How convenient.

The pointy haired one said Lipitor isnt covered by my health insurance.

This isn't the first time I've heard about statins potentially providing some benefit against the flu. But I'm sure they have a cure locked away someplace obviously right next to the cancer cure, aids cure and immortality pill.

/tinfoil

Yeah, but from the ad I saw, it also gives you semi greasy, oddly-cut hair, and you have to jog daily to get it windblown the right way.

I'll just go through the flu.

From www.drugs.com:

Avoid eating foods that are high in fat or cholesterol. Lipitor will not be as effective in lowering your cholesterol if you do not follow a cholesterol-lowering diet plan.

So it doesn't even lower cholesterol unless you help it out.

I know! It fights the flu if you don't get sick!

Brilliant!

in crony CapitalistVille, USA, Big Business decides what is true and what is not.

the actual Truth means nothing, unless they can profit off the Truth.


that's what happens when you let crony capitalist merchants take over your government and Nation. its called Corporatism, and it has nothing to do with Democracy.

pfark pfizer

cardian: So it doesn't even lower cholesterol unless you help it out.

Yes that is exactly what that statement means, glad you cleared up that point for me. I am going to go call the FDA.

Did you also know that exercise wont be as effective at lowering your weight if you eat at McDonalds every day?

Statins help with inflammation as well.

You know what else helps with inflammation, aspirin.

Jesus..

vegasj: Common Side Effects

* Headache
* Constipation
* Diarrhea
* Gas
* Upset stomach and stomach pain
* Rash
* Muscle and joint pain

Serious Side Effects

LIPITOR can cause serious side effects. These side effects have happened only to a small number of people. Your doctor can monitor you for them. These side effects usually go away if your dose is lowered or LIPITOR is stopped. These serious side effects include:

* Muscle problems. LIPITOR can cause serious muscle problems that can lead to kidney problems, including kidney failure. You have a higher chance for muscle problems if you are taking certain other medicines with LIPITOR.
* Liver problems. LIPITOR can cause liver problems. Your doctor may do blood tests to check your liver before you start taking LIPITOR, and while you take it.
hmmm, I'll pass.

I've always wondered how a drug can cause diarrhea and constipation. Clearly different people are reporting different side effects, but it still seems strange that a pill can give one person diarrhea while constipating another.

I'm also thinking that this announcement also coincides with Lipitor going generic so they can conveniently re-label it for flu use and extend patent protection a few more years.

vegasj: Common Side Effects

* Headache
* Constipation
* Diarrhea
* Gas
* Upset stomach and stomach pain
* Rash
* Muscle and joint pain

Serious Side Effects

LIPITOR can cause serious side effects. These side effects have happened only to a small number of people. Your doctor can monitor you for them. These side effects usually go away if your dose is lowered or LIPITOR is stopped. These serious side effects include:

* Muscle problems. LIPITOR can cause serious muscle problems that can lead to kidney problems, including kidney failure. You have a higher chance for muscle problems if you are taking certain other medicines with LIPITOR.
* Liver problems. LIPITOR can cause liver problems. Your doctor may do blood tests to check your liver before you start taking LIPITOR, and while you take it.
hmmm, I'll pass.

I hope you never have to take any prescription meds, because generally speaking, Lipitor's side effects are far less than most.

wholedamnshow: vegasj: Common Side Effects

* Headache
* Constipation
* Diarrhea
* Gas
* Upset stomach and stomach pain
* Rash
* Muscle and joint pain

Serious Side Effects

LIPITOR can cause serious side effects. These side effects have happened only to a small number of people. Your doctor can monitor you for them. These side effects usually go away if your dose is lowered or LIPITOR is stopped. These serious side effects include:

* Muscle problems. LIPITOR can cause serious muscle problems that can lead to kidney problems, including kidney failure. You have a higher chance for muscle problems if you are taking certain other medicines with LIPITOR.
* Liver problems. LIPITOR can cause liver problems. Your doctor may do blood tests to check your liver before you start taking LIPITOR, and while you take it.
hmmm, I'll pass.

I hope you never have to take any prescription meds, because generally speaking, Lipitor's side effects are far less than most.

o pharmaceutical medicine what would we do without you

That's one convoluted way to look at the data.

/I have an anti-alligator rock in my pocket.
/Does it work?
/Do you see any alligators?

So a drug that helps reduce inflammation is helpful at fighting inflammation.

Next thing you'll tell me is Viagra is nothing more than blood pressure medication.

Maybe it causes more mild cases to become severe enough to require hospitalization. You're looking at a conditional probability. For lipitor patients, the probability that you die given you go to a hospital is not the same as the overall probability that you die. Moreover, the probability that you die given you are in a hospital and take lipitor can be lower than the probability that you die given you are in a hospital and don't take lipitor, but your overall probability of dying might be higher while taking lipitor. Confusing, eh? Much more evidence (and meaningful statistics) must be presented before any meaningful conclusion can be derived.

"Lipitor. It hasn't been proven NOT to fight influenza! Talk to your doctor about Lipitor's proven unproveness to not maybe cure influenza today. And remind him about his kickback arrangement with Pfizer. He'll know what you mean.

Also, your child's childish antics are abnormal...ask your doctor about Ritalin...and you might as well ask about Zoloft at that point as well. Trust us."

How long until Viagra show growing promise?

Postal Penguin: cardian: So it doesn't even lower cholesterol unless you help it out.

Yes that is exactly what that statement means, glad you cleared up that point for me. I am going to go call the FDA.

Did you also know that exercise wont be as effective at lowering your weight if you eat at McDonalds every day?

Woah there, captain underpants. I think you have your sarcasm detector off. Put the gun down.

AliasUndercover: That's one convoluted way to look at the data.

/I have an anti-alligator rock in my pocket.
/Does it work?
/Do you see any alligators?

My rock keeps tigers away.

What's with all the hate? This is actually a very common way of finding new treatments. If presented with a new situation, here H1N1/influenze the very first thing you try is a library of all FDA approved drugs. Because if you get lucky and one works then you get to skip the entire FDA approval process which is quite a lengthy and expensive process.

But there was a reason specifically to look at statins:

"Doctors are optimistic, because previous studies also found that statins may improve survival from infectious diseases."

So we have a new infectious disease, past diseases were helped by statins, Lipitor is a statin, lets see if there is any correlation between patients taking statins and survival. The study concludes there is a positive correlation between taking Lipitor and survival.

Where was Pfizer in this, what's with all the finger pointing and tin foil hats? Where is big business deciding what is true and what is not?

Drugs are expensive and hard as hell to develop let alone pass FDA approval. Why the big deal with companies seeing if current approved drugs help first as if nothing else a short term answer until a real treatment/cure can be found?

Geez.

Lipitor? Yeah, who wouldn't trade 3 days of vomiting, diarrhea, and muscle aches for rhabdomylosis and liver failure. Sign me up!

Pfizer, wanting in on this pflu pandemic windpfall, "discovers" that Lipitor™ might help pfight inpfluenza

FTFY, smitty.

Just as long as they don't bring that creepy looking bastard Dr. Jarvik back for the ads...

Baryogenesis: vegasj: Common Side Effects

* Headache
* Constipation
* Diarrhea
* Gas
* Upset stomach and stomach pain
* Rash
* Muscle and joint pain

Serious Side Effects

LIPITOR can cause serious side effects. These side effects have happened only to a small number of people. Your doctor can monitor you for them. These side effects usually go away if your dose is lowered or LIPITOR is stopped. These serious side effects include:

* Muscle problems. LIPITOR can cause serious muscle problems that can lead to kidney problems, including kidney failure. You have a higher chance for muscle problems if you are taking certain other medicines with LIPITOR.
* Liver problems. LIPITOR can cause liver problems. Your doctor may do blood tests to check your liver before you start taking LIPITOR, and while you take it.
hmmm, I'll pass.

I've always wondered how a drug can cause diarrhea and constipation. Clearly different people are reporting different side effects, but it still seems strange that a pill can give one person diarrhea while constipating another.

It can happen. Its not much fun, but funny as hell. Its like shooting a cannon ball out of a fire hose.

lennavan: What's with all the hate?

Probably a combination of "isn't that convenient" and "why would a cholesterol medication help with the flu", plus some "fark big pharma" thrown in for good measure.

MindStalker: Jesus..

Jesus helps with inflammation?

/Wait, wasn't that a list?

Actually, the antiviral effects of statins has been studied for several years now. Lipitor may be an effective anti-viral because it disrupts the normal lipid rafts found on cells; basically, this makes it harder for the virus to bind, thus helping keep viral loads down.

Statins (like lipitor) have also been demonstrated to be effective in SARS and Hep. C infections.

/the more you know...

cardian: From www.drugs.com:

Avoid eating foods that are high in fat or cholesterol. Lipitor will not be as effective in lowering your cholesterol if you do not follow a cholesterol-lowering diet plan.

So it doesn't even lower cholesterol unless you help it out.

I know! It fights the flu if you don't get sick!

Brilliant!

Eh, that's not entirely accurate really. I don't take Lipitor but I take another cholesterol-lowering drug. Basically my cholesterol was so high that it couldn't occur from diet, at least not at my age of 25 and semi-active lifestyle. It was like I was putting McDonald's into a blender and injecting it into my veins. If you eat the cholesterol it's more work for each pill and it's not able to absorb what's already there.

Still though, I wonder about such treatment. My grandfather is 95 and enviable in his health and energy levels at that age, and his cholesterol is even worse than mine was.

Hey, for all we know, Bacon™ might help fight influenza as well.

Common side effects:
- makes all foods taste better

Interesting?
Was the "unlikely"-tag at the annual cholesterol checkup?

I really hate the lipitor comercials.

"did your doctor prescribe you Lipitor? He probably had a damn good reason to do so. It's gay that your health insurace won't pay for it, because there is no generic equivalent to Lipitor. Remember your doctor had a VERY good reason to prescribe Lipitor (after you asked him about it) and although you probably won't DIE using a generic statin, your Doctor prescribed you Lipitor! Heck we'll rebate you up to $120 per year on the cost, even though that is what 10 doses costs. You will need to take this DAILY, so the $120 is just a drop in the bucket. What ever you do, ONLY take Brand name Drugs. Give us Money."

Phalanx has been proven to prevent African Rabies.

cardian: Postal Penguin: cardian: So it doesn't even lower cholesterol unless you help it out.

Yes that is exactly what that statement means, glad you cleared up that point for me. I am going to go call the FDA.

Did you also know that exercise wont be as effective at lowering your weight if you eat at McDonalds every day?

Woah there, captain underpants. I think you have your sarcasm detector off. Put the gun down.

Sorry my sarcasm meter is/was broken and there are plenty of people out there that pretend they know more about medicine than doctors... :-/

SVC_conservative: Phalanx has been proven to prevent African Rabies.

I was thinking of the Pan-Immunity Project

I'll reconsider worrying about swine flu once the number of fatalities this year exceeds the number of people winning over $1 million in my state's lottery this year.

MonkeyVegetables: o pharmaceutical medicine what would we do without you

Statistically? Die young.

Drug companies are required by law to report any and all side effects from the medications they prescribe in clinical and ongoing patient trials, no matter how minor. Couple that with the fact many, many patients will have pre-existing genetic or health factors that may exacerbate one of these into a significant side effect is just a matter of statistical probability.

Drug companies also try to look at multiple indications for a given drug, but often only have the time and money to test one primary indication at a time in order to secure approval by the FDA. Secondary indications come later following a successful drug launch.

These secondary indications, while less than the time and money needed for the initial approval, are still lengthy and costly enough, and most companies don't do it unless they've got a damn good reason to do so; complications with the secondary indications can affect the stability of the primary indication as well. Not to mention if one of several drugs that do the same basic thing fudges clinical and tox data to secure approval faster; the lawyer farms go after any and all similar drugs in that case, seeking even the most pitiable complication as a litigable claim.

Thalidomide was originally indicated for relief of pregnancy-related nausea and pain, but it caused severe birth defects. It's now being resurrected as a potential fighter against HIV and cancer. It's all in how the drug is implemented.

I don't want to have a headache, sore muscles or be vomiting. I'll take the pill and risk the headache, sore muscles and vomiting.

plus diarrhea and/or constipation
plus kidney failure


but i paid for it.
and i supported the economy

It's a Big Pharmacy conspiracy to get us to buy products we don't need through fearmongering in the media. They're using the media, who want ratings, to spread that fear.

What do afraid people do? Buy things that will protect them from their fears. What does Big Pharmacy do? Sells us drugs that will protect us from what we fear.

Developing new drugs taking too long or is the process too expensive? Repackage old ones and claim new uses.

"HURR! MY GOVERNMENT says that blood pressure medicine will stop the DEADLY SWINE FLU that MEDIA PERSONALITY warned would kill me and I trust MY GOVERNMENT and MEDIA PERSONALITY. Who do I make the check out to?"

>_> "BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Birmingham, Ala., is developing peramivir with Japan-based Shionogi & Co."

Red Rice yeast for the masses?

halfmoth: Life™

Potential Side-Effects: Everything.
**WARNING** Will result in death

Everyone dies, so why not as soon as possible? Who wants to live to 30, anyway?

Can the government REALLY be blamed for wanting to keep the masses doped up, uneducated and running for the thunder mug every 15 minutes?? Otherwise, we'd just create a bunch of hassle for them while they're trying to get things done.

"Go back to bed America. Your government is in control. Go back to bed America. Your Government is in control. Here; watch 'Love Connection' and get fat and stupid."

simon bennet robbins oppenhiem and tap: Can the government REALLY be blamed for wanting to keep the masses doped up, uneducated and running for the thunder mug every 15 minutes?? Otherwise, we'd just create a bunch of hassle for them while they're trying to get things done.

"Go back to bed America. Your government is in control. Go back to bed America. Your Government is in control. Here; watch 'Love Connection' and get fat and stupid."

My mother, who has a master's degree and doesn't drink coffee, is a transplant patient, and without her immunosupressants, her kidney would be rejected and she'd either go back on dialysis or die. Might I ask what your rugged individualist alternative is so my mom isn't drinking the kool-aid of Big Pharma?

placebo effect + side effects??? doesn't sound like a good deal...