Statin Scam and the Cholesterol Myth: Know the Truth

by Paul Fassa
Health Impact News

Statin drugs that reduce cholesterol in the body are much more harmful than beneficial, even though they do lower cholesterol readings. There is much clinical evidence that lowering cholesterol is not only unnecessary, but it is seriously damaging to overall health.

This is worth repeating even as much as Health Impact News has covered cholesterol and statin issues in the past. Many others, even alternative health sites and practitioners, still continue to perpetuate the cholesterol myth that promotes the scam of dangerous and highly profitable statin drugs.

The High Cholesterol Heart Disease Scare is False

Epidemiological studies tracking elderly people over time have concluded that people with high cholesterol live longer than those with low cholesterol. So there is no need to take a pharmaceutical with dangerous side effects to lower cholesterol.

A 2011 VA study concluded: “… after adjusting for other factors associated with longevity, higher HDL cholesterol levels were significantly associated with survival to 85 years of age.” (Source)

A Swedish study performed with data from American medical institutions disclosed an association with low cholesterol to cancer. It was also published in 2011. (Source)

A more recent science editorial bluntly explains that statin drugs and plant sterols as supplements or added to processed foods do reduce cholesterol, but not coronary heart disease (CHD). Conversely, incidents of CHD increase with cholesterol lowering compounds. (Source)

A very extensive 2015 Japanese study that debunked the whole cholesterol CHD causation myth began with this paragraph:

High cholesterol levels are recognized as a major cause of atherosclerosis. However, for more than half a century some have challenged this notion. But which side is correct, and why can’t we come to a definitive conclusion after all this time and with more and more scientific data available? We believe the answer is very simple: for the side defending this so-called cholesterol theory, the amount of money at stake is too much to lose the fight. (Source)

The 1997 European Heart Journal published a study that counters the claim statins are useful for heart patients by exposing data proving mortality is higher among heart patients using statins. The study title tells all: “Low total cholesterol is associated with high total mortality in patients with coronary heart disease.” (Source)

There are other studies and papers with the same essential message that high cholesterol readings promote longevity while reducing cholesterol shortens lives by leading to cancer and ironically, coronary heart disease (CHD). The cholesterol level count as a marker for heart disease is false.

How come hardly anyone knows of this? Could it be the pharmaceutical industry is enjoying a multibillion dollar statin drug business and the mass mainstream media, especially TV, is enjoying a strong cash flow from advertising pharmaceuticals (“ask you doctor about …”) since this activity was legalized in 1997 in the USA?

Cardiologists are Speaking Out on the Cholesterol Clogs Arteries Myth

Dr. William Davis explains in his article “A Headline You Will Never See: 60 Year Old Man Dies of Cholesterol” that cholesterol doesn’t kill “any more than a bad paint job on your car could cause a fatal car accident.”

Retired heart surgeon Dr. Dwight Lundell cites several other studies that conclude there is no real connection of CHD to high cholesterol, while low fat diets are creating more metabolic syndrome and diabetes 2, both precursors to CHD. He has observed that arterial inflammation from other sources is what leads to CHD. (Source)

Practicing cardiologist Dr. Stephen Sinatra has even appeared on the Dr. Oz show to explain why high cholesterol, LDL or HDL, is not a marker for CHD, but you should be concerned about the tiniest lipoproteins that can burrow into you inner vascular walls and create inflammation.

All cholesterol is the same. It’s only the lipoprotein carriers to direct cholesterol where it’s needed that differ. The ones that are the smallest can create arterial inflammation by burrowing into the endothelial layers of arteries’ inner walls, then cholesterol attempts to repair the damage and gets blamed for damage.

But the damaging tiny lipoproteins are usually generated by added sugars in our processed foods, not saturated fats. Here is part three of that Dr. Oz show.

Lowering Cholesterol Inhibits Bodily Functions that Promote Health and Protect Against Disease

Cholesterol is what helps convert sunlight into vitamin D in the body, which is the safest most natural way to augment the production of what many consider a highly helpful multitasking hormone, although some insist it is an important vitamin.

Some say it’s a hormone or hormone precursor and others say it is a vitamin, regardless, vitamin D3 is vital for creating the hormonal production and balance in our bodies. It’s synthesized by the liver from the cholecalciferol produced by the cholesterol in our skin from sun exposure.

Not enough cholesterol hampers that vitamin D production at it’s beginning. Vitamin D has now been proven to be vital for overall health and even emotional and mental well being. It’s considered important for protecting against chronic disease. So what’s the point in lowering cholesterol if we need it to help us be healthy in so many ways?

Increased neurological disorders and Alzheimer’s have been attributed to low cholesterol. The brain contains 25% of the body’s cholesterol and all cells throughout the body are walled with cholesterol. Lawsuits are piling up from those who have suffered neurological diseases from statins.

Many of these lawsuits also involve the side effect of diabetes type 2 generated by taking statin drugs. The mainstream medical rationale is the benefits of avoiding heart attacks outweigh the risks of the side effects. Problem is, cholesterol is not a risk factor for heart attacks. (Source)

MIT researcher Stephanie Seneff has graphed an increase of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia among the elderly since it is almost customary to prescribe statins for people over 50 with what are considered CHD risk factors even if cholesterol readings are “normal.”

If coconut oil, a saturated fat, can help reverse even Alzheimer’s, what does this say about avoiding fats and lowering cholesterol? Statins reduce cholesterol by curbing it’s production at the root of biochemical cascades that lead to its production. That root is the source of several other heart health nutrients that are eliminated by statin drugs.

Those vital nutrients include CoQ10. It is the most heart health promoting compound that is dampened by curbing cholesterol production. It’s known for strengthening the heart muscle and has been used for CHD patients in Japan since its discovery there.

Also inhibited is vitamin K2, which helps usher calcium from the blood and other soft tissue and into bone matter. If enough calcium accumulates in the blood instead of being absorbed by bone matter, it can calcify within arteries and create inflammation. Again, cholesterol tries to heal the inflammation and gets blamed as the culprit.

According to Dr. Ron Rosedale: LDL particles [considered the “bad cholesterol”] come in many sizes and large LDL particles are not a problem. Only the so-called small dense LDL particles can potentially be a problem, because they can squeeze through the lining of the arteries and if they oxidize they can cause damage and inflammation.

Oxidized LDL is also amply supplied from processed cooking and salad oils and margarine (partially hydrolyzed and hydrolyzed substitutes). Again, it’s been observed that HFCS and high added sugars create that type of small dense LDL particle, not saturated fats.

Statins are toxic to the energy centers of your cells, called mitochondria. They impair heart muscle mitochondria function, disrupt ATP production (adenosine triphosphate), the energy molecules of your body and alter intracellular signaling proteins.

This ATP damage also affects other muscles’ cells and is responsible for the aches, pains, and weakness statin users complain about to the point of quitting the drugs and taking months to completely recover.

How much more useless and dangerous can statin drugs be?

It’s impossible to reconcile the facts with earlier wishes by some mainstream medical doctors to put statins in our water supplies and hand them out with fast foods. At least you still have the option of avoiding statin drugs despite the continued statin push.