Bad medicine: statins
BMJ 2013; 346 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f3566 (Published 31 May 2013) Cite this as: BMJ 2013;346:f3566
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In observing the illness patterns amongst Australian Aboriginal infants, Dr Archie Kalokerinos was able to uncover the mechanisms involved in the Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) and the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). In his book, published in 2008, Archie wrote:
"The use of vaccines is an issue that is not easy to deal with because of its complexity. The idea, of course, is to protect infants against a range of infections that can result in serious illness or death. However, there are complications that can follow vaccination." [1]
Dr Kalokerinos then went on to deal with this important issue, saying:
"We all found a major subset of SIDS could be prevented by using vitamin C injections for those infants who displayed features that were becoming known as 'risk' factors. Heading this list were gastrointestinal disturbances and viral and bacterial infections. I soon found another - the administration of vaccines to sick infants which lead to the publication of a book called 'Every Second Child'. [2]
He later stated that:
"While the vitamin C recommended daily allowance might be sufficient to avoid a pre-morbid state called "scurvy", it bears no relationship to the amounts required for the body to effectively manage essential biochemical processes brought into play after vaccines, toxin exposure, malnutrition, illness or stress."
Des Spence believes that vaccination is “medicine's miracle”, while obviously believing that the ever expanding exposure of the world to statins is not a good thing. Is "vaccines for all" bad medicine? Archie Kalokerinos told us the answer a long time ago: the medical establishment has shamefully failed to listen.
[1] Shaken Baby Syndrome: an abusive diagnosis, by Archie Kalokerinos, April 2008. Copyright March 2012, Robert Reisinger Memorial Trust.
http://www.beyondconformity.org.nz/_literature_100424/Archie's_book
[2] Kalokerinos, A. 1974. Every Second Child. Thomas Nelson (Australia) Limited. SBN 17001987X
Competing interests: I am not anti-vaccine, but I do not believe that vaccines are an unmitigated miracle.
It is very convenient to label critics of the vaccine programme "anti-vaccinationist", when mostly they are people who have just seen the downside of the system. Of course, it would be "illogical" to doubt the system if it really was as safe and effective as Des Spence believes, but is it?
I suggest Spence begins by looking at the history narrated by Jackie Fletcher in her response to Greaves and Donaldson in these columns only last week [1]. Then he should go to the paper presented by Lucija Tomljenovic at the British Society for Ecological Medicine in 2011, examining the record of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation [2]. After that he could do with a visit to Peter Doshi's recent critique here of the influenza vaccine industry [3] and Aaby et al 'Vaccine programmes must consider their effect on general resistance' also published in BMJ [4].
The point is surely that it is a complex picture in which for bureaucratic purposes the benefits tend to be greatly exaggerated and the risks side-lined and ignored. Also, I would be very sceptical that vaccines can impact to greatly reduce child mortality in third world conditions, and that for this other needs to do with nutrition and hygeine have to be met, as they have been in the developed world.
[1] Jackie Fletcher, 'Re: Measles in the UK: a test of public health competency in a crisis', 14 June 2013 http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2793/rr/649808
[2] Lucija Tomljenovic, ' The vaccination policy and the Code of Practice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation: are they at odds', BSEM 2011 http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2793/rr/649808
[3] Peter Doshi,'Influenza: marketing vaccine by marketing disease', http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f3037
[4] Aaby et al, 'Vaccine programmes must consider their effect on general resistance', 14 June 2012, http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e3769
Competing interests: Autistic son
Dr Mark Struthers reminds us of the pioneering work of Dr Archie Kalokerinos in the field of immunization of children.
He was the first to draw attention to the role of Vitamin C and its relation to fractures and bruises in children said to be have sustained “non-accidental” injuries.
In his book “Every Second Child” he says –“during one trial the prosecution said that scurvy was no longer seen – I replied, yes it is but you no longer call it scurvy, you call it Shaken Baby Syndrome”.
His message of more than 35 years ago has still not penetrated the psyche of “main stream” medicine.
Perhaps a Royal Proclamation outlawing the diagnosis is the only way to stop false allegations of “non-accidental injury”.
Competing interests: As previously stated
Archie Kalokerinos, a Greek Australian doctor, died last year in Sydney at the age of 85. [1] His work with Aboriginal children was simply miraculous.
Daan Spijer, LLB, in reviewing his autobiography wrote:
"I felt my anger rising when I read of the reactions to the progress Dr. Kalokerinos made in reducing the infant death rate in the Collarenebri area (outback NSW, Australia) from one of the highest in the world (including so-called developing countries) to the lowest in the world. Most of the responses to this miracle were in the realm of disbelief, hostility, denigration, denial and threats. He was branded a dangerous man and in other ways personally insulted, yet very few took the trouble to look at what he was doing and try it for themselves. The result, as he puts it, was and continues to be thousands of unnecessary and preventable infant deaths. The prevention of these deaths is simple and relatively cheap and cannot be patented." [2]
Spijer went on to say:
"We should all feel uncomfortable that governments and industry have such a devastating control over our lives."
At worship in the cathedral of the vaccine industry, Des Spence believes "that vaccination is medicine's miracle, protecting the individual and public health." However, Archie Kalokerinos once wrote:
"I found that the whole vaccine business was indeed a gigantic hoax. Most doctors are convinced that they are useful, but if you look at the proper statistics and study the instance of these diseases you will realise that this is not so." [3]
Des Spence needs to step outside his current place of worship and take a proper look at the evidence.
[1] Greek-Australian Archie Kalokerinos, Doctor to Aboriginal Children in Australia, Passes Away. Fani Toli, Greek Australia Reporter, March 7, 2012.
http://bit.ly/11RF0Nr
[2] Book Review: Medical Pioneer of the 20th Century, Daan Spijer, LLB.
http://bit.ly/18NWxLI
[3] Dr Archie Kalokerinos, Interview with International Vaccine Newsletter, June 1995. http://bit.ly/13RgMBo
Competing interests: Believe that vaccine safety needs proper worship.
Provocatively, as is your wont, Des. Heart attacks are multifactorial, due to 'risk factors' ( not disease, Des) such as cholesterol and sloth. But in the UK they have been declining dramatically in incidence and mortality rate for over 40 years. Survival, and thus prevalence (of IHD) is thus increasing, partly thanks to Statin.
Statins are not bad medicine, but the misuse of them is.
Used appropriately, they offer RCT-proven cheap, safe, effective, and reasonably acceptable way of avoiding heart attacks. 30% reduction across the board, in fact. You rightly point out that in low-risk people there is a reciprocally high NNT. This is true for all medicine - Penicillin works most efficiently in the patient with pneumonia, moderately well at preventing the risk of pneumonia, and useless in people who will not get pneumonia !! Absolute risk rules, OK ? People with a 100% chance of heart attack will have a 1 in 3 chance of avoiding it with a statin, for a pound a month.
You quote selectively "In low risk patients older than 60 and taking standard statin treatments, the number needed to treat per year (NNT) to prevent cardiovascular events is 450". Absolutely true ! But the average 60-year-old man in my practice has a 20% ten-year CVD risk. This translates to a 1-year risk of 2%, and reciprocally an NNT of 50 ( if treatment were 100% effective). Statins are only about 33% of CVD, resulting in a demonstrable NNT of 150.
At today's generic prices, cheap Statins are extremely cost-effective prevention, and should be offered to anyone at moderate or high-risk. Start low and go slow. Let the patient decide whether it is acceptable !
Competing interests: No competing interests
Des
isnt the prevalence of CVD rising but the mortality declining
Competing interests: No competing interests
No we don't have to prescribe we just have to discuss the evidence with the patient. When I do this I find many of them decide not to bother.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Re: Bad medicine: statins
Des Spence has quantified the dubious effects of statins, but not of vaccines. Des seems to have accepted the establishment position that vaccines are safe, effective and needed. However, experience has shown that current acceptance is often no guarantee of correctness ... and that many accepted ideas in medical science will eventually be superseded by others that are more accurate.
Jayne Donegan, a London GP and homeopath, said:
"We vaccinate against lots of childhood diseases now because we are told that having the diseases is a bad thing and leads to thousands of deaths. However, when we look at the figures from the Office for National Statistics [1], we see that 95% of the people who used to die from measles stopped dying before the vaccine was introduced in 1968 and similarly 99% of the people who used to die of whooping cough. The mortality rate for tuberculosis fell no differently in countries that did and did not use the BCG vaccine. Scarlet fever, rheumatic fever and typhus were deadly killers. They all disappeared without a vaccine. Why?" [2]
Des Spence has looked at the evidence and seems to have rejected the generally accepted establishment model on statins. Surely, it's time for a paradigm shift on vaccines. What can you tell us, Des?
[1]http://childhealthsafety.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/0707275measleslog.jpg
[2] Are childhood infections a good thing? Dr Jayne LM Donegan MBBS DRCOG DCH DFFP MRCGP MFHom. 2002, revised 2010.
http://bit.ly/10iFZ8Q
Competing interests: Agree that the selling of “statins for all” is bad medicine.