Jane Brody: As the LDL Falls

Thought I'd give you an update on Sweet Jane's cholesterol conundrum, which you may recall from this post. Apparently, she has emerged victorious from her battle with unsatisfying LDL levels with a little help from her new friend - Lipitor. From her update:

The low-dose statin I’d been taking did the trick. After four months of taking 10 mg a day of Lipitor, my total cholesterol went from 248 to 159. The bad cholesterol, or LDL, went from 171 to 84. My good cholesterol also went up slightly. My ratio of total cholesterol to good cholesterol has me living forever!

Wow. That's a whole lotta articles to look forward to.

What better to commemorate this momentous occasion than a talk by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, given to the Leeds Local Medical Community of the British Medical Association, about why cholesterol does not cause heart disease? Links to the videos follow (and include references to studies, etc), but I'll give you a sampler of my favorite bits:

• European countries with the highest level of fat consumption have the lowest incidence of heart disease.



• The incidence of heart disease in European countries with the highest saturated fat consumption are 1/7th that of countries with the lowest saturated fat consumption.



• A 1992 study (pre-statin era) of one million people found that those with the lowest cholesterol had the highest mortality rates.



• In women over 50 (ahem, Jane Brody, ahem), low cholesterol is SIGNIFICANTLY associated with increased all-cause mortality, and especially with cancer, liver dieases and mental diseases (cough, Jane Brody, cough).



• People who maintain a low cholesterol level for twenty years have the worst outlook for all-cause mortality.



• Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (genetically high cholesterol levels) does not cause heart disease.



• Statin trials are mostly crap (I am paraphrasing).



• Heart disease is a process, and stress plays a major role, particularly in displaced population clusters (Australian Aborigines, etc)

The videos:

Part One - Cholesterol

Part Two - Familial Hypercholesterolaemia

Part Three - About Statins

Part Four - What Causes Heart Disease?

Part Five - Populations