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SATURATED FAT AND CHOLESTEROL CAUSE HEART DISEASE—FACT OR MYTH? by Thomas L Stone, MD, Diplomate of the American Board of Environmental Medicine, Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and Medical Director of the Center for Bioenergetic Medicine in Kempton, Illinois. Fact or Myth? Fact or Myth? Is it possible that the information that bombards us daily might be influenced by GREED & DECEIT? For example, the total annual market for the cholesterol fighting drugs is more than $19,000,000,000.00. That's right, 19 billion dollars! Sales of statin drugs are projected to reach 25 BILLION dollars within the next four years. Is it possible then that we may be the victims of sales propaganda rather than benefiting from unbiased scientific research? . . . some important information not easily available in our news media, where we are bombarded daily by advertisements for “low cholesterol” foods and drugs to lower our cholesterol.
This article will not provide you with any final answer to the choices that most of us have to make. But I will try to give you some important information not easily available in our news media, where we are bombarded daily by advertisements for “low cholesterol” foods and drugs to lower our cholesterol. Hopefully, this will enable you to ask your physician appropriate questions so that together you can decide on an appropriate diet and, if necessary, a drug that has a risk-benefit ratio in your favor. In his book, HEART FRAUDS, NOHA Speaker* Charles T. McGee, MD, claims that a coalition of vested interests supports the cholesterol theory. Supporters include the American Heart Association, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, drug companies who manufacture cholesterol lowering drugs, the producers of vegetable oils and margarines, and the medical industry. In a prophetic statement that he wrote over 10 years ago, he noted that, “This is a powerful alliance. It will be most difficult to remove ourselves from the influence of the cholesterol theory simply because the facts show it to be false.” Back in 1988, WalterA. Heiby, NOHA member, researcher, and author of the classic book, THE REVERSE EFFECT, wrote, “Distinguishing between markers and underlying causes is not sufficiently recognized as a problem of various sciences. Cholesterol (an essential chemical required for metabolic processes), for example, may be merely a marker, rather than a cause, of cardiovascular disease.” . . . epidemiological studies do not support the notion that diets high in animal fats cause heart disease.
But, if cholesterol is not the cause of cardiovascular disease, how can all these studies show life-prolonging benefit? Why do you think that statins are having a beneficial effect through their cholesterol lowering action, if some of the patients who benefit do not even have hypercholesterolemia? More and more evidence is emerging that the primary mode of statin benefit is not via their cholesterol-lowering property but via stabilizing the vulnerable plaques in the blood vessels, reducing inflammation, CRP, etc. Unfortunately, most research data nowadays is manipulated to present favorable results or markedly inflate the results to show spectacular results. More on that later. Many here in NOHA are familiar with the researcher in fat metabolism, NOHA Speaker* Sally Fallon. In the January 26, 2002, issue of the British Medical Journal, she questions the benefits of low fat diets. She notes that epidemiological studies do not support the notion that diets high in animal fats cause heart disease. She gives numerous examples from around the world to illustrate the relative safety of fat in the diet. Meticulous investigations of the food consumption in 21 studies, including more than 150,000 participants, with and without coronary heart disease, did not find a correlation of dietary fat consumption, in accordance with the current view. More importantly, systematic reviews of the various trials on the connection between fat intake and heart disease contradict any link. Not a single death has been prevented by diet in these trials. Researchers claiming the validity of the diet-heart idea do so by excluding negative trial results from their analyses. ________________ * Charles T. McGee, MD, “A Crash Course in Protecting Your Health from the Hidden Hazards of Modern Living,” Audio Tape #15, 4/82; Comments on his book, How to Survive Modern Technology, NOHA NEWS, Summer 1984, “A Noha Theme: EAT WHOLE FOODS UNCONTAMINATED BY PESTICIDES.” *Sally Fallon, “Nourishing Traditions: The Charactistics of Healthy, Traditional Diets,” Audio Tape and Video Cassette #164, 11/97. |