Cholesterol Myth Kept Alive by Statin Advocates?
The 2018 review5 identified significant flaws in three studies "published by statin advocates" attempting "to validate the current dogma." The paper presents substantial evidence that total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels are not an indication of heart disease risk, and that statin treatment is of "doubtful benefit" as a form of primary prevention for this reason. According to the authors:6
"According to the British-Austrian philosopher Karl Popper, a theory in the empirical sciences can never be proven, but it can be shown to be false. If it cannot be falsified, it is not a scientific hypothesis. In the following, we have followed Popper's principle to see whether it is possible to falsify the cholesterol hypothesis.
We have also assessed whether the conclusions from three recent reviews by its supporters are based on an accurate and comprehensive review of the research on lipids and cardiovascular disease (CVD) …
Our search for falsifications of the cholesterol hypothesis confirms that it is unable to satisfy any of the Bradford Hill criteria for causality and that the conclusions of the authors of the three reviews are based on misleading statistics, exclusion of unsuccessful trials and by ignoring numerous contradictory observations."
As reported by Reason.com:7
"A comprehensive new study on cholesterol, based on results from more than a million patients, could help upend decades of government advice about diet, nutrition, health, prevention, and medication …
The study … centers on statins, a class of drugs used to lower levels of LDL-C, the so-called 'bad' cholesterol, in the human body. According to the study, statins are pointless for most people …
The study also reports that 'heart attack patients were shown to have lower than normal cholesterol levels of LDL-C' and that older people with higher levels of bad cholesterol tend to live longer than those with lower levels."
No Evidence Cholesterol Influences Heart Disease Risk
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