A “controversial” article appeared on several medical websites last year. The title: “Should cardiologists evaluate their obsession with LDLs and HDLs?”1
The enlightened writer says cardiologists have made us all focus on LDL (so-called “bad” cholesterol) and HDL (good cholesterol) levels (assisted by the crony-capitalist cartel of big-government science and big pharma, I would add).
But, the writer points out, we still really do not have appropriate evidence that changing someone’s cholesterol numbers affects heart disease risk or outcomes!
He asks at what point (and to what point, I would add) do we continue running expensive studies on a failed hypothesis? Today’s cholesterol studies recall the 1980s, when cardiologists kept trying to improve heart muscle strength with drug after drug that just increased mortality in their poor patients.
Perhaps, the author writes, cardiologists really should re-examine their obsession with cholesterol numbers. Of course, you know I have already done so long ago, based on the science.
The compelling case against cholesterol fixations
The real evidence against using cholesterol levels as the end-all and be-all of heart health has been building for years. The so-called evidence that lowering cholesterol has any benefits for health is not so much based on “blind” clinical trails, but on blind faith.
That faith finally began to be shattered when the newest, ultimate, anti-cholesterol drugs proved to be a complete bust.
According to data presented at the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting last April, one new drug, evacetrapib, did make LDL cholesterol levels drop by 37%, but showed no benefit at all for actual heart disease.2
Two other similar drugs also failed. One lowered cholesterol by 20% but had no effect on heart disease—and it had toxic side effects. The other raised HDL cholesterol but did not lower LDL cholesterol.
These “shocking” findings led to a plaintive question from the drug study’s principal investigator: “We had an agent that seemed to do all the right things. It’s the most mind-boggling question. How can a drug that lowers something that is associated with benefit not show any benefit?”
Here is my answer for those “boggled” minds: Cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease, and lowering cholesterol has no benefit (in fact, quite the opposite), as has been demonstrated over and over again by scientific studies.
My drug-free way to improve heart health
Of course, a “boggled” cardiologist’s mind is a symptom of a blind faith that has been found false—not the result of logic or real scientific investigation.
That’s certainly the case with mainstream medicine’s inexplicable love affair with cholesterol-lowering statin drugs—despite growing evidence that statins don’t prevent heart disease. In fact, they may actually cause it (read more about this in my February 2016 Daily Dispatch “The ‘everyday things’ poisoning your cells and killing your heart.”)
Although, curiously, statins appear to help people after they have had a heart attack, regardless of their cholesterol levels. Some believe statins may achieve clinical benefit because they appear to stabilize arterial plaque occlusions. This effect may occur because statins seem to have anti-inflammatory effects on the lining of the blood vessels. But neither of these actions have anything to do with dietary or blood cholesterol levels.
So there’s another clue about the unimportance of cholesterol levels to heart health—and another reason not to take these drugs in an attempt to prevent anything.
There are far better ways to reduce chronic inflammation and improve blood circulation and the health of blood vessels than by taking dangerous statin drugs—with their growing list of toxic side effects for the brain, eyes, liver, kidney, and muscles. Not to mention that research shows statins increase the risk of diabetes, which is the leading cause of cardiometabolic heart disease.
To learn how to help prevent heart disease without dangerous drugs, stay tuned for my in-depth, step-by-step learning protocol, which I will release later this year.
And in the meantime, I encourage you to read my special report The Insider’s Guide for a Heart-Healthy and Statin-Free Life. (You can order a copy by clicking here or by calling 800-682-7319 and asking for order code EOV2T300.)
Sources:
1http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2016/04/should-cardiologists-evaluate-their-obsession-with-ldls-and-hdls.html
2https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/04/health/dashing-hopes-study-shows-cholesterol-drug-has-no-benefits.html?_r=1