Heart Trouble? Don’t Fall For “Drug Company Math”

It was all over the news… which should tell you everything you need to know about the news these days.

Research out of Sweden is claiming that a new drug combo could help stop heart attacks… especially if you’ve already had one.

But before you rush to sign up for this new Big Pharma cocktail, there’s something you should know…

This research is just the latest example of what I call “drug company math.”

And it’s part of a disturbing trend that puts millions of Americans just like you in harm’s way every year… with medications that are practically GUARANTEED to do nothing.

Let’s be honest… the only math the drug companies really care about is their balance sheets.

Profits… losses… shareholder value.

And if you need proof… well, just check out this latest research.

The analysis out of Sweden claimed that adding the drug ezetimibe to statins treatment could significantly lower your chances of another heart attack if you’ve already had one.

But what are they calling “significant?”

Well, a glowing news article from MSN summarized it best…

“The findings are clear: early combination therapy could prevent 133 heart attacks per 10,000 patients over three years,” the author wrote.

133 people, huh? Out of 10,000?

Well, let me ask a question that nobody ever seems to care about…

What about the other 9,867 people?

This is EVERYTHING that is wrong with modern medicine today… and it’s really important to understand this.

Too many doctors, drug companies, and even government agencies are praying at the altar of “population” medicine, not personalized medicine.

Just think about that for a second…

This drug combo will be given to countless patients – because too many medical practitioners who ought to know better will really think it’s great news that they can stop 133 heart attacks if they give the meds to 10,000 people.

Heck, give it to a million people, and maybe you can stop 13,300 heart attacks.

But after decades of practicing medicine, I can tell you this.

These patients will NEVER be told that there’s only a 1.3 percent chance the drugs will work for them.

The doctors and drug companies will only be thinking about the larger population… just give the drugs to enough people, and there will be some overall benefit.

This is how you get crazy ideas like putting statins in the water supply, which was suggested about 20 years ago.

When you walk into a doctor’s office, you expect to be treated by your doctor as an individual, not as part of the larger population. You want him to do what’s best for YOU.

He shouldn’t be thinking about you as part of some larger population… he should be thinking about how to help you, with your own set of health issues and risk factors, get back to the best health you can.

A doctor thinking like that would never put you on a drug combo… with all its potential side effects… that only has a 1.3 percent chance of success.

So how do you cut through all the noise? It starts with a phrase in medical research known as “number needed to treat.”

This calculates how many people you need to treat, and for how long, to get a desired outcome.

For example, let’s look at statins for preventing heart problems. The data shows that you need to treat 104 people without a history of heart disease for five years to prevent a SINGLE heart attack.

Nobody has ever told you that, right?

There’s a great website run by medical researchers and concerned physicians at https://thennt.com/ that lets you look up the number needed to treat on several common drugs.

It’ll help you cut through the drug company bluster – and their shoddy math – very quickly.

View Sources

Wastewater Digest. (2004, August 2). Statin-fortified drinking water in the UK? WWD Magazine. https://www.wwdmag.com/water/news/10908898/statin-fortified-drinking-water-in-the-uk

Banach, M., Jaiswal, V., Ang, S. P., Sawhney, A., Deb, N., Amarenco, P., Gaita, D., Reiner, Ž., Pećin, I., Lavie, C. J., Penson, P. E., & Toth, P. P.; Lipid and Blood Pressure Meta-analysis Collaboration (LBPMC) Group & the International Lipid Expert Panel (ILEP). (2025). Impact of lipid-lowering combination therapy with statins and ezetimibe vs statin monotherapy on the reduction of cardiovascular outcomes: A meta-analysis. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2025 Mar 23, S0025-6196(25)00075-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2025.01.018

Breakthrough study: Cheap, overlooked drug could prevent thousands of heart attacks. MSN. Retrieved from https://www.msn.com/en-ie/health/other/breakthrough-study-cheap-overlooked-drug-could-prevent-thousands-of-heart-attacks/ar-AA1CYiWj