The Cholesterol Hoax

The Cholesterol Hoax
Great Hoaxes and Conspiracies

[Jan 2008 Cholestrol drugs] A Direct Letter From Dr. Rath The results of this much anticipated study were “shocking.” As reported in the New York Times, the coronary artery plaques - the basis of a heart attack - developed twice as fast in those people taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs! To make things worse, Merck and Schering had been sitting on these explosives data for almost two years – while about 5 million people worldwide continued to take this drug.

[Letter] Statins And The Onset Of Neurodegenerative Diseases

The Statin Scam Marches On
The researchers tested statin-taking humans who were complaining of severe muscle pain. Muscle biopsy found that the atrogen-1 gene was activated, compared to people with severe muscle pain not on statins and controls. They went on to show through various experiments that statins activate the gene. This is extremely bad news for any person taking a statin.......
http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron44.htm
by Byron Richards, CCN

External articles
Young Children Now Being Targeted For Statin Drug Use

Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven’t Been Told About Popular Cholesterol-Lowering Medicines By Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD

High cholesterol may protect against infections and atherosclerosis by Dr. Ravnskov

External sites
The Cholesterol Myths by Dr. Ravnskov
Statin Drugs Side Effects and the Misguided War on Cholesterol

Books
$29 Billion Reasons to Lie about Cholesterol. Making Profit by Turning Healthy People into Patients by Justin Smith
The Cholesterol Myths by Dr. Ravnskov
[2007] The Great Cholesterol Con by Malcolm Kendrick
The Cholesterol Hoax by Sheldon Zerden
Fats that Heal Fats that Kill by Udo Erasmus
The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Cholesterol and Saturated Fat Cause Heart Disease by Uffe Ravnskov, MD
Health Myths Exposed---Shane Ellison
[2003] The Real Cause of Heart Disease Is Not Cholesterol by Paul Stitt

Quotes
Myth 6 is dedicated to disproving the myth that high cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease. If low cholesterol levels prevent heart disease, then victims of heart attacks should have high cholesterol. This is not so. Over half of all heart attack victims (those who suffer from heart disease) have low cholesterol. This logic is too simple. Highly educated folks totally miss this one. Therefore, the entire chapter reveals evidence, which disproves this myth. It also highlights how to avoid early death from heart disease using scientifically proven, natural approaches.
To further implement an attack on the cholesterol myth, I dedicated a separate chapter to stress the importance of cholesterol. This is chapter 7. According to studies over the last hundred years, the higher our cholesterol, the longer we live. This might be a revelation for most. As such, it will be hard to comprehend. Yet, science has consistently shown this to be true.
The most widely respected medical journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association, published a study entitled: Cholesterol and Mortality. 30 Years of Follow-up from the Framingham study. Shocking to most, this in-depth study showed that after the age of 50, there is no increased overall death associated with high cholesterol! There was, however, a direct association between low levels (or dropping levels) of cholesterol and increased death. Specifically, medical researchers reported that death rates increased by 14% for every 1mg/dl drop in total cholesterol levels per year. These results, and many others, have not stopped medical doctors from making blanket prescriptions for cholesterol lowering drugs to anyone with a heart beat…This must be why medical doctors carry a stethoscope around their neck (laughs). [2006] Interview of Shane Ellison author of Health Myths Exposed

Another false science is the question of cholesterol. Cholesterol is one of the most essential elements in the survival of the human body. When the body begins to make more cholesterol, it has a reason to do that. It is certainly not to block the arteries of the heart, because we measure the level of cholesterol in the body in the blood we take out of the veins of the body, and nowhere in the history of medicine is there recorded one single case of cholesterol ever having blocked the veins of the body.
So, it is not the stickiness of the cholesterol that is the problem, which the drug industry is drumming it into the minds of people -- cholesterol is sticky, reduce it otherwise you will have blockage of your arteries, which is all nonsense. Cholesterol is actually saving the lives of people, because cholesterol is a bandage, a waterproof bandage that the body has designed. When the blood becomes concentrated and acidic, and is being rushed through constricted arteries or capillaries, in dehydration, then abrasions and tears are produced in the arterial system, naturally, in the capillaries of the heart first.
Now if cholesterol wasn’t there to cover up the tear and abrasions, blood would get under the membrane and peel it off and that person would be dead instantly. Cholesterol is actually an interim lifesaver, giving the body time to recover from its problems. We never understood this. We are knee-jerk doctors. We think that something’s up, bring it down, if something’s down, bring it up. We don’t ask questions why is it down or why is it up? The Water Cure: An interview with Dr. Batmanghelidj

The "fibrate" drugs have been replaced by new cholesterol lowering drugs known as "statins". These drugs ALSO show no correlation between drug-induced low cholesterol and the prevention of heart disease! Looking at 5 major statin drug trials, these being PROSPER, ALLHAT-LLT, ASCOT-LLA, AFCAPS and WOSCOPS, statin drugs provided an Absolute Risk Reduction in total mortality of 0.3%.
These facts go ignored. Medical doctors and drug companies hide the truth with complexity and obscurity via statistical contortionists. Don’t be fooled. It is the "spin" created by the media that has convinced the masses that these drugs prevent heart disease, not the science.
In reality, the only thing that cholesterol-lowering drugs do is lower cholesterol. Users will have to face the negative side effects of both the drug and of having low cholesterol. This is a crucial point! Combined, these side effects include, but are not limited to, lack of energy and sex drive, cancer, heart disease, and loss of short-term memory. That people have relinquished their health to cholesterol lowering drugs is a great reminder that advertising hype often supercedes common sense. [2006] Interview of Shane Ellison author of Health Myths Exposed

Nortin Hadler says he would sue any doctor who tried to test his cholesterol. Likewise, his bone density, prostate levels, colon cells, etc. The Harvard-trained doc, now in his sixties and a rheumatologist and professor of medicine and microbiology/immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says you, too, should avoid these routine tests, as well as most angioplasties, bypass surgeries and routine mammograms. That's because -- contrary to what the medical establishment tells you -- the tests and procedures don't extend most lives, he says; they just convince healthy people they're sick. Skip These Tests?

"The cholesterol scare is big business for doctors, laboratories, and drug companies. It is also a powerful marketing gimmick for vegetable oil and margarine manufacturers.... In the end , cholesterol will be exonerated from its role as primary villain in cardiovascular disease. The accusing finger points at 'experts' who concocted the cholesterol theory to drum up business by spreading fear."--Udo Erasmus (Fats that Heal Fats that Kill)

THE CHOLESTEROL THEORY — A TRAGIC BLUNDER
Cholesterol in its natural form is one of the main building blocks of healthy animal and human bodies, the solid matter of our brains for instance being over 80% composed of it. It is absurd to say that something we are largely made of would be harmful for us to eat. And it is not harmful unless it is changed from its natural state by staleness. Cattle and goats develop arteriosclerosis on hay and grain with never a bit of food containing cholesterol. People are dying by the thousands from heart attack and stroke while on "low cholesterol" diet. The cholesterol theory, now falling by the wayside, was originated in Russia by Dr. N. Anitschkow and S. Chalatow in 1913. These scientists deserve honor for their well-intentioned work, however their finding was one of those unfortunate half-truths which only served to mislead. They fed their experimental rabbits pure crystalline cholesterol dissolved in vegetable oil, resulting in the rabbits developing arteriosclerosis. Their mistake was in failing to recognize that crystalline cholesterol is an unnatural stale substance now known as oxy-cholesterol, which is not found in fresh food or in the healthy human body. Similar mistakes have been made countless times by other scientists, using various unnatural mixtures of stale processed foods in feeding trials for testing purposes, and then assuming the choked artery results were typical of cholesterol foods. The cholesterol theory for practical purposes is untrue, and its formulation was most unfortunate because it deceived the world for fifty four years and indirectly caused untold deaths and misery by delaying discovery of the true cause and cure. Many people have needlessly been deprived of meat and eggs because of diets based on the deceptive Russian theory. ROBERT S. FORD

External sites
http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/The-Cholesterol-Myths.html
http://www.thincs.org/
http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm