News 

Here you will find links to material that has been added to this site during the last four months. Contributions from members of THINCS are marked with an asterisk. 

New Links: 
 
Reading the evidence closely — statins for seniors by Sandy Szwarc (Jan 17)

The data belongs to the patients who gave it to you by Ben Goldacre. Serious, revealing facts about the new, unpublished and unsuccesful statin trial ENHANCE (Jan 17)

Superdrug Death Link by Paul Keilthy. A tragic story about what can happen if a healthy individual is prescribed statin treatment (Jan 17)

How’d we get here? If you’re confused about the latest statin and cholesterol news, this information may help... by Sandy Szwarc  An excellent explanation of what is meant by a controlled, double-blind trial and how the drug companies have circumvented this principle. (23. jan)

Do Cholesterol Drugs Do Any Good? Cover story in BusinessWeek on Jan 17 Research suggests that, except among high-risk heart patients, the benefits of statins such as Lipitor are overstated.(25. Jan)

What’s Cholesterol Got to Do With It? by Gary Taubes. Op-ed in New York Times on Jan 27.

Will Cholesterol Pills Save Your Life? by Tara Parker-Pope, New York Times (28 Jan). 

Role of cholesterol in prevention and mortality benefit of statins debated in media by Michael O'Riordan published on Jan 30 in Heartwire (theHeart.org)

Failed Vytorin Study Raises Questions About Cholesterol’s Import by Maryann Napoli, Center for Medical Consumers. (31. Jan)

The safety of statins in clinical practice by Uffe Ravnskov. An overly optimistic review of statin treatment published by Jane Armitage in The Lancet was commented in a letter to the editor by Uffe Ravnskov, but rejected by irrelevant objections. Read the letter, the editors response and Uffe Ravnskovs comments to the response (12. feb). 

Blood cholesterol and vascular mortality by Uffe Ravnskov. In a review published in Lancet the authors found an inverse association between cholesterol and stroke mortality but a positive association with coronary mortality. However, they had excluded several studies of coronary mortality with the opposite result. Read ffe Ravnskovs rejected letter, the editors response and Uffe Ravnskovs comments to the response (12. feb).

Can a Drug That Helps Hearts Be Harmful to the Brain? by Melinda Beck, Wall Street Journal. (13. feb)

Cholesterol Skeptics have their day by John Simons: "For decades, renegade scientists have said that cholesterol-lowering drugs are ineffective for most users. Now, they say, a Big Pharma-sponsored study vindicates their claims." Published Feb 6 in Fortune, (27. feb)

When science and sales get mixed up by Sandy Szwarc. About how the public and the medical community are manipulated by the statin producers (3. April)

BBC Radio 4: About statin treatment Do you think statin treatment is good for you? Then listen! (4. April)

Hard Lessons from Vytorin’s ‘Trial Out of Hell’ by Ron Winslow, Wall Street Journal. About the unsuccesful ENHANCE trial. ((4. April)

Why enhanced cholesterol lowering is ineffective in familial hypercholesterolemia by Uffe Ravnskov. Here is the explanation to the surprising effect of the ENHANCE trial. But the editors of New England Journal of Medicine didn´t find it of sufficient interest to their readers (19. May)