The drugs don’t work and you can’t trust the media!
This is important.
YOU REALLY NEED TO READ THIS.
It you have ever been prescribed statins, or if someone you love is taking statins, you DEFINITELY need to invest half an hour of your day into reading this post and watching this important and educational video.
This is a fascinating watch, well worth 18 minutes of your life.
I posted a slightly controversial post on our very active MND Facebook page the other day, in a nutshell I was saying “We seem to have more medical science and nutrition knowledge and qualified experts than ever these days, yet in general the whole of society is fatter and sicker than they have ever been before. Are we getting lost in the detail, buried in science, digging too deep and missing the bigger picture? Is all that science being hijacked by companies trying to sell us stuff, supplements, compression clothing, training programs and exercise equipment? Maybe all we need is to get back to nature, use some common sense, live more naturally and shun some of the endless modern inventions.” I have spoken extensively about this here: http://mothernaturesdiet.tv/2014/09/01/mnd-tv-episode-1/ That was the thrust of my post - but it’s a highly relevant thought to keep in your mind as you watch this video and read this post.
Now watch this video
Truth That Lasts: David Newman at TEDxColumbiaEngineering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCk_vTkS6bU
The first 6 minutes Dr Newman explains how “scientific research” showing truly miniscule results, really imperceptible results that actually aren’t results at all, ends up reported in the popular media as “fact” which is “proven by science” and people believe it and spend years basing their behaviour on these reported facts.
This happens all the time. Think of the 40+ years that meat has been demonised as the cause of heart disease. Remember how you were told not to eat too many eggs? I have warned about statistics before: https://mothernaturesdiet.me/2014/02/02/statistics-can-be-misleading/
Then from 8 minutes, he goes on to show, that when you use this NNT tool (it’s a software tool that he and his team of Doctors have put together) to analyse lots of data from lots of trials and studies in many countries over many years, you can compile thousands of scientific research studies together and crunch all the data to see real repeatable, predictable patterns emerge.
By looking at data in this way, this big picture thinking, he proves that:
- Blood pressure pills (taken for years) make 4% difference (compared to no treatment)
- He looks at treatment for heart disease (global #1 biggest killer of the human race today) and he concludes:
- 5 years of aspirin as a treatment for high risk heart attack patients - 1% effective (I.E. given to 100 people, it will save 1 life - that is considered to be reasonably good in scientific terms)
- 5 years of statins for high risk heart disease patients - again it is just 1% effective
- 5 years of aspirin in regular patients, that is people who are not in the high risk category - NO advantage at all
- 5 years of statins for regular patients, not in the high risk category - again NO advantage at all. Yet I know so many people who have slightly elevated cholesterol who are being pushed statins and told to take them for life!!! And remember, there is NO evidence that elevated cholesterol leads to heart disease. NONE. I challenge you to show me evidence - there is none. This is at 12 minutes in the video - if you have been recommended statins, WATCH THIS VIDEO. Most of these people are not even sick, they are being recommended statins (which have many as-yet-unconfirmed possible side effects and complications, including some suggesting elevated cancer rates) and yet they are not even ill, let alone high risk!
- He shows that having a coronary stent fitted during a heart attack can be a highly effective treatment - but having a coronary stent fitted at any other time confers no benefit at all to anyone (but the cost of stent surgery is vast)
- Then, at 13:30 he explains that the MOST effective treatment EVER known for coronary heart disease - beats any drugs, beats any surgical procedure - is switching patients to the Mediterranean diet!!! He names meat, olive oil, fish, vegetables!!
- His metric of measurement, the NNT, the “number needed to treat” is just 30.
Let me translate that for you - coronary stent operations, costing thousands per time, are proven to only help save lives if the procedure is done during a heart attack. Years of statins, costing the tax payer an untold fortune and making statins the highest grossing drugs in the world (it’s a $30 Bn dollar statin industry folks - that’s as much money as the entire global recorded music industry), just on statins - and there is NO proven benefit…you can treat millions of non-high-risk people with stents and statins and studies prove you offer no benefit and save no lives. But switch people to a clean diet, high in meat, fish, oil, vegetables, some fruit and nuts and yes a little red wine, and for every 30 people who ditch the highly processed Western diet and go healthy, a LIFE IS SAVED.
ARE YOU GETTING THIS????? - You see where I’m going with this now and how it is all related to MND??? Follow my work and ditch the pills - we can save 500 times more lives than all the pills and potions ever will!!!
- A clean healthy natural diet “the most powerful coronary intervention ever known” - You see???
- And to top it off, finally, at 15:50 you hear a well qualified, well-respected Doctor admit that the science is flawed. All these highly qualified experts who would say that MND and people like me are “quacks”, who would say that if my posts are not referencing “evidence based science” then they are fundamentally flawed, here is the confession - “…in healthcare, we have held information back”.
I want to thank the most excellent and knowledgeable Dr Malcolm Kendrick for emailing this clip to me.
And now the NHS is groaning about our obesity epidemic
Also in the news this week, we have the Chief Exec of the NHS telling us that we will likely face increased taxes to cover the cost of the UK obesity epidemic if we don’t get things under control - Obesity is the new smoking, says NHS boss in England - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29253071
So we have this BBC article, stating that obesity is now a bigger imperative than smoking. All my life, the last 44 years “they” have been telling us to quit smoking - now the #1 public problem is obesity.
Do you think, over the next 44 years we’ll see a fight against obesity, pushing some of the same things they have pushed on smokers over the last few decades?
Will the government get behind this and:
- Tax sugary foods as highly as they tax tobacco products?
- Ban the eating of sugary foods and drinking sugary drinks in public places?
- Ban the sale of sugary foods and drinks to OUR CHILDREN?
- Ban advertising sugary foods to kids? Coke? Chocolate bars? Sugar-coated breakfast cereal? They put kids toys in cereals to make children buy them, McDonalds package toys in happy meals to PUSH their products to kids. Will these practices be banned? I’ve talked about this before - here http://youtu.be/gDZ9_sfhRao - pushing sugary foods to our kids is as bad as encouraging them to smoke!
- Will they start congratulating those of us who have quit sugar, patting us on the back for a job well done?
- Drop VAT on sports and exercise equipment?
- Raise tax on anything with added sugar?
- Raise tax on junk food?
- Raise tax on stodgy starchy carbs?
Obesity is costing the NHS £9 BILLION per year…that’s coming out of my taxes and yours. The Chief Exec of NHS England said -
“Mr Stevens said: “Obesity is the new smoking. It represents a slow-motion car crash in terms of avoidable illness and rising health care costs.
“If, as a nation, we keep piling on the pounds around the waistline, we’ll be piling on the pounds in terms of future taxes needed just to keep the NHS afloat.”
He said, unchecked, the result of growing obesity rates would be a “huge rise” in disability and illness, such as diabetes.”
Yet we have all the answers
We know that a clean healthy diet, high in fresh natural produce and low in processed foods (which tend to have added sugar), combined with an active lifestyle, is the answer. We know it:
- helps weight loss
- helps combat obesity
- helps reduce symptoms of diabetes and metabolic syndrome
- is the BEST defence against heart disease (see all this post above)
- and helps combat cancer (as I posted a few months ago, when another huge study recommended moving from 5-a-day to 7-a-day to reduce incidence of cancer - see my post here: https://mothernaturesdiet.me/2014/04/04/7-a-day-offers-health-benefits-and-protection-from-cancer-eat-the-mnd-way-and-get-17-a-day/
Now, put ALL this together -
1) You can’t always trust the garbage media reporting of scientific research. You must dig into the research yourself (or just follow MND, and I do it all for you - you know, what do you think I’ve ben doing this for all this time!!??!!) and separate facts from guff that makes for good headlines
2) A clean healthy diet high in fresh natural plants and animals, and low in processed foods, is the BEST defence EVER against heart disease, global #1 killer
3) The drugs don’t work. Even the ones that do work, are only saving a few percent of lives. The best drugs seem to help one in a hundred. The best surgery under emergency conditions saves 1 in 40. Switching to a clean diet is proved to save 1 in 30. Now, imagine if we all switch to the clean healthy diet and active lifestyle BEFORE WE GET SICK…then we might save many, many more from ever facing that heart attack
4) We as a nation are facing crippling taxes and an imploding NHS if we don’t get a handle on our obesity problem
5) The same diet that protects against heart disease, confers cancer protection too
6) MND has it all covered - this is the optimum healthy lifestyle. I’ve been studying all this for you for the last two decades, to bring you the MND way, 12 simple principles to live a life of abundance and supreme good health
So just do it! https://mothernaturesdiet.me/the-rules/
Who’s with me?
Agreed. We do hope that you attempt to reference your claims more often though.
Thanks ‘The Sustainabilitist’ - sure, with regards to the above post, exactly which claims would you like to see referenced? IS that not someone missing the thrust of the post?
Everything I have written above comes from the video…all referenced IN the video by Dr Newman…right?
Karl, maybe we are being unfair to you (and we can see that you have your own personal blogging style), but you are kind of make bold claims by inflating the evidence though, for example:
1) “1% effective (I.E. given to 100 people, it will save 1 life – that is considered to be reasonably good in scientific terms)”
Maybe you are aware of this. but that’s not exactly what the 1% means though.
2) “you can treat millions of non-high-risk people with stents and statins and studies prove you offer no benefit and save no lives.”
We don’t think it’s valid to jump to this conclusion, and while we understand your message, that’s not exactly what the studies report either.
3) “you hear a well qualified, well-respected Doctor admit that the science is flawed. All these highly qualified experts who would say that MND and people like me are “quacks”, who would say that if my posts are not referencing “evidence based science” then they are fundamentally flawed, here is the confession – “…in healthcare, we have held information back”.
We certainly think that you are far from quack here, but then again, we are unclear about Dr. Newman’s position about MND. Also, it’s very important to back oneself up with evidence - that is how outsiders can separate the wheat from the chaff.
4) Your entire section of “Yet we have all the answers” is pretty troubling, we just don’t think that you can claim having the answers while the researchers - especially those who are attempting to substantiate claims similar to yours — don’t even have the answers! Of course, we see where you are going from there, but it would be better if you make your claims judiciously, and potentially back them up with actual scientific paper - as opposed to some hearsay or news articles.
Finally, we are pretty sure that your claims can easily offend a lot of cardiologists around the world, and you should take this possibility more seriously too — since you don’t have a medical background, failure to back up bold claims can easily result in liability lawsuits and marketing fraud. Simply put, we just think that it is possible to keep the blog engaging without having to inflate the evidence or spin the evidence to our own advantage.
Hi ‘The Sustainabilitist’ - do you have a name? Am I talking to a person or group of people? Obviously, it would be nice to know if I am talking to…a Doctor…a cardiologist…a researcher…a random blogger like myself…or an employee of a statin manufacturer! (OK, last one is a joke!! Said with a smile…)
I really appreciate the long response, it’s excellent to get into such a dialogue.
Addressing your concerns -
1) But that is EXACTLY what Dr Newman says in the video…he expressly states that “4% of the population” were aided by blood pressure medications and 96% were not.
He clearly states that “1 in 100 will save a life” - watch from 11:00 to 11:28
2) He clearly states “no benefit at all” and “it will not save your life” - video at 11:40 to 11:45
“Hundreds of thousands of patients in randomised trials…number needed to treat to save a life [taking statins or aspirin, long term, non-high risk patients] is infinite” @ 12 minutes
“Guaranteed not to save your life”
I don’t think I am misunderstanding his data, but if you think I am, please explain why…I am always eager to learn.
3) Dr Newman seems like an excellent chap…and I am quite sure he’s never heard of me and MotherNaturesDiet! I aspire to such a reputation!
I think “references” is exactly the point of this post - Dr Newman and his colleagues (using the NNT tool they have developed) have taken all those disparate studies (as he points out, many make a weak correlation, at best) and crunched all that data together, to produce more reliable statistics, based on studying the bigger picture across bigger numbers, and according to the results he shows in his TEDx talk, statins are making very little difference at all, whereas switching to a clean diet, has a massive impact.
I appreciate the work of the medical profession and academia, but as a member of the general public, I see there are more scientists, spreading more science (in the Internet age) than ever before, and we as a society have deeper and wider knowledge of human biology and nutrition than ever before, yet as a society we are in a deeper health crisis than at almost any time in the last 100 years. If the scientists have all the answers, why are we dropping deeper into this ‘obesity epidemic’ with every passing year?
I am simply trying, with MotherNaturesDiet, to educate people to ditch processed food, cut back on alcohol, stop taking endless supplements and ‘solutions in pill form’ and just eat real, fresh, whole, natural food, get regular exercise and get out in the fresh air more often.
I challenge ANY health professional on Earth with ANY level of education to argue that my message is anything but GOOD for EVERYONE…???
In my post above, the “references” are Dr Newman’s video - ask him for his references.
I reference an article reported on the BBC News site, where the head of NHS England is quoted saying “we are in crisis and heading for major tax burden” - NOT MY words, but words from “the man himself” right?
Then I note an earlier post which quotes a large study from UCL, a reasonably reputable source - go ask them for their references!
I see NO HARM in the advice I give people - eat more veggies, cut processed food, eat pastured meat, organic if possible, free range eggs, organic veg and fruit, cut alcohol, get exercise, sunshine, drink more water, reduce stress, have less debt, love more - it is simple honest health advice that will benefit everyone.
Now, if I was a corporation selling “powdered super food berry root extract” and making wild claims that it cures cancer and stops heart disease…sure, that would be all wrong - I detest those snake oil salesmen and b/s so-called superfood supplements sellers as much as any highly-qualified professional. But that’s not what I do, MND simply preaches a message of “eat clean, exercise regularly, get fresh air, avoid as much processed food and chemicals in your life as possible” - I cannot see ANY harm in my message.
Not to sound as though I am attacking you, or any qualified medical professional (I am not, truly, I respect you all and the work you do) but my challenge is - do you have any better advice for people?
Seriously, I mean that, if I said “Tell the entire nation how to be healthy and avoid illness, in a few simple sentences” do you think you could come up with anything better?
If you do, I am VERY open to learn, VERY willing to hear from you?
4) You know, this whole “show us the research papers” is the stock answer from the qualified world…it’s so frustrating. UCL came out with the big study claiming “7-a-day helps prevent 25% of cancer deaths” - ask them!
Here - http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0414/010413-fruit-veg-consumption-death-risk
They claim “Eating seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day reduces your risk of death at any point in time by 42% compared to eating less than one portion, reports a new UCL study.” - and do you know what, I really don’t think we are EVER going to do any one on Earth any harm running around saying “less coke, lay off the chocolate digestives, and eat 7 portions of veg per day” - seriously, please tell me you agree?
I appreciate the position of the scientific community, but “Joe Public” will NEVER sit and read scientific journals, medical papers, peer-reviewed science - never. I’m trying to deliver a healthy message to the mass market, without selling them supplements or superfoods, just trying to get people to eat more veggies and buy organic - I promote better animal husbandry, sustainable farming, I promote eco-awareness, my message is “What’s good for humans, is good for Mother Nature. It’s not “our” diet, it’s Mother Nature’s diet - HER diet - if we treat our topsoil, salt water. fresh water and air with a sustainability approach, we might just find it’s better for us too.
I really genuinely DO appreciate your points…yes, the UCL ‘7-a-day’ study made observations from correlation, not proven causation, I get that, but truly, do you think it will do our population good to spread the message “Drink less coke, eat more veggies”?
90% of what I promote and teach is based on my own life experience - I lost 100 pounds of fat, went from 20 years of smoking to running marathons, went from a heavy drinker to exercising daily, slim, vital, bounding with health and energy - I teach people what I did, to change me…my story carries a disclaimer “I am not a Dr” etc… https://mothernaturesdiet.me/my-story/
But you know, I want to work with people like YOU, I want more people to get involved with MND, I want to work with doctors and surgeons, with researchers and cardiologists, to help take the “natural health” message to a broader audience. People trust the Dr’s, they trust the qualified, they place their trust in authority figures, you know this, and I need help spreading this message.
I truly desperately hope NOT to offend any doctors, cardiologists or other qualified experts. Please understand, I have the utmost respect for ALL in the medical profession - I am not against medicine, I just want to work with experts in different fields to help people see a bigger picture… And I can’t do it all alone, I need support…
The body of evidence against statins is vast, from Dr Malcolm Kendrick, through Justin Smith and so many more…
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Billion-Reasons-Lie…/dp/184876071X
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Great…/dp/1844546101
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Great…/dp/1592335217
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Statin-Damage…/dp/0983383553
There is more evidence AGAINST statin use than FOR it.
Dr’s are increasingly recommending long term statin use to younger and younger people, who present with NO symptoms!!! This is madness, what the hell are we doing pushing pills to people who have slightly elevated cholesterol levels but present with NO ill health symptoms at all, when the long term effect of those drugs is uncertain, there is NO irrefutable evidence showing that a) raised cholesterol leads to heart disease, or b) statin use saves lives, yet statins are being prescribed to more and more people. Meanwhile, the NHS continue to LAG behind on nutritional education. My local hospital, RUH in Bath, sells more chocolate chip muffins than fresh fruit. You can go to the café and buy a pre-packaged cheese sandwich (processed food rubbish) but you can’t but a meal with freshly cooked vegetables.
The NHS has a duty of care to LEAD, to EDUCATE, but I GET FRUSTRATED and increasingly exasperated by QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS who are NOT promoting thought leadership from their position of perceived authority. My GP is overweight and out of shape and this is not acceptable!
I have Dr friends who tell me 5 years in med school (a decade ago) included 4 hours on nutrition, an afternoon lecture. One GP friend smokes. I know another GP friend who is obese. I have another GP friend in his 50s who is obese and recently had a heart attack. Physician heal thyself!!
I am promoting a balanced healthy lifestyle, not a “fad diet”. The only “exclusion” in the lifestyle I promote is to ditch anything processed. If man has tampered with it in a factory, don’t eat it. Hardly radical!
Please help me, I’m not some great enterprise doing this to earn a fast buck, I am passionately advocating a healthy lifestyle, and trying hard to inspire a generation to follow. I think Dr Newman’s video (above) illustrated brilliantly that statins are a weak solution compared to switching to a healthy diet…but I need people like you to support my work and help me get the ‘natural living’ message out to a wider audience.
Do you really, honestly, think there is anything HARMFUL about promoting “eat more vegetables” to people?
I am no ignorant fool, I have many friends in medicine and academia, and I know that my messages have, do, and will continue, to meet resistance from trained and qualified academics. I know this, but I also know that academia is buried in red tape…you and I know it takes 20 or 30 years for research to be conducted that is “conclusive” enough to cause a vast organisation such as the NHS to change it’s policy.
I have spent a lot of time over the last 2 years visiting end-of-life hospice’s, and these places are full of people far too young to be there - it’s not all old folks in their 80s and 90s, it’s people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, and we don’t have 20 or 30 years, we have to help people change NOW.
I’ve changed my own fate, from someone destined to become an obesity/T2D/heart disease statistic, to a bounding example of good health - I am not trying to supplant medical advice, I preach common sense and clean NATURAL living. I study evolution, genetics, anthropology and history of agriculture as much as I study nutrition, biology and disease prevention. I think that half the reason the “scientific community” are so slow to make changes, is because they DON’T share my broader view. Yes, I am utterly serious.
I study social demographics, politics and economics as often as food science and agriculture, I study sustainable farming, animal welfare and topsoil management as often as I read oncology papers or books about diabetes.
Only by looking at all this things, at 200,000 years of history, at farming policy, at poverty in the 3rd world, at the history of agriculture, at genetics and evolution, only by pitching it all together can we see that the answers (not to “fixing the broken” - that is your chosen career my friend ) to prevention is to preach an all-natural, clean lifestyle. Stop the disease before the conditions/symptoms manifest, rather than wait til people are sick then treat the symptoms.
I appreciate your input - truly I do - but I don’t think (and it was never my intention to) that I am “inflating the evidence” nor “spinning the evidence to my own advantage.” - what advantage is that? I want people to cut out processed food with added sugar, and eat meat and vegetables…how is that spinning anything to my advantage?
I simply present Dr Newman’s video (trusting his work - anyone can look him up to find out more about his work) and the comments from the CEO of NHS England, and the findings of the UCL study, and then I throw in my interpretation of what they all say, and I connect them together - I blog as a non-qualified (in academic terms) member of the public, highly qualified in life experience. Beyond that, my readers can make their own decisions.
Please feel free to continue this dialogue and educate me if I am missing something.
Thanks!!