Open Thread

“Show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcome”. –Charlie Munger.

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable.” ― H.L. Mencken

“…humanity learns true lessons only in cataclysm. Demolition is a part of construction.” ― Daniel H. Wilson, Robopocalypse

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A randomized controlled placebo trial was performed and conducted with over 17,000 people who had diastolic blood pressure of 90-109mmHg (over 80 is considered high).
The results: “For mortality from all causes treatment made no difference”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2861880/
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A quality of life questionnaire was filled out by patients who had started a blood pressure drug. The questionnaire was also given to their prescribing doctors and their relatives.

Table 1 shows the results.
Every single prescribing doctor reported improvement
Every single relative reported worsened quality of life
Those taking the drugs reported mixed results with about half reporting improved quality of life.

Relatives reported negative effects regarding memory, mood, irritability, energy, activity and interest
25% suffered mild effects
45% suffered moderate effects
and 30% suffered severe effects

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7097628/
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Next we have a 6 year long prospective study of over 93,000 older women with high blood pressure.

“Monotherapy with diuretics was equal or superior to other monotherapy in preventing CVD complications of high blood pressure.”
Those on the older cheaper drugs had better or the same outcomes compared to those on the newer more expensive drugs.

“We did compare those receiving no medications with those receiving diuretics as monotherapy and found the HRs and 95% CIs for coronary disease, stroke, and CVD death to be, respectively, 0.87 (0.72-1.05), 1.05 (0.77-1.41), and 0.92 (0.63-1.33).”
“The baseline systolic BP of the no medications group was higher”

Women who did not take any blood pressure lowering drugs had better outcomes than those taking the best performing drugs although those outcomes were not statistical significant.

The authors reported being employees, receiving gifts and money from these pharmaceutical corporations:
Astra-Zeneca, Biovail, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, and Pfizer

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15598916/
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“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” ― H.L. Mencken

“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” –Ha-Joon Chang, Bad Samaritans

“You can read every day where a dog saved the life of a drowning child, or lay down his life for his master. Some people call this loyalty. I don’t. I may be wrong, but I call it love–the deepest kind of love.” ― Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows