How the Statin Brigade Are Out in Full Force...
By Cholesterol Truth
Anyone who's trying to maintain a healthy heart probably feels totally confused with the mixed messages they’re being bombarded with at the moment from the media and the medical mainstream...
It's enough to make you want to run for the hills just to escape the ‘do this, do that, swallow more pills and don’t listen to them’ headlines... Two weeks ago we reported on the Cochrane Library review, which burst the ‘statin bubble’ with the results of a comprehensive study, suggesting that cholesterol-lowering statins are ineffective in many cases and could be doing more harm than good... Step in the right direction? Certainly! Especially since the esteemed Cochrane researchers pride themselves on conducting systematic, unbiased reviews of medical treatments. Alas, that moment of insight, and perhaps even the hope that a new direction would be taken with regards to how cardiovascular disease and its related causes is treated, was very much short lived... This week, a report published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization (WHO), says that most people around the globe with high cholesterol are not getting the treatment they need... Of course, the ‘treatment’ the report refers to is nothing else but side-effect ridden statins... We should’ve seen that one coming... The WHO’s report found that ‘many at-risk people in middle-income and western countries are not receiving cheap and widely available statin drugs that would substantially cut their risk of heart attack and stroke.’ One of the researchers, Dr Gregory Roth from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in the US, said: "Cholesterol-lowering medication is widely available, highly effective and can play an essential role in reducing cardiovascular disease around the world. Despite these facts, effective medication coverage for control of high cholesterol remains disappointingly low." Well, let’s see Dr. Roth...- ‘widely available’... Yep, the stuff is everywhere!
- ‘highly effective’... Nope, this is a topic of serious debate, especially if you factor in the terrible side effects of statin drugs. Perhaps one must rather look at a ‘risks-outweigh-the-benefits’ scenario... which may explain why millions refuse this form of ‘treatment’.
- ‘coverage remains disappointingly low’... Yep, but only for Big Pharma, who now must compete with cheaper generics.
Astonishingly, the WHO makes very little mention of lifestyle factors, like taking regular exercise and eating a healthy diet, as well as giving up smoking, which all can help tremendously in preventing heart disease and stroke... not to mention lowering contributory factors like high homocysteine, inflammation and hypertension. Clearly, it’s all about selling statin drugs and filling the pockets of unscrupulous pharmaceutical giants... Pfizer, the world's largest drug manufacturer, rakes in $10 billion a year with its statin, Lipitor. Considering that cardiovascular disease claims almost 17 million lives a year, I cannot help but wonder: If these ‘experts’ can’t even agree on an effective treatment regime, aren’t we all just part of the biggest human experiment ever to be launched by Big Pharma? It’s like watching a sword fight: Cochrane serves a massive blow, chopping statins down to size. But WHO is quick to defend and reinstates the great ‘statin-push’ to it’s former glory. Frankly, my head hurts! If you’re concerned about your heart health and want to take measures that will protect your heart without the help of statins, we’ve listed a few of our previous posts below which will show you much simpler and safer ways to promote heart health, and ward off cardiovascular disease, without risking the side effects of dangerous satins… Flaxseed Helps Lower Your Cholesterol Without Any Side Effects Do This One Thing Today to Protect Your Heart The Simple Way to Lower Your Risk of Heart Disease Without Prescription Drugs Discover the Real Threat to Your Heart Health... Until next time, The Cholesterol Truth
Sources: ‘High cholesterol no longer 'rich-country' affliction: UN report’ published online 01.02.11, 2.canada.com ‘World 'failing to treat high cholesterol', published online 01.02.11, bbc.co.uk
