There has been a new twist in the statin saga – the heated debate about whether these drugs are as safe and effective as the official view claims. Now it turns out that the senior academic who believes they have virtually no side effects has told a newspaper that he hasn’t actually done the analysis […]
Do doctors treat pensioners with snake oil?
August 24, 2014 by 13 Comments
A cheering and optimistic story about dementia at HealthInsightUK.org.When Obhi Chatterjee’s dad was diagnosed, Obhi set about researching the most plausible supplements and diets to help him. The piece tells you what they are and why they might work and also has useful advice for anyone wanting to follow his example. Two of the biggest […]
Statin critics cleared. Top statin advocate knuckles’ rapped
August 2, 2014 by 36 Comments
The long running spat between senior statin advocate Professor Sir Rory Collins and the British Medical Journal has come to a very satisfactory conclusion. His demand – that two papers challenging his claims about the safety and effectiveness of statins – be withdrawn, has been rejected by a committee specially set up to consider it. […]
Drug problems: what plays in America stays in America
May 20, 2014 by 5 Comments
Over the years I have found the ability of the Atlantic to have dulling effect on the sensibilities of doctors and the media remarkable. It’s a phenomenon that only affects prescription drugs.While we in the UK eagerly follow every twist and turn in American cultural life, illegal pharmaceutical activities that may have serious implications for […]
Homeopathy and the threat of endarkenment
April 28, 2014 by
Recently a post of mine describing attacks on homeopathy as “batty and arrogant” that I wrote last year was retweeted. This meant that again homeopathy’s hard-core detractors rushed out with lectures about the scientific method and the need for randomised trials (obvious) but yet again no attempt to actually deal with the issues I raised […]
Statins: the secret data that decides if you get treated
March 5, 2014 by Leave a Comment
You’ve probably heard that there’s a proposal to make even more people eligible for the cholesterol lowering drugs statins. I’ve just published post on the website HealthInsightUK that puts a big question mark over the over the reliablility of the evidence that suggestion is based on. It comes from the highly respected but rather secretive […]
Prescription drugs: ineffective and possibly dangerous
January 13, 2014 by 22 Comments
Apologies for the hysterical headline but it’s just the kind of irresponsible, ill-informed screamer that regularly heads stories about some new study that “proves” that vitamins are ineffective generators of expensive urine and may well be dangerous. If you want to know why such studies are all too often based on poor science and frequently […]
How do you know if the drug you’re on works? You don’t
January 7, 2014 by 2 Comments
One of the comforting myths about the powerful drugs used in modern medicine is that they are prescribed on the basis of good scientific evidence. However this is an illusion, which experts have known about for decades, because drug companies can prevent doctors and regulators from seeing unfavourable evidence. If you are being prescribed a […]
Antipsychotics: firmly on the wall of shame for quackery and woo.
September 24, 2013 by 6 Comments
Quackery and woo are among the favourite insults directed at anyone who practices most forms of CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) – and especially those who use of homeopathy, herbs or vitamins – by staunch and vocal supporters of evidence based medicine. However a feature in the Daily Mail today describes a class of drugs […]
The Alzheimer’s charities are in a hole but they keep digging
July 13, 2013 by 11 Comments
Earlier this week I won freelance consumer journalist of the year at the Medical Journalists’ Association awards which was fantastic. You had to send in three features to enter and two of mine each focused on a different non-drug treatment that might help with Alzheimer’s. I mention this because looking at them again I was freshly shocked […]
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