Statistics Saves Lives!

One of the articles that I read was "Do Cholesterol Drugs Do Any Good" was about a cholesterol lowering drugs called statin. This article basically focuses on the argument between money making pharmaceutical companies and science. According to the article most of the people that are taking cholesterol lowering drugs have no chance of benefiting from it, instead they run a risk of harm. Moreover, the only people that might benefit from the drug are those who have some kind of an underlying disease such as heart disease or high blood pressure. People who don't have any heart condition, that are over the age of 65, and women receive no benefit from the statin drugs regardless of their cholesterol levels. There was a trial study done on statin drug called Lipitor, which concluded that for every 100 people taking drug for 3 and 1/3 years three people on placebo effect and two people on Lipitor had heart attack. So, 100 people needed to be treated by taking Lipitor for all these years for only one person to benefit from it. Here is the question, why take Scientists argues that However, pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, Merck, Bristol-Myer Squibb, and Schigh -Plough are still marketing and selling those drugs with no problems. It has been drilled to the millions of Americans that high levels of bad cholesterol is a straight road to the grave and that the only way to lower it to healthy levels is by taking statins. It also mentions some other drugs that have relatively same effect on people, such as Avandia, that widely used by people with diabetes. Clinical trials studies show that it increases the risk of heart attacks and has a little evidence that drug actually help patients with diabities. Other medications are hormone replacement therapy that causes heart disease and anti-psychotic medications that were less effective than placebo in reducing aggression with intellectual disability. People and most of the doctors are not aware of these facts. It is all depends on how the statistics and the results are presented. For example, pharmaceutical companies they advertise the big percentage drops in heart attack, while obscuring the true number needed to treat NNT. But, once it comes to the side effects, they turn the message around by saying that only 1 in 100 people suffer a side effect even if it calls for 50% increase. So, we can see that unfortunately the way our healthcare system runs is not based on data and statistical benefits; it is based on what produces big bucks.
The second article called "The Median Isn't the Message" by Stephen Jay Gould. In this article Dr. Gould talks about his personal story and how he was dealing with it. Dr. Gould was diagnosed with a rare and serious form of abdominal cancer called mesothelioma. It is usually caused by exposure to asbestos. After doing the research he learned that this type of cancer is incurable, with the median mortality of only eight months after discovery. However, Dr. Gould discovered that according to statistics which is based on the same type of cancer for age, class, health, socioeconomic status, and those with positive attitudes tend to live longer. Jay Gould convinced that if people had an adequate understanding of statistics to be able to evaluate the real meaning of the "median mortality of eight months" and view the variation of central tendency in the way that there is a chance exceeding eight months expectations, rather than interpreting it as "I would probably be dead in eight months". This statistical data was plotted on the right skewed graph with the left of the distribution contained a zero which identifies death or before and the right half of the curve extended out indicating years to live. Well, Dr. Gould was one of those people who analyzed the statistical data that was available on this type of cancer and chose to be in the extended tail of the right skewed distribution curve. He decided to exceed the eight months prognosis and beat the doctor's expectations. Dr. Gould lived for 20 years from the day he was diagnosed, exceeding everyone's expectations.
Both of these articles can easily be related to everyday statistics. It all depends on how someone interprets it. In case of cholesterol lowering drugs scientist say that the benefits of not taking the drug outweigh the risk of a person having a heart attack. It is not worth spending all these money and having all those side effects on drugs that may end up having no benefit in lowering once LDL cholesterol or have a little effect that could have been accomplished by some diet and simple physical activities. Obviously, if people knew all these facts they would most likely not take the drug, but who would tell them?! The pharmaceutical companies that want to increase their profits and returns to share holders, or the doctors that are being well compensated by the drug-making companies for promoting and prescribing their drugs or those physicians that simply don't know these facts, will tell the truth to the patients about taking these drugs. No, most likely not. Statistics will! With a little research people can know the truth about drugs that they are taking and make better decisions regarding their health. The only problem is that we want to believe our doctors, our pharmacist; we tend to believe that by taking the "magic" pill we will feel better.
In the case of Dr. Gould he chose to be in the right tail of the distribution of variation curve and he lived longer than it was expected. With the help of statistics he was able to see what the chances were of living longer, and the factors that will help him to achieve this goal. Every day we make a decisions and basing it on some factors that are most likely are based on statistics, often we don't even realize doing it. We go to see a movie in the movie theater, for example. We look at the review and ratings first to see if the movie is good and worth seeing it. Well, this is statistics. It shows how many people saw it, how many people liked it and what the age groups were. Or when we make a purchase, we like to see how many people bough this product and things like that. So, sooner or later someone faces a dilemma in their life that argues pros and cons, good or bad, life or death, luckily we have statistics which gives us a choice to fight or not to fight.