Dr. Aseem Malhotra on the BBC: Hero or Controlled Opposition?

British Cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra is making headlines in the Alternative Media for his appearance on the BBC this weekend. The Alternative Media are hailing this as a "breakthrough," claiming that the BBC "made a mistake" by allowing Malhotra to speak freely on his concerns about the mRNA COVID shots' link to cardiovascular deaths, and Malhotra's tweet seems to support that claim. Why did the BBC invite him to come on the air and do this interview this past weekend, when in the past Malhotra was accused as being a heretic in the corporate media because of his views against cholesterol-lowering statin drugs? They specifically invited him to come on the air to discuss the NHS's new guidelines that people could be prescribed daily cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to cut their risk for sudden heart attacks and strokes. Did they know that Dr. Malhotra's position on statin drugs was that he was primarily against them? Of course they did! That is exactly why he was invited on to their show, to convince people that statin drugs were not the right drug to use to treat all of these increases in sudden heart attacks and strokes. Like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, the former block buster statin drugs all now have patents that have expired, and they are available as cheap generics. So since statin drugs are so cheap now, Big Pharma wants to develop new drugs to treat the sudden rise in heart disease. We know for example that Moderna is working on an mRNA cancer vaccine, and have even partnered with Merck, the company that has the only cancer vaccine currently on the market, the deadly HPV Gardasil vaccine that has destroyed the lives of so many child-bearing aged young women. And as to Dr. Malhotra's comments on the mRNA COVID shots, do you really believe his views on this were not known to the BBC before they invited him on to their show? Malhotra went public in his opposition to the mRNA COVID shots last year, and in September of last year, 2022, he published a peer-reviewed paper calling for "an Immediate and Complete Suspension of Covid-19 Vaccines." Is it realistic to think that the BBC somehow missed this??

“Fear-Based Medical Misinformation” Causes Vaccine and Statin “Hesitancy” or is Public Waking Up to the Truth? Dr. Brownstein Reponds to AMA

An article in the June, 2019 edition of JAMA Cardiology was titled, “Fear-Based Medical Misinformation and Disease Prevention: From Vaccines to Statins." In this article, the author states “fake medical news” as the reason that patients are exhibiting hesitancy about utilizing statins and vaccines. The author blames vaccine refusers for fueling outbreaks of measles. However, mandating that every child receive the MMR does not guarantee a measles-free population. China continues to have measles outbreaks even though Chinese children are the most vaccinated in the world—over 99% of Chinese children are fully vaccinated for measles. Furthermore, there has been a rash of mumps outbreaks across the US since 2006–all in fully vaccinated populations. In fact, from 2016-2017, there have been over 9,200 cases of mumps in the US, mostly from fully vaccinated people. The author blames fake news because patients are concerned about statin safety. A large percentage of patients stop statin drugs due to side effects. I find it doubtful that fake news is responsible for a large percentage of patients to suffer adverse effects from statin therapy. I have been a clinician for over 25 years and regularly heard patients complaining about statin adverse effects.

Study: Statin Drugs Only Lower Cholesterol to Levels Advertised in Less Than 50% of Patients

Want to flip a coin on your health? Researchers assessing the effectiveness of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs found that they didn’t work for 51% of the 165,000 patients studied (statins have to reduce LDL cholesterol levels by 40% after two years to be considered effective). We’ve reported previously about the many side effects and dangers of taking statins. We’ve also pointed out that conventional thinking supporting statins—lowering “bad” LDL cholesterol as a means of preventing cardiovascular disease—is outdated. With one in four Americans over the age of 40 taking a statin, there are a lot of people out there spending money on a dangerous drug that is not providing any benefit. Will doctors change their prescribing practices based on this information? It doesn’t seem so. Statins make tens of billions of dollars a year for the drug industry, and the market is growing. Statin use among adults over the age of 40 increased almost 80% between 2002 and 2013.

Drug Companies Upset Physicians are not Prescribing More Cholesterol-lowering Statin Drugs

Cholesterol is found in nearly every cell in your body. This waxy substance is vital for optimal functioning of cell membranes, regulating protein pathways and supporting brain health, hormone levels and reducing your heart disease risk. Your body also uses cholesterol to manufacture vitamin D after being exposed to the sun. As Zoe Harcombe, Ph.D., has noted, "It is virtually impossible to explain how vital cholesterol is to the human body. If you had no cholesterol in your body you would be dead." The majority of the cholesterol in your body, approximately 80%, is manufactured in your liver, suggesting your body cannot survive without it. In the past decades cholesterol has been vilified as a primary culprit in heart disease. Merck brought the first statin drug, Lovastatin, aka Mevacor, to market in 1987. Since then, statins have gone on to become the biggest selling class of pharmaceutical compounds of all time, with annual sales in excess of $19 billion in 2017 and projected to reach $24.4 by 2022.6,7 A new study from Duke University Medical Center finds 26.5% of U.S. adults who fit the current criteria to use cholesterol-lowering drugs are not taking them. The study is suggesting this occurs since doctors do not offer the drugs to their patients or the patients express concern over the side effects. Senior study author Dr. Ann Marie Navar from the Duke Clinical Research Institute believes public perception of side effects is unrealistic. However, despite Navar's attempt to downplay the side effects of statin medications, the risks are well-documented and supported by scientific evidence, so the fears are well-founded.

Doctors Exposing Cholesterol Myth Accused of Murder in British Press for Questioning Statin Drugs

There’s a media war going on in the UK involving the issue of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. The British Daily Mail's health editor, Barney Calman, labeled two medical doctors and a PhD nutritionist as "statin deniers" for their efforts in educating the public and debunking the cholesterol-heart disease causation dogma while exposing statin drug dangers. The two doctors are Dr. Malcolm Kendrick and Dr. Aseem Malhotra. The nutritionist is Zoe Harcombe, PhD. The Daily Mail article is blaming their "propaganda" as convincing people to stop taking cholesterol-lowering drugs which they claim are leading more people to suffer heart attacks as a result. Since this is another example of corporate-sponsored "mainstream" media presenting only the pharmaceutical position on their own products and seeking to censor anyone who opposes them, we are publishing the responses from those accused of murder for exposing the dangers of statin drugs, as well as questioning the "science" used for the most widely prescribed class of drugs in the world.

Pharma Wants Every Senior on Statin Drugs as Corporate Media Seeks to Silence Doctors Exposing the Cholesterol Myth

Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs are a $100 billion-a-year industry. Lipitor was, by far, the most profitable drug in the history of mankind among all pharmaceutical products, let alone being the most profitable cholesterol drug before its patent expired at the end of 2011. Sales to date from this one particular cholesterol-lowering statin drug have exceeded $140 billion. After Lipitor’s patent expired at the end of 2011, the FDA issued its first warnings against statin drugs, which include: liver injury, memory loss, diabetes, and muscle damage, among others. Thousands of lawsuits against the maker of Lipitor followed. As we have reported many times over the years here at Health Impact News, the cholesterol theory of heart disease is not well-supported by science at all. In fact, much of the science states that cholesterol is an important part of our health, and contrary to popular belief, those with the highest levels of cholesterol actually live longer than those with lower levels of cholesterol in their blood. However, with such a large segment of the American population moving into their senior years, the pharmaceutical industry's attempt to keep seniors on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs continues unabated, and the largely pharma-funded corporate media is doing their part to silence doctors and other researchers who criticize the failed cholesterol theory of heart disease. Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, a Scottish doctor and the author of the book The Great Cholesterol Con, has had his entire Wikipedia entry deleted recently in an obvious attempt to silence him as a new study was just published to try and justify putting more seniors on statin drugs. Here are his comments on this "new" study.

As American Heart Association Prepares to Revise Guidelines for Cholesterol, Harvard Doctor Speaks Out on Conflict of Interests

The American Heart Association (AHA) will soon be meeting in Chicago to set new guidelines for treating high cholesterol, the first big update since 2013. Medical doctors are not at all unified in their position on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, although pharmaceutical companies and their front groups, such as the AHA, would like the public to believe all doctors are in favor of lowering cholesterol via medication. Independent journalist Sharyl Attkisson recently covered the issue of the "Statin Wars" on her TV show, Full Measure. In the introduction to her show, Attkisson states: "Past (cholesterol) guidelines have said more and more of us should take cholesterol-lowering drugs called “statins” to prevent heart attacks and save lives. But the recommendations aren’t without controversy. And they raise a larger debate in medicine— over who’s paying the doctors and groups deciding what’s good for us." She interviewed three people with different perspectives on statin drugs.

Study: Cholesterol-Lowering Statin Drugs Increase Risk of ALS Lou Gehrig’s Disease

A recent study connecting increased statin drug use with rising ALS was discussed by Dr. Malcom Kendrick. He had followed earlier similar studies with similar concerns, but this one confirmed Dr. Kendrick’s suspicions. ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), is also known as motor neuron disease (MND), or Lou Gehrig’s disease. The study of concern is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Associated with Statin Use: A Disproportionality Analysis of the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System. It was published by the journal Drug Safety in April of 2018. The researchers at the University of California (San Diego) and Advera Health Analytics, Inc., Santa Rosa, California teamed up to analyze data from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) to determine what is known as reporting odds ratios (RORs) involving statin drugs users who have reported ALS symptoms. This study, which allegedly had no outside funding, concluded: "These findings extend previous evidence showing that significantly elevated ALS reporting extends to individual statin agents, and add to concerns about potential elevated occurrence of ALS-like conditions in association with statin usage."

Exposing the Cholesterol Myth: Big Pharma and Their Corporate “Mainstream” Media Strike Back

It seems to coincide that when fraudulent medical or nutritional dogma promoted by mainstream medicine or government nutritional institutions starts getting exposed in the alternative media, they both double down with the aid of mainstream media, especially if the result of that exposure is lowered sales of statin drugs and processed non-fat foods. This is what is happening with both statin drugs and saturated fat disinformation. But now the empire is striking back. Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Dr. Steven Nissen writes: "We are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of our patients to websites developed by people with little or no scientific expertise, who often peddle ‘natural’ or ‘drug-free’ remedies for elevated cholesterol levels. This 'Internet-driven cult' denies statins’ benefits and whips up fears of side effects, then profits from the resulting confusion by peddling snake oil. The diversion of patients away from evidence-based therapy by advocates of unproven dietary supplements must be vigorously opposed by physician-scientists. Similarly, the claims that cult diets can reverse heart disease have no scientific basis and represent a danger to public health." Dr. Nissen’s viewpoint was also covered in a MedPage Today article titled “CardioBrief: Statin Denialism Is 'A Deadly Internet-Driven Cult,'" where Dr. James Stein (University of Wisconsin) supported Dr. Nissen’s editorial with more vitriol than even Dr. Nissen expressed, stating: "There is a special place in hell for people who use fear tactics and misinformation to promote books and natural health aids, including crazy diets, at the expense of proven medical therapies, rather than as complimentary options under medical direction. I am not sure why Americans are so susceptible to these charlatans."

The Cholesterol and Calorie Hypotheses are Both Dead — The Real Culprit is Insulin Resistance

Aggressive lowering of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) has been the cornerstone of preventative cardiology for decades. Statins are widely used as the go-to solution for the prevention of heart disease owing to their ability to slash LDL-C levels, a ‘surrogate marker’ of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Indeed, statins are one of the most widely prescribed class of drugs in the world. But this phenomenon begs two questions: is the enthusiasm for aggressive lowering of LDL-C justified; and is pharmacotherapy superior to lifestyle intervention? In summary, for many patients at high risk of CVD, one of the safest and most effective ways to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke is to consume a high fat and low glycaemic load Mediterranean diet and engage in regular exercise. At the very least, exercise interventions are often similar to drug interventions in terms of their mortality benefits in the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease, and do not come with side effects.

Study: Cholesterol-lowering Statin Drugs May Cause Parkinson’s Disease  

A Penn State Medical School epidemiological study, reported by Science Daily, is urging physicians to not prescribe statin drugs for Parkinson’s disease symptoms. Evidently, due to earlier studies, cholesterol reducing drugs were considered preventative of Parkinson’s disease. Amazingly, this practice had been going on for some time, thanks to several questionable, and conflicting studies of statin use and Parkinson’s disease. The most recent study was conducted at the Penn State College of Medicine earlier this year (2017.) Their conclusion asserts that statin drugs should not be used as a Parkinson’s disease (PD) preventative. A previous study claimed patients who stopped taking statin drugs were more prone to Parkinson’s disease, thus statin drugs were helpful for preventing Parkinson’s. The Penn State study provided evidence that the opposite is true. Statin drug use can lead to Parkinson’s disease.

Alert: Amount of People Recommended for Cholesterol-lowering Statin Drugs Has Tripled

Shocking news! Two studies were recently published that endorse 2013 guidelines for a wider use of statin drugs. As reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), out of over 2400 people, 39% were statin eligible, compared with 14% by the old 2004 guidelines. In one fell swoop, the amount of people recommended for statin use was tripled! This is not surprising given the amount of revenue from statin drug sales. Who makes the guidelines? Doctors on Big Pharma payroll, that’s who.

The Grave Dangers of Statin Drugs—and the Surprising Benefits of Cholesterol

Heart disease, as many of us know, is one of the leading causes of death in the US, killing about 610,000 people each year. Big Pharma—in the belief that cholesterol is the primary factor in heart disease—developed statin drugs that would lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. The drugs, which have been accompanied by massive marketing campaigns, are huge moneymakers for the drug industry, to the tune of about $29 billion worth of sales in 2013. That’s the kind of outrageous money you make when you convince one in four Americans over the age of 45 to take statins. What the American Heart Association does not seem to understand is that cholesterol is vital to human health. We’ve noted in the past that cholesterol isn’t the ticking time bomb most people have been led to think—in fact, the real danger is that our cholesterol levels can get too low as we age! Even “bad” cholesterol is essential.

How Cholesterol-lowering Statin Drugs Can Interfere with Your Heart Health

Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may stimulate atherosclerosis and heart failure. Statins inhibit the synthesis of vitamin K2 in your body; vitamin K2 protects your arteries from calcification. Statins may also damage your heart by interfering with CoQ10 production, causing mitochondria damage, and interfering with selenium-containing proteins.

Another Study Shows Strong Link Between Cholesterol-lowering Statin Drugs and Diabetes

Another study has confirmed that statin drug use increases one's chance of developing diabetes. Statin drugs are the all-time leading prescription drugs sold in the U.S. and around the world, prescribed by doctors to lower people's cholesterol levels. It is estimated that one out of every 4 people in the United States over the age of 50 is currently taking statin drugs for cholesterol. This current study just published looked at 26,000 beneficiaries of Tricare, the military health system. They found that those taking statin drugs to control their cholesterol were 87 percent more likely to develop diabetes. The study was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. This is just the latest study to link statin drugs to diabetes, especially in women. Studies published in 2014 caused over 2000 lawsuits to be filed against Pfizer, the maker of the best-selling drug of all-time, Lipitor.

Statin Drug Scandal: Cholesterol-lowering Drug Researchers Start Backtracking

The cholesterol-lowering statin drug empire continues to crumble. On Sunday February 15, 2015, the Sunday Express in the UK published a headline story stating that Oxford professor Dr. Rory Collins, whose research had been used to support putting millions of patients on statin drugs, was reassessing the data behind those studies for possible drug side effects. According to the Express: "Although the original research looked at the effect of statins on the heart and considered cancer risks it did not examine other side effects." This announcement by Dr. Collins is stunning, to say the least, and points to a massive cover-up and scandal related to statin drugs.

Statin Scam: People with Higher Cholesterol Live Longer than People with Low Cholesterol

Here is a fact that has been known for quite a long time, but it is still news to many people: People with higher cholesterol levels live longer than people with lower cholesterol levels. The reason why this fact is not well-known in the general public is because it would put a huge dent into a $100 BILLION drug market for statin drugs - drugs that lower your cholesterol. With approximately one out of every 4 Americans over the age of 50 currently prescribed a statin drug, a drug with very serious side effects, this is certainly one issue you should investigate yourself.

700 Lipitor and Diabetes Lawsuit Claims Filed Against Pfizer

Before its patent expired, Lipitor was the best-selling drug of all time. Lipitor, the drug that artificially lowers cholesterol, outsold almost all other drugs combined during the height of its run, before the patent ran out allowing generics to enter the market. The FDA did not issue warnings about the dangerous side effects of cholesterol-lowering drugs until after Lipitor's patent expired. The information here comes from an attorney, as attorneys across the nation see the economic opportunities now to sue Pfizer for damage done to millions of peoples' health.

American Heart Association’s Outdated Dietary Guidelines are Hurting Americans’ Health

The American Heart Association’s woefully outdated dietary guidelines are hurting Americans’ health. Last December, we told you about the American Heart Association’s (AHA) new new cholesterol guidelines that would make 33 million healthy Americans dependent on statins. These are the most widely prescribed class of drugs in the world—drugs so dangerous that the FDA mandates their side effects be disclosed in labeling. The problem with AHA’s “logic?” Not only has this bad/good cholesterol dichotomy been solidly debunked by study after study—it was never proven in the first place. According to the Wall Street Journal, the notion that saturated fats and LDL clog our arteries came from a “derailment” of nutrition policy “by a mixture of personal ambition, bad science, politics, and bias.” This article takes a look at some of the other AHA dietary guidelines, accompanied by reasons why they actually are bad for your heart.