They can make you believe anything, anything at all.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

http://www.amazon.com/Ignore-Awkward-Cholesterol-Myths-Alive/dp/1453759409/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310688232&sr=1-2


The cholesterol campaign is the greatest medical scandal in modern time. If you have read the author's previous books ´The Cholesteol Myths´ (out of print) or 'Fat and Cholesterol are GOOD for You', you should know that for certain. For instance, according to more than 25 scientific studies old people with high cholesterol live the longest. Another shocking fact is that the authors of a recent American study of more than 130,000 patients with acute myocardial infarction found that on average, their cholesterol was lower than normally. Their finding has already been confirmed by others. What they also found was that three years later, mortality was twice as high among those whose cholesterol was the lowest. Their conclusion? We must lower cholesterol even more! But there is much, much more.

The author's aim with this book is to show how prominent scientists have turned white into black by ignoring all conflicting observations; by twisting and exaggerating trivial findings; by citing studies with opposing results in a way to make them look supportive; and by ignoring or scorning the work of critical scientists. Those who have not read his previous books may not quite understand the width of these misleading processes. He has therefore included a short and simplified review of the most obvious contradictions to the cholesterol hypothesis. At the end he presents what he and his colleague Kilmer McCully think is the real cause, here told in a more simple way than in his previous book.

About the Author
The author is a Swedish MD and an experienced scientist himself. He has published more than 100 scientific papers about cholesterol and fats, and has received two international awards for his 'Original Contributions in the Field of Medical Scepticism' and for 'Independent Thinking in Natural Sciences and Medicine'. He is a member of the editorial board of Cholesterol and of Journal of Lipids, and is the founder and spokesman for THINCS, The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics, an organization that includes about one hundred doctors and scientist from all over the world.

[truedelphi]

1. It is because of a discussion here on Du

several years back that I have been too scared of the "cholesterol lowering" drugs to partake of them.

I even switched doctors when this past winter, my doctor began insisting that at 160, my Cholesterol reading was "sky high" and my system needed to be augmented with expensive and dangerous drugs.

The discussion that scared me here on DU was one in which perhaps 150 DU'ers engaged in discussing cholesterol, and some dozen or more DU'ers began to rant about how beloved relatives developped ALS-like diseases after being on the anti-cholesterol regimen.

I figured if that many people among such a small sample of people had personally experienced such a disaster - with death coming close after the ALS diagnosis, then the anti cholesterol meds were not something I would ever put into my body.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Du helped you (possibly) change the direction of your healthspan. Good on them. Good

on us.

Perhaps this was it, perhaps not.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5036520&mesg_id=5037158

[truedelphi]

8. No it had to be a discussion in 2007, '08 or maybe early '09

I was sitting right at this desk, next to the window with the Open Space above us. Didn't move here till early Spring 2007.

So it can't have been that early a discussion. And people in that link are in a higher ratio of approval of statins to disapproval than the discussion that I read.

[just55650]

9. +1

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Interestingly, I just read that blood sugar levels for diabetes have been lowered.

In 1997, you were considered diabetic if your blood sugar was at 140.
that year they lowered it to 126.
( quote: (In 1997, the American Diabetes Association lowered the level at which diabetes is diagnosed to 126 mg/dl from 140 mg/dl.)
https://www.virginiamason.org/service.cfm?id=511

Normal Blood pressure used to be 120/80.
Now "experts" are saying it should be 115/70.

Then we get all these reports of the "shocking rise" in diabetes and blood pressure problems.

Hmmmmm

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. There is much disagreement on issues such as this one here on the Du.

http://www.drhoffman.com/page.cfm/856

Cholesterol synthesis operates on a negative feedback loop: The more dietary cholesterol consumed, the less synthesized by the body. When on a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet, the liver churns out more cholesterol---because the body needs it!

Need more? The Framingham heart study found that those individuals with "desirable" cholesterol levels (<200) scored lower on verbal fluency, attention and concentration, and abstract reasoning than those with higher cholesterol levels.

Very low cholesterol is associated with dementia, depression, moodiness, aggressive behavior, violence, and decreased learning ability and intelligence. It is also a risk factor for cancer and increased mortality from cancer, infections and suicide.

Cholesterol is not the bad guy in atherosclerosis. It is a repair substance. It's the "spackle" that helps repair damaged arteries. The question to ask is this: What am I eating/drinking/doing/not doing that is creating all these free radicals that is damaging my arteries, oxidizing my cholesterol, and contributing to coronary artery disease?

[Schema Thing]

4. Of course I wouldn't be able to find those studies, now would I?

This is outrageous bullshit, start to finish.


"For instance, according to more than 25 scientific studies old people with high cholesterol live the longest. "


No. Absolute lies. No such studies exist.



"Another shocking fact is that the authors of a recent American study of more than 130,000 patients with acute myocardial infarction found that on average, their cholesterol was lower than normally."


Another shocking assertion. That happens to be bullshit.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Well you should know, this man on the other hand should not.

http://www.drdalepeterson.com/Copy_of_Cholesterol_Low_Part_1_c.html


In an article entitled Needs to Change the Direction of Cholesterol-Related Medication – A Problem of Great Urgency, published in November 2005, Japanese researcher H. Okuyama reported his findings based upon the data available in the medical literature. He concluded, “ . . . reducing the intake of saturated fatty acids and cholesterol and increasing that of polyunsaturated fatty acid are ineffective in reducing total cholesterol in the long run, but rather increase mortality rates from coronary heart disease and all causes . . . high total cholesterol is not positively associated with high coronary heart disease mortality rates among general populations more than 40-50 years of age.

More importantly, higher total cholesterol values are associated with lower cancer and all-cause mortality rates among these populations . . . Although the effectiveness of statins in preventing coronary heart disease has been accepted in Western countries, little benefit seems to result from efforts to limit dietary cholesterol intake or to lower TC values to less than approximately 260 mg/dl among the general population and the elderly . . . (These measures) create major risk factors for CHD, cancers, and shorter longevity. Based on the data reviewed here, it is urgent to change the direction of current cholesterol-related medication for the prevention of CHD, cancer, and all-cause mortality.”

Okuyama concludes, on the basis of an exhaustive review of the available data:

High cholesterol levels are not associated with heart attacks in people over 40 to 50 years of age
High cholesterol levels are associated with lower cancer and premature death rates
There is little benefit in lowering cholesterol levels below 260 mg/dL in older people
Efforts to lower cholesterol increase the risk of developing cancer and shorten life span

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. Facts and reports always trump bombast and generalizations, don't they?

:evilgrin:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. Well yes, if you are in a rational state of mind. Some are, some not so much. It's like being

told the universe isn't expanding when you have been preaching it for decades. The shock of finding out you have been wrong for so long is too much for some to bear.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. One man's bullshit is another man's fertilizer

http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/cholesterol_myth_4.html

On Christmas Eve, 1997, yet one more study's results were headlined in the press. The Framingham researchers said that "Serum cholesterol level is not related to incidence of stroke . . ." and showed that for every three percent more energy from fat eaten, strokes would be cut by fifteen percent. They conclude:

"Intakes of fat and type of fat were not related to the incidence of the combined outcome of all cardiovascular diseases or to total or cardiovascular mortality."

So, after forty-nine years of research, they are still saying that there is no relation between a fatty diet and heart disease. The evidence now is clear and unequivocal: animal fats are not harmful.

Two more studies, which considered total blood cholesterol levels and mortality in the elderly, were published in the Lancet almost simultaneously in 1997. In the first, scientists working at the Leiden University Medical Centre found that

"each 1 mmol/l increase in total cholesterol corresponded to a 15% decrease in mortality".

Similarly, doctors at Reykjavik Hospital and Heart Preventive Clinic in Iceland noted that the major epidemiological studies had not included the elderly. They too studied total mortality and blood cholesterol in the over 80s to show that men with blood cholesterol levels over 6.5 had less than half the mortality of those whose cholesterol level was around the 5.2 we are told is "healthy".
Low cholesterol and Alzheimer's Disease

Approximately half of the brain is made up of fats. Dr. F. M.Corrigan and colleagues, writing in 1991 about the relief of Alzheimer's Disease, ask that "strategies for increasing the delivery of cholesterol to the brain should be identified". In the fight against Alzheimer's disease, they recommend increasing fat intake.