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Lies, Dam Lies and statistics. What is the truth regarding statins?
(If you torture data sufficiently, it will confess to almost anything. (Prof. Fred Menger))
If your car repair workshop told you to reduce the amount of oil in the engine of your car to well below the minimum level on the dipstick, I am willing to bet that even the most “non car savvy” of you might be a tad suspicious.
If they went on to tell you the measure will prevent engine seizures and improve control of the engine, you may suspect an ulterior motive! A call to customer services of the motor manufacturer would soon reveal this to all be untrue. But, medical “experts” can tell us equally outrageous tales and we do not question them at all!
As I write this on 28th May 2008, the BBC is reporting “The number of adults prescribed cholesterol-busting statin drugs in England and Wales is set to soar under new national guidelines.” The statement goes on to say that The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is asking GPs to trawl through patient records to pick out "high-risk" patients who would benefit from taking statins.
Is it a coincidence that Dr John Robson, a GP and chair of the guideline group in NICE, received an award from Pfizer in 2004? Pfizer is a major US based manufacturer of statin drugs making billions of dollars of profits every year.
Let me declare my position. I am a layman. I do not hold a professional medical qualification. I am an intelligent and enquiring individual concerned about yours and my health. I therefore feel justified in challenging the published opinions of “experts” who seem to be perpetuating myths. I am not accusing them of telling barefaced lies. They may well believe they are doing the best they can but are they really?
So, in an unbiased way let us look at a few facts that I have been able to understand.
Cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease. This is seemingly becoming an accepted fact in the scientific and medical community. Cholesterol is a lipid or molecule that is an essential building block in the reproduction of cells. It is a waxy substance that is not water soluble in blood so from where it is manufactured in the liver, it gets carried around the body by lipoproteins. Cholesterol is essential in the body in the manufacture of hormones and cells as well as the repair and maintenance of cells.
There is no such thing as “good” or “bad” cholesterol. Your doctor will tell you that LDL (low density lipoproteins) is bad cholesterol and that HDL (high density lipoproteins) is good cholesterol. LDL transports cholesterol to tissue. HDL returns it to the liver for reuse or excretion.
Corrected nutrition is the preventative measure of choice. Small size LDL is associated with heart disease as they can get stuck between the cells that line the arteries. They can get rancid and cause inflammation. Scar tissue can build up and narrow the arteries causing heart attacks and strokes. The only known good way to regulate LDL particles is to eat well.
Statin drugs may be misunderstood. There is a group of scientists and doctors who believe that the actual beneficial action of statins reduces inflammation and it is not the reduction of cholesterol that provides benefit. So is there a case for taking them anyway? Well due to the possible reduction in inflammation and the reduced propensity for narrowing arteries, heart attacks will decrease. Unfortunately, the evidence is that whilst death due to heart disease goes down in people taking statins, death from other causes goes up!
Concluded in Part two.
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