Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs linked to heightened diabetes risk

NEWS

A US study has linked cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to a heightened risk of type 2 diabetes among patients already deemed to be at high risk of the condition.

COMMENT

Despite causing numerous side effects and raising the risk of developing other diseases, cholesterol-lowering drugs form one of the largest business segments of the global pharmaceutical industry. This entire multibillion dollar business is built on fear – the fear that cholesterol supposedly causes heart attacks.

While the “cholesterol scare” has become a gold mine for drug companies, the economic burden of this business is ultimately carried by us, the people. Significantly, therefore, an analysis of the scientific facts about the role of cholesterol in the body reveals three crucial aspects that have essentially been withheld from us by the pharmaceutical industry and its stakeholders.

Firstly, cholesterol is not our enemy. It is a molecule that is essential for life, a structural constituent of the walls of billions of cells in the body, and the precursor of many biological molecules, including hormones such as estrogen and testosterone. Secondly, if the blood vessel walls are structurally intact there is no scientific evidence that cholesterol, even in moderately elevated concentrations, damages them or causes atherosclerotic plaques and heart attacks. Thirdly, in test animals, for cholesterol to have a damaging effect on otherwise intact blood vessel walls (i.e. for it to cause plaques), it must be artificially increased to levels essentially never observed in humans.

In short, therefore, contrary to what patients are being told, there is no scientific evidence that cholesterol – even at moderately elevated levels – can damage an otherwise intact blood vessel wall.

To fully understand the truth about cholesterol and heart disease, read chapter 3 of Dr. Rath’s lifesaving book, Why Animals Don’t Get Heart Attacks…But People Do!