Statin Nation: The Great Cholesterol Cover-Up
We are told that cholesterol is a major cause of heart disease. At least 40 million people are currently taking cholesterol-lowering medications, known as statins, and millions more people are avoiding foods that contain saturated fat and cholesterol.
The basic idea is that dietary saturated fat raises cholesterol levels, and these two substances somehow clog-up our arteries, causing a heart attack.
This idea is often referred to as the diet-heart hypothesis. However, a numbers of doctors and researchers have been challenging this hypothesis for decades, and the latest heart disease statistics reveal some alarming facts.
Cholesterol-lowering has become a huge global industry, generating at least $29 billion each year. Have the facts about heart disease, cholesterol and cholesterol medications been distorted by pharmaceutical companies and food manufacturers keen to increase their profits?
What is your argument? A: you had a heart attack and stent placed and now your heart is "fine" therefore statins are a huge waste? B: Statins can have unwanted side effects... C: You really do need the statin but who the f*&k cares because we all die eventually? I hope its B & C, because you my friend may just be depressed enough by the chronic life-long battle with coronary artery disease you are now going to face after your heart attack to decide that nothing really matters...
A stent is not the end of the battle. The cholesterol doesn't "block" the artery causing a heart attack, but instead builds up and forms hard plaque inside the artery lumen. Then...eventually some of the plaque breaks off and flows into the smaller branches, and this is what blocks an artery and causes cessation of blood flow and oxygen to your heart muscle.
Now that you are done with statins, your second attack will cause more of your heart muscle to die. Stent? Maybe, but your heart muscle is forever weakened, eventually causing pump failure. Your heart will pump harder to make up for even the small amount of muscle death from your heart attack. As this happens the muscle weakens and then is not strong enough to pump blood to the rest of your body. This will soon cause blood to back up in your lungs causing the debilitating symptoms of heart failure: fatigue, shortness of breath. Walking to the mailbox will become too much, and after years of this, the heart becoming weaker and weaker, and other organ systems aren't getting the o2 they need. Until its all over...drugs are needed to correct the physiology you neglected. But who cares right?
Sounds fun...
Your whole argument rests on the doubious "fact" that high cholesterol is the reason fro heart disease, which it isn't. So: argument invalid.
I had a heart attack at age 50. Blocked artery. Stent inserted. Doctor put me on Statins. Seemed I could never get better. Heart was fine, but I was depressed, itched all over, sore legs, excema, inflamed liver, gas - the list went on.
Doctor presecribed more drugs never altering dosage of satins. Program on Australian tv warns of dangers of statins early 2015. Tv channel forced to apologise for "biased" reporting. Raises alarm for me. I research the drug and am absolutely horrified at what I learn.
Wean myself off statins not telling doctor. Feel better almost immediately. Six months later am still expelling that poison from my system, but feeling like my old self again. Cholesterol level a little above norm, but who the f@*! cares. No-one gets out alive and I would rather quality than quantity. Have lost all trust of doctors. Would like to force them to take their own medicines. See how they like it. Be aware of what you are prescribed by the goliath called "medicine."
My father's Doctor put him on a medical trial of statins but my father isn't well educated enough to even know what a medical trial is. He wouldn't know what the meaning of a trial is, placebo effect, double blind study, etc.
He was brought up in a generation that treated Doctors like Gods, so whatever your Doctor suggests you do. It was clear from the effect the drugs had on him he was getting the statin. Causing huge anger issues. It was only when he watched a TV programme about other people on statins that had the same symptoms he realised it was the statins causing his anger issues. He stopped taking them and went back to normal.
Cholesterol Lowering is a huge money making industry - The patent for the drug that reduces Cholesterol has made it's owners over $120 Billion. Cholesterol Lowering is less about health and more about making money. Follow the money.
The main source of cholesterol in the body is that produced by our very own vital organ the liver. High carb diets (advocated by USDA) and hyperglycemia (high sugar in the bloodstream) contribute to inflammation and cell damage. Each cell membrane is made structurally sound by cholesterol. When high sugar intake inflicts membrane damage, the liver releases LDL cholesterol into the blood with the intention of membrane repair (of the cells lining the blood vessels of the cardiovascular system). Likewise, when a cell is weak or dies, cholesterol remnants are transported back to the liver via HDL. That's right, HDL carries this ghastly molecule right back to our very own vital organ. OMG. Why? For recycling.
Dietary cholesterol makes up merely a minute portion of total body cholesterol. If blood cholesterol is high, that is a sign our liver is distressed and our hepatocytes (liver cells) are working hard to produce and release cholesterol to damaged cells. Elevated levels of cholesterol in the blood come from within and serve a healing purpose.
So if we care about the health of our hearts and the integrity of the cholesterol dense membranes of the cells lining our blood vessels, instead of avoiding dietary cholesterol and saturated fat, we should think more about significantly reducing carb intake (no whole grains, no refined grains, no pastas, no breads, no sugar, no corn syrup, no high fructose corn syrup). No species has evolved with a vital organ that daily produces significant amounts of a lethal molecule detrimental to the organism, that includes homo sapien with cholesterol recycling liver.
Every cell in our body is made of Cholesterol, our brain is 80% Cholesterol ... what we have got here is a classic case of Genocide
So if bad food doesn't cause high cholesterol what does?
High cholesterol may indicate an inflammation.
So than what causes high cholesterol
Ask any drug dealer and they will say the more trendy the drug, the more beneficial it is to the seller, not the user. When medical drugs are advertised on TV like food and candy, a red flag should pop up in your mind to be very skeptical. After all, they are trying to sell you an idea you are not qualified to judge, and they are not informed enough to prescribe.
Where are you guys (blind) supporters of the medical and pharmaceutical field when such a doc comes top of the list?
1i
edited
I'm going to presume that mess of a comment is asking where the defenders of science are?
As i said earlier, when somebody spends decades trying to prove a theory, that's normallty because they don't have any actual hard evidence of what they claim.
Unfortunatly one can take up any anti-science position and have dozens of paranoid conspiracy theorists flock to your cause, because most conspiracy theorists don't need evidence to support their claims, which is why most of them pat each other on the back even when their own conspiracy theories actually clash and contradict one another...which is why a lot of the time, pro-science people can't really be bothered correcting the misinformation because there is just too much of it out there.
No, i am not talking about defenders of science, i am talking about those who trust the medical and pharmaceutical association blindly.
As for science, it cannot be stopped and should not in any fields.
1i
but i don't trust the medical establishment blindly...that's why i vote for left wing parties that support the idea of socialised medecine, and take a lot of the power away from the pharmaceuticals industry through regulation.
Pretty easy to vote left wing when you are 28 and working part-time.
what's that even supposed to mean?
(forgive me if i don't comment on your own political leanings...i don't really care)
You don't recognize yourself? Look in the mirror.
Dr. Kendrick is a quack. How's that.
It is interesting to read differing opinions of so many of you. Let me also contribute my two-cent worth. First let me apologize for side tracking a bit from the subject matter and also for being long winded. . The first thing doctors do is to ask you for your history to find out if any of your parents, grandparents have suffered from heart ailments. To this, from personal experience, I can say it is a complete waste of time. I had a heart attack when I was 46 (I am now 68). There is no record of any of my parents or grandparents having such a problem. Secondly the medical fraternity once thought if you had any pain in your chest, especially on the left, it was sure sign of heart problem. As in my case, I had pain in my arms and jaw. A physician friend rushed to my house and gave me patherdine jab and the pain went away. He asked me to be admitted to the hospital for a thorough check which I did. They ran all sorts of tests including xray, treadmill and ECG. The physician (the term cardiology was just being introduced at that time) swore on his profession that the pain I had experienced had nothing to do with my heart. Some six months later I had pain in similar places but this time it was more severe. I was admitted to the ICU but because of lack facilities I was referred to a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur (incidentally I am from Malaysia), about a 1000 miles away from where I was. I was airlifted to Kuala Lumpur. The professor who carried out the angiogram procedure confirmed that I had a 75% blockage in my LAD and did an angioplasty. This time the ECG showed I had a mild heart attack. I gave up smoking.
Here I must mention that my cholesterol level was very low, my weight was 65kg and my height is 5ft 9in. I maintained my weight by walking 5km everyday. Going by medical theory that usually a obese person who is bound to have high level of cholesterol is the one who is likely tol get heart attack, should not apply to me!! The clever drug companies take control of your life from the moment you have a heart problem. I had been on statin ever since. Not only that they keep adding new drugs ever so often and doctors readily fall for their tricks. Pharmaceutical companies can vehemently deny but I can vouch that their initial drugs give rise to various other diseases. Now I suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and flatulence for which I take more drugs!!
My woes did not end with my first angioplasty. Three months later I developed more pain in the chest. This time I went to the National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur. Dr Robaayah, a cardiologist who works closely with Stanford University in the USA discovered more blocks in the same artery. She suggested putting in a stent, a new invention. I was the sixth patient in the country to have stent put in. Since then I went in and out of hospital. I have lost count of the number of stents in my chest. I think there are some10 to 12 of them!!!
It is universally known that there is a tussle between cardiologists and thoracic surgeons (TS) all because of money. If a cardiologist doesn't refer a patient to a TS he has no income. On the one hand pharmaceutical companies fleece you and on the other doctors fight over who should deal with you. You are at their mercy.
After the facts we all tend to become cleverer. From experience I can say it is easy to take care of our bodies. The major cause of heart problem is failure to check your stress and anxiety level. It is not so much as to what you eat or how hard you work. I am a typical example of a Type A type of person. I do not tolerate many things. You get your adrenaline overworking which naturally affects you general well being. If you realize this early in life you would do a world of good to yourself and keep the pharmaceutical companies off your turf. You have to eat sensibly and the best way to do that is to avoid fast food outlets. Do regular exercise, better still if you can include yoga in the scheme. You may appear on the outside a calm and collected person. People like these find it difficult to handle stress and anxiety. Again I am a fine example of this.
Chemical soup for Breakfast Dinner and Tea ? Fluoride in the Water, Antibiotics in Dairy and Meat, Insecticides on our Fruit and Veg and Big Farma filling us with Drugs which either don't work or endanger our lives and mental health.. It is ALL a scandal..
your fruit, veg, breakfast and tea aren't in the jurisdiction of 'big pharma' so blaming them for that is a bit...misguided...As for the insecticides, GM crops would be an answer for that (but lo and behold the paranoid anti-science crowd have invented a conspiracy about that as well).
And Drugs that don't work, don't get through testing...so you're wrong there as well.
A Monsanto lover, in defense of science.
The reason their science works is the crops grow despite being blasted by RoundUp (Monsanto). The plants don't keep bugs away on their own.
Hahahaha you are absolutely right. We are at their mercy and will always be a victim.
Vaccines are the next big thing for Big Pharma giving kids all sort of problems like ADHD Autism etc all to help big companies make money selling more drugs.
proof no wait don't bother because your statement is a bold face lie.
Vaccines do not cause autism, you are spreading a dangerous lie. But, lets say that just as the original bogus claim asserted one in one thousand children got autism from vaccination. The fact that vaccines have ended diseases such as polio and others that killed or maimed many, many more than one in a thousand children means we would still be much better off using the vaccinations. Take the time to do your own research and understand the issues at hand, stop just repeating what you have heard. THINK!!
I have been on blood thinners for the past few years & also have extremely high cholesterol. Maybe it's not a real health issue but I can tell all of you from experience that several members of my family have passed away prematurely from stroke related issues. For me, this is a very real concern & health problem. I don't know if the giant pharma companies are perpetuating a myth. Of course they want the largest profit they can achieve but perhaps they really are helping us to live longer & better. I honestly don't know.
It is very easy to comment & have an opinion when one is in good health & does not have the ever-present burden of a stroke or DVT looming over them.
The answer is much easier to come by when you are not the guinea pig. Can someone afflicted with these real health issues stop their medication without ill effects? Is high cholesterol really nothing to be worried about? Maybe, maybe not. Who are you going to believe when it's your life at risk?
I work in one of big pharma, and I can tell you that big pharma make money from blockbuster medication that scientifically proven to be beneficial for Human health with less side effect and clear difference from Placebo. Statin is in all cases healthy for you not only for lowering cholesterol bu also studies showed lowering risk of Alzheimer. In drug discovery you will see different opinions from different scientist however all claims can be tested and at the end the truth is the most reproducible results from different labs. and all results from different independent research group showed that statin is beneficial.
The problem isn't so much the benefits of particular drugs as their undisclosed or ignored risks. I was pushed to take statins, and ended up nearly suicidal. I stopped taking them, and those thoughts went away. This all happened in a few weeks. I was still depressed later, but not suicidal. Statins were *not* healthy for me. Anecdotal evidence, yes. But I'm not the only one.
Good to have a voice from the inside for a change. As a firm supporter of medical science, may I ask what job you do?
A small point I would like to make regarding large scale prescriptions of new drugs, is that in my opinion GPs tend to over diagnose conditions that there is a verified effective treatment for, a sort of confirmation bias behavior that is subtly reinforced by the glossy media, and is at the very least undesirable. Do you agree?
Statins are a case in point - the media have practically been saying that everyone should take them to lower cholesterol, whether they are ill or not. Other recent examples include anti depressants like Paroxetine, whose occasionally severe side effects and/or withdrawal symptoms were not well understood until a populace sized group of people were put on it. Crucially this was after the marketing+media hype had been done - invalidating several of the claims made during marketing. We can also go further back and look at Thalidomide etc.
Of course, had such large scale prescriptions of these drugs not occurred, we might never have discovered the more serious risks to particular individuals. Perhaps it is even necessary to further our understanding. My (small) point of contention is that media hype, combined with GPs fallibility makes for a very suspicious patient. Unfortunately this is exacerbated by the conspiracy theorists who are given much of their ammunition by sometimes clearly unethical business practices, like the marketing of drugs as completely safe when in reality - the jury is still out.
Poor doc the end of big pharma is near and you can sense it do not be afraid we people of the world will help you find another job. I have 8 children age 9 to 22 not a single visit to a doctor in more than six years, two cousins and two uncles are doctor. I found the secret pills weaken the immune system and make the body sick all the time.
And oh yes cholesterol if only one will use common sense then it becomes evident that the children do not get high blood because their nerves is soft and pliable any cholesterol can pass thru with ease. The cause therefor is hardening of nerves cause by chemicals that slowly kill and harden the nerves as one gets older and there is lots of bad chemicals in the body. chemtrails monsanto etc.
this documentary was brought to you by the Dairy farmers society of America lol.
Generally, when people are challenging a hypothesis for decades, it's because they can't prove what they are saying!
both sides cant proove anything. eat what you want,live good,die happy.
That's where you're wrong because actually all medicine has to prove it's effectual by scientific peer review...so there is evidence on one side, quite a bit!
I guess its as the saying goes "Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be they food" I'm getting to the point where I want to drop all this processed crap and start growing all my own food. I bet a lot of the stress damage is caused by food additives. It almost seems as if "do no harm" has been completely forgotten in lieu of "what's our bottom line ?"
The way I see it is we should just eat. All the worrying is probably just as bad as that double cheeseburger.
yes and no
OR!!! you could ruminate and just starve. Life is just too short for any of this and not sweet enough to live too long. As I see it.
The drug industry has created more diseases than it has ever cured. There is no money in curing, only in the ongoing treatment of a disease that was sold to the public by advertising. I think they discover these drugs by accident then come up with a disease for them to treat
Smallpox and Rinderpest have been eradicated by modern medecine. Polio is on the way out, HIV/AIDS is no longer an instant death sentence, neither are a lot of cancers.
Your children can be vaccinated against whooping cough, measles, rhubella, and lots of other diseases.
We can cure cataract problems, we can even stitch a pair of donor arms onto an amputee.
So...yeah, what about all of that?
Let me remind you that the vaccine for small pox was founded BEFORE companies like Big Pharma ever came into the mix. Chew on that one. Yes HIV is no longer a death sentence because you must take drugs for the rest of your life costing around 2000-5000 dollars a month so yea you will live longer but go bankrupt in the process, effectively dying sad and miserable. We're talking about the mainstream diseases that are generating billions of dollars for big pharma, like all the autoimmune problems (eczema), cancer, AIDS, Heart disease, High blood pressure, asthma, and so on.
If you're an American, what you need to do is support Socialised medecine.
I live in the UK, so we have a slightly different argument about it than you lot do. It's possible to have Aids or Cancer in the UK without having to go bankrupt for it.
Says video is private .. can't watch it :(
to answer the last question...you better believe it. When a 30 second commercial tells you in a few seconds what the drug is for and spends the rest of the 25+ seconds telling you with ultra fast speed-talking why and how it may kill you if you take it...the big pharma "cartel" can keep it's drugs. It is scary what these greedy bastards get away with...
the reason they do that is because the drug companies are required BY LAW to list all possible side effects recorded during the clinical testing.
What, would you rather they kept it all secret or something?
If you think there's a medecine out there that will cure anything without any side effects, then you need to go out and discover it i'm afraid because 10,000 years of people searching haven't found it yet.
I wonder what made you think I didn't know they are required by law to disclose potentially FATAL problems. You completely missed my point, that is, the poison will kill you and you are paying for it. Thank God we STILL have that law on the books.... but don't worry, it will disappear if it would cut into the profit margin...
Um...it does cut into the profit margins!
Testing is an expensive and thorough procedure that costs money.
I don't disagree with you, pharmacutical companies are capitalist corporations...they're supposed to be big and evil, that's how they survive. let's just not go lumping all the scientists in with the businessmen eh?
Actually there is! It's called food. Give the body what it needs and it can heal itself. With the exception of trauma, in which case then you really do want a medical doctor. Otherwise just educate yourself about nutrition and you won't have to bother with big pharma.
have a cure for hep c? the usual course of drugs is what was used for cancer prior to the discovery of chemo and radiation and I don't have cancer. just yet. after i do labs this month i will know if milk thistle is protecting non infected tissues for a 2nd 6 month period. but damage is still be doing done. i know of no other supplement that there is some science behind for hep. there has been clinical trials with milk thistle although substandard in procedures.
There are many cures for cancer, if you know where to look. Ozone therapy would be a start.
i see no peer review medical articles on ozone therapy. it appears to be yet another fraud.
So if you suddenly develop an anurism, or a spot of neumonia, would you call for an ambulance or a burger van?