Medical Promotion of Cholesterol-lowering Drugs Biased – Not Based on Scientific Evidence

A group of independent medical academics challenged a BMJ (British Medical Journal) 20 year follow-up study that claimed favorable results among those using statins as a preventative measure. It was known as the West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study (WOSCOPS), and it was the first trial to demonstrate a significant reduction in cardiovascular events with statin therapy for primary prevention. The critical report challenging the BMJ’s statin-promotion based on the WOSCOPS study was published recently, October of 2017. The challenging trio of medical scientists, led by independent researcher Uffe Ravnskov MD, PhD, author of The Cholesterol Myth and Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You, parsed and picked at the study to show it is flawed. They concluded: "The study has serious bias. Many patients stop taking statins. In a study of over 140 000 elderly people, two thirds of those with cardiovascular disease (and even more of those without) had stopped treatment after two years. The question is, therefore, whether the mortality benefit among those with the highest LDL cholesterol is due to statin treatment or to their high LDL cholesterol. The question is relevant because a recent systematic review of 19 cohort studies including 68 094 elderly people (≥60 years) followed for several years found an inverse association between all cause mortality and LDL cholesterol in 92% of participants. In the largest study those with the highest LDL cholesterol lived longer than those taking statins."

Meta-Analysis Study: Whole Fat Dairy Healthy, Saturated Fats Myth Exposed

A 2017 meta-analysis of 29 studies has concluded that consuming dietary dairy fat has no negative effects on all cause mortality or mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary heart disease (CHD). This includes dairy fats of all types. One of the researchers, Ian Givens of England’s Reading University, commented on the record: “There’s been a lot of publicity over the last 5 to 10 years about how saturated fats increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and a belief has grown up that they must increase the risk, but they don’t.” Actually, dairy and other animal sourced saturated fats have been wrongly condemned as a contributor to obesity and higher cardiovascular risk since Ancel Keys' notorious seven countries study over 50 years ago, which spawned the “lipid theory” of heart disease and obesity.

Medical Scam: How Many Lives Have Cholesterol-lowering Drugs and Vegetable Oils Ruined?

In 2013 we reported on the research fraud regarding a scientific study that was used to support the theory that high levels of cholesterol and saturated fats were linked to an increase in heart disease. This study, the Sydney Diet Heart Study, was supposed to support the claim that dietary saturated fats led to high levels of heart disease, and that one needed to switch to polyunsaturated oils and also take cholesterol-lowering drugs to avoid these so-called dangerous levels of cholesterol. But researchers uncovered data that was not previously published which contradicted the conclusions of the study. The problem is that the science has never supported this theory, the lipid theory of heart disease. But it did create a multi-billion dollar industry for cholesterol-lowering drugs and polyunsaturated oils, the new expeller-pressed vegetable oils mainly from corn and soybeans, that only entered the food chain after World War II and the age of industrialization. The British Medical Journal published a report in 2016 showing more research fraud on another landmark study from the past that supposedly showed this link between dietary fats, cholesterol, and heart disease. This time, they examined the data from the Minnesota Coronary Experiment, carried out between 1968 and 1973. This study shows that upon re-examination of the data, including data that was previously unpublished, that not only does the data not support the lipid theory of heart disease, but it shows that taking interventions to lower one's cholesterol actually increased mortality rates.

Study Shows Cholesterol Drugs Have No Effect on Heart Health

Cholesterol-lowering drugs are the best-selling drugs of all time. Lipitor is by far the most profitable drug in the history of mankind among all pharmaceutical products. Sales to date from this one particular cholesterol-lowering statin drug have exceeded $140 billion. Before its patent expired, it outsold nearly all other drugs on the market combined! There is one major flaw with cholesterol-lowering drugs: they neither improve heart health nor prolong life according to scientific studies! They simply lower cholesterol levels, which is assumed to contribute to better health. However, our bodies need cholesterol, and a whole range of side effects are now known to accompany statin drug usage, such as neurological diseases, breast cancer, liver injury, memory loss, diabetes, and muscle damage. Since blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drugs like Lipitor now have expired patents, millions of dollars have been spent in research to develop new cholesterol-lowering drugs. In 2016 was announced that a new drug that Eli Lilly was developing to lower cholesterol was abandoned because it offered no improvement in heart health. Similar drugs have also failed.