Originally published November 3 2005
Cleveland cardiologist excels at exposing Big Pharma
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Dr. Steve Nissen, director of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, has recently courted a lot of media attention from his research that revealed the adverse effects of Vioxx, and now, he is back in the spotlight with new research that suggests the diabetes drug Pargluva is connected to various heart complications, including congestive heart failure.
As director of the cardiovascular coordinating center at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Nissen fills roles as full-time mainstream heart doctor, nationally respected researcher and occasional whistleblower.
When the Journal of the American Medical Association published his study detailing those risks, he was roundly criticized by Merck, the maker of Vioxx, and a number of physicians who praised the drug.
Three years later Merck pulled Vioxx from the market when additional studies confirmed that daily, long-term use of the drug could increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
This time the drug was Pargluva (muraglitazar), an experimental type 2 diabetes drug that can lower blood sugar while also increasing the level of HDL, the so-called good cholesterol, and decreasing triglycerides, a blood fat that increases the risk of heart disease.
One look told him that an FDA advisory panel charged with reviewing the same documents would not approve the drug.
He recalls reciting the clinical names for all the bones in the body, a skill his father taught him when he was just 3 or 4.
Later, the Nissens moved to Fullerton, California, where Nissen's father developed a successful private practice.
During his time in Lexington, he was approached by a company that was trying to develop an "ultrasound transducer that would fit inside a coronary artery," Nissen recalled.
Heart disease from the inside out But Nissen quickly realized that an imaging technique that could look at the arteries from the inside out could provide critical information about the real nature of the narrowing of arteries caused by the buildup of fatty deposits called plaque.
He unveiled intravascular ultrasound imaging (IVUS) at the American College of Cardiology meeting, showing that the tiny device could be threaded into the beating heart to reveal the exact composition of atheromas.
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