Deputy Chairman of British Medical Association “Hugely Concerned about the New Advice on Statins”
On March 3, 2014, Dr. Kailash Chand, the Deputy Chairman of the British Medical Association, came out against the statin makers. He talked about his personal experience on statins with the UK paper, Sunday Express: “After a few weeks I started getting awful muscle aches which were almost everywhere and which would wake me up […]
Criticism Vs. Conventional Wisdom about Lipitor and Statins
In an e-book that our firm recently wrote about the side effects caused by the kidney dialysis drug, GranuFlo — “How the Largest Operator of Dialysis Centers Kept GranuFlo on the Market … Even After Reports of Consumer Harm Emerged” — we reflected in depth on the historical roots of medical ineptitude. Briefly: a […]
How Come Nobody Stopped Fresenius?
Where were regulatory agencies in all this? How did Fresenius get away with its behavior? In a New York Times article, “Dialysis Company’s Failure to Warn of Product Risk Draws Inquiry,” reporter Andrew Pollack wrote that “the Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether the nation’s largest operator of dialysis centers violated federal regulations by […]
Risperdal (Risperidone) – A Brief History
Risperdal is a type of drug that’s technically known as a “dopamine agonist.” This means the medication chemically stops up receptors in the brain where dopamine would normally bond. This biochemical action can be useful in treating a variety of conditions, including schizophrenia and ADHD, which some research scientists believe are dopamine related disorders. In […]
Why Did Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Push Risperdal on People?
In her February 23, 2014 piece for Time Magazine, “Small Science, Big Diseases,” author Nathalia Holt argued that “Big pharma … is risk-averse. They have good reasons for this. Bringing a new drug into the marketplace is incredibly expensive. By some estimates, it costs $350 million from the rough experiments to final clinical trials. If […]
Risperdal and Prolactin Levels in Men: What the Science Tells Us
Does Risperdal really elevate prolactin to pathological levels in some men? Here are several examples from recent science that suggests that it does. This blog series will address additional research later. A study by Vitiello et al in 2009 concluded that: “an analysis [that] combined the data from five clinical trials in 5 to 15 […]
FAQs about Gynecomastia
What treatment options are available for gynecomastia? Liposuction can be used in certain cases, as can be surgery. Dr. Hamed Khan published a letter recently in the British Medical Journal that suggested that 80% of gynecomastia patients can be helped when their estrogen levels are lowered with a drug called Tamoxifen, which is a drug […]
Gynecomastia 101
Gynecomastia cases can be subdivided into different classes, depending on the nature and severity of the growth of breast tissue. Grade one. The patient experiences some growth of breast without additional skin produced in excess. Grade two. The breast growth is more moderate, but there is still no excess skin. Grade three. Breast growth is […]
A Shift in Thinking about Lipitor’s Side Effects
Writing in an editorial piece for the New York Times on March 4, 2012, Dr. Eric J. Topol assessed the situation bluntly: “we are overdosing on cholesterol lowering statins, and the consequences could be a sharp increase in the incidence of Type 2 diabetes.” Dr. Topol is a cardiologist at the Scripps Clinic who teaches […]
A Company Too Obtuse to Even Listen to Itself
Internal company documents show that Fresenius’s doctors grew concerned about GranuFlo’s impact on bicarbonate levels as far back as 2001. Dr. Michael Lazarus, Fresenius’s Chief Medical Officer, relayed a message to the company’s technical team on March 23, 2001 about the “[apparent] confusion regarding bicarbonate delivery in the labeling on bicarbonate and acid concentrate products.” […]