3 Reasons to Say No to Crestor

By Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison, MS

A new study on heart health is touting statin drugs as the best thing since the iPod. But before you head off to your doctor asking for a prescription, let’s take a closer look at the facts.

The JUPITER (Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin) study is not a clinical trial. It’s a ruse to promote drugs as vitamins. Dr. Timothy J. Gardner, president of the American Heart Association [during the 2008-09 fiscal years], was so excited by the study that he insisted, “this one is pretty clearly a winner for statin therapy.”

The New York Times gave us the infomercial, scripted response of, “Taking the statin Crestor, also known as rosuvastatin, slashed the risk of heart attack by more than half according to the JUPITER results.”

But most popular media missed the truth. Here are three important points that you need to know:

• Crestor’s maker – AstraZeneca – funded the study. When a company pays for a study, they pay for the interpretation of results, which always involves statistical trickery. Cardiovascular events were reduced by a paltry but absolute 0.9 percent with Crestor use. Using a few tricks of the statistics trade, this bland number was converted into the more lucrative “relative risk reduction” of 53 percent.

Dr. Mark Hlatky of Stanford told the New England Journal of Medicine that “absolute differences in risk are more clinically important than relative reductions in risk in deciding whether to recommend drug therapy, since the absolute benefits of treatment must be large enough to justify the associated risks and costs.”

• It would cost beaucoup bucks to follow JUPITER’s recommended Crestor protocol. The drug giant stands to pocket an estimated $500,000 per patient (over a patient’s lifetime), courtesy of insurance companies, if the drug is used as recommended by the study.

• Crestor users risk the particularly nasty side effects of liver failure, rhabdomyolysis, diabetes, and more. This, in itself, is a great reason to say no to Crestor: It’s a seriously expensive way to get sick.

I’ve said it before – you don’t need drugs to be healthy. For a healthy cardiovascular system, take hawthorn and folic acid, both available at Walmart.

[Ed. Note: Shane Ellison is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant for his research in biochemistry and physiology and is a best-selling author. He holds a master’s degree in organic chemistry and has firsthand experience in drug design.]

"He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money."
- Benjamin Franklin

The Unexpected Side Effects of Making Money (and How to Avoid Them)

By Michael Masterson
My life changed when I decided, one day, that “make a lot of money” would be my number one goal. Focusing on that goal and making it a priority changed my income… from about $50,000 a year to seven-plus figures. It changed my business status from that of a nameless employee to that of an employer of hundreds. It changed my lifestyle from one of making minimum payments on credit card statements to the kind happy movies provide for their heroes.

But it also had two negative consequences:

1. I gave up thousands of hours of good times with friends and family.

2. I did a few things I wish I hadn’t.

It was 1982 when I set that goal. I had just been hired as editorial director for a fledgling publishing company in South Florida. Although I knew that there are more important things in life than money, I figured that if I made the money first, I could then have everything else too. (I knew nothing about making money. I had come from a family of teachers.)

It worked. Big time. But, as I said, there were unexpected side effects.

Thinking back, I realize that I could have made all the money I wanted without suffering those side effects. So if you are at the beginning of your wealth-accumulating journey, I have some observations and suggestions for you that may be helpful.

Let’s start with this. Perhaps the best thing about having “make a lot of money” as my number one goal was that it made subsequent business decisions much easier.

Prior to establishing money as my priority, I was never sure if I was making the right call. Faced with multiple options, I could see some merit in just about all of them. I’d force myself to pick one… and then worry that it might have been the wrong one.

But now that I knew what I wanted, there was no longer such uncertainty and self-doubt. I’d listen to a question or problem and ask myself, “What solution would give me the best return in terms of money?”

Suddenly, complicated problems were simple to resolve and difficult questions were easily answered. I went from being an editor who was ambivalent about marketing and argumentative about quality to a businessman who had an “amazingly good” instinct about what would sell and what wouldn’t.

Within 18 months of my making this transformation, our business went from a negative worth of more than a million dollars to a million dollars in the black. And then it got better! Two years later, my partner/boss gave me a plaque that read “Michael Masterson: Marketing Genius.”

That’s what’s good about making wealth building your priority.

The mistake I made was in how I dealt with this priority. Lacking the experience I have now, I made two big mistakes:

1. I was too short-term-oriented.

2. I ignored my instincts about quality.

What that amounted to was this: I sometimes promoted products that weren’t as good as they could have been. Since I knew I could sell the heck out of them, and since I believed that selling the heck out of them was the only thing that mattered, I’d allow inferior products to reach the marketplace.

I didn’t do this all the time. It was probably the exception rather than the rule. But whenever I did it, I regretted it. And that’s the point of today’s message.

If you want to make wealth building your number one goal, go for it. But make sure you go after that wealth with a long-range view of making profits and a serious commitment to creating good products.

If you do it that way, it will be a little tougher at first. You will have to spend more money improving the product and you’ll have to wait a little longer for it to be produced. But in the long run you’ll make more money and will be happier, because your customers will stay with you and reward you with continued buying.

I was talking to “Eliza” this weekend [early December 2008] about her career. She was considering a job offer that would double her income and put her on a rapid road to wealth. “I am tempted to take the offer,” she told me, “but I don’t want to make money the center of my life. I want to do good for people.”

Had she said this to me many years ago, I would have told her to get real. Now, I realized that her instinct was right. She should never make the pursuit of money her primary objective. She should be in a business that she wants to be in. She should sell products she’s proud of selling. She should find some way to make her business interests coincide with her personal ethics and dreams.

“Yes,” I said to Eliza,” make the good you can do for people your primary goal. But pay attention to the money as well, because it will be the best and simplest way to measure the financial health of your business.”

You should be in business to provide people with something of value. If you conduct your business correctly and offer them a good deal – and if the product you sell is something they really want – you’ll make plenty of money.

Russ Whitney put it this way in his book Millionaire Real Estate Mentor: “Money is a result, not a cause. If you get into business solely for the money, chances are you will never be great at what you’re doing. That’s why so many people fail at network-marketing businesses – they’re attracted by the promise of big profits, but then they realize they have to sell soap or vitamins or lotions or whatever, and don’t want to do that. Get into a business that you like, learn it thoroughly, and do it right. The money will come automatically.”

I’ve heard the same thing said by professional athletes. The guys who do it right – who have long, successful careers – play because they love to play. People like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods don’t work as hard as they do for the money. They do it because they want to be the best. And in being the best, they earn amazing amounts of money. The money is the result, not the cause.

Money isn’t the root of all evil, but the love of money is.

Don’t love money. Love the idea of your business. Love the good that it does. Love the fact that in some way your products meet the needs or wants of your customers. See money for what it is – a neutral indicator of how good you are at doing what you do. If the value you provide is worth the money you get for it, people will buy what you’re selling. The better the value you give, the more money you will get.

The Magic Formula

By Alex Mandossian
To improve your marketing communications, organize your words with the Magic Formula. It is the fastest, easiest, and most reliable way I know of to get (and hold) the attention of your prospects and customers.

The Magic Formula was first developed by Dale Carnegie - and in three basic steps, it's everything you need to know to become an incredibly poised, polished, and masterful communicator.

Here's the formula in its simplest form:

Step 1. Incident - Tell an engaging story that relates to the main point you want to make (i.e., the action you want your readers/listeners to take).

Step 2. Point/Action - Recommend (briefly and clearly) the one specific action you want them to take.

Step 3. Benefit - Explain exactly what benefits they will gain as a result of taking that action.

The formula is a time-tested tool that is guaranteed to dramatically improve the pulling power of all your marketing efforts as soon as you start to utilize it.

[Ed. Note: For 12 profit-acceleration secrets that can help increase your company's sales, check out the Amazon.com best-seller Changing the Channel by Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby.]

The Power of a Team Meeting 

By Suzanne Richardson
Meetings get a bad rap. But if you think your company would be better off without them, you may want to reconsider.

ETR has a company-wide team meeting every Wednesday. It takes 30 minutes, and it’s a chance for all employees to share the projects they’re doing and the results they’re seeing.

“This is a great opportunity to spark ideas in your teammates,” MaryEllen Tribby says. “Maybe the Google AdWords project Alexis is working on could dovetail nicely with Edwin’s project. Or maybe Cecily’s media buying experiences can help Nicole save money on her own marketing expenses.”

Team meetings are not only good for the company as a whole, they’re good for individual employees.

“As the company grows,” MaryEllen says, “sometimes the only chance you’ll have to get some face-time with your boss is during those meetings. If you express interest in the projects you’re working on, and discuss the results you’re seeing, you could be showing your boss just how valuable you are.”

So don’t roll your eyes the next time you look at your calendar and see you have a company meeting scheduled. Instead, think about what you’re working on. How it can benefit the team. How it can showcase your hard work.

As MaryEllen says, “This is your chance to shine.”

[Ed. Note: What do you think of team meetings? Are they valuable or not?]

It's Good to Know: If You're Giving Gift Cards This Year...

Gift cards always "fit," never go out of style, and are the perfect choice for the hard-to-shop-for. As a result, gift cards have become very popular. In fact, a recent survey found that two-thirds of consumers will buy them this holiday season.

But before you join the crowd, you should know that under certain conditions a gift card can turn into nothing more than a worthless piece of plastic. When retailers go out of business or file for bankruptcy (think Sharper Image, Linens 'n Things, and Tweeter), that gift card may not be redeemable. And if it is redeemable, it probably won't be for face value. And, sorry, no refunds either.

So instead of buying a store-specific gift card, why not try an American Express or Visa gift card? (They can be used almost anywhere.) Or cash?

(Source: USA Today)

Word to the Wise: Pixel

A "Pixel" (PIK-sul) is a tiny dot, the smallest component of an image that has been digitized (e.g., on a TV screen or computer monitor).

Example (as used by Wayne Curtis in The Atlantic): "We then circled the block three times in silence, looking for a hotel that refused to appear, the neon signs of Seattle beautifully pixilated through windows spattered with raindrops."
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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2533, 12-08-08], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.