Last month, government health “experts” finally admitted their advice to reduce dietary cholesterol intake was all wrong. Plus, two new studies out this month show how big pharma manipulated data to make cholesterol-lowering statin drugs appear much more effective than they really are. So now–the cholesterol cat is really out of the bag. I’ll tell you about those two major studies in a moment. But first, let’s figure out how we got to this point in medicine.
For 40 years, big pharma and the “cholesterol cartel” bulldozed government science bureaucrats and cardiologists with their ridiculous reviews that lowered “recommended” cholesterol levels with no real evidence. I never expect much out of government science bureaucrats. But you might think a cardiologist would be able to separate scientific fact from pharmacological fiction.
Unfortunately, cardiology has become a particularly silly medical specialty. First, they put you on their ridiculous toy treadmills. And if they don’t actually kill you from a heart attack while performing their monkey tricks on the treadmill, they can reach the profound conclusion that you aren’t about to drop dead from a heart attack–even without their assistance.
But even if you have a perfectly healthy heart, they still want you to reduce your cholesterol to absurdly low levels. So, they put you (and almost everyone else) on toxic statin drugs to get you there. Of course, they also lecture you about reducing salt intake (another ridiculous myth).
I first learned about the cholesterol myth in 1976 during my studies with the veterinary pathologists at the Philadelphia Zoo and Penn Vet School. Even back then, they knew there is no connection between cholesterol in the diet and cholesterol in the blood for primates. (Of course, primates are the species most closely related to humans.)
Furthermore, they knew there is no connection between the level of cholesterol in the blood and cardiovascular disease. Many of my classmates would have benefited by walking across the street to study some veterinary medicine, especially those who went on to become cardiologists.
I never forgot what I learned from those vets. And I’ve warned you for years about the stupidity of the cholesterol hypothesis of heart disease. Furthermore, lowering cholesterol with statin drugs is useless and dangerous. In fact, statins are metabolic poisons that cause terrible side effects involving the brain, eyes and every organ in the body, including the heart itself!
The title of a new study published in Expert Reviews in Clinical Pharmacology says it all: “How statistical deception created the appearance that statins are safe and effective in primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.”
David M. Diamond and Uffe Ravnskov, at the University of South Florida in Tampa, the nearest medical school to me here in Florida, authored this new study. These courageous and clear-thinking scientists conclude that although statin drugs effectively reduce cholesterol levels, they fail to improve heart disease outcomes. Diamond and Ravnskov also describe how statin advocates used deceptive statistical shenanigans to create the false appearance that cholesterol reduction results in reduction in heart disease.
Specifically, statin advocates used a statistical method called relative risk reduction (RRR) to misuse and manipulate the data. This method amplifies any trivial way statin drugs could possibly benefit heart disease. The authors also describe how the directors of the clinical trials on statins drugs succeeded in hiding the drugs’ significant, toxic side effects.
In reality, statin drugs increase your risks of cancer, cataracts, dementia, diabetes, and muscular-skeletal diseases. These side effects more than offset any possible, trivial benefits. In fact, in one of the most positive clinical trials on statins, researchers used statistical deceptions to transform a possible 1 percent heart benefit into a supposed 36 percent benefit through a meaningless relative risk reduction estimate. In another trial I told you about before, the JUPITER study, researchers misleadingly transformed a miniscule 1 percent benefit into a 54 percent benefit.
You have to wonder–from what planet do these JUPITER statin study statisticians come? Actually, these studies perfectly illustrate all three problems both Benjamin Disraeli and Mark Twain warned about: “lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
The second new study, published in the same journal, drops the other shoe on statins. Here again, the title speaks for itself: “Statins stimulate atherosclerosis and heart failure.”
First off, the authors contradict the myth that cholesterol reductions with statins decrease atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). In fact, statins may actually cause calcification, hardening and narrowing of the coronary arteries that supply the heart.
Second, they recognize that statins are metabolic toxins that poison cellular mitochondria (the sources of energy and water inside all cells). The drugs also deplete critical coenzyme Q10, “heme A,” and ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which stores and supplies the energy used in metabolic processes in the body. Statins also inhibit vitamin K2, which protects arteries from calcification.
Third, statins inhibit the biosynthesis of selenium-containing proteins. (I explained the importance of selenium throughout the body in the February 2015 issue of my Insiders’ Cures newsletter.) In short, selenium suppresses cellular oxidation and prevents cancer. I conducted this research on a study in China with Nobel laureate Baruch S. Blumberg and others. When it comes to the heart, impairment of seleno-proteins contributes to heart muscle toxicity and failure. During our research in China, we saw many patients with cardiomyopathies who lived in areas of China with selenium-deficient soil. It’s so common it even has a name–Qe-shan Disease.
What does all of this mean for you?
The authors believe the increasingly pervasive use of toxic statin drugs significantly aggravates the modern epidemic of heart disease and heart failure. In other words, statins contribute to heart disease and heart failure. So if your doctor insists you take one, find another doctor. Many doctors, other than cardiologists, have stopped insisting.
Of course, these myth-busting studies should be nothing new to you, if you regularly follow my Daily Dispatch and newsletter. I’ve warned you for years about each of these problems with statin drugs. And you can learn even more about them–and how to reverse their toxic effects–in my special report called The Insider’s Guide to a Heart-Healthy and Statin-Free Life.
As I explain in that report, my colleague Kilmer McCulley discovered that high homocysteine, caused by low B vitamin intake, is a real cause of heart disease. But the cholesterol cartel silenced him and exiled him from Harvard-Massachusetts General Hospital many years ago. I tell you all about Dr. McCulley’s story and the dangers of low B vitamins and high homocysteine in the March 2015 issue of my Insiders’ Cures newsletter. (If you’re not yet a subscriber, now is the perfect time to get started.)
Sources:
- “How statistical deception created the appearance that statins are safe and effective in primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease,” Expert Reviews in Clinical Pharmacology March 2015; 8(2): 201-10
- “Statins stimulate atherosclerosis and heart failure: pharmacological mechanisms,” Expert Reviews in Clinical Pharmacology March 2015; 8(2): 189-99