Ghost Authors Common in Medical Research Papers: Study

Drug companies initiating clinical trials often use ghost authors and medical writers whose contributions are not credited in the research papers, Danish scientists said on Tuesday.
This practice could be reduced by greater transparency and stricter rules that insist everyone who has worked on or contributed to a medical trial is named.
"Ghost authorship is common but it is often kept secret because it is in the interest of both the industry and the academic authors who lend their names to papers they have had very little or, in some cases, nothing to do with," Peter Gotzsche, of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, said in an interview.
The names of authors and researchers are omitted from the published research papers because this may serve the commercial interests of the company sponsoring the trial.
"We have seen again and again that the conclusions in trial reports and other types of articles are given a spin by industry so that the conclusions are too positive compared to the data presented," Gotzsche said.
"It is very important for the industry to get messages out that are useful for their marketing departments," he added.
Lending their name to a study can be beneficial for researchers because it raises their profile and the number of published studies they are linked to. Gotzsche and a team of international researchers believe that unless the role of all the authors is set out in the research paper, people reading the study will not be able accurately to judge or trust its conclusions.
The scientists analysed 44 trials approved by Danish ethics committees in 1994-1995 in the first systematic examination of ghost authorship. One of the studies had been initiated by a local company and 43 by one of 26 multinational drug companies.
The researchers identified 33 trials with ghost authors. In 31 of them the ghost writer was a statistician -- the person who analysed the trial data.
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Gary Moller comments:
These sorts of appalling practices help to explain why "research" that shows favourable results for commercial products always seem to be far more numerous than those reports that are less than favourable. Coupled with massive publicity machines behind them these reports of questionable repute then receive incredible publicity in the media - propaganda dressed up as news!

Menawhile, the free or cheap, self-help methods for keeping healthy, or regaining health are largely ignored. For example, if a drug was discovered that was shown to reduce cancer risk by as much as 50% it would be a news sensation. The discoverers would not only become incredibly wealthy, they would also be Nobel Prize winners. Or would they?

Well there is a drug that has been discovered that does just that - sunlight. Sadly, because sun is free it receives little in the way of recognition for its cancer preventing qualities. In fact, we are taught by the establishment to fear the sun. Some might think there is some kind of conspiracy going on here. Or is it just a case of willful neglect aided and abetted by powerful commercial interests?

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Diabetes drug increases the most serious complication of diabetes

Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline Plc's widely used drug for treating type 2 diabetes, raises the risk of heart death by 64 per cent and the risk of heart attack by 43 per cent, US researchers have said.

The news about Avandia, a US$3 billion ($4.1 billion) a year drug also known as rosiglitazone, triggered a free fall in GSK's shares, which closed off more than 5 per cent on the London Stock Exchange. The slide continued on the New York Stock Exchange, with shares closing down nearly 8 per cent.

Glaxo said it strongly disagreed with the conclusions of the report, based on an analysis of other studies.

"Unfortunately, rosiglitazone appears to increase, rather than decrease, the most serious complication of diabetes, heart disease," Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, said in a statement.

"The whole reason you want to treat diabetes is to prevent the complications of diabetes," Nissen added in a telephone interview.<
Go here for the full story

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Gary Moller comments:

Is this a joke? Sadly, it is not. Let me expalin why these dangerous drugs keep rolling out into the market place and keep being promoted and prescribed by doctors despite known health risks. The answer is simple: It is very, very good business. Take this diabetes drug for example.

This drug brings in over $4 billion a year with, say a profit of $1 billion. Let's say they get sued for a billion. That's a lot of money. But is it really? Not really.

First they know that they can sell the drug for 4-5 years before any real concerns are collated and red flaged. Then they delay, delay, delay and obfuscate like crazy, hiring the best lawyers on the planet. They know from past expereince that many of the suers will die, others will get too sick and tired to continue and even more simply run out of money to pursue the case. After 5 years, the first cases are being heard with judgements being made. If they do this really well and get lucky, as has been the case with the Agent Orange scandal of the Vietnam War, they will manage to drag this process out over decades.

Sure, it might be a billion dollars; but they have been able to pocket at least $10 billion in profits in the meantime, all the while developing their next wonder drug to foist on the ever swelling ranks of passive "sick" consumers and to replace the drug that has run its course in the market place.

This also explains why natural therapies for conditions like diabetes get little more than lip service. There's no money to be made from helping people stay healthy.

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Swimmer Ian Thorpe Doping Test 'Abnormal'

Five-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Ian Thorpe showed "abnormal levels" of two banned substances in a doping test last year, the French sports daily L'Equipe reported on its Web site Friday.

Anti-doping officials in Australia threw out the case for lack of scientific proof, but the sport's governing body FINA wants the investigation reopened, the paper said.

Thorpe retired in November at age 24. He did not compete in another major international meet after the 2004 Olympics.L'Equipe said Thorpe turned up irregular levels of testosterone and luteinizing hormone in a test on May 2006.
Synthetic versions of testosterone, the male hormone, can act like steroids to improve performance. Luteinizing hormone is released by the pituitary gland and produces testosterone in men.

FINA has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest tribunal in the sports world, to overturn a decision by Australia's anti-doping agency to close the case, L'Equipe said.
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Gary Moller comments:
Thorpe is innocent until proven guilty; but there are some worrying signs that not all is right, including his unexplained loss of form last year and sudden retirement, just weeks after returning a dodgy test result. And why on Earth would the case be reopened by the international body (FINA), overriding the Australian Drugs Agency, at this late stage? We will just have to wait and see what happens and to find out why.

Let's talk about some of the background to this, in general. First of all, these kinds of reports make me feel sad; but they do not surprise me at all.

If 90% of triathletes use caffeine to boost performance, it should be of no surprise that some athletes progress or resort to using more powerful forms of enhancement. And it can be a surprise and a disappointment who is exposed as a cheat. A good example is sprinting great, Carl Lewis who just happened to be one of the most outspoken critics of drugs abuse. Lewis never let his arch rival, Ben Johnson, forget that he was a drugs cheat. Talk about the jettle calling the pot black!

Leutenising hormone is essential for male and female reproduction. In the male, it stimulates the production of testosterone. For sport, testosterone augementation increases muscle development, aggression and energy to train. It is usually combined with a mix of other drugs and hormones, including growth hormone. The end result is freakish musclularity and even skeletal growth. Good examples of chemically enhanced bodies can be be seen just about nightly on the wrestling programmes that grace the little screen.

The body responds to externally boosted testosterone by reducing its own natural production with the consequence that the male user's nuts shrivel. When the external source is later withdrawn, the user may suffer rapid loss of muscle and physical form, depression, lack of sex drive and infertility. A bit like what happens to the neutered tom cat.

Athletes get around drugs tests in all sorts of way, beginning with enlisting the aid of a good chemist. The first way is to have access to the latest drugs for which there is presently no test. This is what many sports stars had via Balco and Victor Conte a few years back.

Another tactic is to cycle drugs use out of season so that the athlete is clean during competition. If an athlete is called up for a random drugs test out of season then they ensure that they have a person on the inside to tip them off that a registered letter is about to be delivered to their home and they quickly disappear on holiday. They finally reappear to take delivery of the letter and to do the test once the diuretics and masking drugs have done their work. NZ decathlete, Simon Poelman was once exposed using this ploy (Poelman was later convicted of drug trafficking).

Another ploy, which is used with testosterone, is to carefully dribble the hormone into the body 24 hours a day, using rub-on gels। Done carefully, there is an ergogenic effect while keeping blood levels just below the threshold that might trigger a positive drugs test.

I get really angry when an athlete is exposed for sure as being a drugs cheat. Athletes do not do this cheating all alone. Taking drugs is the easy part; evading the doping tests is the hard part. Professional athletes are disposable gladiators and it is the team behind them that I despise - the squad of sports scientists, trainers, doctors and coaches who are knowingly in on the deal - The professionals that not only supply the knowledge and the drugs; but also the means of getting it into their bodies. They are the ones that know the intricate tricks for evading drugs tests and how to get the best benefits. The moment the athlete is exposed, they scuttle off into the darkness, leaving the cheat alone to hang out to dry in the media spotlight.

These psychopaths have no conscience about their part in this sorry business and are already busy working on the next young, impressionable future champion who is willing to do anything to please. The stakes for all are huge and the temptation to cheat is always present.

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Thermogenics - the latest fad leading athletes off track

"Put simply a thermogenic is any product that increases thermogenesis (heat production) in the human body. Heat is a by product of metabolism so when more heat is being produced this means that more calories are being used. This is in isolation from activity. Obviously this has had big implications for the fitness industry because if you are using more calories for no greater input of activity the result should be greater fat loss. Added to this is the fact that most thermogenic compounds are very stimulatory giving greater energy and decreased rates of perceived exertion and also have nutrient partitioning effects (greater utilization of fat over other fuels). The impact thermos have had on the industry is profound at it’s easy to see why.

Picture: Once on the slippery slope of substance abuse, where does it end?

There has always been a running battle between the supplement formulators and regulatory bodies and it seems that there are always compounds being banned only for others to take their place."

(The author goes on to list and explain the various substances that are banned and those that are still legal and how they work - Gary)

"For performance benefits I would suggest sticking with caffeine as a stimulant but be careful to not exceed allowable levels if you are subject to drug testing. Neurotransmitter formulas may prove VERY effective and would provide focus and decreased RPE without a stimulatory action and I theorise that in conjunction with certain adaptogenic compounds and caffeine with tyrosine would kick ass (watch this space ;) ! )

If you are needing to lose bodyfat……sort your diet out! Once you have sorted that out with the help of a good consultant you could look at one of the synephrine and caffeine, green tea formulas to speed things up. Also drink tea frequently, I really can’t see a down side to drinking tea, it’s thermogenic, increases insulin sensitivity and is a potent antioxidant! Only use dedicated thermogenic formulas for a set defined goal, don’t just take them in the hope that without changing anything else you’ll develop a lean physique…it just ain’t gonna happen!"
For the full article by Cliff Harvey, go here.
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Gary Moller comments:
Articles like these by supposed conditioning experts leave me with feelings of deep dismay for the future of sport - and weight loss!

Performance that is derived from a stimulatory substance - be it green tea extract or ephidrine, is a really dumb conditioning strategy. The same goes for using the same "thermogenic" substances for weight loss.

Encouraging the use of substances that artificially stimulate the senses and the metabolism to either increase physical performance or to burn fat go completely against the spirit of natural health and fair sport. Even if small amounts are considered safe to use, we all know that there are plenty of young and desperate people out there who will take many, many times more than that if they think it will give them an advantage. The abuse of "soft" drugs often leads on to harder substances. In sport, using stimulants may progress to the dangerous abuse of anabolic steriods. View my Power Point Presentation about Drug Cheats in Sport here.

Athletes who seek an artificial edge (cheating) by using chemicals might win spectacularly for a while; but they quickly disappear off the scenes. While clean athletes last longer career-wide they suffer financially and they miss out on their rightful share of the Gold medals and the Records.

I do not know of any chemical stimulants that do not quickly addict the user chemically and psychologically. When these substances are pumped into the body, the body responds by reducing its own production of the equivalent chemicals. This is the basis of addiction and once a person is in its grasp, wrestling free is much easier said than done. The downside of addiction to stimulants is inconsistent performances, poor decision-making, bad temper, bouts of fatigue and depression and the need to take more and more for the same effect. Oh - and I almost forgot: Weight gain! Please read my article about caffeine addiction here.

Conditioning experts who encourage such dubious practices do not impress me at all. They give my profession a bad name.

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How much do drugs companies influence your doctor's treatment decisions?

"Approximately US$19 billion is spent annually by drug companies for marketing to doctors. Tens of thousands of sales representatives descend on doctors' offices every day. Patients in doctors' waiting rooms are often outnumbered by drug reps (typically young, female, attractive).

Drug companies write the package inserts of all drugs, carefully including the information they choose and omitting information they want to avoid.

Drug companies underwrite a large percentage of continuing education courses for doctors. In doing so, they make sure that the speakers represent the company view.

Drug companies design studies that are meant to produce favorable results and then publish the studies in medical journals. Studies with unfavorable results are not published.

Drug reps typically bring stacks of studies, all favorable, which impress doctors, who no longer have the time or motivation to search the medical literature themselves.

Drug reps do not include independent studies with less favorable conclusions. Many doctors never see these."
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Gary Moller comments:
What this article did not mention is the fact that drugs companies also invest millions in successfully influencing politicians and bureaucrats. For shocking evidence of the extent of this political lobbying in the USA, go here.

Back in the days when I hired physical education graduates straight from university to work in our rehabilitation programmes it was common for the attractive ones to be recruited within a year or so by our opposition: the drugs companies. Their new job over on the Dark Side was to promote drugs to doctors like blood pressure and cholesterol lowering pills. What is described that happens in the USA happens in NZ. Sadly, NZ allows the advertising of pharmaceutical drugs direct to the consumer using media like television.

Side effects of drugs medication is always underplayed, as is the reporting of any ill effects which consequently distorts official statistics to give the impression of a drug appearing to be much safer than it really is.

If a doctor is even aware of effective alternative treatments for conditions like weak bones, arthritis and high blood pressure these usually receive very low priority treatment that is little more than lip service, or else completely dismissed as a waste of a patient's time and money. I am still astonished at how often a doctor dismisses out of hand a therapy like glucosamine for arthritis despite the wealth of research evidence in its favour.

When a drug is prescribed for a condition like blood pressure this may be done on the basis of a handful of potentially flawed tests of blood pressure done in the artificial envirnoment of a medical clinic. The drug is then dished out with advice along the lines of; "Try this and we will see how it goes". Unless the medication is being closely monitored through the person's day, such as with a blood pressure machine, then the prescribing of this potentially harmful medication sure is a hazardous hit and miss exercise! Would you run a business without having accurate measures of key performance indicators? Of course not and why should your health be any different when ingesting potentially hazardous drugs?

Maybe it is not in the interests of the prescriber or the manufacturer to monitor these drugs properly because it might be discovered more often than not that they are not very good at doing what they are supposed to do and may even be doing more harm than good!

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Warfarin linked with brain bleeds

"Warfarin is often prescribed to prevent blood clotting and help combat the most common type of stroke, known as ischemic stroke. However, warfarin itself has been linked to intracerebral brain hemorrhage, another type of stroke caused by ruptured blood vessels and subsequent bleeding in the brain." (Click on the title for the full article).
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Gary Moller comments:
As with most medicines, the full extent of adverse side effects goes largely unnoticed. This is because there is usually no direct link between taking a drug and the adversity.

For example (A real one), a dentist may be conducting a routine tooth extraction to be horrified to find that a chunk of dead jaw bone comes out with the tooth! Of course this means the patient is in real trouble. The condition is called osteonecrosis for which there is no effective treatment. Tests are completed, specialists are consulted and there is no reason for this happening in a 50'ish patient. The only suspiscion the dentist has is that the patient has been taking Warfarin (rat poison) for a decade for a heart condition; but the association is dismissed by the experts.

Here is my take on what is happening: The Warfarin is causing micro-bleeding into the bone of the jaw. Why it shows mostly in the jaw is because the jaw is constantly stressed by the action of chewing on the teeth, thus causing the micro bleeds. Bone is very sensitive to bleeding - the delicate bone cells die off similar to what happens when taking biphosphenates that cause "Fossy Jaw".

My experience is that the majority of people I come across who have been placed on Warfarin need not be on it and non drugs strategies should first have been explored and exhausted.

If for example a patient has atrial fibrilations that may increase risk of a clot that might settle in the brain, how about a course of:

• Fish oil plus vitamin E to stabilise the heart electrical activity and condition the blood to reduce clotting risk
• A multi mineral with magnesium and calcium that relax the heart, nerves and stabilise blood pressure
• A course to learn to breathe properly using the diaphragm and thus stabilise body PH - over-breathing is known to cause heart irregularities that can be so severe as to be mistaken for a heart attack
• Sunbathing to increase vitmamin D levels to at least 120 nmol - low vit D is associated with heart disease (Have you had a blood test for your own vitamin D yet?)

Should these fail to brig about a resolution after about 21 days then the option of medication can be considered.

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Recipe for producing a champion performance: Just add Baking Soda

Baking Soda May Help Exercisers
Sodium bicarbonate, commonly known as baking soda, is used as a medication to neutralize stomach acid in ulcer patients and as a home remedy for stomach distress. Now researchers in Greece have shown that it may neutralize the acid in muscles during intense exercise and helps athletes to exercise longer (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, October 2006).
If you run or cycle as hard as you can, you start to breathe hard, and suddenly your leg muscles start to burn because your muscles have become acidic. Its the burning in your muscles that forces you to slow down. Muscles get the energy to move your body from the food that you eat.
Carbohydrates are broken down step by step in a chain of reactions to release energy for your muscles. Each step requires oxygen. If you have enough oxygen, the carbohydrates are eventually broken down to carbon dioxide and water that you can blow off from your lungs. However, if you cant get all the oxygen that you need, the series of reactions stops and lactic acid accumulates in your muscles and spills over into your bloodstream. The acidity in muscles caused by the accumulation of lactic acid is what makes your muscles burn.
When acid is exposed to an alkaline or base, it combines with it to neutralize the acid and form water. What would happen when an athlete takes the base, sodium bicarbonate, before he competes? He would be able to exercise longer if the bicarbonate got into the muscle and neutralized the burning caused by the acid. The authors of this study showed that higher doses of sodium bicarbonate were more effective in preventing burning.
This exercise aid is still experimental, so we will have to wait for further research to see if it really works. Source: Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health e-Zine January 21, 2007
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Gary Moller comments:

This is not new. Athletes have been playing around with baking soda since 1980 and probably much earlier. Experienced athletes gave it the short shove very quickly because its benefits are minimal for the properly prepared athlete and the stomach upsets from the bicarbonate neutralised any theoretical benefit. Quite simply; when you are competing at extreme intensity, like running 1500m track the last thing you want to be taking is anything that upsets the stomach and intestines. Researchers are hoping this old trick will gain some new legs. No doubt it will eventually end up as an expensive wonder additive in sports drinks.

As far as recipes go for producing champions there are no short cuts short of doing a Landis or a Schwartzeneggar. Even if baking soda works one must question its use just as one should question the use of large doses of caffeine. With regards to the burning feeling in the muscles that Dr Mirkin describes the solution is as follows:

• Eight to ten years of endurance training including a weekly 2hr + run or 3hr + cycle on nothing but water. This trains the ability to use fat and encourages prolific capiliarisation of the muscle.
• Ensuring an alkaline wholefoods diet that is high in antioxidants, the B vitamins and minerals including magnesium and calcium. There is a good case for supplemetning with these to boost natural intake.
• Periodically developing one's anerobic capacity to its maximum prior to seasonal peaks in competition.

Fifty years ago, athletics coach Arthur Lydiard, got the recipe right. The performances of his athletes would still be competitive today, if one were to factor in improvements in track and shoe technologies and the widespread use of rabbits nowadays. Oh, yes - and rampant cheating (you could include the rabbits here)! With a few minor modern adjustments and the application of modern nutritional stategies and the old recipe is as robust as ever.

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Been feeling depressed or stressed lately?

If you live in a city like Wellington and if you go to the doctor as an adult, the overwhelming odds are that you will be going because you are either feeling depressed or stressed, or both. The overwhelming odds are, as well, that you will be prescribed a mind altering drug that is euphemistically cloaked with an uplifting trade name. Treatment may include one drug to put you to sleep and another to get you going during the day.

Direct to consumer drugs advertising has a lot to do with this. Surveys show that direct to consumer drugs advertising influences patient actions and doctors will prescribe what the patient requests 70% of the time the patient asks for the drug by name. Drs are heavily influenced themselves by advertising. Their professional journals and conferences rely on pharmaceutical advertising and subsidies. You know the adds: Looking miserable and left out, along comes the happy pill and you are transformed into the "Life of the Party". The other kind of ad that comes on is the authoritative tv personality health advisor who recommends this and that pill in a way that sets out to normalise drugs use. In all cases, the long list of side effects is quickly flashed, or scrolled incomprehensively for about 1 second.

"So what's your problem with this, Moller?" You might ask.

My problem is that the public is being sold expensive and addictive so-called quick fixes that may cause huge problems many years down the line. The quick fix is no such thing either, because it is masking the symptoms while failing to deal with the causes. If the medication deals with the real causes, then I do not have a problem.

So the recipient of the happy pills is being set up for all kinds of horrible health problems that may not show for many years. These may be diseases of the digestive system, liver cancer, kidney failure, circulation problems, gum disease and dementia. During the interim they must contend with brain fog and the stress of the increasing drain on their finances as new medications are added to the mix to offset the increasingly horrible side effects of the toxic chemical cocktail mix. The doctor is in the unfortunate position of having few other treatment options other than to prescribe.

Meanwhile, the original causes of the anxiety and depression go untreated; causes such as a lousy job, family or relationship problems, financial problems, lack of sunlight, cofffee or alcohol abuse or poor nutrition and fitness to name a few.

Just so that you have something uplifting to look forward to after reading this rather depressing article, I will soon post an article that outlines some of the very good natural alternatives to the happy pill option for feeling anxous and/or depressed.

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