Over diagnosis—Hypertension

This is a series of key points from the 2013 book, Overdiagnosis, Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health, by H. Gilbert Welch of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy. There is no doubt that treatment of severe hypertension is effective in preventing heart attacks and strokes. But you should be aware that you have to treat 18 people to prevent one of these bad events if they have only mild hypertension (diastolic 90-100). That means that there is only a 6% chance of benefit. That 6% might be important for you if you are one of the victims. However, this relatively low level of risk might make you consider more natural ways to control the blood pressure, such as weight loss, stress reduction, herbs and vitamins instead of the drugs, which are more likely to cause side effects. Celebration of Health Association website

Over diagnosis—Diabetes

This is a series of key points from the 2013 book, Overdiagnosis, Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health, by H. Gilbert Welch of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy. A few years back, medical authorities lowered the definition of diabetes from a fasting blood sugar of 140 to 126. That instantly created 1.7 million new cases of diabetes. Subsequent studies tried to show that strict control of the HBA1C level that measures the glucose level over a 3-month period would reduce the incidence of complications from diabetes. However, those who had HBA1C levels of 6.5 actually had an increase in certain complications over those with levels of 7.0. The logical reason (not yet proven) is that the drugs used to “over treat” these newly classified patients cause more problems than they prevent. By the way, the TACT trial on EDTA chelation therapy showed a dramatic decrease in future heart attacks for diabetic patients. Celebration of Health Association website

Over diagnosis—Osteoporosis

This is a series of key points from the 2013 book, Overdiagnosis, Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health, by H. Gilbert Welch of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy. In 2003 the National Osteoporosis Foundation recommended that women should be treated with meds with a dexascan T-score of -2.0 instead of the previous recommendation of -2.5. That instantly made 6.7 million new “patients” that will be treated for a lifetime. Only 5 % of those patients will turn out to be winners because the treatment will prevent them from getting a fracture that is unless they get a severe side effect from the medicine such as bone degeneration of the jaw. 44% of patients will get a fracture despite treatment, and 51% will get no benefit because they were never going to get a fracture anyway. Celebration of Health Association website

Over diagnosis—High Cholesterol

This is a series of key points from the 2013 book, Overdiagnosis, Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health, by H. Gilbert Welch of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy. In the late 1990’s, a major study showed that if you lowered the average cholesterol from 228 to 184, you could lower the risk of a major cardiac event from 5% to 3%. Medical organizations hedged a bit and lowered the target cholesterol from 240 to 200. That immediately labeled 42 million U.S. citizens as new “patients”, even though only 2% of them will benefit from treatment, and 98% will receive no benefit at all. Since only 20% of cholesterol comes from the diet, most of these new patients are treated with statin drugs, which can cause significant side effects. Virtually all of the experts who made the decision to lower the target cholesterol had connections to the drug companies that make the statin drugs. A word of caution--if you have already had a heart attack, the statistics are different. Celebration of Health Association website

Lead in the Blood Lowers Test Scores

University of Michigan School of Public Health researchers led by Nanhua Zhang found that higher levels of lead lowered test scores, even when grade level, gender, race, language, maternal education and socioeconomic status were all figured in. The CDC recently lowered the acceptable level from 10 to 5 mcg/dl. Not too long ago the normal level was 20. In reality, coauthor Michael Elliot stated, “there is no well-documented threshold for acceptable levels of lead in the body.” Children and adults accumulate lead from products made in China and from the food supply. Both should be tested and treated, if needed. Poor mental abilities are just the tip of the iceberg. Various chronic degenerative diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and autoimmune problems have also been linked to minimally elevated levels of lead. See U of Michigan School of Public Health, Doctors Zhang and Elliot. Celebration of Health Association website