Sometimes I have to dust off my adversarial temperament and take to task some BS that is being propagated. Ironically its usually being propagated by my former allies, Big Pharma and their lackeys.
Today, surprise surprise, we re-examine all the tactics used to “prove that fish oil is no good for heart disease” or anything else that might challenge Big Pharma sales.
Another irony is that these days, it’s a lot easier to convince people that Big Pharma is not to be trusted and that money, not health is the primary goal.
Still, understand there are stiff penalties
For being under the microscope of ANY alphabet agency. Just ask anyone who has ever poked the bear- the guys from Life Extension, Joe Mercola, David Wolfe, and of course, my little debacle with an agency that will remain unnamed.
Bottom line if you wind up on their radar, all kinds of strange things can happen no matter how accurate, well researched, or life-saving your information may be.
The fish oil versus heart disease controversy has been going on for decades now and has been definitively answered numerous times- fish oil doesn’t work!!!
Vitamins give you expensive urine. These cannot should not and are illegal to even suggest as therapies for any disease, especially when a member of Big Pharma (insert any drug company!) has spent years and millions of dollars getting a drug approved for the condition or disease. NOTHING pisses off the powers that be more than suggesting a cheaper version non-drug version might work after all its not been tested.
Case in point
Amarin, the first “fish oil drug,” is nothing more than a highly purified ethyl ester fish oil- something you can buy more or less anywhere these days.
But they jumped through the hoops and paid the fees so when any challenge comes to the veracity of these claims the weight of the law comes into play and everyone runs for cover.
Also, note that most of the “anti-fish oil” studies have been funded by either Drug Companies or the journals they pay to advertise in (which means again- drug companies paid for it!).
So how do you sabotage the outcomes before the study is done and make sure you get a negative result?
- Say that supplements don’t work but cite studies that use drugs! This has happened often where the authors used a prescription version of the fish oil and found it didn’t work but reported it as “supplements.” Sometimes they don’t even say Omega 3!!!
- The classic guaranteed never to fail more is- use a ridiculously low dose. I have been preaching effective doses of 4 to 6 grams for most people for almost two decades now, but studies continue to be cranked out with one or two caps a day.
- Use an inferior form. If the one or two caps a day you use is natural triglyceride, you are never going to approach a meaningful level of Omega 3 in blood or tissue unless you take 15 caps a day. This is because you cannot get enough EPA/DHA into a capsule without distillation and purification. This is not debatable! You NEED a high quality fish oil!
- Use of meta-analysis- This tool allows computers to do the work. The old adage here is garbage in garbage out. Only studies that fit the “failed criteria” are included this guaranteeing a failed result.
- Replacing terms. Classic example: instead of saying “statistically significant,” a term accepted widely in the scientific community, replace it with an obfuscation- “low certainty,” ignoring the fact that it IS statistically significant!
- Change the outcome. The classic Lantus study done a few years back was designed to show that Lantus insulin had a positive effect on heart disease. When that failed, the study was changed to show that Omega 3 did not work to prevent heart disease even though the original design was totally different, and this was a small subgroup analysis (BTW the Omega 3 was consumed by adding it to a stick of margarine!). The conclusion could have just as quickly been “margarine does not improve heart disease outcomes!
- Never Ever Even Try to look at the ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 and get that to where it matters. This ratio also known as the “Land’s Ratio” after my friend Dr Bill Lands who pioneered numerous and numerous (a neologism) studies on this ratio showing it to be the most important way to follow if you have a therapeutic level (opps therapeutic means you are creating something so don’t take that literally because you can’t treat anything with a supplement. According to some genius docs out there, the only thing you can treat is “cheap urine disease.” Spending money on supplements will make it expensive, thus curing cheap urine disease. To them, I say, “Thank you,” and I am reminded of the old scientists’ adage:” the best thing some scientists can do is die off and make room for the next generation!”
- Advertising blitz: Its estimated the ad budget to “improve the image” of Big Pharma is over 1 billion dollars a year. That is not drug ads- its ads to make B(ig) P(harma) also known as BP or BF (I’ll let you figure that acronym out!) look like “your friend.”
And that my friend is a shortlist of tactics. Of course, we live in a sound byte cynical news society, so the people reporting these “facts” are clueless to the manipulation.
So are most doctors!!!
While we’re at it, have you seen the drug ads lately?
They usually feature obese people laughing and playing at life. They are happy because of a drug whose name they cannot even pronounce has controlled a lifestyle-induced condition that could have been avoided in many cases or treated with diet for heaven’s sake. The image and expectation is that when you hit your 50’s and 60’s, you are going to be fat and need drugs to live a full life. Your Friend BF will save you and make you happy as long as you take their drugs, which everyone knows you must need.
Abnormal is the new normal, and each year, there is approximately an 18% increase in the number of “drug treatable” medical diagnosis. A favorite example of mine: caffeine intoxication- Too much coffee can be treated with a beta-blocker. Forget about reducing your intake- take the drug instead!!!
Does that sound right to you?!
There are many other ways BF obfuscate and insult and demean and belittle and anti-image supplements, but there are two facts you should know.
1)Every major drug company has a “consumer division” that makes supplements. This is because of
2) The sales research and efficacy of supplements continue to rise, and the expenditure on non-drug ways of dealing with health is rapidly approaching the sales of drugs themselves.
But fret not: there are tried and true ways of continuing the BF dynasty. Think of cigarette sales. They are now targeting youth, women, and 2nd and 3rd world companies under the moniker of “emerging markets.”
I guarantee you this is an endless battle. I will never forget the exasperation in the voice of a health writer who tapped me to do a story on “the truth about Omega 3”. He eventually gave up in frustration after he asked me, “Why is this so hard to settle.”
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind- another euphemism for a bodily function that describes the mentality of BF. It stinks, but follow the money!
Of better yet. Just take your fish oil like I do every single day. BTW 6 decades into my life I am not fat nor am I on drugs for medical conditions!*