The most common version of cholesterol goes something like this: when you eat fatty foods, especially foods rich in animal fat, the saturated fat and cholesterol in these foods end up in your blood and cling to your arteries plugging them up. Since saturated fats are solid outside your body, they will be solid inside your body also — even though there is 30-degree increase in average temperature. Arteries are much like pipes. When they get caked up with grease, blood flow is impaired, and a heart attack ensues.
None of the prominent scientists who promoted the idea that cholesterol is a critical factor in the development of heart disease ever believed anything remotely resembling this nonsense. From the beginning, they recognized that atherosclerotic plaque accumulates behindthe layer of the artery in contact with the blood, called the endothelium, and that the cholesterol and fat within it is engulfed in white blood cells.
The theory these scientists promoted looked something like this: when the cholesterol level in the blood increases, it penetrates the arterial wall and gets stuck; white blood cells circulating in the blood then enter the arterial wall and gobble up the cholesterol; the accumulation of lipid-loaded white blood cells causes local injury, leading to cell death, calcification, and the development of a collagen-laden “fibrous cap” over the atherosclerotic lesion. When the cap ruptures, the blood clots, blocking the artery and causing a heart attack. This is called the lipid hypothesis.
But is this true? Books and web sites devoted to debunking this theory have come out of the woodwork over the last decade; books defending it have followed suit. Consider the following titles to see just how controversial the idea really is:
So is the theory that cholesterol causes heart disease just a myth? Or are the skeptics truly waging a war against the preponderance of the evidence?
There are 14 popular drugs that lower cholesterol, here are some stats for two of them.Lipitor is the most popular drug ever sold ever in the history of the world.Lipitor does more than $9 billion in sales per year that’s more than one million dollars per hour, every hour of every day, 365 days per year and that’s not chump change.Crestor had $3.5 billion in sales on it’s cholesterol lowering drug in 2008.The list goes on and on.So how much do they spend to lobby the FDA for approval of there poisonous elixirs? The deep-pocketed pharmaceutical and health products industry has lobbied on more than 1,400 congressional bills since 1998 and spent a whopping $759 million during that period, a Center for Public Integrity review of lobbying records revealed. My point is that it is all about money and not true health. Would you chance these side effects of Lipitor : headache, nausea, fever,seriuos liver problems,severe muscle pain,unusual muscle pain or weakness,sexual dysfunction and performance problems, as well as personality changes, memory loss and even death.
There are many other researchers that believe it is better to not take cholesterol lowering drugs! I am not a M.D. nor do I have a P.H.D. but have I reviewed many sources and have published many links on this site. The majorty of information on this site is research done by Uffe Ravnskov, MD,Phd .You will find his many cedentials on this site along with many concurring Doctors and experts. This website will be for non profit and is only here to benefit those who seek the truth and want to understand the truth of cholesterol.