Chris Lynch's slanted view on sports, politics and entertainment. Please send thoughts or comments to chris.lynch@gmail.com
More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Are there benefits to statins?
- Why Penn Entertainment bought Barstool Sports for $551 million. Good for Dave Portnoy - he built the company from nothing.
- Love Brad Marchand's candor. And the way he didn't back down. Edmonton and Alberta aren't exactly dream winter travel destinations.
- China's manual for defeating America - weaponize everything including lawyers and balloons. Don't trust China - China is asshole!
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Reminder Marc Andreessen and Jack Dorsey are not friends. I'm on Andreessen's side on this.
- Google / YouTube likely new home for NFL's Sunday Ticket.
- Don't Trust the Science Part 3: Statins. Bought and paid for. No matter how good your doctor is they can't keep up on what to hold fast to if all the new studies are recommending this drug or that drug.
- From the archives but still relevant: Democrats insist that true vaccines haven't been tried yet!
Interesting look at statins from a doctor who calls himself a statin agnostic. Like many people my age, I'm on s statin so this is of great interest to me. This seemed the key bit:
There is one other problem with prescribing statins for primary prevention: it’s probably better to try first to see if someone can improve their diet, exercise, sleep, stress, and so on.
We will never have scientifically sound numbers to put on this, but lifestyle improvements might amount to 50-60% reductions in heart disease risks. They also can carry other benefits, too, like weight loss, fitness, and unearthed joy, which are hard to find in a 40mg atorvastatin pill.
I have greatly improved my diet, exercise, sleep, and stress over the past decade but I consistently question whether to continue taking my daily atorvastatin pill. For now I'll continue but I'll also continue reading up on the benefits and risks.
The subject of statins is a hotly debated one in medicine and in my opinion often where there's smoke there's fire. The issue is personal to me because, like many people my age, I'm on a statin.
Peter's response raised a number of questions in my mind. First and foremost is his criticism that "a 4.4-year average treatment duration is very short." Short? That's longer than the average college undergraduate experience. How long does Peter want these studies to be? 10-years? For life? Because that's what a statin prescription is basically for - life! What about the ethics of those receiving placeboes in that "short" 4-4-year study? If stains were shown to be effective - what lasting damage could have been done to those who thought they were receiving real medicine?
The questions I would have like to had answered are; is Peter Attia on a statin? Besides exercise (Peter Attia is in excellent shape) what does Peter do in his own life to combat cardiovascular disease? Is Peter on any medications that are life-long prescriptions? If not - how would he feel being forced to take one? What about using natural supplements such as vitamin K2?
Disappointed by the article.