I remember when I graduated from medical school, the dean told our class, “What we have just taught you was the most up-to-date information about medicine. Unfortunately, 50% of what we taught you was wrong. Your job is to figure out which 50% was wrong.” I remember feeling stunned at...
Today (7.12.15), I received an email from Dr. C. You will see our correspondence below. Recall that Dr. C and I had a flurry of emails back and forth that I titled The Great Statin Debate (http://112.196.20.91/drbrownstein/the-great-statin-debate-a-cardiologist-debates-my-statin-views/). Below this exchange, I will tell you about an interaction I had...
To My Readers, I received a lot of comments from my patients and my blog readers on “The Great Statin Debate” blog post (May 15, 2015). I have been thinking about Dr. C’s arguments since I posted them. I would like to share a few of my thoughts with...
To My Readers, I received a personal email from a cardiologist whom I will call Dr. C. He took exception to some of my views about statins. What follows is a four-day email back and forth debate. I know this is a long post, but I feel it is important to...
We spend nearly 20% of our GNP on health care—far more than any other developed country. In fact, we outspend the nearest competitor by nearly two to one. You would think that spending more money on health care would allow us to enjoy better health. Unfortunately, the opposite is...
Americans take too many prescription medications. In 2014, Americans filled 4.3 billion prescriptions while spending a record amount of $374 billion for their medications. 2014 spending on prescription drugs hit the highest level since 2001 according to data from the IMS Institute of Healthcare Informatics. I would not have...
Coronary artery calcification has been found to be associated with cardiovascular events. In other words, there are more cardiovascular events when there is a higher coronary artery calcification score. The coronary calcium score can be measured with a coronary CT scan or a coronary intravascular ultrasound scan. Coronary scans...
There are only three days left of our 10% sale on my new book, The Statin Disaster. This book will show you: How Big Pharma manipulates the statistics of statin studies to make them appear better than they are How statins disrupt normal thyroid functioning How the cholesterol =...
I am pleased to announce the release of my 13th book, The Statin Disaster. Statins are the most profitable drugs in the history of Big Pharma. Currently, 28% of all American adults take a statin medication. If we follow the new cholesterol guidelines released by the American Academy of...
Statins are the most profitable medications in the history of Big Pharma. They are promoted as the go-to medications to prevent/treat heart disease. A recent study found nearly 100% of men and 62% of women aged 66-75 should take a statin medication even if their cholesterol level is normal....