Despite the rosy picture painted in the ads of a miracle cure for high cholesterol and its associated heart disease, the reality of taking statins may be far less pretty.
Dr. David Diamond’s talk at the 2019 CrossFit Health Conference began, “I want to show you how we have been deceived.”
The resulting video (below) is entertaining, eye opening, and worth every minute for someone with cholesterol or heart disease concerns!
In 1999, Diamond was diagnosed with familial hypertriglyceridemia, a genetic anomaly that causes triglyceride levels in the blood to become elevated and leads to obesity and other complications. After following the dietary recommendations — reducing his saturated fat and meat consumption while consuming greater quantities of carbohydrates such as oatmeal and beans — Diamond had succeeded only in raising his triglycerides, lowering HDL cholesterol, and gaining weight.
So, his doctor recommended that he begin taking statins.
Diamond recalled the moment when he decided, “‘Well, I’ve got a Ph.D. in biology. The least I can do is read about what is a triglyceride and what I should do about it.’”
After delving into the medical research, he realized, “Man! I followed the nutritionally guidelines and recommendations, I exercised like crazy. I’ve been eating bread without butter, and … it’s the bread that’s driving up my triglycerides.” He continued, “I was struck by this epiphany that I’d been given the wrong information.”
After this discovery, Diamond began investigating how his doctor and the dietary guidelines could have gotten the science on cholesterol so wrong.
He traced the misinformation to Ancel Keys, who became famous in 1961 for developing the cholesterol hypothesis.
Keys’ hypothesis suggested the consumption of saturated fat leads to increased cholesterol that clogs arteries and leads to heart disease.
Despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary, Keys’ hypothesis became influential. Keys, a man who had “a bachelors in economics” and “knew nothing about nutrition or heart disease” … was in charge, to a great extent, of nutrition and heart disease research in America.”
Diamond continued to search cholesterol science and statin research, and his first discovery was followed by many more.
For instance, contrary to current dogma, “People with a higher cholesterol have a significantly lower rate of cancer, infectious disease, and live an overall normal lifespan.”
2019 CrossFit Health Conference video. Easy to understand and highly informative.
Dr. Diamond demonstrated the methods of statistical manipulation researchers and drug companies use to inflate statins’ effectiveness for lowering heart disease risk while downplaying the drugs’ adverse effects.
- authors of a trial on cholestyramine were able to make a statistically insignificant .4% improvement in heart disease risk look like 24% by reporting relative rather than absolute risk
- the study on Lipitor, which helped generate $100 billion in revenue for the company and found the same thing: The study claimed the drug could decrease heart disease risk by 36%, a gross manipulation of the 1% absolute risk that actually matters.
Diamond also listed numerous adverse effects from Statins:
(Source)
Peer-reviewed medical literature exposes links between statins and:
- double the risk of Type 2 diabetes
- rhabdomyolysis (muscle necrosis)
- “Statins Stimulate Atherosclerosis and Heart failure”
- patients with cognitive disorders and dementia
- increased risk of cataracts
- extreme muscle pain and muscle toxicity
- acute kidney damage and renal failure
- liver dysfunction
- long term risk of ductal and lobular breast cancer
Nevertheless, statins remain the most widely prescribed class of drugs in the US because the belief that coronary atherosclerosis is due to high cholesterol has been perpetuated by powerful forces using tactics to preserve the profits and reputations of those who promote the doctrine.
[Excerpts from CrossFit.com]
Is Your Cholesterol Level Really ‘High’? Tearing Down the Cholesterol Myth
Ask a Patient.com has thousands of short reviews by the patients themselves on Lipitor, Zocor, Pravachol, Livalo.
Other Deadly Drugs Still on the Market:
OTC Benadryl causing dementia, FDA warnings on NSAIDs, Cipro, Levaqin, and Aspartame.
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