Overdosed America, by John Abramson MD, a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School, does not pull any punches:
- Our health sytem's performance is ranked 37th among the nations of the world. And when efficiency in improving citizens' health is added in, we drop to a dismal 72.
- The debacle of American health care can be laid squarely at the feet of the pharmaceutical industry, which has compromised virtually every aspect of medicine, medical education, clinical guidelines, and scientific research.
- According to national guidelines, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs are recommended for more than 40 million Americans. yet medical literature backs their use in only a limited subgroup of patients, and even then, the benefits are small. According to one of the studies suporting their use, if 100 men at very high risk of heart attack took a statin daily for two years (at a cost of $336,000), it would prevent heart attack in just one of them. The remaining 99 men would not only receive no benefit, they would also suffer adverse effects of the drugs, such as lowered production of coenzyme Q10, a critical nutrient for the heart and overall health.
- Modern medicine is now the third leading cause of death in the US, claiming about 225,000 lives each year.
No comments:
Post a Comment