Posts Tagged ‘jupiter’

What is wrong with JUPITER

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

About JUPITER

Recall that JUPITER is an acronym for “Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin.” The JUPITER trials were intended to justify the use of a class of cholesterol lowering medications known as statins on apparently healthy patients who had:

  • Normal cholesterol levels (They did not need cholesterol lowering medication)
  • Elevated levels of c-reactive protein (CRP) indicating the prevalence of inflammation

The purpose of the trial was to determine whether such patients could benefit from the inflammation fighting properties of statins. The actual statin used in the study was Rosuvastatin marketed by AstraZeneca as Crestor. I discussed the JUPITER trials in a previous post .

JUPITER epitomises what is wrong with the current medical paradigm
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A reply to Peter Mansfield of Healthy Skepticism (Part 2)

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Or: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who shall guard the guardians themselves)

In my previous post I analysed the results of the JUPITER drug trials. I demonstrated that, for the participants, the benefits of taking Rosuvastatin (Crestor) were slight while the risks were far from negligible.

I shall now explain how this translates into a difference of opinion with Healthy Skepticism. However, first, a general comment.

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A reply to Peter Mansfield of Healthy Skepticism (Part 1)

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

In a previous post I stated that I had a philosophical difference with Healthy Skepticism, an organisation dedicated to combating misleading drug promotions. Dr Peter Mansfield, the founder of Healthy Skepticism, posted a comment in which he stated that no philosophical differences existed.

I am afraid that I must respectfully differ with Dr. Mansfield. I do have a philosophical difference or, at any rate, a difference of opinion, with Healthy Skepticism. Rather than argue in the abstract I shall use a “case study” to illustrate our differences. To be specific I shall analyse the much hyped JUPITER study on the use of the cholesterol lowering drug, Rosuvastatin. AstraZeneca markets Rosuvastatin as “Crestor.”

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