“That was the worst I ever felt in my life,” notes Katherine Faraday, MD in the wonderful documentary Statin Nation.

“There were times when I wondered if I really wanted to go on living.”

Below is the quote of exactly what she says in the movie about the side effects she experienced—fatigue, depression, memory loss, colitis, and dry eyes—and how neither she nor her doctor realized for 2 years that ALL of the problems she had developed were being caused by the Lipitor (atorvastatin) she was taking to lower her cholesterol.

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“There is so much evidence to show that it is not cholesterol [that increases heart attack risk],” notes Prof. Timothy Noakes, MD, DSc, PhD in an interview that he did on a Fat & Furious podcast.

“Cholesterol is a terribly poor predictor of heart attack risk.”

“It is so pathetic…”

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Higher cholesterol levels were associated with an 11-23% lower risk of death in men, and an 8-28% lower risk of death in women compared with men and women with cholesterol levels of less than 193 mg/dL according to the HUNT 2 study from Norway.

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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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Men whose total cholesterol levels were less than 160 mg/dL were 60% MORE likely to die during the next 5-13 years compared with men whose cholesterol levels were 160-199 mg/dL according to a 2008 meta-analysis of 5 studies in Japan which included a total of more than 173,000 people.

In other words, having LOW cholesterol levels was associated with a dramatically HIGHER risk of death.

Based on this data, do you think that it is a mistake to try and lower your cholesterol levels as low as possible as recommended by the “experts”?

Yes, of course it is!

It is a big mistake!

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Men whose total cholesterol levels were 200-239 mg/dL were 18% LESS likely to die during the next 5-13 years compared with men whose cholesterol levels were 160-199 mg/dL according to a 2008 meta-analysis of 5 studies in Japan which included a total of more than 173,000 people.

In other words, having HIGHER cholesterol levels was associated with a LOWER risk of death.

Or to say this in reverse, having HIGHER cholesterol levels was associated with a LOWER risk of death.

Why would I want to lower my cholesterol levels?

I don’t!

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Men whose total cholesterol levels were 240 mg/dL or greater were 24% LESS likely to die during the next 5-13 years compared with men whose cholesterol levels were 160-199 mg/dL according to a 2008 meta-analysis of 5 studies in Japan which included a total of more than 173,000 people.

In other words, having HIGHER cholesterol levels was associated with a LOWER risk of death.

Or to say this in reverse, having HIGHER cholesterol levels was associated with a LOWER risk of death.

Why would I want to lower my cholesterol levels?

I don’t!

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Women whose total cholesterol levels were less than 160 mg/dL were 41% MORE likely to die during the next 5-13 years compared with women whose cholesterol levels were 160-199 mg/dL according to a 2008 meta-analysis of 5 studies in Japan which included a total of more than 173,000 people.

Data from this meta-analysis suggests that elevated cholesterol levels do NOT increase a woman’s risk of death, but if cholesterol levels are LOW — below 160 mg/dL — there is a dramatic (41%) INCREASED risk of death.

Should a woman try to lower her cholesterol levels?

No, I don’t think so!

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Women whose total cholesterol levels were 200-239 mg/dL were NO MORE likely to die during the next 5-13 years compared with women whose cholesterol levels were 160-199 mg/dL according to a 2008 meta-analysis of 5 studies in Japan which included a total of more than 173,000 people.

Data from this meta-analysis suggests that elevated cholesterol levels do NOT increase a woman’s risk of death, but if cholesterol levels are LOW — below 160 mg/dL — there is a dramatic (41%) INCREASED risk of death.

Should a woman try to lower her cholesterol levels?

No, I don’t think so!

Read the entire article | Email this article

Women whose total cholesterol levels were 240 mg/dL or GREATER were NO MORE likely to die during the next 5-13 years compared with women whose cholesterol levels were 160-199 mg/dL according to a 2008 meta-analysis of 5 studies in Japan.

Data from this meta-analysis suggests that elevated cholesterol levels do NOT increase a woman’s risk of death, but if cholesterol levels are LOW — below 160 mg/dL — there is a dramatic (41%) INCREASED risk of death.

Should a woman try to lower her cholesterol levels?

No, I don’t think so!

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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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"Trans fatty acids are sufficiently similar to natural fats that the body readily incorporates them into the cell membrane; once there their altered chemical structure creates havoc with thousands of necessary chemical reactions—everything from energy provision to prostaglandin production," writes lipid biochemist, Mary Enig, PhD, and journalist, Sally Fallon Morell in a wonderful, eye-opening article about fats and heart disease titled The Oiling of America.
"But most of the trans isomers in modern hydrogenated fats are new to the human physiology and by the early 1970's a number of researchers had expressed concern about their presence in the American diet, noting that their increasing use had paralleled the increase in both heart disease and cancer," they note. Read the entire article | Email this article

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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Low cholesterol levels increase the risk of cancer notes Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD in the wonderful documentary Statin Nation.

He notes that a Japanese study in which they gave roughly 40,000 men small doses of the statin, Zocor (simvastatin), and followed them for 6 or 7 years, those with the lowest cholesterol levels had 3 times more cancer deaths than in men with normal cholesterol levels.

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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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HIGHER cholesterol levels are associated with
- a LONGER life
- a LOWER risk of cancer
- a LOWER risk of infections
notes independent researcher Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD in an extended interview on the DVD for the wonderful documentary called
Statin Nation.

He also notes that cholesterol is essential for life.

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Eight of the 9 panel members on the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) who wrote the cholesterol guidelines which define high cholesterol and recommend taking drugs to lower cholesterol, had financial ties to the drug companies that make statins.

The wonderful documentary Statin Nation reminds us of this.

Below is a list of all 9 members of the panel and all of the drug companies who have paid them.

Do you think it is any different when it comes to the guidelines for blood pressure or diabetes or depression or anxiety or sleep or bone-building or acid reflux or for the treatment of Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s or any other disease?

No, of course not.

It’s all the same nonsense.

Realize that when you hear about the results of a drugs study, what you are really hearing is an advertisement for the drug companies.

I no longer believe the drug research because all aspects of drug recommendations are infected with money from the drug companies.

Everyone making drug recommendations have been paid by the drug companies, and, of course, the drug companies will ONLY pay researchers who say their drugs are safe and effective and more people need them, in other words, the only researchers they will pay are those people who will help them to sell more drugs.

The researchers who are paid by the drug companies are not scientists, they are salesmen to help the drug companies sell more drugs.

I used to be interested in drug research and what the university researchers and government scientists had to say about drugs, but I am NOT interested anymore because I know exactly what every one of them is going to say: ALL of them are going to say that these drugs are safe and effective and more people need them, otherwise the drug companies would NOT pay them and would go find someone else who will help them to sell more drugs.

What a shame.

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While taking the cholesterol-lowering drug, Lipitor (atorvastatin), Pamela Sharp, who was 51-years-old at the time, wrote this in her diary as she describes in the wonderful documentary Statin Nation.

“I’ve got lots of depression, light sensitivity, amnesia, unable to write, chest pains, leg pains, incredible fatigue, and some days I can’t get my legs out of bed.

“Symptoms are getting worse, and now I need to find out what’s going on because I think I’m dying.”

Below is the quote of exactly what she says in the movie about how she felt and what her doctor told her.

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“It just got to the point where life was pretty unbearable.

“[I had] constant pain… feeling not well… waking up in the morning and not feeling rested, and thinking, oh Christ, another day,” notes Tony Wood, a patients who had taken a statin to lower his cholesterol, as he describes in the wonderful documentary Statin Nation.

Below is the quote of exactly what he says about the side effects he experienced.

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Lipoproteins including LDL, HDL and VLDL, which carry cholesterol, perform an immune function in that they bind to and inactivate bacteria and viruses notes independent researcher Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD in an extended interview on the DVD for the wonderful documentary called
Statin Nation.

LDL is THE MOST POTENT of the lipoproteins in humans at performing this immune function, Dr. Ravnskov notes.

People with LOW cholesterol levels have HIGHER rates of infectious disease.

Below is the exact quote of what Dr. Ravnskov says about this.

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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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“That was the worst I ever felt in my life,” notes Katherine Faraday, MD in the wonderful documentary Statin Nation.

“There were times when I wondered if I really wanted to go on living.”

Below is the quote of exactly what she says in the movie about the side effects she experienced—fatigue, depression, memory loss, colitis, and dry eyes—and how neither she nor her doctor realized for 2 years that ALL of the problems she had developed were being caused by the Lipitor (atorvastatin) she was taking to lower her cholesterol.

Read the entire article | Email this article

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

"[T]here is no evidence that diet prevents cardiovascular morbidity or mortality," noted Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD.

"This effect was shown in a systematic review of eight ecological, 41 cross-sectional, 25 cohort, six case-control studies, and a meta-analysis of nine controlled randomised dietary trials." 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

According to conventional wisdom it is wise to lower your cholesterol if it is too high.

The main reason for this advice is the observation that people with a high cholesterol more often get a heart attack than people with a normal or a low cholesterol.

The observation is correct, but it does not mean that the high cholesterol is the cause of the heart attack (see section 1). If it were, lowering of the high cholesterol by any means should prevent it, but it doesn´t (except with the new group of cholesterol-lowering drugs, the statins; see below).

[This article was written by Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD, and is an excerpt from his book The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease.]

[Note: The book Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You is a shortened, simplified and updated version of Dr. Ravnskov's first book, "The Cholesterol Myths".] Read the entire article | Email this article

The basis for using cholesterol-lowering drugs is not based on science notes Joel M. Kauffman, PhD, the author of Malignant Medical Myths: Why Medical Treatment Causes 200,000 Deaths in the USA each Year, and How to Protect Yourself.

"Low cholesterol levels are dangerous; high ones usually are not," Kauffman writes. 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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A 1968 statement from the American Heart Association (AHA) noted that Partial hydrogenated vegetable oils contained trans fats rather than natural cis fats, but the statement was never distributed, and a researcher from Proctor and Gamble convinced the AHA's medical director to remove this statement before their recommendations were released to the public.

Lipid biochemist, Mary Enig, PhD, and journalist, Sally Fallon Morell write about this in a wonderful, eye-opening article about fats and heart disease titled The Oiling of America. Read the entire article | Email this article

"The 1968 International Atherosclerosis Project, in which over 22,000 corpses in 14 nations were cut open and examined for plaques in the arteries, showed the same degree of atheroma [ occlusions or plaque buildup in the arteries ] in all parts of the world—in populations that consumed large amounts of fatty animal products and those that were largely vegetarian, and in populations that suffered from a great deal of heart disease and in populations that had very little or none at all," writes lipid biochemist, Mary Enig, PhD, and journalist, Sally Fallon Morell in a wonderful, eye-opening article about fats and heart disease titled The Oiling of America. Read the entire article | Email this article

"f you have come to believe that you can ward off death from heart disease by altering the amount of cholesterol in your blood, whether by diet or by drugs, you are following a regime that still has no basis in fact," wrote Edward R. Pinckney, MD, editor of four medical journals and former co-editor of JAMA.
"Rather, you as a consumer, have been taken in by certain commercial interests and health groups who are more interested in your money than your life."

[This is an article written by Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD, and is an excerpt from his book The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease.]

[Note: The book Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You is a shortened, simplified and updated version of Dr. Ravnskov's first book, "The Cholesterol Myths".] Read the entire article | Email this article

George Mann [ScD, MD], now retired, was previously a professor in medicine and biochemistry at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. From his studies of the Masai people (see section 3) he realized that diet couldn't possibly be the main cause of high cholesterol and coronary heart disease. As long ago as 1977, in The New England Journal of Medicine he published a strong argument against the diet-heart idea citing the lack of relationship between dietary habits and blood cholesterol, the lack of correlation between this century's trends in fat consumption and death rates in the United States, and the disappointing outcome of the cholesterol lowering trials (92).

[This is an article written by Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD, and is an excerpt from his book The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease.]

[Note: The book Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You is a shortened, simplified and updated version of Dr. Ravnskov's first book, "The Cholesterol Myths".] Read the entire article | Email this article

Michael F. Oliver, a former professor and director of the Wynn Institute for Metabolic Research, London, [and formerly worked at the National Heart and Lung Institute in London, England] those at a very high risk for cardiovascular risk may benefit from cholesterol lowering, but in several papers he has warned against campaigns for cholesterol lowering in the general population.

He notes that the accumulated evidence [of cholesterol-lowering in the general population] is that total mortality is unchanged or possibly even increased (94).

[This is an article written by Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD, and is an excerpt from his book The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease.]

[Note: The book Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You is a shortened, simplified and updated version of Dr. Ravnskov's first book, "The Cholesterol Myths".] Read the entire article | Email this article

"The idea that saturated fats cause heart disease is completely wrong, but the statement has been “published” so many times over the last three or more decades that it is very difficult to convince people otherwise unless they are willing to take the time to read and learn what all the economic and political factors were that produced the anti-saturated fat agenda," lipid biochemist Mary Enig was quoted as saying in an interview when asked if saturated fat causes heart disease.

[This is part of an article written by Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD, and is an excerpt from his book The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease.]

[Note: The book Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You is a shortened, simplified and updated version of Dr. Ravnskov's first book, "The Cholesterol Myths".] Read the entire article | Email this article

One of the most surprising facts about cholesterol is that there is no relationship between the blood cholesterol level and the degree of atherosclerosis in the vessels. If a high cholesterol really did promote atherosclerosis, then people with a high cholesterol should evidently be more atherosclerotic than people with a low. But it isn´t so.

[This article was written by Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD, and is an excerpt from his book The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease.]

[Note: The book Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You is a shortened, simplified and updated version of Dr. Ravnskov's first book, "The Cholesterol Myths".] Read the entire article | Email this article

A reduction of animal fat and an increase of vegetable fat in the diet is said to lower the blood cholesterol. This is correct, but the effect of such dietary changes is very small. Ramsay and Jackson (37) reviewed 16 trials using diet as intervention. They concluded that the so-called step-I diet, which is similar to the dietary advices that are given nationwise by the health authorities in many countries, lower the serum cholesterol by 0 to 4% only. There are more effective diets, but they are unpalatable to most people.

[This article was written by Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD, and is an excerpt from his book The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease.]

[Note: The book Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You is a shortened, simplified and updated version of Dr. Ravnskov's first book, "The Cholesterol Myths".] Read the entire article | Email this article