Higher Cholesterol


THE CHOLESTEROL MYTH
© September 2000
Barry A Groves
Part 1: Introduction
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/ch...rol_myth_1.html
Part 2: Dietary Fats and Heart Disease
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/ch...rol_myth_2.html
Part 3: The Bran Wagon
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/ch...rol_myth_3.html
Part 4: The Dangers of Low Blood Cholesterol
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/ch..._myth_4.htmlbbb
Part 5: Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/ch...rol_myth_5.html
Part 6: Has Anyone Gained?
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/ch...rol_myth_6.html
Part 7: So Where Does That Leave Heart Disease?
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/ch...rol_myth_7.html
Part 8: A Question of Ethics
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/ch...rol_myth_8.html
Part 9: The Dangers of a "Healthy" Diet
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/ch...rol_myth_9.html


The Cholesterol Myths
by Uffe Ravnskov, M.D., Ph.D.
http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm
1. Your cholesterol tells very little about your future health
2. Blood cholesterol has nothing to do with atherosclerosis
3. The diet has little to do with your blood cholesterol level
4. Atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease have nothing to do with the diet
5. Cholesterol-lowering may shorten your life
6. The effect of the statins is not due to cholesterol-lowering
7. The many critical scientists
8. How to create a false idea
9. The Benefits of High Cholesterol
By Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD
http://www.westonaprice.org/modernd...ts_cholest.html

I wanted to add these excellent essays, which cover statins, cholesterol and heart disease:

Malcolm Kendrick

Thank you very much you two...I've got a lot of reading to cover...

Excellent info!!!! Thanks for posting the link!!!

These are the most ludicrous links Ive ever seen on the internet. Well, I suppose a good salesman and MD could make a fortune on snake oil. Therefore not a legal practicing physician. Im highly skeptical of these links, but hey, its your funeral.

Granted drugs arent for everyone (statins, fibrates, bile acid sequestrants), but cholesterol is 'fat in the blood stream' and is not healthy. Are we going to debate benefits of high blood glucose next? I have seen no hard evidence (none!!) that is even remotely pointing to the possiblity that high LDL/TC/TG levels are not risk factors for CHD. So drugs may not be for everybody (especially statins!!!) but a lower cholesterol does help reduce CHD risk. No one says "If you have a low cholesterol you will never get CHD", it only reduced RISK. Like SPF. You can use SPF 15 near the equator, but its not going to prevent you from burning. Im sorry, but I just refuse to buy this any other way. It just doesnt make sense.

Maybe Im alone here, but Ive spend 7 years in higher education for a doctoral degree in pharmacy, most of which is spent reading clinical studies (etc) regarding the guidelines for therapeutic management of disease states... I just cant see how people can actually believe this propaganda. I am new here, and will probably be shunned by a good many of you for this post, but I cant just NOT say something. Its basic knowledge to me at this point.

You just cant believe everything thats posted in print, no matter what the persons credentials are. Please please, I beg you, do not take your cholesterol levels lightly. Plesae.

You just cant believe everything thats posted in print, no matter what the persons credentials are.

I think that you've said it all!!

Crazy isnt it pharmer?

Apparently its " O.K " to have a cholesterol 200-250 around here, healthy infact and people should not lower it.

I find that advice dangerous

I'm curious. Did you actually read those links?

Rosebud

Doesn't sound like it, does it Ros?

So who's brainwashed?

Snake oil is healthy. It was the patent medicine sellers who gave it a bad name by bad mouthing their competition. http://hdlighthouse.org/see/immune/snakeoil.htm
Don't you have that backwards. Should not the burden of proof be on those who claim that cholesterol is a problem? I have seen no hard evidence (none!!) that is even remotely pointing to the possiblity that long hair and long fingernails are not risk factors for CHD. Have you? Does that mean that we should take drugs to prevent long hair and long fingernails? The cholesterol theory doesn't make any sense, unless you are selling drugs. BTW, skin cancer rates have gone up since people have started using more sunscreen. So dermatologists say that we need to use even more sunscreen. More illogicI have worked for years as a statistician and a significant number of the tests that allegedly show the benefits of taking statins or other drugs to lower cholesterol are slanted to get the results the drug company wanted. Please take the time to read Dr. Uffe Ravnskov's book. He does an excellent job of showing how the data does not justify the conclusions that the studies reported. Worrying about cholesterol levels in the blood is harmful to your health. It causes stress and high stress is linked to poor health.

http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

You just cant believe everything thats on the internet and in medical journals. Take this website for example. All the information posted is true, however, in context its ludicrous. Dihydrogen monooxide is H2O, otherwise known as water.

This is just a shame

Im nicely backing away from this thread and this whole area of the website because I am not up for a conflict- and this is one that wont be solved.

To other forum members, please take the medical information posted here at face value and talk with a licensed medical professional before following anything posted here.

I repeat - have you read the information in the posted links? Giving a joke link in reply is not much of a rebuttal IMHO.

Rosebud

Hmm..I did that and now live with PERMANENT muscle damage.

I should of listened better to forum posters as them themselves have already been through what I had to deal with.

That's Ok, I take it as a 'lesson learned' and the damaged done is a reminder to do the right thing next time.

That's what keeps me reading this forum!

Thanks Dodger,

I needed to read a funny phrase today.

That might have just turned my day around.

Posted by Pharmer24: You just cant believe everything thats on the internet and in medical journals.

Pharmer24 is quite right. Today, the fraud and corruption in the health world is staggering. The British Medical Journal devoted a whole edition to the pharmaceutical industry's corrupt practices in 2003. Other journals have also taken up this theme. Because of drugs industry, our health is now in more danger than at any time in our history.

‘A lot of money can be made from healthy people who believe they are sick. Pharmaceutical companies sponsor diseases and promote them to prescribers [doctors] and consumers.’

These are not the words of some anti-capitalist agitator. They are from the introduction to an article in the doctors’ own British Medical Journal.[1] The article goes on to say ‘Some forms of “medicalization” may now be better described as “disease mongering” – extending the boundaries of treatable illness to expand markets for new products.’

The American Medical Student Association, which represents 30,000 students, interns, and residents throughout the United States, is running a campaign called PharmFree which aims to break the entanglement between that the pharmaceutical industry, and medical students and the medical profession.[2] The association has called for an end to gift giving, free lunches, sponsored education, and paid speaking. Medical students are urged to sign a ‘PharmFree pledge’ to seek out unbiased sources of healthcare information. They even take a recently revised Hippocratic oath, called a ‘model oath for the new physician’, which includes the commitments:

‘I will make medical decisions ... free from the influence of advertising or promotion. I will not accept money, gifts, or hospitality that will create a conflict of interest in my education, practice, teaching, or research.’

There are many other small campaigns, similar this one, starting up throughout the industry.

One would expect a purveyor of drugs to support their use. However, we all need to be aware that the ills of today are caused by deficiencies in nutrition, NOT deficiencies in drugs.

But, of course, if everyone was healthy, Pharmer24 would be out of a job.

References

1. Moynihan R. Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering. Br Med J 2002; 324: 886–91.

2. Moynihan R. Who pays for the pizza? Redefining the relationships between doctors and drug companies. 2: Disentanglement. Br Med J 2003; 326: 1193-1196.