The Real Statin Story
It’s February so I should be writing about something romantic but I’m not in the mood. Instead let me focus on your heart in a medical way.
Unfortunately what I am writing about will contradict everything your cardiologist and primary care doctor are telling you. I am not alone in my opinion. Check out ANY of the references below. The Weston Price Foundation does an excellent job as well reviewing this issue in very simple terms. Here’s the reference.
I know everyone and their sister are on statins. You have been told that somehow cholesterol is bad and that statins will prevent a heart attack. 
Your doctor looks at a number on a piece of paper and reaches for the prescription pad putting you on medication for life! No discussion, no research, no debate…just take a pill. Don’t worry…everyone is on these meds and they are safe and effective. These hypotheses are not proven and the bulk of the evidence suggests that both ideas are wrong. Dr. Malcom Kendrik has written multiple books on this including The Clot Thickens and The Great Cholesterol Con. Dr. Sinatra on this side of the pond has written similarly in his book The Great Cholesterol Myth. If you are not into books and would rather Youtube it, I offer the following…
Dr. Malhotra, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb5SmhY30kw
Dr. Paul Mason, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7r4j1u42V8
Dr. Michael Gregor, https://nutritionfacts.org/video/are-doctors-misleading-patients-about-statinrisks-and-benefits/
But my all time favorite is the one by Dr. Ali who is a practicing interventional cardiologist. If you watch the video below you may never blindly trust your doctor again. I think that’s a good thing. Dr. Ali quickly goes through the major statin trials and shows that despite significant reductions in LDL cholesterol mortality was reduced by less than one percent! In the FOURIER trial there were more people who died in the treatment group than in the control group. How in the world does the FDA approve a drug or treatment where the group being treated has more deaths than the control group!? The same thing happened in the Pfizer mRNA vaccine trial for covid but that’s another column altogether.
Dr. Nadir Ali, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_QdNX9etCg
These are not polemic diatribes recorded by non physicians. Drs. Malhotra and Ali are Board Certified Cardiologists…that’s right, heart doctors that have independently looked at the data…and come to very different opinions other than the guidelines. By the way did you know that there is a group called the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists Collaboration…they are the biggest source of data for the cholesterol trials but they REFUSE to release the raw data for other doctors and scientists to independently verify their statements. Trust us there are no side effects and everyone should take statins. Did you know they were funded by the drug companies? How can you possibly trust statements from a group that is funded by the statin makers and who refuses to release the full data.
By the way, just as they are trying to marginalize, and demonize doctors who are asking about the excess deaths since the covid vaccine came out, there is now a move to sanction doctors who are spreading “misinformation” about statins.
Just look at the basic issue. How can cholesterol be bad when it’s in breast milk? How can cholesterol be dangerous if it’s one of the 4 main fats in your brain? People born with a genetic defect that lowers their cholesterol level die prematurely. Cholesterol and its metabolic pathway are involved in many different functions in the body and blocking cholesterol has many unintended consequences downstream…too many to mention here but well covered in Dr. Ali’s video. 
Your doctor gets his information from the major medical journals, not from studying the trials themselves. The former chief editor of the most prestigious medical journal had this to say. Marcia Angell wrote, “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.”
Finally…In a study NOT controlled by the drug companies, an article from “Pubmed Association between low density lipoprotein cholesterol and all-cause mortality: results from the NHANES 1999-2014” this study found, in Americans, that the LOWER your LDL cholesterol the greater your risk of dying from ANY cause including cancer. PMID: 34764414
Let me close by referencing Dr. Duane Graveline, former astronaut, aerospace medical research scientist, flight surgeon, and family doctor who wrote a book entitled Lipitor Thief of Memory about his personal experience on a statin.
This column only touches on the surface of this important issue but the references provided will take you much deeper. I know it’s going to upset some physicians. I have already had multiple patients say that when they approached their doctors about this controversy they were met with “Who’s the doctor here?,” “Are you putting Google against my 30 years of professional judgment?” and “I don’t have time to look at your references.” The facts are what the facts are and it’s very clear that the guidelines are controlled by big pharma. If your provider is not open to your questions and the fact that you are interested in your health and doing your own research you should get another provider. Your healthcare should be a cooperative endeavor and you have every right to ask questions and get real answers.
Until next month…get well and stay well.
