Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
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This blog is my best effort at providing some balance to the increasingly strident healthcare lobby that seems intent on scaring everyone about almost everything. Is there a foodstuff that is safe to eat anymore? Is there any activity that does not cause cancer or heart disease?
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
4M ago
29th December 2023
The underlying forces
In the last few blogs, I have been writing about the proliferation of guidelines, targets, and regulatory work in the NHS. Hopefully I have managed to give you a sense of how much time and effort these pile on to everyday work. Time and effort which eats away at clinical time, erodes morale and drives down productivity.
None of this is unique to the NHS. It is not unique to healthcare, and it is certainly not unique to the UK. An ever-tightening regulatory framework is affecting almost everyone, worldwide. ‘Ratchet world’ as I call it.
However, I believ ..read more
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
4M ago
10th December 2023
A very important study – please watch
Very high low density lipoprotein levels with no impact on plaque progression
I interrupt my series on what is wrong with the health service to bring you breaking news. I was sent the e-mail below, directing me to a short YouTube presentation by Dr Shawn Baker.
It highlights a study which provides very strong evidence that a very high LDL (as seen in some people who go on a keto diet), has no impact on coronary artery plaque progression.
It was sent to me by Brian Fullerton MD, for which I shall be eternally grateful. E-mail below. I hav ..read more
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
5M ago
27th November 2023
Relentlessly falling productivity (Part a).
Regulatory constraints.
I was in the midst of writing another blog on what is wrong with the NHS, happily highlighting a few of the many pointless tasks that get in the way of clinical work. But my attention kept being drawn to the more general issue of the widespread fall in productivity.
Here, from the report: ‘Is there really an NHS productivity crisis?’
It is certainly true that measuring productivity in the health service is wrought with difficulty. But in our view, the available evidence strongly points to the NHS – or, at th ..read more
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
6M ago
20th October 2023
(With lessons from, and for, all other health services around the world)
The Quality and Outcomes Framework
The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) was to be the glittering triumph of Evidence Based Medicine. Many of the commonest and most deadly diseases afflicting humanity would be picked up early, then treated. Almost entirely by using medications which had proven benefits.
People at risk of cardiovascular disease would have their cholesterol levels checked. Then, if high, put on statins. They would have their blood pressure measured and put on antihypertensives. Other dr ..read more
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
7M ago
9th October 2023
(With lessons from, and for, all other health services around the world)
Whilst awaiting the Judgement on my libel trial – three months from the hearing and counting – I decided to write about things other than statins and cholesterol. Lest I damage our case in some unforeseeable way. I do this humbly, as a public service. To keep people informed, and perhaps amused. Today, I shall touch upon the issue of:
Spending vast amounts of time on things that are almost completely useless.
Guidelines. Guidelines, guidelines, and more guidelines – and other mandatory stuff. These cascad ..read more
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
11M ago
4th June 2023
I have been silent and off-line for a while. I am not unwell, but thanks for asking. There is a court case coming up in the High Court in London on the 3rd of July. I am suing the Mail on Sunday, along with Zoe Harcombe. This is complex and highly time-consuming case, and there are many sensitive issues on the line.
It was reported in the BMJ last year:
The controversy over the benefits of statins is set to be aired in the High Court in London, in what the senior libel judge has described as the “most significant piece of defamation litigation that I have seen in a very long time ..read more
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
1y ago
17th March 2023
Recently, I was in Phoenix Arizona for a few days to attend the Broken Science Initiative Conference. This organisation was set up by Greg Glassman, who founded CrossFit, and Emily Kaplan, a media expert. The title of the organisation may give you a clue as to its purpose.
For my part I gave a presentation on medical research, and where I believe it has gone wrong. How I had once been a happy medic believing everything I was told … well almost.
Then, one day I took the red pill. Suddenly, I became uncomfortably aware that we were all being kept in a vast goo-filled factory, gua ..read more
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
1y ago
12th January 2023
Taking a small detour for the moment, I thought I would try and look at bit more closely at corruption. How do you define it? What is it? I believe if you are going to defeat something, you first need to understand what it is. Know thine enemy, as they say.
I began by looking up the word corruption in a dictionary, which defined it thus:
Corruption: ‘dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.’
However, that is not really what I think of, when I think of corruption. An occasional trip to the theatre, or nice meal in a restaurant from time t ..read more
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
1y ago
31st December 2022
Before laying into the drug regulators, and their inexorable move towards the dark side, I thought I should try to explain a bit more about who decides what drugs should be used, and for what conditions.
Yes, I know, for most people this appears simple. The Federal Drugs Administration (FDA), in the US, or the European Medicines Agency (EMA), for the European Union, approve drugs for use in human beings, and that’s pretty much that.
Other countries have their own drug evaluation agencies, but l have no intention of looking at them in any detail. Also, if the FDA and EMEA app ..read more
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
1y ago
10th December 2022
[The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), the Food and Drugs Administration, compare and contrast].
A while back I began to write a blog called. ‘We need a couple of plane crashes.’ Which may sound a little harsh. But the point I was hoping to make is that plane crashes make front page news around the world. They are highly visible, and terribly frightening. They certainly can’t be hidden away from the public.
One plane crash may not be seen as such a big deal, after all these things can happen. Two plane crashes, for the same reason, in the same make and model of plane. Now yo ..read more