Cholesterol & Heart Disease – Fact or Fiction?

I read this interesting article discussing the association between high cholesterol and heart disease. It was written by a Scottish medical doctor named Malcom Kendrick. He’s a peer-reviewer for the British Medical Journal, and heart disease specialist. It’s definitely worth a look. Here’s a portion:

“The cholesterol hypothesis is, perhaps, the greatest ever example of a medical hypothesis that has become too powerful to die. Too many vested interests are intertwined with it. World famous experts would look incredibly stupid if the hypothesis were to be accepted to be wrong. An entire industry of cholesterol lowering would fall apart. Hundreds of billions of dollars of statin sales are at stake. Worse, much worse, the medical profession would end up with a few million eggs on its face. Perish the thought. Much better that millions die, surely.”

Dr. Kendrick isn’t the only medical doctor who feels this way. Simon Yu, M.D., an internist here in St Louis, also questions the cholesterol-heart disease relationship. On his website, Dr. Yu states, “Think differently! We must correct the underlying problems that cause our illnesses. Only by doing so, will our bodies correct themselves and return to optimal health.”

Here’s a PDF article from Dr. Yu that shares more information on cholesterol.

Last June, I shared this article about a little-known medical statistic known as NNT, or Number-Needed-to-Treat. In short, NNT measures the number of patients who must take a drug before 1 person benefits from it. Dr. Nortin M. Hadler, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, admits: “Anything over an NNT of 50 is worse than a lottery ticket; there may be no winners.”

Surprise, surprise… Many cholesterol-lowering drugs have an NNT score of 50 (or higher!).