Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Eat your Pills
There's been a bit of a media over a recent report that the ever-increasingly-popular statins may combat prostate cancer. This is very interesting, of course, because anything that fights cancer would be good. HOWEVER! One of my many problems with statins is that they're pretty 'new' drugs, and only rigorously tested in a few populations (middle-aged-and-older mostly-white men, as far as I know). Also, they have side-effects and nasty interactions with everyday stuff, particularly grapefruit. Taking statins? Grapefruit's not a good idea.
Aside from safety issues, as MedPundit points out, these studies do not, at this point, seem to have been particularly rigorous: small numbers, not prospective, not (yet?) peer-reviewed. But of course the media will tout this research as the miracle cure of the week, sending many viewers/readers to bang down their doctors' doors, demanding the stuff. That's what they do.
Aside from safety issues, as MedPundit points out, these studies do not, at this point, seem to have been particularly rigorous: small numbers, not prospective, not (yet?) peer-reviewed. But of course the media will tout this research as the miracle cure of the week, sending many viewers/readers to bang down their doctors' doors, demanding the stuff. That's what they do.
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