What is a QALY?
"The quality-adjusted life year (QALY) is the academic standard for measuring how well all different kinds of medical treatments lengthen and/or improve patients’ lives, and therefore the metric has served as a fundamental component of cost-effectiveness analyses in the US and around the world for more than 30 years.
If evidence shows that a treatment helps lengthen life or improve quality of life, these benefits are comprehensively summed up to calculate how many additional QALYs the treatment provides, and this added health benefit is then compared to the added health benefit of other treatments for the same patient population."
The Swiss Medical Board (SMB) published a report showing costs per quality-adjusted life years (cost per quality-adjusted life year [cost/QALY]) to be extremely unfavourable (CHF 210000/QALY) for statins in primary care in Switzerland when administered for a 5-year period.
Sadly, they still hedge their bets...
In its final report, the SMB recommended that statins should be used in primary prevention only if the SCORE risk is at least 7.5% over 10 years [1]. This is in contrast to current Swiss guidelines, which recommend that patients with a risk of 5% in 10 years for fatal cardiovascular disease may be offered statin medication.
However,
Conclusion: By applying the SMB recommendation of SCORE 7.5% for an eventual statin eligibility and using a very conservative calculation for the treatment effects of Statins, such medication would virtually be eliminated from primary care.
According to
"Taking statins is only an option for the prevention of CVD after prior interventions to tackle an unhealthy lifestyle (e.g. poor quality diet, physical inactivity, smoking) and obtain better blood pressure levels and adequate diabetes control have been undertaken."
Even with these enlightened ideas, statin prescriptions in the U.S. and overseas are still running at record levels. Let's see how it has worked out wrt outcomes.
The major emphasis of the standard of care is on the number one killer, heart disease. This is evident by the "cholesterol" measurement being performed on everyone who visits their doctor. How has it worked out? The Wall Street Journal reported that deaths from cardiovascular disease increased by 4.3 percent from 2011 to 2016, Figure 5.6.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/heart-disease-strikes-back-across-the-u-s-even-in-healthy-places-11579015880, January 14, 2020.
Note: Statin prescriptions are up. In this group evaluation, 48% who died were on statins. Statistically - no benefit, or worse. In a later blog, I will show you who said statins do not extend life - not by one day....
Surprisingly, some of the highest increases in cardiovascular death occurred in healthy Colorado. This can only lead to one conclusion: medicine looks in the wrong place. A study published in 2003 may explain part of the mortality increases in Colorado, if not in other locations.
The article's title is "Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, A Clinician's Dilemma." The authors state,
"Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) is still the most lethal tick-vectored illness in the United States. We examine the dilemmas facing the clinician who is evaluating the patient with possible Rocky Mountain spotted fever, with particular attention to the following 8 pitfalls in diagnosis and treatment:
1. waiting for a petechial rash to develop before diagnosis;
2. misdiagnosing as gastroenteritis;
3. discounting a diagnosis when there is no history of a tick bite;
4. using an inappropriate geographic exclusion;
5. using an inappropriate seasonal exclusion;
6. failing to treat on clinical suspicion;
7. failing to elicit an appropriate history; and
8. failing to treat with doxycycline.
Early diagnosis and proper treatment save lives."
They go on to say,
"Rickettsia rickettsii elicits a moderately severe to life-threatening systemic illness in its host by infecting endothelial cells lining small vessels of all major tissues and organ systems" Rickettsia rickettsii is the pathogen that causes RMSF. Even though the disease is named "Rocky Mountain," according to the CDC, RMSF cases have been reported throughout most of the contiguous United States. Heart disease, of course, is also reported throughout the United States."
If you are not testing, you are guessing, and cholesterol is the wrong guess.
Would you like to be tested for RMSF and other rickettsial diseases?
ACT FAST - THESE TESTS ARE GOING AWAY TOO!
Pretty soon you will only be able to test for "cholesterol," and nothing else!
IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ...
Good Morning Jodi,
On January 8, 2024, Labcorp will discontinue offering Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, IgG (016592), Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, IgM (016667), and Febrile Antibody Profile (164630). This is consistent with Labcorp’s continued efforts to align with current guidelines and recommendations to support timely, cost-effective, and quality patient care.
WHAT DOES "TO SUPPORT TIMELY, COST-EFFECTIVE, AND QUALITY PATIENT CARE" MEAN?
I guess they view "less information" as more?!
Index & Upcoming (short) blogs on cholesterol and statins
Number 1: Cholesterol fun (true) facts - completed
Number 2: Is the actual cholesterol molecule important? c - completed
Number 3: What is an optimal TC value? Remember, no one knows their actual cholesterol molecule value. - completed
Number 4: Surprising fact about cholesterol as an antibiotic - completed
Number 5: TC simple math - dumb doctors - completed
Number 6: What is LDL really? - completed
Number 7: Statins - do they lower the cholesterol molecule? - completed
Number 8: What did we learn from the new "biologics" to lower "cholesterol" - completed
Number 9: Niacin and other "cholesterol" management treatments - completed
Number 10: What did Natasha Campbell-McBride say about cholesterol/lipids? - completed
Number 11: What is a QALY, and how does it relate to "cholesterol"? - completed
Number 12: Idiot doctor from Johns Hopkins, Roger Blumenthal
Number 13: Statin drugs CAUSE diabetes
Number 14: Who says statins do NOT extend life?
Weekly Webinar Links: Join us for detailed health information - at no charge. All are welcome.
Monday at noon EST -
https://zoom.us/j/94642492535?pwd=c2IyOTRoQTdNQ3JhTFdlVXpPMGErUT09
Wednesday at 8 pm EST -
https://zoom.us/j/96863715606?pwd=VTRCNTQ1dEVoWnlRQjRkeGJYRXlSdz09
Be Bold - Be Brave - Stay Well
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