Cholesterol doesn't cause heart attacks

From an article in today’s NY Times:

For decades, the theory that lowering cholesterol is always beneficial has been a core principle of cardiology. It has been accepted by doctors and used by drug makers to win quick approval for new medicines to reduce cholesterol.

But now some prominent cardiologists say the results of two recent clinical trials have raised serious questions about that theory ...

Actually, the "cholesterol is bad" mantra is an informational cascade. There has never been any empirical evidence that lowering cholesterol (other than with statin drugs) results in health benefits.

Dr. Ravnskov says that statins reduce risk of heart attacks (but increase risk of other bad stuff at the same time) by some method other than cholesterol, and these failed trials of non-statin cholesterol-lowering drugs proves that Ravnskov was correct all along. In fact, Ravnskov says that cholesterol is good for you.

Comments

[Peter]

It could well be true. Nonetheless, links to the Weston Price Foundation are not confidence-inspiring.

[bbartlog]

The idea that high cholesterol levels are associated with pathology, without necessarily being causative, has been floating around for a while. Maybe a good related point would be that serum cholesterol has very little to do with dietary cholesterol. You *can* reduce your blood cholesterol by eating well, and exercising, but it won't be because you are eating less cholesterol.

links to the Weston Price Foundation are not confidence-inspiring

Why not?

[EMPhan]

Doesn't it seem silly to anyone that eggs, a high quality protein source high in vitamins and minerals should be limited to one a week because of cholesterol, a substance that your body manufactures that is vital for proper brain and hormone (like testosterone) function?

Want an example of how little doctors know about nutrition? I asked my cousin, a brain surgeon who is a professor at Harvard, what she thought of cod liver oil. Her reply: "I don't believe in that stuff." That's pretty outrageous given the number of recent studies done establishing the numerous benefits of fish & cod liver oil for good health. But hey - at least she believes in Lipitor and anti-depressants! Never mind the side effects... or the fact that they don't even work.

[DML]

Don't know if what Dr. Ravnskov says is true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is. Reminds me a lot of the Penn & Teller Bullshit ep on second-hand smoke where they find that in fact, hardly anyone dies of it. Same deal with steroids - they really aren't that dangerous.

Lots of mis-informational cascades out there...

[bbartlog]

how little doctors know about nutrition

They teach almost nothing about nutrition in med school. Which is
A) idiotic, because a good diet is absolutely a cornerstone of good health, and
B) entirely predictable, because there's no profit for doctors (or med schools, or drug companies) in having people eat well.

[Peter]

Weston Price was a dentist who studied the effects of diet on health back in the 1920's and 1930's, mainly by looking at so-called primitive groups who ate traditional diets. He made some good points, but then went on about how modern diets cause not just bad health but antisocial behavior, aggression, etc.

[dearieme]

Worth looking at
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2007/01/great-cholesterol-con.html

[kurt9]

All of the current dogma about the correlation between cholesterol and high blood pressure and heart attacks comes from the Framingham study in the 50's and 60's. The actually source data collected by this study was never published. All we got from the medical industry from 1970 on was summaries and assumptions supposedly based on that source data.

It took 8 years of court battles using the Freedom of Information Act for some investigators to get the source data. When they did, the leading medical journals refused to publish it.

[Disgruntled]

I'd really like to see the new documentary "Fat Head" (http://www.fathead-movie.com/) which attacks the anti-fat crowd and appears to show that Spurlock's "Super Size Me" was fraudulent. It doesn't seem to be released yet.

[the_alpha_male]

"Reminds me a lot of the Penn & Teller Bullshit ep on second-hand smoke where they find that in fact, hardly anyone dies of it."

They now believe that the weight of the evidence does indicate that 2nd hand smoke is harmful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrub3dt7R5U

[DML]

the_alpha_male:

Thanks for the link.

[Anonymous]

If I'm not mistaken cholesterol converts to vitamin D in the body. Vitamin D enhances immune system function.