Podcast Episode 111 Statin Scam Part 3 - Pharmaceutical Data Manipulation

On this week’s podcast, we continue our discussion on the cholesterol lowering medication called statins. In part 1, we discussed the history of the low fat/low cholesterol dietary recommendations, how those recommendations were used to prop up the use of statins, and why that has been devastating to the health of the entire nation. In part 2, we discuss the literal mechanism of action of statin medication and why lowering LDL is a bad idea.

In part 3, we discuss the dirty tricks used by the pharmaceutical industry that make statin medication appear more beneficial than they actually are.

The big health claim made by Lipitor, which I’m sure you’ve seen in some mens health magazine, is that it lowers your odds of having a heart attack by 36%. Sounds impressive right? Well, here’s the real data.

Lipitor’s 36% reduction of heart attack risk was a figure arrived from a relative risk reduction from 3% to 2%

You might be asking what’s the problem with that? What’s relative risk reduction?

“Relative risk reduction” is a common tactic used by pharmaceutical companies that can make an effect appear meaningful when the “absolute risk reduction” reveals its insignificance. Absolute risk is what we want to focus on, not relative risk. So how do they come up with these numbers?

Think of it like this, 100 people are treated with a statin medication and one person sees a benefit. 99 people see no benefit. The benefit seen from this one person is an absolute risk reduction from a 2% chance to a 1% chance of having a heart attack. Which would be spun by the pharmaceutical industry as a 50% relative risk reduction in having a heart attack. So this 1% benefit magically turns into a 50% benefit just like that.

No study has ever shown any association between the degree of cholesterol lowering and beneficial outcomes described in terms of absolute risk reduction, likely because they would be perceived as insignificant.

We end with a brief intro on all the harmful side effects caused by statins. To learn more about statins and why they’re the biggest scam in the history of medicine, listen to this week’s podcast.