I’m sure (well I’m not sure but I’ll cheerfully and casually postulate) to keep you all amused on a Friday) that there are many possible overlooked problems with Lipitor and the statins. I’ve heard of severe muscle pain, even amnesia. But then again most cardiologists and the medical establishment recommend statins very widely and the general medical opinion is that they’re under-used.

I’m reading an interesting book The Last Well Person by Nortin Hadler whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the FIDMD meeting a few weeks back. Nortin is not exactly modest(!) but he’s very amusing and has firm firm opinions. In the book he systematically goes through the randomized clinical trial evidence of the value of much heart treatment including angioplasty, heart bypass, and statins. And his analysis from the West of Scotland trial (which admittedly was using Pravachol not Lipitor) is that statin use made only marginal absolute improvements in heart attacks and essentially no difference in overall mortality.

But is Congress investigating whether the medical establishment has been lead astray or is leading us astray? No.

Apparently the most important question is whether Robert Jarvik actually rowed his own boat in a Lipitor commercial….

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