Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, author of The Great Cholesterol Con and the book Doctoring Data, wrote a terrific article summarizing his views on what causes cardiovascular disease, and what does not.

He explains why the LDL hypothesis of cardiovascular disease makes no sense.

He says, “The LDL hypothesis is nonsense, it is wrong, and it does not remotely fit with any other factors known to cause CVD [cardiovascular disease].”

He also explains why inflammation is not the cause of cardiovascular disease, and instead, it is simply part of the repair process (which is happening all the time).

Below are highlights from his article, but I encourage you to read the entire article, because it contains a lot more than just the highlights that I am including below.

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For years we have been told that lower cholesterol levels are associated with a lower risk of death.

But it turns out that this is not true!

Research shows that the exact opposite is true!

When cholesterol levels fall, people are at a greater risk of death, not a lower risk of death!

This is noted a new review paper by independent researchers Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD, author of The Cholesterol Myths, Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, author of The Great Cholesterol Con, and other independent researchers.

In the review paper, they note:

“If high [total cholesterol] was the major cause of CVD [cardiovascular disease], people with high [total cholesterol] should have a higher risk of dying from CVD.

“The hypothesis that high [total cholesterol] causes CVD [cardiovascular disease] was introduced in the 1960s by the authors of the Framingham Heart Study.

“However, in their 30-year follow-up study published in 1987, the authors reported that ‘For each 1 mg/dl drop in [total cholesterol] per year, there was an eleven percent [11%] increase in coronary and total mortality’.

“Three years later the American Heart Association and the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute published a joint summary [8] concluding “a one percent reduction in an individual’s [total cholesterol] results in an approximate two percent reduction in CHD [coronary heart disease] risk”.

“The authors fraudulently referred to the Framingham publication to support this widely quoted false conclusion.”

In other words, they’ve been lying to us for 30 years!

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There is no association between total cholesterol and the degree of atherosclerosis notes a new review paper by independent researchers Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD, author of The Cholesterol Myths, Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, author of The Great Cholesterol Con, and others.

“If high [total cholesterol] causes atherosclerosis, people with high [total cholesterol] should have more atherosclerosis than people with low [total cholesterol]. In 1936 Landé and Sperry found that corrected for age, unselected people with low [total cholesterol] were just as atherosclerotic as people with high [total cholesterol]. Since then their seminal observation has been confirmed in at least a dozen studies,” they note.

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In people over 60, those with the highest LDL cholesterol levels were at a lower risk of dying over some number of years than those with the lowest LDL levels in 16 of 19 studies according to a new review paper by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD, author of The Cholesterol Myths, Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, author of The Great Cholesterol Con, and others.

One-fourth with highest LDL levels 29-59% less likely to die over next 3-9 years

In 12 of those studies, the one-fourth of people with the highest LDL levels were 29% to 59% less likely to have died over the next 3-9 years than the one-fourth of people with the lowest LDL levels.

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The famous Framingham Study found that people whose cholesterol levels FELL by one (1) mmol per liter during the first 18 years of the study — roughly 40 mg per deciliter — were 500% MORE likely to DIE from coronary heart disease over the next 14 years notes Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, author of the wonderful book Doctoring Data: How to sort out medical advice from medical nonsense in this 3-minute video clip from an interview that Dr. Joseph Mercola did with Dr. Kendrick.

This information has NOT been publicized notes Dr. Kendrick.

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The ONLY statin study that was NOT funded by the drug companies — The ALLHAT Study — found NO benefit to taking statins notes Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, author of the wonderful book Doctoring Data: How to sort out medical advice from medical nonsense in this 3-minute video clip from an interview that Dr. Joseph Mercola did with Dr. Kendrick.

All the other statin studies that have claimed to have found benefits have been paid for by the drug companies.

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In people who have had a heart attack or who have angina, statisticians have calculated that statins increase life expectancy by only 15 days—2 weeks!

This is noted by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick in the wonderful documentary Statin Nation.

Malcolm Kendrick is the author of The Great Cholesterol Con.

Below is the quote of exactly what he said.

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In normal, healthy people with elevated cholesterol levels who have not had a heart attack and do not have angina, statins do NOT increase life expectancy by even one day notes Dr. Malcolm Kendrick in the wonderful documentary Statin Nation.

“People want to know, ‘If I took a statin for 20 or 30… or 40 years… how much longer could I expect to live?’” Dr. Kendrick notes.

“What we do know is that in Primary Prevention [trials, that is in people who have not had a heart attack and do not have angina] there is NO life extension.”

“There is NO increase in life expectancy.”

“You will not live one day longer.”

“You might change what is written on the death certificate, but you won’t change the date.”

“So [with] primary prevention [there is] NO increase in life expectancy at all.”

Below is the quote of exactly what he said.

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“If you have low cholesterol levels, you are likely to die younger,” notes Dr. Malcolm Kendrick in the wonderful documentary Statin Nation.

Below is a quote of exactly what he says.

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“Statins cause Type 2 diabetes. They increase the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by about 25 to 30 percent. That is now widely accepted,” notes Dr. Malcolm Kendrick in the wonderful documentary Statin Nation.

Malcolm Kendrick is the author of The Great Cholesterol Con.

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Saturated fat intake is NOT correlated with cholesterol levels or coronary heart disease, and cholesterol levels are NOT correlated with coronary heart disease notes Dr. Malcolm Kendrick in this 4.5 minute video clip from the upcoming documentary "$29 Billion Reasons To Lie About Cholesterol". Read the entire article | Email this article

"In my opinion, statins are destroying the lives of countless people around the world," notes Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

"Wherever you look [at cholesterol levels and rates of heart disease in various countries], you basically see there is no correlation between cholesterol levels and heart disease. None at all," notes Malcolm Kendrick, MD in this one-minute YouTube video.

Dr. Kendrick is the author of The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .)
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I have only just recovered from the idea that everyone in the whole world over the age of fifty-five should spend the rest of their lives on six different medications, all stuck together in one great big pill. You may have seen the non-story about the non-existent polypill peddled in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). I was stimulated to look again at the concept of risk.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .)
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"I wanted to make it clear that the attacks on Atkins are not scientific, not rational. Atkins, may he rest in peace, is being attacked because his diet threatens the mainstream. He and his supporters are being subjected to the secular equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition…." says Dr. Malcolm Kendrick.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

The concept that HDL could remove cholesterol from a plaque is such a stupid idea that I cannot believe it still exists. Once you understand the science, the whole thing is patently ridiculous.”

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

When someone sent me a copy of an article in the [ December 2, 2003 ] Washington Post, stating that more and more doctors now think that children as young as four should be put on statins, my fingers started to itch.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

I was idly watching a programme on the Atkins diet last night which, to my surprise, was reasonably balanced. Yes folks, the Atkins diet has crossed the pond to reach the United Kingdom. Although, in reality, all it is doing is returning. After all we invented it nearly one hundred and fifty years ago.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

I have been aware of the ASCOT study [Anglo Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial] for some time. In fact, it seems to have been spewing out results for the past 500 years or so. Maybe not quite that long but, boy, it sometimes seems like it.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

Some time ago, I was looking through the latest definitions of various states of health. I can’t remember why. I think I was writing a paper on multiple sclerosis and trying to establish the various stages that you may progress through, from fully fit and able to bed bound and incapable of feeding yourself.

All types of health “states” were catalogued for all sorts of diseases. However, the really depressing definition was left to last. Someone with no disease or disability of any sort — the type of person you or I might call “healthy” — was defined as temporarily able. As if health is a strange abnormal state, which, happily, given a bit of time, will revert to the more normal human condition of illness.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

Refreshed from a holiday in France, I returned to work to find an e-mail informing me that a German study has concluded that Lipitor (atorvastatin) might not be as effective as the other statins, and might also have more side-effects.

Well, it must be true because it was a study done by the Institut fuer Qualitaet und Wirtschaftslichkeit im Gesundheitswesen. And there is no way on Earth you could argue with an institute as formidable sounding as that. An institute, I picture, entirely populated by white-haired professors all looking like a cross between Albert Einstein and Socrates.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

Finally, a sign that some ‘Opinion leaders’ may be finding themselves a trifle uncomfortable with the stench of corruption. Nose plugs only work for so long. Here is a clip from an article found in a newsletter sent out to pharmaceutical executives.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

It has long bothered me that there is a vast library of medical research out there that has become almost completely unreliable. Some time ago, I wrote that I had almost completely lost faith in the use of references, as you could always find as many references as you wanted to support almost any argument you cared to make.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

References are very much a double edged sword, or perhaps a bazooka. In the wrong hands they can do far more harm than good. And in the, essentially, unchecked system that we now have, one careless reference can end up taking on a life of its own. It gets stuck in the medical information ‘machine' replicating itself like some malevolent computer virus, gradually infecting all data and turning it into useless mush.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

For those of us who enjoy the use of weasel words and non-scientific rubbish dressed up as fact, this is indeed a grand territory to explore….

I have written about hypertension a couple of times. So I thought that I should throw my hat into the ring about the controversy surrounding the ALLHAT trial. A trial which wins my official tortuous acronym award? ALLHAT stands for the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering treatment to prevent Heart Attack Trial.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

I write this before I have read all the details on the new Heart Lung and Blood Institute guidelines on raised blood pressure [as of 2003]. But there has been enough information flying around to know what they are saying. Frankly, I knew what these guidelines were going to say before the committee met for the first time. Before, in fact, the members of the committee even knew they were going to be on the committee.

Now we are all to be officially ill.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

Let’s suppose that one day you went to the doctor and she decided to take your temperature, just to see what it was. To your surprise it was two degrees higher than normal. As we all know, a high temperature is associated with a higher than normal level of mortality, so the doctor decided to use a drug to get your temperature down, along with advice to wear less clothes and take cold baths.

Time passes and you have been on this drug for five years. The baths and chilly walks are getting to be a bit of a pain. On the bright side, at least the temperature is back to normal.

I think you would agree that such a scenario is, quite frankly, nuts.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

That’s because it’s merely a blood sugar measurement. A sign. An effect. Not a disease, or a cause. We have become mesmerized by blood sugar levels — we fight to get them down — we are happy when the level is lowered. Doctors claim when the blood sugar level falls below an arbitrary figure that the Type II Diabetes has been treated, even cured. But what exactly have we cured?

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

Sometimes you read something of such blinding obviousness (if that is actually a word), that you wonder why anyone even bothered writing it at all. You know the sort of thing - ‘constant criticism of children does not lead to a sense of self-worth.’ ‘A centralized command economy does not create wealth for citizens.’

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

"Recent and soon to be published research reveals that soldiers who fought in theatres as diverse as Vietnam and Lebanon are not only more likely to die from an accident on their return, but are also twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even cancer later in life."

— New Scientist, Aug. 27, 2005

For some time now, I have been banging on about the fact that “stress” causes diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. Of course, my definition of stress, or a stressor, is any factor that can lead to a long-lasting dysfunction of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA-axis). This definition may seem — and probably is — a bit pedantic. But it does have the advantage of being reasonably accurate. That is more than can be said for the word “stress,” which can mean all things to all men.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

"The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today [ Oct 2005 ] decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2005 jointly to Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren for their discovery of 'the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease'."

It was good to see these two winning the Nobel Prize, with the key piece of following text appended.

"This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, who with tenacity and a prepared mind challenged prevailing dogmas."

"Who with tenacity and a prepared mind challenged prevailing dogmas…." A few short words. As if the Second World War could be encapsulated thus, "In the Second World War, the Allies defeated Germany, Japan and a few other countries after a series of successful engagements."

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

‘Pharmaceutical companies are being led by "dinosaurs who are committing financial suicide" by opposing US residents' reimportation of lower-cost drugs from abroad, Peter Rost, a vice president of marketing at... Pfizer, said in a speech at the Minnesota Senior Federation Monday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.


(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

For some time now, I have been following the work of a UK parliamentary committee which has been looking into the activities of the pharmaceutical companies, and their influence over the healthcare system. Whilst this committee was sitting you could even watch the proceedings on television, although I wouldn’t recommend it - other than as a cure for insomnia.


(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .)

"Many a man stumbles across the truth, then picks himself up and hurries on as though nothing had happened."

-- Winston Churchill Read the entire article | Email this article

There are those of us, poor misguided fools, who believe that the main point of taking drugs is to prevent an early death. We are clearly wrong. The important thing is that you must not die of heart disease. For dying of heart disease is clearly much worse than dying of something else.


(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

And what song do we expect the pharmaceutical company wishes to hear sung by international medical opinion leaders? In general it goes like this ‘Use more of the new expensive drugs. For they will make you well.’ To the tune of Amazing Grace.

How much money does it take to get an international opinion leader to sing for their supper? That depends. In the case of Dr Bryan Brewer, a leader at the National Institutes of Health, it took $57,000/year.

‘Brewer, as a leader at the NIH was part of a team that gave the nation new cholesterol guidelines that were expected to prompt millions more people to take the daily pill. He also has written favourably of a specific brand of cholesterol medication, Crestor, which recently proved controversial.

What doctors were not told for years is this. While making recommendations in the name of the NIH, Brewer was working for the companies that sell the drugs. Government and company records show that from 2001 to 2003, he accepted about $114,000 in consulting fees from four companies making or developing cholesterol medications, including $31,000 from the maker of Crestor (AstraZeneca)’

-- Los Angeles Times, Jan 11, 2005

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

The Zocor Debacle - I Told You So! But The Great Ship “Cholesterol-Lowering” Has Ripped Its Guts Out On The Harsh Rocks Of Evidence, But Still It Does Not Sink.

Oh, the joy. Just how annoying can I be now? After the PROVE-IT and REVERSE trials comes the A to Z trial, looking at aggressive high-dose Simvastatin treatment vs. low-dose. And I have just been proved right.

‘Munich, Germany - The Z phase of the Aggrastat to Zocor (A to Z) study has shown disappointing results...Treatment with high-dose simvastatin (Zocor®, Merck) failed to show a significant reduction in the primary composite end point of cardiovascular death, MI, readmission for ACS , or stroke. In addition, the high-dose statin regimen was associated with a higher rate of myopathy and rhabdomyolysis.’

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article

Some of you may observe the actions of the pharmaceutical industry and wonder why, from a PR perspective, it seems intent on taking dead aim somewhere between the second and third metacarpals (bones in the feet, in case you were wondering), then determinedly pulling the trigger. Not once, but time and time again. To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie The Terminator, “I use an Uzi nine millimetre.”

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .) Read the entire article | Email this article