Like Klim McPherson,1 my experience is of the effects of hormonal contraceptives and HRT. For many decades I have been detailing numerous faults in epidemiological studies.2,3 Even the WHI HRT study underestimated the dangers of taking hormones because most women had taken either contraceptive or menopausal hormones before being randomised to take hormones or placebos. This inevitably underestimates increases in cancers and strokes, heart attacks and venous thrombosis and mental illness caused by ever use of hormones.
It is the same with statin trials. If everybody is taking statins then who are the never users for controls? Some statin trials may have excluded or disregarded patients with muscle weakness. The Oxford/FPA contraceptive drug study excluded women who stopped taking oral contraceptives in the first five months,2 although I had already published in the 1960s that the first year drop-out rate matched the first year incidence of headaches and matching increases in angiogenesis.3
Worst of all, drug company sponsored studies seem not to have any investigations of the most revealing cell chemistry – either before drugs are started or during “treatment”. The fact that John McLaren-Howard’s brilliant biochemical tests have been developed and carried out without any large scale finance is a disgrace. McLaren-Howard’s ATP profile tests reveal that mitochondrial dysfunction causes fatigue.6 There is no need for confusion if doctors behave like doctors instead of robots mislead by number crunching.
1 McPherson K. Concerns about the latest NICE draft guidance about statins. Re: Adverse effects of statins. BMJ 2014 16 June.
2 Dr Ellen Grant, The Bitter Pill / Elm Tree Hamish Hamilton, Great Britain 1985.
3 Dr Ellen Grant, Sexual Chemistry Reed Books, London 1994.
4 Vessey M, Doll R, Peto R et al. A long-term follow-up study of women using different methods of contraception: an interim report. J Biosoc Sci 1976;8:373-427.
5 Grant ECG. Grant ECG. Relation between headaches from oral contraceptives and development of endometrial arterioles. BMJ 1968;3:402-5.
6 Myhill S, Booth NE, McLaren-Howard J. Targeting mitochondrial dysfunction in the treatment of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) - a clinical audit. Int J Clin Exp Med. 2013;6:1-15.
Rapid Response:
Re: Adverse effects of statins
Like Klim McPherson,1 my experience is of the effects of hormonal contraceptives and HRT. For many decades I have been detailing numerous faults in epidemiological studies.2,3 Even the WHI HRT study underestimated the dangers of taking hormones because most women had taken either contraceptive or menopausal hormones before being randomised to take hormones or placebos. This inevitably underestimates increases in cancers and strokes, heart attacks and venous thrombosis and mental illness caused by ever use of hormones.
It is the same with statin trials. If everybody is taking statins then who are the never users for controls? Some statin trials may have excluded or disregarded patients with muscle weakness. The Oxford/FPA contraceptive drug study excluded women who stopped taking oral contraceptives in the first five months,2 although I had already published in the 1960s that the first year drop-out rate matched the first year incidence of headaches and matching increases in angiogenesis.3
Worst of all, drug company sponsored studies seem not to have any investigations of the most revealing cell chemistry – either before drugs are started or during “treatment”. The fact that John McLaren-Howard’s brilliant biochemical tests have been developed and carried out without any large scale finance is a disgrace. McLaren-Howard’s ATP profile tests reveal that mitochondrial dysfunction causes fatigue.6 There is no need for confusion if doctors behave like doctors instead of robots mislead by number crunching.
1 McPherson K. Concerns about the latest NICE draft guidance about statins. Re: Adverse effects of statins. BMJ 2014 16 June.
2 Dr Ellen Grant, The Bitter Pill / Elm Tree Hamish Hamilton, Great Britain 1985.
3 Dr Ellen Grant, Sexual Chemistry Reed Books, London 1994.
4 Vessey M, Doll R, Peto R et al. A long-term follow-up study of women using different methods of contraception: an interim report. J Biosoc Sci 1976;8:373-427.
5 Grant ECG. Grant ECG. Relation between headaches from oral contraceptives and development of endometrial arterioles. BMJ 1968;3:402-5.
6 Myhill S, Booth NE, McLaren-Howard J. Targeting mitochondrial dysfunction in the treatment of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) - a clinical audit. Int J Clin Exp Med. 2013;6:1-15.
Competing interests: No competing interests