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Statin Lies and Cholesterol Myths

                                
Statin Lies and Cholesterol Myths

Our national health care bill now stands at a booming $2 trillion dollars per year with the average American spending $5,000 annually on health care. And while we continue to see sharp increases in spending for diseases such as cancer and diabetes, heart disease remains at the top of our nation’s health care expenditures.

Claiming the lives of nearly one million Americans annually, heart disease remains the number one cause of death by disease. Much of our nation’s mounting fiscal strain from the cost of preventing and treating heart disease has been generated by our growing dependence on the current pharmaceutical solution. Our prescription drug costs are now inching toward $200 billion per year with more than one tenth of that total, or $30 billion coming from the 36 million Americans currently taking cholesterol lowering (statin) drugs. For more than a generation now the American public has been media blitzed into believing that cholesterol is the sole cause of heart disease and that statin drugs such as Lipitor are the miracle solution. But some experts now question whether this information we’ve all been force fed regarding cholesterol and statin drugs is just as unhealthy as the bad diet that caused the problem to begin with.

In 1946 researchers Peters and Van Slyke, in their classic on Clinical Chemistry reported that there was no indication that elevated cholesterol plays more than a contributing role in heart disease. And as recently as 1957 the American Heart Association was still not convinced in the direct causal relationship between cholesterol and heart disease. Nonetheless, in 1961 a governing scientific body of influential advocates, mostly with pharmaceutical ties spearheaded what has since become a 50 year misguided campaign for a single cause theory of heart disease. That single cause, so we were all led to believe is cholesterol.

Finally, after 50 years the cholesterol myth is all but over. Hundreds of published, peer reviewed scientific studies have linked hormonal insulin (sugar regulator) and leptin (fat regulator) resistance to heart disease far more compellingly than cholesterol. In 1984 Dr. Michael Brown of M.I.T. was awarded two Nobel Prizes in medicine for his dissertation on HMG Co-enzyme A Reductase. This revealed that 80% of the cholesterol in the human body was actually produced by the liver, triggered by insulin from the consumption of sugars and starches (breads/pastas/rice). Thus, your cholesterol levels are likely more influenced by the bread, sugar and alcohol you consume, not the eggs. But beyond these remarkable findings we still have the $64,000 question as to whether cholesterol really has anything to do with death by heart disease.

There are a number of vital facts associated with cholesterol that the American public never hears about. Without cholesterol the human body could not produce healthy new cells, nor would it be able to manufacture a single hormone. Cholesterol waterproofs, insulates and protects healthy cells from DNA assaults, viruses, bacteria and even cancer. A recent Hong Kong study published in the August 26, 2008 Canadian Journal of Medicine has shown that when LDL cholesterol is in the current recommended American Heart Association range of 70-100 there is a 33% increased risk of cancer and death. Some studies indicate that as many as 50% of those who die from heart disease each year have low to normal cholesterol levels. Has cholesterol been demonized as a problem in order to set up a pharmaceutical statin solution?

In July 2004 when an official government committee (the National Cholesterol Education Program) published its updated cholesterol guidelines, 8 million Americans suddenly became new candidates for cholesterol lowering drugs, driving up market revenues an additional $10 billion annually. After the fact it was revealed that 6 of the 9 panelists that handed down the decision have received grants, or consulting payments from statin drug manufacturers. When confronted about the lack of full disclosure, the National Cholesterol Education Program stated that it omitted to publish this detail claiming it was a mere “oversight.”

Who can we trust, and what really is the best way to maintain a healthy heart? We can always trust ourselves. Self-empowerment, and self-responsibility are the best ways to avoid being victimized by any further obfuscation and corruption. What we also know is that a healthy diet of fish, beans, legumes, lean poultry, egg whites, vegetables, fruits and whole grains, along with a healthy lifestyle that includes 30-40 minutes of aerobic exercise (walking) at least 4 times per week will support a strong healthy cardiovascular system.

We have always had the innate power and natural resources to practice effective health hygiene. The truth is, a healthy heart is a matter of personal choice!