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.
A few years ago when faced with High Cholesterol, the news was “we can eat eggs again” and I also read that its fairly common for cause and effect to not be well established in medical studies===for instance, higher cholesterol in the blood may be there to fight inflammation of the arteries that leads to heart disease. Then Jim Fixx died running with 1% body fat and no chloresterol (or whatever).
My generic fear is the known and unknown side effects of “any” drug. So I said “fick it” I’m going Lone Ranger. My doc is pissed at me for not taking her advice and medication orders. Maybe I’ll die earlier than I should but counting pills every day/week is rather suffocating and dehumanizing in my as yet unstricken view.
I believe there is bad cholesterol and good cholesterol. I think they are called HDl -good & LDL-bad. I think it would be risky to ignore the evidence even if it is a little sketchy.
Like everything else, a healthy diet and exercise (and not smoking) is the best bet (and low stress if you can help it).
I Can Has Cheezburger?
sorry.. couldn’t resist.
Natural health people have been saying this for years, but they were called kooks. I believe that certain diseases like high cholesterol, ADHD, and depression are diagnosed just so drug companies can sell drugs. (There is legitimate ADHD and depression that can be treated by drugs.) And don’t get me started on high blood pressure drug that contain diuretics.
From Woody Allen’s “Sleeper: about a guy who wakes up 200 years in the future:
Dr. Melik: This morning for breakfast he requested something called “wheat germ, organic honey and tiger’s milk.”
Dr. Aragon: [chuckling] Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties.
Dr. Melik: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or… hot fudge?
Dr. Aragon: Those were thought to be unhealthy… precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true.
Dr. Melik: Incredible.
#1. So how is this any different from you unwavering support of this idiotic flu vaccine? Yeah, you will tap dance your way around this one…go ahead bobo…dance away.
“But Jim said it was alright to drink the KoolAid”
#6 BennyHill – You think depression is not real? You’re an idiot. That is not to say that depression is not misdiagnosed and over medicated but having been through it, I can attest to it’s reality.
Iv always had 1 experiment that I would like to try.
SWEATING..DRY HEAT sweating..It draws out allot of the oils and cleans out the skin..
#12..
DEPRESSION is when I make the most jokes and have the most fun..But you never see me laugh..
Some researchers in the field think statins work by increasing vitamin d levels not reducing cholesterol.
Sunlight is cheaper if you can get it.
Check on Michael Pollan..,
Then you’ll see…
#14 Pete
You mention VitD. I have a joint condition that causes pain when I move but most often when I walk. Four months ago the doc put me on 50iu of VitD per week. Within 24 hours of taking the first VitD pill I have had no pain in my feet or legs that I couldn’t attribute to actually causing myself. Another side effect is that I no longer have any allergies from mowing and I mow a lot every week.
I saw the doc yesterday and he said that I would probably get even better as time goes on.
Huh, maybe I’ll turn Liberal………….
#16, Mr. Diesel,
Huh, maybe I’ll turn Liberal………….
We can only hope your condition improves.
😛
Glad to hear your improving. VitD? I think I might look into it. My arthritis some days keeps me in bed most of the day. Hopefully it helps; I don’t see any harm.
#10–Someone==My failure to take Statins affects only me. My failure to take vaccines affects you and your kiddies. I’m also not aware of an unbiased panel of diet experts that have a published track record of their advice and results therefrom.
Dancing, or a boot to the head?
In a word, Yes.
Here is my thesis of proof:
I have 17 first cousins..
Our entire family from parents to cousins to offspring, are gifted with an excellent gene pool in that we are all “Healthy as Ox” save for two sets of cousins and their offspring.
We have no history of any disease or obesity or any other odd crap anywhere in the line going back as far as you can look.
All except me and come from parents with 2 or more kids (both my parents come from big families)
We are all full blooded Greeks and eat/cook traditional foods in that are not processed at all or as minimally processed as possible.
(We actually cook raw food everyday, which, IMO, is a big factor as well)
This is not by choice, in a sense, -it just so happens that this is how have eaten for generations. -even the few sweets or desserts we eat are all made from scratch
(it really is not that hard, nor takes much time if you learn how)
However two cousins of the seventeen broke away early in life from the flock (pretty much had a falling out) and eat in a “Traditionally American” way.
Almost all the foods they eat are “automatic foods” as i call them.
i.e. packaged/boxed and processed food stuffs, “power bars” pretty much -microwave *everything*
Even breakfast is always something ready-made that came in a box or pops in a toaster. -Basically, if it’s advertised on tv, it’s in their kitchen.
Both families are overweight have allergies, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, some diabetes, one has gone through a battle with cancer. They also have a history of “high conflicts” amongst them whereas the rest of us have near zero.
The siblings of these two’s families show none of the above.
What i’m getting at is that simply:
You are what you eat.
Eat all the processed crap they advertise on tv en-mass and you’ll most likely have crappy health and a fat ass to match.
#1 bobbo: good observation.
I remember when they had the big push in the (80’s was it?) that eggs were bad for you and during the same time ads for “good eggs” that poured out of a carton proliferated.
Some years after all that some may remember, when the advertisements came out showing the eggs being “let out of jail” because new studies found they weren’t bad for you at all.
Big surprise, eh?
-It’s ALL about marketing and getting you to by processed *crap*, period.
I have been eating a dozen and half or more eggs a week for as long as i can remember and my cholesterol has never been over 130.
I also love eating charred steak and pork fat. I will snag the fat off anyone’s plate i’m eating with if they don’t want it.
The entire health food / diet campaign is a friggin lie to get you by chemically treated crap or buy a subscription at a health spa.
Think about your grandparents that lived to 75-80+. -all they ate was normal, natural food they cooked themselves and they did just fine.
The only thing you need to do if you want to be healthy is eat normal, unprocessed food like your grandparents or great grandparents did and GET OFF YOUR FAT ASS and get some exercise!
Don’t waste money on a health spa. They are their to get you to buy more health crap and health crap accessories.
Instead of wasting time and money on a treadmill with a friggen TV mounted in front of it (to brainwash you into buying more crap or some phony, pie in the sky “healthy” lifestyle and the *accessories to go with it*), -go outside and DO something productive with your time.
It isn’t hard to figure this stuff out. you just need to believe in yourself. -look to what your roots did and not what some pinhead (with a warehouse full of crap to sell you,) wants you to believe.
Capeche?
-s
#19–soundneedsawash==I agree with everything you posted but note it has nothing to do with cholesterol. While we are what we eat and moderation and exercise is a great tonic, I suspect most of cholesterol is genetically controled. My proof: cantaloupes don’t have heart disease and the only difference between us and cantaloupes is genetics.
Only slightly facetious.
Diet certainly affects blood levels of cholesterol but how it goes past that to protecting against heart attacks is still not established.
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).