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15% of Population at High Risk for Statin Injury
August 26, 2008
The New England Journal of Medicine1 reports on a detailed analysis of the human genome in those with statin-induced muscle damage. Scientists have uncovered an alteration in a gene that causes statin drugs to be more readily absorbed by the liver, thereby making the drug very toxic. 15% of our population has the risk-related gene variant.
On one hand this discovery is quite good because testing a person for the gene variant and excluding anyone who has it from taking statins would certainly cut down on much of the serious damage these drugs do. On the other hand, Big Pharma, the medical profession, and insurance companies hate to pay for screening tests and prefer the “herd dosing approach.” To them it is the only cost effective way of doing business. The actual costs of being reckless are simply shifted to those who are injured, the same strategy used with immunizations and many other risky drugs.
Let's look at it another way. For those who enjoy playing Russian roulette the odds are 1 in 6, close to 15%. How many people do you know who play Russian roulette? How many people do you know who take statins? Big Pharma and its salesman are more than willing to play this deadly game with the American public, as they rake in 20 billion in sales every year on this one class of medication. Whatever happened to “first do no harm.”
On one hand this discovery is quite good because testing a person for the gene variant and excluding anyone who has it from taking statins would certainly cut down on much of the serious damage these drugs do. On the other hand, Big Pharma, the medical profession, and insurance companies hate to pay for screening tests and prefer the “herd dosing approach.” To them it is the only cost effective way of doing business. The actual costs of being reckless are simply shifted to those who are injured, the same strategy used with immunizations and many other risky drugs.
Let's look at it another way. For those who enjoy playing Russian roulette the odds are 1 in 6, close to 15%. How many people do you know who play Russian roulette? How many people do you know who take statins? Big Pharma and its salesman are more than willing to play this deadly game with the American public, as they rake in 20 billion in sales every year on this one class of medication. Whatever happened to “first do no harm.”
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