“Superpill” PR Campaign
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009Headlines are blazing with how everyone’s going to be able to take one “superpill” and reduce their risk of heart disease by 50%. The study, published in Lancet, was announced at the convention of the American College of Cardiology this week in Orlando. The “superpill” combines low-dose aspirin, a cholesterol lowering drug, and a blood pressure lower drug. Basically the study found that participants lowered their cholesterol and blood pressure. Making a quantum leap, they conclude that will reduce heart disease. Just one problem — lowering cholesterol and blood pressure doesn’t necessarily prevent heart disease! It does, however, produce huge profits for drug companies.
The conventional medical/drug establishment practices Joseph Goebel’s propaganda techniques to perfection: Repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it’s the truth. A lot of people with normal cholesterol and blood pressure have heart attacks. B vitamin, magnesium, and other nutrient deficiencies are probably much more significant in producing cardiovascular problems than cholesterol and high blood pressure. The cholesterol is high in the first place because it is needed. Cholesterol is a repair material, analogous to patching potholes. But the reason you have the “potholes” in your blood vessels in the first place goes back to nutrient deficiencies. Let me also add that the “diet-heart hypothesis” sold to American consumers for decades — namely that consumption of saturated fats and high cholesterol foods raises cholesterol levels — has been repeatedly proven false (see Better Health Update #40 — “Cholesterol Confusion”). Artificially lowering the cholesterol without correcting the cause of the high cholesterol simply exchanges one health problem for another.
But what about blood pressure? Does anyone ever stop to ask why the blood pressure is high? No. The dogma says that the blood pressure should be at a certain level, and if it isn’t, we’ll artificially lower it with a drug. I can tell you with good confidence that if you’re blood pressure is high, it needs to be high to get blood and its nutrients to where it needs to go. Lower that pressure, and you will deprive parts of the body of circulation and nutrients. The better solution is to clean out and expand the blood vessels with nutrition and exercise which will automatically lower the blood pressure without compromising your health in some other way. But there’s no money in that, and drug companies want to sell drugs.
The propaganda campaign from Orlando didn’t end with the “superpill” study, though. The featured headline following that study says: Omega-3 of No Added Benefit for Health Patients: Study. It’s bad enough that they have to promote their phony drug approach, but they didn’t stop there. The PR campaign also trashes the number one nutritional supplement for cardiovascular health — Omega 3 Fish Oils. The message is clear: Drugs are great; natural remedies don’t work. The problem is that many, many studies have already shown the significant benefit of Omega 3 fish oil for cardiovascular disease. The study was done with people right after having a heart attack and did not measure the preventive value of the supplement. In other words it didn’t measure at all the way most people use Omega 3 supplements–not after having a heart attack, but before having one.
Be very leery of “studies,” especially lone studies like this that contradict established findings. Most are funded by drug companies as part of their marketing program for their products.
– Monte Kline
