Doctoring Data: How to sort out medical advice from medical nonsense

As I during years always have enjoyed reading the writings from Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, I therefore the same day as I in the daily e-mail from Mercola learned about this new book I immediately went to Amazon and ordered a copy. And of course I again by readings writings from Kendrick received much important information, some of which especially the drug producers don’t want people to learn about.Since I was child I have read many books and articles about health and diseases, firstly concerning diseases which either I personally, or persons whom I know, was hit by, or diseases which came in the news. And the habit in reading much science I got by nothing ells to do, during my around 30 times hospitalization in Denmark (7 times in Thailand), mostly after accidents. But during the 12 years here in Thailand living without libraries, around 300 of the science books which I have bought concerning health and diseases, mostly have come as the result of my fighting with the doctors. While living in Denmark I never happened in disagree with the doctors, but here in Chiang Mai the doctors are totally wrong in many cases concerning health and surgery; and doctors in Bangkok have agreed with me. For example, as it happened to my wife, concerning women hit by breast cancer their only solution is to cut of both breasts. In my wife’s case there only was found a tumor on less than 1/3 Inc. in size, and nothing ells. But by 2 Thai doctors, she was told that if not both of her breasts were removed, she in a week would die! 2 days later she went to the surgery even though I and an English doctor (and later agreed by a Bangkok doctor) told her that only the tumor needed to be removed, and that she had months to first try by other ways than just surgery, but she was scared. One day when she later was to control, she told me that day 30 women were all getting through having both of their breasts removed by surgery.Among the many thoughtful information which we in the book are getting concerning drugs, it’s interesting to read that for years Pfizer was forced to on the bottom of their adverts for the Lipitor, to put in the text: “Lipitor has not been shown to prevent heart disease or heart attacks”, but even though they sold for around $ 125 billion, while having their patent. Much money spent in wain.In the book we read that many of the statements, which we learn about from doctors, health departments and even books, are telling us the living according to the best health, and which we thereby shall try to follow, actually not are based on research but just have been stated by persons. Among other, everyone have learned that the normal body mass index (BMI) is at 18.5 – 24.9, that max 3 beers a day for men and 2 for women, and only 2 grams of salt a day, and so on. And where we then in the book realize that we for example, in Wikipedia, still are told that the BMI on 18.5 – 24.9 are the normal and most healthy, even though it now for years statistically have shown up that the overweight persons, BMI 25 – 29.9, actually are having the lowest mortality rate. And also even the obese group of persons, BMI 30 – 34.9, statistically lives longer than the ‘normal’ BMI persons. And in connection to this BMI results we then look at a remark from the Canadian research Authors: “…, overweight appears to be protective against mortality”, by which we see that the result not quite was fitting to what the Authors believed.And rather parallel to the BMI case, by in concerning of following rules which newer have been proved, we read about how bed rest killed millions of persons, as the result of a doctors publishing in 1912. Because that year Dr. James Herrick as the first one describes a heart attack and then told that after heart attacks then the patients as result should have a strict bed rest for 6 weeks. Now a day we know that by a strict bed rest then already after just after weeks muscles start to decreases, and that especially older persons for example in airplanes not must be sitting down longer than 4 hours; have to move blood around in the legs. But back then nobody doubted the statement about the bedrest which then was followed during 50 years. And by the number of heart attacks it statistically looks like during these 50 years it resulted in around 5,500,000 premature deaths in USA alone.In connection to doctor guidelines, we on the side 238 read about a 2014 headline which newer came into the daily news, and which even after just 1 hour was pulled out from the European Heart Journal website: “Guideline Based on Discredited Research May Have Caused 800,000 Deaths in Europe Over The last 5 Years”. This guideline told to use the beta-blockers class of drugs to protect the heart during surgery, and then statistically resulted in so many dead patients in Europe. The guideline had been through peer-review to ensure sound science and quality, but it later showed up that the chairman of the guidelines committee was having financial connections to the producers Merck, Pfizer, Novartis and Medtronic and he therefore instead of thinking on patients was thinking in money.And concerning treatments about which we nearly neither get information concerning possibly side problem, we have the vaccination, where Kendrick warns persons who consider vaccination to be the most wonderful ting, to look away from the following writings in the book. Actually I here in Thailand not yet have meet anyone knowing that there can be side problem by vaccination. Kendrick then tells about a young girl who was awarded $13,000,000 for the finding that her autism was ‘caused’ by childhood vaccination. And we then read that in Germany between 1978 and 1993 approximately 13,500 cases of undesired effects resulting from medications for vaccinations, of which 10 % were severe, that is around 1,350 deaths, around 100 a year. And besides written that this only are the confirmed cases, so without doubt in reality much higher, as it is difficult to state the connection when persons, especially children, first weeks or months after a vaccination runs into problem. Or for example first when children later starts in school and then turns out not is ‘cleaver’ enough. And therefore in Germany it since 2001 has been so that severe heath problem after vaccinations has to be reported to the Paul Ehrlich-Institute, concerning cases like brain disease, epilepsy, autism, diabetes, personality changes, and so on.And then when talking about our missing - not allowed - information concerning possibly side problems by vaccination we for example read about Sarah Myhill who is forbidden from prescribing any prescription-only medication and ordered to from her website remove her critical remarks concerning vaccination. As she for example wrote the possibility in being hit by autism, even though reality has shown that there was nothing wrong in what she told.Opposite to the statesmen earlier mentioned, which all just were accepted immediately after being heard, we in the book also read about ideas which during decades were rejected before accepted, cases which we now a day find quit incomprehensible. The most unbelievably one was that when Semmelweis in 1847 told to decrease that 90 % of patients in the hospital died after surgeries by ordering the doctors to wash their not wash their hands before the surgeries, but the doctors just laughed at him and called it an insane idea. Actually the number of dying patients especially was high in one department of the big hospital, where the professor started the days by first for the medical students showing autopsy, and then without washing his hand went on to his daily surgeries. Semmelweis was fired, and later committed to an asylum, where he died at the age of 47, before it was realized that doctors had to wash their hands.Among other we also read about the geophysicist Alfred Wegener who in 1912 came with the continental drift theory, but which then was called ridiculous, as Wegener not was accepted as an expert, and even Einstein was one of the most scathing critics of the hypothesis. Wegener died I 1930, and the theory first was accepted in the 1966 after the US Navy in the 60ties mapped the oceans.When I in the book read about the use of drugs I start thinking about the book by G. Edward Griffin: “World without Cancer”, in the last half of which we read about the misuse of drugs. Because there we read that back around 1900 Rockefeller and I.G.Farben, the World biggest medical firm, with their power made it so that during doctors education the students should not learn about vitamin or mineral pills, but instead learn to use drugs. And the result of which we daily see by most of the doctors nearly not knowing anything about vitamin and minerals, and even here in Thailand are saying: “You must not take the daily vitamin pill each day in the week”. For example in Thailand we don’t have the vitamins K2, and the B3 as Niacin (only as Niacinamide), and doctors not knowing of the existence and for what to use, even though many are educated in USA or Europe. And furthermore we are not even allowed to by vitamin pills like these from other countries!It’s an extremely good book written by a person who by private study contains more knowledge than doctors who only remember and blindly trust what they once learned during their educations, and what they since are told by the drug producers.

Dr. Malcolm Kendrick wrote this book in a style very "down-to-earth casual, for the layman." Don't let that fool you into thinking the observations are casual. The collection of information here is an excellent education, and the kind you won't find in anything 'official' -- but that's sure too bad, because this is exactly the kind of critical thinking I would hope anybody serious about any topic, especially medicine, would learn to employ.Underlying everything we believe and practice in medicine -- or don't -- is the human-process of science, and its (d)evolution. You won't be surprised to find that researchers and doctors, as human beings, are just as subject to bias, from the easily personal to the overwhelmingly career-killing/ building, financially-powerful/ educationally-distorting/ socially-supportive influence of entrenched belief and funding monies and all their power, as humans in any other subject. But what might surprise you are the number of things which have at best laughably insufficient and at worst zero and contradictory evidence for their practice or prescription, but which are proclaimed as science and as truths from every imaginable medical and media outlet -- because they support often many billions of dollars in pharmaceutical money and an entire empire in ripple-effect areas. Some of these have already injured or killed inordinate amounts of people and been discovered, even officially -- some are still doing so, and will likely continue to do so as long as profit is primary.But you can learn some key indicators to help recognize that somewhere in the line of a research paper (or even media about it), a "process" has happened along the lines of, "how to mislead, hide data, and/or misrepresent or intentionally-convey-to-mislead facts." Any person can be taught what to look for, and what is already commonly in place in certain areas or lines of medicine. Not everything can be covered, in part because the ways in which vested-interests can obfuscate what threatens profit (and build and enforce a public and industry "belief system" that supports a certain line of profit) are probably infinite. But a good chunk of "the most obvious ways this is known to be done" can be taught, which is what this book is about.One of the more unfortunate situations is when a paradigm is accepted to the point where science is disallowed from ever doing the kind of controlled study needed to get evidence for or against whether the paradigm, already accepted despite its lack of proper science to begin with, is correct or wrong. Then we're doomed. At best this might just make some pharma corp billions extra, but at worst it may cause genuine health problems in people, now or later, overt or subtle, and especially in combination with other drugs (note: which are pretty much never tested together. Unless you count the studies that looked at simply UNprescribing older people from a ton of their standard medications at which point they got healthier. Mentioned in the book). We do sometimes find this and find it's harmed or killed many -- although even today, those are often "swept under the rug" despite the decisions were in the past.Another unfortunate situation is when freedom to even discuss a subject becomes forbidden, as if medicine is now religion and it's heresy. It may be that the 'questions' lead to "yes, we were right all along and this drug is the only answer," but we'll never know because anybody asking the questions, or even merely supporting that other people ought to have the right to have a conversation about something, is instantly branded an heretic, from merely being "a quack" to the worst kinds of personal attacks (actually, some to such degrees of personal libel it almost becomes amusing, although surely not to the target). Both USA and UK have a history of indirectly (or directly, in some murky cases) killing off or at least ruining some of the most brilliant men of medicine, only to later discover they were right all along (though in some cases, their work is still repressed). I'm a big fan of "freedom of speech" -- let communication happen, let it be chaos if needed, but the truth will work out gradually if actual information is exchanged. Kendrick mentions a few fields in which this is still the case.I think the biggest confusion for laymen and doctors both is the horrific "end-result" of science research that in my opinion, is now marketing. You could never easily pay for many 'ads' that sell your drug, but one paper with a press release can result in literally thousands, maybe tens of thousands or even many more, in every language, TV and Radio and Newspaper and Magazine and Blog "articles and reviews and mentions" that love to mention "recent discoveries in science." Anything can be said no matter what a study's result -- and there's a long list of very common ways to "make the data look like what you want" from start to finish. And then when finished, to hide the raw data, and better yet, "re-interpret" the data to exclude info, recategorize info, and then change absolute risk to relative risk (and without context, either) resulting in something like a 0.0014 decrease in something that is incredibly rare anyway, headlining as "42% lives saved!" or some other such garbage. (I made those numbers up. He has real examples.)The thing to remember is drugs aren't free of effects, never mind the economics: not only might barely lowering a remote risk not matter much, but it might increase your risk of something else actually far more likely and dangerous, which they're not gonna mention. Ironically, people dying of the something-else may be the very thing that makes the original focus seem like it did better! (Because you can only die of one thing, one time, as he points out.) Or it simply may have a long list of side-effects which you will gradually go to the doctor about and get prescribed yet another pill. If you're lucky, and it's merely that, and not an actual disease (like diabetes) it induces. And there's no science on the effect of the 2+++ pills you might be taking together, so god only knows the effects, or the number of more drugs you'll need for the next symptoms, at that point...There are things other than drugs that can also be paradigms proven wrong -- he mentions a couple.Basically the book is "a casual treatise on critical thinking when you're on the topic of healthcare and medicine." It doesn't matter what you believe or what Kendrick believes, because this book isn't so much about proving any point like that, as it is just showing the "human process" involved -- and often the complete LACK of scientific process truly involved (but the exhorbitant amount of industry-economics involved) -- in this area. Because it's written with a relaxed style and humor it was an enjoyable read, not tedious like I expected the topic to be.I recommend the book to my friends.

One's Human Longevity is best served with a large portion of Medical Trials Scepticism!Thoroughly informative, well written and timely!

I really appreciate the work of Malcolm Kendrick. He is explaining some quite difficult concepts and has tried to make his book digestible for the general public. I do not know what I expected, but in truth it is quite academic. I think I might have found some of his examples easier to grasp had there been more diagrams and graphs. Nevertheless, the message he is promulgating is very, very important. Fundamentally the body is a self regulating organism and is designed to cope with most illnesses itself. Only in the most serious of situations is medical intervention advantageous. The population is too ready to go to the medical cabinet and start stuffing pills in the belief that the medicine will cure them. It is a very serious book and I am very grateful to Dr Kendrick for giving up his time to try to educate people like me. I am obliged to have a medical examination every year. The doctor who supervises this is not my General Practitioner or in my GP's surgery. Thus I can talk frankly to this doctor. He said that when he first came into practice 30 years ago 50% of the medicines that he was prescribing then are now withdrawn because they were harmful, or dangerous and many ineffective. Food for thought. Thank you Dr Kendrick

Dr Kendrick, once again, brings into the light of day what's really going on in parts of our dear old NHS. Explains how the system, top down, is now firmly in the grip of vested interests, in particular big pharma, and how self important, inflated egos promote the agenda's of big pharma and fail to protect the interests of patients by attacking viciously those who have the temerity to challenge some of the very dangerous nonsense that is going on. Including attempts to prevent publication of worthwhile research by medical scientists who can find themselves cast into the wilderness.Meanwhile, the publication of the deluge of poor, biased research to "prove" previous poor biased research was "right" continues unabated. And, surprise, surprise, you, as a patient can very easily find yourself on the receiving end of medical advice that may well make you very unwell. So called "preventative" medicine - sounds nice and caring, doesn't it - is busy medicalising the well by implementing NICE guidelines which promote medications in particular that may well cause serious harm. Ostensibly, on the grounds of lowering your risk of some future illness - which you might or might not have got anyway. The healthy are now well and truly in the sights of big pharma as consumers of their questionable products. Aided by some of those in the medical profession and some unwitting health journalists who seem to be engaged in a campaign to scare folks into the arms of big pharma.Another surprise for me was how the household name charities who support patients and their families with particular illnesses are essentially controlled by big pharma. The unethical has become the new normal. I have no doubt that the majority of GP's and other doctors want to do the best they can for their patients but, unfortunately, they too have been dragged into this system which starts with their education in medical schools where independent, questioning minds are soon trampled on and they soon learn there are certain "facts" that must not be challenged. I wonder how many GP's are out there who quietly despair at the way they are hamstrung by this Orwellian system.You will never read another newspaper article about health again in the same way. And you will know what's really going on when some eminentbig ego publicly attacks another doctor for daring to give what might actually be good advice or a different point of view. The biggest message I took from this is that I need to be a much better informed patient. All GP's and patients need to read this. The people who need to read it the most are the Health Select Committee and without consulting anyone at all connected with big pharma so they can make some better decisions and rigorously enforce a much needed brand new transparent and ethical system of scientific medical research

Statistics truly can be made to say anything. So glad I read this book, and now am very cynical when I hear that stats say "X". Maybe they do, maybe they don't. Depends on the questions you ask, and also depends on the scientist doing good science! You are supposed to attempt to Disprove your hypothesis, and only if you cannot disprove it, can you suggest that your theory is correct, NOT look for how to prove your ideas right, which is always possible if you work at it and scew the results to suit. Do read this book, it will blow your mind, and you will never look at stats the same way again!

An inspirational read, although for me not as easy to get into as Dr Kendrick's The Great Cholesterol Con, probably because I have an interest in that topic. I was put on Statins in my 40's, a women with no other risk factors. I wish this author's books had been around then or I would have questioned this. It is only 20 years later when I have started to have all the classic side effects, mainly muscle problems, that I wish I had not gone onto them, and it is only now when I have found an enlightened female gp that I have stopped taking them. I strongly feel that this book should be required reading for medical students, although I doubt that will happen. Personally a bit above my head in places and I found myself skimming through pages, although would be well suited to medical professionals or scientists. Maybe I will give it another read when the full effects of statin withdrawal have kicked in!!!

This is a book that every consultant, doctor and or health professional should have on their shelves and are fully conversant with, imagine a world where your doctor listened, knew that there was no such thing as good and bad cholesterol and wanted to treat the causes of illnesses rather than pushing pills to mask the symtoms. Current thinking is a bit like limping into the surgery in agony, doctor gives out very strong pain killers that make you forget you have feet let alone a six inch nail in one, symptoms have been equalised, so the problem must be gone. This book is one of the most readable and in part hilarious books I have read, scarily it opens the Pandora's box and maybe just maybe hope was caught in time.