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---

-it is NICE (not NIVEL) of course
-just in case, a link:
Dr Cholesterol lost the battle (BMJ) but won the war (NICE). An adults'
tale. Postscript August 2014.
http://www.nogracias.eu/2014/08/07/dr-cholesterol-british-medical-journal/
-un saludo
-juan gérvas


2014-08-07 18:06 GMT+02:00 Juan Gérvas <[log in to unmask]>:

> *"DR.CHOLESTEROL" AGAINST "THE BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL". DO NOT MEASURE
> YOUR CHOLESTEROL, BE HAPPY. (May 2014)*
>
>
> *http://equipocesca.org/en/english-dr-cholesterol-against-the-british-medical-journal-do-not-measure-your-cholesterol-be-happy/
> <http://equipocesca.org/en/english-dr-cholesterol-against-the-british-medical-journal-do-not-measure-your-cholesterol-be-happy/>
> *
>
>
>
>  *Postscript, August 2014*
> *Dear children: *
>
> *Dr. Cholesterol has lost the battle, but won the war. The British Medical
> Journal does not have to retract the two texts on cholesterol and primary
> prevention. They have only a minor error and was corrected (with respect to
> the adverse effects of statins). **Therefore Dr. Cholesterol has lost his
> battle. *
>
> *Meanwhile, the agency NIVEL (which determines the value of medicines in
> the UK) has recommended greater use of statins, as proposed by Dr.
> Cholesterol. Medicalisation of millions of healthy individuals is
> unjustified. It is big business for the industry and a danger to the life
> of the English. **Therefore Dr. Cholesterol has won the war. *
>
>
>
> *These are sad days for good doctors. British general practitioners have
> called 1/ NIVEL not to make recommendations until it has all the data from
> the studies, and 2/ not to follow its recommendations. NIVEL answered:"We
> are not always in a position to obtain all unpublished data but we can make
> an assessment of the likelihood of any unpublished data affecting, our
> conclusions". You do not know wheter to laugh or to cry.**These are sad
> days for good doctors. It appears that the adverse effects of **statins**
> have being used as a smokescreen to avoid the debate over its lack of
> effect in primary prevention. *
>
> *Yours*
>
>
>
>  Juan Gérvas, MD, PhD, retired general practitioner, Equipo CESCA
> (Madrid, Spain) @JuanGrvas
> *[log in to unmask]* <[log in to unmask]> *[log in to unmask]*
> <[log in to unmask]> *www.equipocesca.org* <http://www.equipocesca.org/>
>
>
>
>  Children sit down and be quiet, silence please!
> Mara and Andrew, move to the the front row. Your parents are doctors and I
> do not want any trouble. I want you to write down word by word what I
> say. Tonight, when you get home, I want you all to read it, before dinner,
> and for your parents to sign it.
>
> [That's so unfair!]
> [I have nothing to write with]
> [Mara pushed me ... ! ]
> [Can we not just type it on the computer?]
> [We are with grandma, our parents are divorcing...! ]
> Everyone write down! Remember it is utterly important to copy exactly what
> I say.
>
>
> The UK is an island country, member of the European Union.
> [Both in capitals? "Union" and "European"?]
> [Not so fast , you are going too fast...!]
> [Tessa threw me a paper ball!]
> [My aunt has gone to live in the UK, she says that everyone speaks
> English!]
> The UK has a very old and very tolerant democracy.
> In the UK there are doctors who are general practitioners whom everyone
> respects a lot.
> [Are there no paediatricians? Great! That means they are not vaccinating
> and weighing children all day!]
> [Are they rich, the general practitioners?]
> [I saw a movie and a doctor was a very bad person!]
> [I've been to London and I have never seen a general practitioner]
> [My grandfather was a rural general practioner]
> In the UK there are also medical specialists.
> General practitioners and specialists together form the British Medical
> Association .
> There are more than 150,000 physicians.
>
>
> Drop the pens just now and come over the computer to see what a nice
> building they have, it is in central London, in Tavistock Square.
> [Oh yes! It is beautiful]
> [It has a clock and a flag! Is it the doctors' flag?]
> [There is a large gate, do they fear getting robbed?]
> [Are British doctors rich?]
> [My father has a friend who is a doctor there, was born in Pakistan and is
> working in a village. We went to see him. He had a very large house, a
> fatty dog, a Siamese cat and six children]
> Doctors at the British Medical Association have many journals and
> scientific activities.
> But there is a fantastic scientific journal, which knows all the doctors
> in the world .
> It's called "British Medical Journal".
>
>
> I'll write on the blackboard the name of the journal.
> [Very easy name, I know the "New York Times"]
> [Is it in English?]
> [Is it free?]
> [Peter threw me a bogey, that's yucky!]
> The "British Medical Journal" is very popular because it publishes many
> papers that help clinicians to treat their patients better.
> The journal is free for doctors from poor countries and the most important
> papers are also free to all doctors in the world, available online .
> Since 2005 the editor of the "British Medical Journal" is a general
> practitioner, Fiona Godlee, who studied medicine at Cambridge, became
> general practitioner in London and then she went to the U.S. to Harvard.
> Fiona is married and lives with her husband and two children.
> She is 52 years old.
>
>
> I will write down these names on the blackboard and we will go online to
> see some pictures of Fiona.
> [When I grow up I will be the editor of the "British Medical Journal"]
> [Does Fiona earn a lot of money?]
> [Why did she go to Harvard? Is she an U.S. spy?]
> [She is very old! Do you have to be old to be an editor?]
> [I have to pee. Can I go...?]
> [I am tired of writing, why don't you just tell us and we will tell our
> parents?]
> Last year, 2013, the "British Medical Journal" published two articles
> about cholesterol .
> The two studies showed that cholesterol is not a problem.
> As a Spanish general practitioner says: "Do not measure cholesterol. Be
> happy"
> In those two papers there was a little error because they noted that
> cholesterol drugs harms 18 % of patients.
> Actually it was 17.4% and the authors published a correction, also they
> stated that this result was only a study done in the United States and
> perhaps elsewhere would be different.
> But in the UK there is a "Dr. Cholesterol" that meets up with his friends
> everyday and scares everyone talking about cholesterol, about food, about
> sitting and watching football games on TV and all, he thinks about all day
> is to sell more and more drugs for cholesterol.
> [Can I get a drink? I'm so thirsty...!]
> [Does "Dr. Cholesterol" make a lot of money?]
> [Charles is bothering me!]
> [There's a pigeon on the window!]
> [Is "Dr. Cholesterol " like a pig? My mother says that pork is full of
> cholesterol]
> [I think that the more cholesterol things have the more I like them.
> Specially my grandmother's bacon bites. She has promised to make them
> tonight, Yummy!]
> [My aunt says that cholesterol is terrible and she's all day taking blood
> tests]
> "Dr. Cholesterol" went to visit Fiona and told her that she must delete
> those two papers, which were really bad for cholesterol drugs.
> Fiona explained that the mistake had been corrected and that he could
> write a letter to the "British Medical Journal" if he disagrees about
> cholesterol not being a problem.
> "Dr Cholesterol" was outraged and left Fiona's office and went straight to
> see the tabloid journalists.
> [What is it, what is a tabloid journalist?]
> [My father says Ben Goldacre is a tabloid journalist, but my uncle, my
> mother's brother, said he is very good and very brave]
> [Perhaps "Dr Cholesterol" has a high cholesterol because he was so angry.
> To be stressed is bad for the heart]
> There are many friends of "Dr Cholesterol" making money with cholesterol
> drugs, and they want Fiona fired.
> Cholesterol drugs are called statins and are very good when given to you
> after you have had a heart attack.
> But statins are worthless if you have no coronary artery disease (heart
> disease).
> You do not need to check your cholesterol. You just have to be happy.
> [As my parents are divorcing my mother said she is very unhappy. She goes
> to visit the doctor who orders her blood tests and tells her: "you have
> have high cholesterol you need pills". Would it be better to find her a
> boyfriend so she will be happy?]
> [My father says that he finds happiness in Buddhism, he is silly]
> [Happy doctors earn more money?]
> [A friend of mine says her father eats everything he likes and then a pill
> for cholesterol so that way he does not get ill]
> [My aunt wants everything cholesterol free and low in calories]
> [Peter is bothering me again]
> Coronary artery disease (heart disease) is a frequent problem amongst poor
> people who suffer it because they are unhappy, eat poorly, have no money,
> smoke a lot, have a lower level of education and do not know what are their
> future expectations. Coronary artery disease (heart disease) it is mainly a
> social and psychological problem, not a biological one.
> Do not measure your cholesterol.
> Be happy.
> You have to enjoy life, even with its drawbacks.
> The cholesterol drugs, statins, are only for those who have had coronary
> artery disease (heart disease).
> Statins sometimes produce serious harms, even deaths.
> My mother died because she took Lipobay (cerivastatin), she had high
> cholesterol but without coronary artery disease (heart disease).
> Lipobay "ate" my mother's muscles away and "collapsed " her kidneys, and
> she died.
> Then Lipobay was banned but by then my mother was already dead.
> Statins harm the muscles, the liver and pancreas and they can cause
> diabetes.
> You do not need to check your cholesterol, just be happy
> [You are crying. Is it for you mother?]
> [My mother died , and I cry when I remember her. One day she was drowned
> on the beach]
> [Do not cry, we love you very much!]
> [We're going to be good and you will be very happy and that way your
> cholesterol will not rise]
> [Tonight I will read this to my grandmother, she will appreciate it very
> much]
>
>
> *NOTE*
> This problem relates to power, money and censorship. This problem is about
> scientific freedom that seeks to put limits to Medicine. This problem
> relates to industries that put the profit of shareholders before the health
> of patients and populations. It is a problem that concerns us all.
>
> To know more:
> Adverse effects of statins as weapons against British Medical Journal
>
> *http://www.nogracias.eu/2014/05/21/adverse-effects-statin-weapons-british-medical-journal/*
> <http://www.nogracias.eu/2014/05/21/adverse-effects-statin-weapons-british-medical-journal/>
> *http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g3306?tab=responses*
> <http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g3306?tab=responses>
> On the problem of cerivastatin , which had to be removed in 2002 after
> causing hundreds of deaths (funny enough, not one in clinical trials)
> *http://www.healthyskepticism.org/global/news/int/hsint2002-06*
> <http://www.healthyskepticism.org/global/news/int/hsint2002-06>
> About the excesses of statins. Statins prevent domestic and traffic
> accidents, in addition to burns and wounds
> *http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19349320*
> <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19349320>
>
>