About 35 million people in the U.S., 8 million people in the U.K., and hundreds of millions worldwide currently take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
But a group of scientists recently wrapped up a massive meta-analysis of 35 previously published studies on these drugs. And they definitively found that statin drugs do not reduce death rates one iota. Which is quite telling…
As I’ve discussed here before, death rate is the one statistic we can really trust. It’s the ultimate litmus test for whether a drug or treatment actually works. And as an added bonus, statisticians can’t mess with it and manipulate it: Either someone dies or they don’t.
Plus, in half the studies included in the meta-analysis, these toxic drugs didn’t even lower the risk of heart attacks or strokes, as they’re supposed to do.
And it’s not just that statins don’t work as promised…
We also know they cause a long list of serious side effects, which reads like the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Diseases. Commonly reported side effects include headache, muscle damage (including to the heart itself), muscle pain, and nausea.
Statins also increase your risk of developing dementia, eyesight problems, hepatitis, pancreatitis, and Type II diabetes. (And, of course, Type II diabetes also causes cardio-metabolic heart disease.) Not to mention, statins cause a “gluttony effect,” whereby people abandon their healthy lifestyle habits (which do actually work) because they believe the pills will somehow save them.
So, it’s just one vicious cycle where the harms far outweigh any conceivable benefit.
It’s a house of cards
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) irresponsibly approved statin drugs way back in the mid-1980s based solely on their ability to lower cholesterol. Then, once the drugs were approved, big pharma began selling the world on the false promise that by lowering cholesterol, the drugs would eventually lower heart disease rates and death rates too.
Well, when that false promise didn’t pan out, it should have been the end of these disastrous drugs…
But it wasn’t.
In fact, despite decades of damning evidence, doctors continue to prescribe these pills to tens of millions of unsuspecting people. And it’s quite baffling.
As the study authors stated, “In most fields of science the existence of contradictory evidence usually leads to a paradigm shift or modification of the theory in question, but in this case the contradictory evidence has been largely ignored, simply because it doesn’t fit the prevailing paradigm.” (Nor does it benefit big pharma’s profits, I would add.)
In the end, big pharma and cardiologists have it all backwards…at your expense.
In their quest for larger profits, they fail to identify and help the real patients with a higher risk of developing and dying from heart disease—including those with chronic inflammation, high homocysteine, and B vitamin deficiencies.
Instead, they focus on treating people with “high” cholesterol who actually have a low risk of developing and dying from heart disease. (Remember what Dr. William Castelli, director of the famed Framingham Heart Study, said: Unless your cholesterol is lower than 150 or higher than 350, then it’s a meaningless measurement.)
Worse yet, many doctors still routinely and inappropriately overprescribe statins to older people, those with high blood pressure, and those with Type II diabetes.
But as I reported years ago, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Geriatrics Association recommended doctors stop prescribing statins to people older than 69 years, due to lack of evidence of benefits. And again, when people with Type II diabetes take statins, they often go on to develop heart disease.
The “just-in-case” theory doesn’t hold water
Big pharma still hangs its hat on some studies that seem to show that statins may help people who have already suffered from documented heart problems.
But if that premise were true, then doctors should only prescribe the pills to those with diagnosed heart disease! Don’t dole them out to the entire adult population—which is essentially like poisoning the water supply. (And the water supply already has enough problems!)
But the fact remains…that premise simply isn’t true.
Remember, as this meta-analysis found, lowering cholesterol with statins (even in those with documented heart problems) still doesn’t save lives or increase longevity. And if your doctors want you to take one “just-in-case,” you can tell them to take a hike.
I don’t ever recommend resorting to these toxic drugs…even if you already have heart problems. Especially since there are many natural, drug-free ways to protect your heart as you get older. I outline them all in my Heart Attack Prevention and Repair Protocol. This innovative, online learning tool outlines the natural, heart-healing pathway to low blood pressure, a stroke-free brain, and never having to take a dangerous heart medication again. To learn more, or to enroll today, click here now!
Source:
“Hit or miss: the new cholesterol targets.” BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine Published Online First: 03 August 2020. doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2020-111413