If you read my book, Bamboozled, Duped, and Hoodwinked: Keys to Escaping the Tricks, Deceptions, and Half-Truths of the Medical Industry, you should not be surprised to learn that prescription drugs are not nearly as effective as touted. Even industry insiders recognize that many of its drugs are ineffective.
Allen Roses, MD, a former worldwide vice president at GlaxoSmithKline, stated as early as 2003 that fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the more expensive drugs obtain any benefit from them. I illustrated this by showing some of the Numbers Needed to Treat for some of the more prescribed medications for chronic disease in Bamboozled, Duped, and Hoodwinked.
Dr. Roses made his comments at a scientific conference, and though the ineffectiveness of many drugs is well-known within the industry, his comments represent the first time that a senior executive has come forward publicly.
The Number Needed to Treat
The number needed to treat is the number of patients who need to take a drug for one person to benefit from the drug. Many times, such numbers are 100 or more, and many are well over 20. I discuss the importance of the number needed to treat more in the article, The Number Needed to Treat: The Most Elusive Number.
Dr. Roses further stated that more than 90 percent of the drugs only work in 30 to 50 percent of the patients. One reason for this has to with genetics leading to differenr susceptibilities to the effect of a drug. A drug study does not tell a physician what drug will work in a given patient. Consequently, finding a drug to treat a patient’s problem comes down to trial and error.
Pharmacogenetics
Pharmacogenetics is being used more and more to better determine which patients are more likely to respond to a particular drug and thus remove some uncertainty and the need for trial and error. Pharmacogenetics is the study of how our genes affect the way we respond to medications.
Lifestyle Versus Drugs
There are issues with drugs that go beyond genetics, however. Drugs rarely facilitate or enhance normal function. Most often, drugs block a physiological process which has the unwarranted effects of blocking the production of downstream metabolites, many of which have a purpose or role in maintaing health. Below are 10 of the more common classes of medications prescribed.
-
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
- Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors
- Angiotensin II receptor blockers
- Beta-blockers
- Proton pump inhibitors
- HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors
- 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors
- SGLT-inhibitors
- GLP-1 agonists
- COX-2 inhibitors.
Except for the GLP-1 agonists, all these classes are blockers or inhibitors.
The Key to Good Health
The real key to good health is lifestyle, not drugs.
Your health will always improve with improvements in lifestyle. The same is not true if you are relying on drugs to improve your health.
