We have all been led to believe that cholesterol is bad and that lowering it is good. Because of extensive pharmaceutical marketing to both doctors and patients we think that using statin drugs is proven to work to lower the risk of heart attacks and death.
But on what scientific evidence is this based, what does that evidence really show?
Roger Williams once said something that is very applicable to how we commonly view the benefits of statins. “There are liars, damn liars, and statisticians.”
Read the article for a list of what statins can and can’t do.
So why did the 2004 National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines expand the previous guidelines to recommend that more people take statins (from 13 million to 40 million) and that people who don’t have heart disease should take them to prevent heart disease. Could it have been that 8 of the 9 experts on the panel who developed these guidelines had financial ties to the drug industry? Thirty-four other non-industry affiliated experts sent a petition to protest the recommendations to the National Institutes of Health saying the evidence was weak. It was like having a fox guard the chicken coop.
There was a great article in business week about a year ago. It had an analysis of the statistics behind the studies that the different drugs used to validate their case to the FDA. It showed that the best drug had a 1/100 chance of reducing your chances over a lifetime of having a heart attack. The raw data was that the drug group had 3/100 have a heart attack, the control group 2/100.
To my mind this is very weak evidence of effective medicine. I also doubt the link between high cholesterol and heart attacks. Poor science in general.
My uncle used to joke that his lifestyle permitted only 3 primary food groups: Nicotine, cholesterol and alcohol… until he had a heart attack and died at 47. So, I eat a low cholesterol diet and take a little Crestor pill every day.
Shocking.
Thank goodness politicians are not influenced by the current health insurance reform.
It really is about avoiding government death panels.
see:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-430682/Have-conned-cholesterol.html
Kendrick been saying exactly this for years and finally wrote a book about it (lots of graphs and charts).
#20, are we of science or merely marketing targets…
Actually everything soundwash said has EVERYTHING to do with cholesterol. Everybody eats, most of the things people put in their bodies is edible, but just because you can eat something without dying right now does not mean it’s good for you over time or should be allowed to be called “food”.
What soundwash was hoping you were intelligent enough to infer from the post is that a diet of fresh, natural, minimally processed raw and cooked meats, vegetables, dairy, fruits, nuts, oils, etc. preserves the nutrient, vitamin and enzyme content which all together serve to reduce total cholesterol content and load on your body.
You are free to continue to believe that “most of cholesterol is genetically controlled”, but you’d be wrong, and your comment shows you exhibit a strong need to be right. There is plenty of easily available research and studies that prove that genes are mutable, and there are many substances that are mutagens and can easily break and mutate DNA strands and CAUSE gene mutations, including substances used in the processing and manufacture of artificial “foods”.
So no, your cholesterol level is not pre programmed in your genetic code, it’s WHAT YOU CHOOSE TO PUT IN YOUR FACE that serves to prevent, moderate or increase your cholesterol levels, and increase or decrease your odds of getting various cancers. For instance, eating just 1 raw carrot a day can reduce your odds of getting cancer by 50 percent.
High cholesterol levels and even fatty liver problems can be resolved simply by drinking a good quality fresh olive, grape seed, flax or fish oil everyday, it’s principally the liquid oils that make the Mediterranean diet so healthy, not to mention the omega 3 fatty acids in good oils that are so EXTREMELY VITAL to good health. The omega 3′s in good olive and fish oils are also a natural anti-inflammatory, an adult needs a MINIMUM of 3 grams, or 3 1000mg gel caps of fish oils DAILY for good health. I started taking fish oil caps a year and a half ago ’cause my shoulders were killing me from 20 years of construction work, cut out almost all sugars, anything made with or containing yeasts, wheat and grains including rice, corn, peanuts and peanut butter, cleaned up the rest of my diet and started eating right, close to a Phase 1 or 2 antifungal diet, not only did the shoulder pain go away, I lost 30 pounds without exercise and my gums stopped bleeding when brushing, gingivitis means inflammation of the gums, any word that ends in “itis” means inflammation, fish oils cured all of that for me.
I know people that refuse to eat any kind of fish or vegetables and THEY’RE ALL SICK, they suffer from eczema, irritable bowel, leaky gut, Crone’s or many other diseases, once I offered a kid I worked with $20 to eat a 5 inch celery stalk and he wouldn’t do it, said “I don’ wike vegables”, sounded like a damn three year old.
You can’t cut entire food groups from your diet and expect to be healthy, either by not eating specific foods or by replacing good foods with eating bad processed junk instead.
For more info on the “paleolithic cave man diet” go to http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
For more on cholesterol go to http://knowthecause.dnnspeed.com/WatchTheShow/tabid/55/Default.aspx
For more on the Phase 1 or 2 diet go to http://www.lakeshoreguardian.com/_2006/022006/cohoon.php