble’ scientific research the derived application is likewise drawn to the commercially expedient. The status-quo is OK because politicians can leave the evolution and funding of science that they are ill-equipped to understand to experts employed by industry, ..allegedly, and they are indifferent to the counter-side of the outcomes.
At least in relation to science recognition of the problem I write upon is official. Writing in New Scientist (7th November 2009) guest authors Parkinson and Langley contribute an opinion that in science the corporate agenda is now so corrupting that we can no longer be indifferent to it; they are also leading authors of a report, Science and the Corporate Agenda, published in the name of ‘Scientists for Global Responsibility’, which attempts to quantify the problem and demonstrate the outcomes. Theirs’ is a rallying cry to scientists, many of whom are engaged in work funded by corporate finance, to recognise their contribution to a mass problem and become more ethical in what they do. In their words their report
November 19, 2009 @ 2:59 pm
By way of afterthought I mean it is time to get wise and for the wise to get ethical.</em
November 19, 2009 @ 3:18 pm
[...] Statin side-effects that the pharmaceutical industry appears not to want you to know about | Dr Briffa’s Blog By fsubooster via Statin side-effects that the pharmaceutical industry appears not to want you to know about | Dr Brif…. [...]
February 10, 2010 @ 8:24 pm