Can you trust medical research?
Can you trust scientific research that tells you how safe something is for you to use? Perhaps not.
A recent study by Mayo Clinic, one of the few research organizations in the U.S. that does not accept corporate funding, revealed that more than 90 percent of the researchers publishing favorable findings about the controversial diabetes drug Avandia had financial ties to the drug company.
A full 87 percent of these had financial ties to GlaxoSmithKline, who produces Avandia, while another 7 percent had ties to other pharmaceutical companies involved with diabetes. Out of the 29 authors who recommended Actos as a safer alternative to Avandia, 25 had ties to that drug’s maker, Eli Lilly.
By contrast, researchers critical of the drug were “largely free of identifiable conflicts of interest,” according to the report from Mayo.
Avandia sales plunged in 2007 after evidence emerged that linked the drug to an increased risk of heart attack and death. The research looked at in the Mayo study had been produced since then.
Can a researcher with a possible agenda produce an unbiased report? I guess, in an ideal world, we would hope so. But what do you think?
I think this points back, again, to becoming empowered about your own health. To first find ways to remain healthy or get healthy, with natural, non-harmful ways at the forefront. Manage the little things, and they may not become big things, like diabetes …. or another major disease, many of which have also seen scary reports linked to prescription meds. Then you won’t have to concern yourself with researchers’ financial conflicts of interest.
But, even if you are at a place where you need these types of medications, you can’t leave your life in others’ hands completely. Your best odds will increase when you take charge, read and become informed to help figure out what the best decision you can make is.
Don’t believe the status quo; don’t feel you need a college degree in science. Start writing your own body’s manual. You are the best author for that.
