> Gautam Mukunda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> --- Deborah Harrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> > Yeah, I'll want to see another large study, and
> > preferably not sponsored by the drug
> > company....Besides, if you *really* want to live
> > longer, go for the
> significantly-restricted-calories
> > diet -- that makes rats and earthworms (IIRC) live
> > almost twice their normal lifespan!  Of course
> > they're
> > hungry their whole lives, but that's surely a
small
> > price to pay for longevity, eh?   :P

> Let me re-emphasize this.  PROVE-IT was sponsored by
> the drug company _whose drug did poorly in the
> study_.
>  Pfizer did not pay for PROVE-IT.  BMS did.  I have
> helped design drug company clinical trial
strategies,
> and we don't rig them.  Personally, Debbi, I'd
> prefer taking a pill every day than the sort of
> nanny-stateism that has the government dictating
> what I eat every day.

As I have written previously, before I start
prescribing any pill, especially for 'nearly
everyone,' I want very, very good evidence, and one
study (unless quite high-powered) is *not* proof. 
Your faith in drug companies' integrity is only
partially justified IMO; having been on the receiving
end of marketing and manipulation as a physician, I
take what I am told with a grain or fifty of salt. 
Remember that there are side effects and potential
side effects, always, to every medicine you take, and
many of the herbals/supplements that Americans so
hopefully toss down their gullets.

<wry>  And the crack about calorie restriction was
pure sarcasm!  Maybe I should've put a << ;) >> there.

<serious>  I do not advocate gov't. dictation of what
one may eat, but without education, children (and that
*is* when eating habits are established) cannot
discriminate between what is nutritious and what is
pure caloric indulgence which should occur only once
or twice a week, not daily.  As for 'nannyism,' I have
posted on-list a rather aggressive libertarian stance
on 'adults reaping the consequences of their choices'
WRT food and drugs -- *after* adequate education.
Evidence for the multiple benefits - medical, physical
and emotional - of exercise is solid and mounting; we
don't have a pill that replaces that.  

Debbi
Ambulance At The Foot Of The Cliff Maru

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