Natural Health: There are lies, more lies and statistics in the effectiveness of pharmaceutical drug

Last Updated on Saturday, 1 October 2011 01:10 Written by Natural Health Team Saturday, 1 October 2011 01:10

Health Information about Natural Health: There are lies, more lies and statistics in the effectiveness of pharmaceutical drug

The words in the title about statistics are well known, usually in a slightly different version, but I feel it is a little unfair on statistics. However it is true that most of us don’t know how to interpret statistics and even if someone does know it might take a few minutes to sit down and decode what the figures are actually saying.

I have spent a good amount of time looking at research articles over the last couple of decades and have become interested in the question of when or whether one should take the drugs recommended by doctors. I have been asking people how effective they expect a drug to be that is prescribed by their doctor. Most of them expect the drug to be 90 – 100% effective, a few drop the figure to 80% or more and only one person has thought that it might be as low as 70%.

This is in stark contrast to the fact where there is often less than 5% effectiveness and drugs with a proven effectiveness of less than 0.4% are regularly prescribed to the tune of billions of dollars a year for the drug companies. Doctors often talk about patients being unrealistic in their expectations. But who is being unrealistic?

A good case in point is a paper I looked at about Herceptin, a much hyped drug for women with hormone positive breast cancer. It sounds absolutely great when the advertising says “the treatment group has only 62% of the risk of recurrence, metastasis or death.” It sounds at a quick reading that things are 62% better.

Well not quite… Not at all in fact. – The 62% of the risk of recurrence or spread of the disease or death is… – An improvement of 37% against what it would have been without treatment which means an improvement of 37% of 22% (deaths which could have happened) which is – An absolute improvement of just over 8% for disease free survival – But if we look at overall survival it is only a 0.9% improvement – that is, out of 1000 patients only nine extra survive two years, or less than 1 in 100 – Or if it is averaged out over the life of everyone, an increase of just under 3 months of disease-free survival and four to five months of additional time till death.

Somehow one life saved out of 100 or an extra five months of survival doesn’t sound so great – nothing like the 62% in the advertising. And when you take into account the suffering due to side effects during treatment and the reduction of quality of life during that time you might like to think of much more fun ways to use up the last years of your life.

When a doctor wants you to take some drugs, especially when it is a life and death issue you don’t want to know the advertising figures, you want to know how much disease free survival time the studies show and how much overall survival time there is. And if the doctor waffles on about a few more months, work out whether months of suffering during chemo is worth the few more months that you might or might not get.

So, with all this in mind – is the problem one of statistics? Or is it that the marketers, the drug companies, are just doing the best they can for their shareholders by promoting their products in the best way they can.

One of the problems is that most doctors wear rose tinted spectacles when it comes to interpreting the figures. At best the doctors are intensely caring, want to do the best for their patients and are incredibly busy, too busy caring to delve into the vast swamp of biomedical literature. It is much easier to read the guidelines provided by the drug companies, or their medical associations which are sponsored by the drug companies.

You deserve better than that. You deserve to know the facts of actual effectiveness. As an example, the average survival time for women with breast cancer is 20 years. In Australia and elsewhere in the developed world between 78% and 85% of women survive 5 years (depending on where I get the figures). Chemotherapy only contributes 1.5% to survival at five years. That isn’t a typo. Only 1.5% of the 78% to 85% survival is due to chemo.

If it is going to cost you a lot of money for your drugs, of any sort, then work out whether you could do better by taking regular exercise, eating more raw and lightly steamed fresh vegetables, fruit and use the money to improve your overall quality of life than to take a drug with little effect.

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Don’t Let Stress Kill Your Effectiveness

Last Updated on Friday, 25 December 2009 01:39 Written by Natural Health Team Friday, 25 December 2009 01:39

“…making good decisions is a corner-stone in the foundation of being effective.”

I’m always amazed at how people handle stress. People carry their stress in many different ways – headaches, stomach ulcers, sore shoulders, bad backs, etc. While I’m not an expert on stress relief, I do know that stress detracts from your overall productivity and efficiency.

A friend of mine is facing an unfortunate all too common situation: his house is in foreclosure. Like many affected by the downturn in the housing market, his business has dried up and he now has to find new ways to make a living. The stress he feels as a result of his situation is causing him to not sleep at night. Not sleeping at night is leading to being ineffective during the day and not making good decisions to better his future.

One way to manage stress is to treat it like any other project that you manage: plan for it. We all know at least one or two ways that relieve stress for ourselves, whether it’s working out, eating well, taking time out, sleeping, getting massages, etc. By planning to relieve your stress within your work-week you’ll find it easier to get through the tough times and to make better decisions.

During tough times the last thing you need is to become ineffective. By planning to manage stress you will automatically change your outlook and ability to handle situations. Perhaps my friend can’t save his house but he CAN focus on finding a new place to live and make good decisions in the rest of his life. And making good decisions is a corner-stone in the foundation of being effective.

stress

Anxiety – {title}

Last Updated on Friday, 4 December 2009 01:57 Written by Natural Health Team Friday, 4 December 2009 01:57

New mental treatment improves anxiety and depression in secondary education teachers

Research in Spain supports the effectiveness of mindfulness, an emotional self-regulating tool that consists in focusing on what we are doing, thinking about or feeling at every moment. This psychological technique, more and more popular in the U.S., contributed to fight against psychological diseases such as anxiety, depression, concern or complaints about health, and improves emotional …A new mental treatment improves anxiety and depression in secondary education teachers

( University of Granada ) A doctoral thesis carried out at the University of Granada proves the effectiveness of mindfulness, an emotional self-regulating tool that consists in focusing on what we are doing, thinking about or feeling at every moment. This psychological technique, more and more popular in the U.S., contributed to fight against psychological diseases such as anxiety, depression …Anxiety for Penn Traffic employees

It’s been a day filled with anxiety, as Penn Traffic employees wonder what their futures will hold.Workshops will help reduce anxiety

NEWTON A four week anti-anxiety seminar will begin on Wednesday, Dec. 2, to be offered by Deborah Drumm, APN of Advanced Behavioral Counseling of Northern NJ and Deb McCarren, LPC, of Change Your Life Counseling, both located at 93 Main St., in Newton.Cop Killer Suspect Clemmons Is Dead; Anxiety in Seattle

Maurice Clemmons, the man who allegedly murdered four cops in the Seattle-Tacoma area, has been shot and killed, but anxiety over the situation remains. Could it have been prevented?