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Wednesday 25 April 2012

Diabetes and Statin Drugs?

BBC News is has often highlighted a massive increase in the incidence of diabetes (nearly 4m diabetics in the UK), and the unnecessary cost to the NHS coping with it. In April 2012 their news item appeared to stem from a report in the Journal of Diabetic Medicine, which said that the NHS spends nearly £10bn annually on treating the complications of diabetes, and that this is set to rise.

Diabetes appears to be of special interest to BBC News. In July 2010 it reported that Diabetes costs were 'out of control', taking up over 7% of the NHS budget. And they have published 3 other articles on Diabetes this year already.

So what is the cause of this massive increase in diabetes? The BBC clearly puts in down to diet, and in doing so, they are probably correct - but only in part. However, as usual, BBC News is not interested in investigating any further. The question is, has our diet really changed so drastically over the last few years to be causing the increased incidence of the disease?

But if they bothered to look deeper into other reasons for the epidemic levels of diabetes it would mean doing something that the BBC are not prepared to do - to examine critically the role of conventional medicine (ConMed), and the impact of Big Pharma drugs on our health.

Unknown, or a least unreported by BBC News, is the developing awareness that Statin drugs can cause Type 2 diabetes. As this article correctly states, during the last 10-20 years doctors have fallen over themselves to prescribe Statins to patients, supported by suggestions that they were so safe everyone should take them (to avoid heart attacks, et al) - and even that they should be added to our water supply! The article outlines two recent studies that have demonstrated a link with diabetes, one published in the Lancet.

It is not an exaggeration to say that as a nation, we have become addicted to Statins. It is now estimated that over 7 million people are now taking these drugs!

Statins, and other pharmaceutical drugs, have massive side effects, disease-inducing-effects (DIEs). These include liver disease, acute kidney failure, muscle weakness and cataracts (much more than 'side-effects' as they are so often described). But it is now known that they cause diabetes too.

Does the FDA (and other drug regulators) know about the link between Statins and Diabetes?

This article, from the Reuters News Agency, suggests that they do. Yet it is probably much less likely that they will do anything about it - in an effort to protect patients.  FDA has, for instance, recently insisted on new labelling for these drugs - but the label fails to mention all the known DIEs. So although the New York Times, for instance, can announce the new labelling, as it does in this article, the announcement is restricted to what has been revealed. And as usual, with mainstream media coverage, it comes with an assurance that patients should 'not be scared away from Statins', because of their 'proven worth'.

And as usual, the mainstream media seems to be quite happy for us to continue playing 'Russian Roulette' with our health!

So do doctors know about the link between Statins and diabetes? This article, published in the GP magazine, Pulse, suggests that they do. Yet whether they will bother to inform us, as patients, is quite another matter! I quote from another article, below, that gives some idea about why doctors might not bother to tell us.

        "Unfortunately, over the past decade, conventional medical wisdom has come to equate type 2 diabetes with heart disease. So if you have heart disease, they put you on a statin. If you have type 2 diabetes, they put you on a statin.

So who is going to tell us about the dangers of Statin drugs? This article suggests that one of the DIEs, muscle weakness, can happen without the patient feeling any pain. So it may be that not even the patient knows when Statins are doing them harm.

Natural News reports here that the ConMed Establishment 'is now beginning to act'. But it also points out that Statin drugs have been prescribed now for over 20 years - and asks the very pertinent question - why has it taken so long for them to find out?

This article, from the Natural Health Institute, believes that the Statin - Diabetes connection might spell the end for the drug. I disagree. When Statins generate such huge profits for Big Pharma companies, who are already in trouble because of recent drug failures, it is unlikely that anyone within the ConMed Establishment is going to volunteer the information. And clearly, mainstream news organisations like the BBC, are not prepared to do so.

We will, eventually, be told about the DIEs of Statin drugs. But if the experience with other drugs is considered, this will only be when the situation becomes so extreme, when the diabetes-Statins link become undeniable, when the information cannot be hidden from us anymore. Of course, this will only be after it has done great harm to many millions more patients, and perhaps more importantly, after many more years of massive profits for the Pharmaceutical companies.

We live in a world dominated by Big Corporate Businesses, who seem to stick together like glue, in support of each other, and in the interests of mutual profit. Even our health appears to be of little interest or concern.

To read more about the dangers, and the ongoing failures of Conventional Medicine, click on this link.