The ongoing failure of cholesterol "therapy"

[TheAwfulToad]

There's a new drug on the market that's even more effective than statins at reducing LDL. Amgen's Repatha is to cholesterol what the Russian RDS-220 was to Fat Man: it absolutely obliterates your LDL. It is the Mother Of All Cholesterol Bombs.

Unfortunately, it has no effect whatsoever on all-cause mortality. Even more hilariously, it doesn't alter heart attack risk in any meaningful way: "from 4.6 in 100 patients to 3.4 in 100 patients."

forbes.com/sites/matthewher...

Still, it is incredibly, eye-wateringly expensive, and the medical establishment are sure to prescribe quite a lot of it, even if it doesn't work. So, ka-ching!

I'm just wondering how long this ridiculous charade is going to continue before someone finally notices that the emperor has no clothes.

[andyswarbs]

Drugs are not the answer. Unfortunately people are increasingly being advised to check when there risk of checking can outweigh the risk of not checking. The check, besides having its own risks (like a colonoscopy) can lead to drugs, which as as you say often barely doing anything positive for the patient and often with nasty side-effects, not least of which is further drugs to reduce some of the worst side effects.

[MTCee]

While ever there are people who want a short quick fix for a supposed problem, there will be snake oil merchants offering expensive "solutions" 🙄

[Hidden]

People already know. I have known people, who stopped junk food once they hit a certain age group. On the other hand, I know people who went through cancer treatments. They were not necessarily obese and had muscle wasting/ muscle loss. NHS ought to change, that's for sure. It has too many Drs, who are too lazy to help patients and NHS IS PAYING FOR IT. (yes, I was shouting by feeling outraged by the sheer waste on these precious Drs, too lazy to work. I have known too many Drs, who failed to diagnose advanced cancer around me. Delays by 6 months. OK, happens, but delays by years? Sheer incompetence.

They must have been asleep at work. When Drs are not necessarily held accountable, legally only too often, corruption happens. One MP says Drs ought to learn to "apologise" when they made mistakes. The whole legal system around them ought to change, me thinks. This type of "therapy" issue is a tip of an iceberg. There are nice Drs, who care for the patients but I wonder why they are leaving NHS for private work or going abroad? Hate to use this phrase, but "Go figure".