Government Misses with this “Prevention” Effort

AKA disappointed to read this morning that the US government fails to understand the basic definition of ‘preventive health’. It really shouldn’t come as a surprise that, according to today’s New York Times, “with the government’s blessing, a drug giant is about to expand the market for its blockbuster cholesterol medication. Crestor to a new category of consumers: as a preventive measure for millions of people who do not have cholesterol problems.” That this is the government’s idea of “prevention” makes sense (or should I say “cents” or “dollars”) in a country where my services (as a dietitian) and other truly preventive health efforts are rarely covered by insurance, yet where surgeries and treatments for actualized disease almost always are, and where company’s at risk of losing billions when the patent for their drug expires look for new markets to prevent against such loss. One has to ask, is this similar to cigarette or fast food companies targeting low income consumers or specific races when their previous client base has learned of the negative health consequences of these products and thus moved on. Now to say a statin is a cigarette or fast food is perhaps too harsh. However, what we do know is that cholesterol is a necessary molecule in the body – that it acts as carrier for coenzyme q10, a potent antioxidant and electron donor, and that cholesterol links to testosterone production, among other things. I’ve already worked with patients who were put on Viagara to address erectile dysfunction levels and who were on statins where the LDL had, much to their MDs support and pleasure, gone as low as 60 or 80. When we reduced the statin dose, the ED remedied without medication. Or how about patients suffering the muscle pain often associated with statins – whose telling them to take CoQ10 and to make sure they take it far away from their statin. These are ‘preventive health’ recommendations… And so by the way is eating an apple, an organic apple, daily. So yes we have new healthcare law, but we also have a long way to go in the health education of our government.