The Hidden Truth About Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs

"The new cholesterol-lowering drugs account for 6.5% of the market share and brought in $12.5 billion in 2002. In 2004, Lipitor became the first drug to bring in $10 billion annually, and statins now rake in $26 billion per year....

....Electron beam tomography now allows medical researchers to analyze plaque levels in live patients. Ellison cites Hecht and Harman of New York's Beth Israel Medical Center, who determined cholesterol-lowering drugs, both alone and in combination with niacin, to have no effect on atherosclerotic plaque, despite lowering LDL cholesterol. Hecht and Harman report ". . . with respect to LDL cholesterol-lowering, 'lower is better' is not supported by changes in calcified plaque progression."...

...studies have consistently linked high cholesterol to lower mortality. For example:

Low cholesterol is associated with heart arrhythmia.

The European Heart Journal published a 3-year study of 11,500 patients finding those with low cholesterol to have a risk of all-cause death 2.27 times higher than those with high cholesterol.

The Journal of Cardiac Failure published an analysis of 1134 patients with heart disease and found low cholesterol to be associated with the worst outcomes in heart failure patients and impaired survival, while high cholesterol improved survival rates.

The American Geriatrics Society reported in 2003 that, in patients over the age of 65, even cholesterol levels up to 417 mg/dL were associated with lower mortality compared to levels under 189 mg/dL.

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