I'm sure you've seen the ads.

Dr. Robert Jarvik, best known for the artificial heart he pioneered more than 25 years ago, is rowing a one-man racing shell across a mountain lake, looking like the picture of health. "When diet and exercise aren't enough", Dr. Jarvik says, solemnly, "adding Lipitor significantly lowers cholesterol".

The implication is clear. This stuff's got to be good. Here's one of the big guns in the area of heart medicine- he invented the artificial heart for goodness sake- endorsing it. He uses it himself and he's rowing away like an athlete half his age. It's got to be good, right?

Shades of those old late night infomercials for hair replacement- "I would not lie to you! I'm the president of the company!"

Well, it turns out that Jarvik doesn't actually row. And he isn't actually a cardiologist and currently isn't even licensed to practice medicine. "He's about as much an outdoorsman as Woody Allen" said his longtime collaborator' Dr. O. H. Frazier of the Texas Heart Institute.

OK so they used a stunt double to sell the pill. Is that so bad?

Not by itself. But taken together with some other troubling information that was revealed recently, it might cause us to take a new look at the whole mania for lowering cholesterol.

More...

Dr. Eades addressed Mr. Jarvik's commercial some time ago, actually likened him to Gollum from the Lord of the Rings movies. Perhaps unkind, but the fact is that the commercials were annoying. Just because he designed an artificial heart certainly doesn't make him an expert in heart health. Paul Winchell (the ventriloquist) developed an artificial heart in 1963, and he had some medical education, but that didn't make him an expert on heart health any more than Mr. Jarvik. And I couldn't imagine him selling statins on tv, either!

BTW, if you want to read about Mr. Winchell's very fascinating life, here's the URL of his site:

Paul Winchell - Ventriloquist, Inventor of the Artifical Heart, Famous Voice Over artist. And that's just for starters!

Besides, he was a lot better looking than Mr. Jarvik!

__________________
Nita

I personally prefer the one where Dr. Jarvik is running with his son in the park. I have to say I always giggle when I see these commercials. A lot of them are like this...take this pill and everything in your life will be perfect. I was never so happy as the day I could go off of my high blood pressure medication!

__________________

Great point, Nita.

Thanks for the info on Paul Winchell!

__________________