The Truth About Cholesterol
Cholesterol drugs are among the most prescribed drugs on the market today. Every year the medical profession seems to change the level of cholesterol in the blood to determine who should be using cholesterol lowering drugs. When they originally found out that statins (cholesterol lowering drugs) would lower a person’s cholesterol they would prescribe them only if a person’s cholesterol was over 280. Today they will prescribe statins to anyone who is diabetic, has cardiovascular issues or has a family history of heart disease.
After a few years of prescribing the drugs they realized that only a small percentage of patients would have a cholesterol count over the 280 mark so they decided to lower the threshold to 240. A couple of years later they decided to lower the threshold to 180, then 150 and now anyone with a cholesterol count of over 130 is a candidate for the prescription.
According to the drug manufactures, cholesterol is the primary reason people are having heart attacks therefore all they need to do is get the medical profession to prescribe more cholesterol lowering drugs.
What Were the Results?
From 1988 through 2008, the use of statin drugs by adults 45 years of age and over increased 10-fold, from 2% to 25%. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) in 2011 and 2012 more than one-quarter (27.9%) of the adult population were using cholesterol lowering drugs.
You would think that with almost 30% of the adult population using these so called wonder drugs the incidence of heart attack and stroke would be going down. After all, the reason you should be taking them is to lower your risk of heart attack and stroke.
Do Cholesterol Drugs Work?
According to the Centers for Disease Control a total of 481,458 Americans died of heart disease in 1994. Fourteen years later in 2008, according to Cardio Smart – American College of Cardiology over 616,000 people died of heart disease. So in just 14 years in spite of the fact that thousands of people were using statin drugs almost 200,000 more people died of heart disease.
Then according to the American Heart Association, just 3 years later in 2011, 778,000 Americans died of heart disease. If cholesterol drugs reduce your risk of heart disease shouldn’t those numbers be going down?
According to an American Heart Association News report, released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showed that heart disease deaths increased by 3 percent between 2011 and 2014. How could that possible be when more than one-quarter of the adult population is on these wonder drugs?
Would somebody please explain to me why we keep using the same procedure to supposedly treat heart disease for almost 30 years if these statistics are true?
When you take these statistics into consideration and combine that with the possible side effects of taking a cholesterol lowering drug, are you sure you want to participate in that therapy?
A Shocking Study
According to News Max Health, a new shocking study reveals that taking statin drugs can drastically reduce your risk of surviving a heart attack. The study, published in the journal Critical Care Medicine, found that the lower a patient’s cholesterol levels, the higher the risk of dying during the 30-day period following a heart attack.
“The study found that patients with LDL-cholesterol levels less than 110 mmg/dl, and triglyceride less than 62.5 mmg/dl were most at risk of dying,” Dr. Brownstein told Newsmax Health.
“Lower LDL levels were linked to a 65 percent increase in mortality, and lower triglycerides were associated with a 405 percent increased mortality. But in those patients whose LDL and triglyceride levels were both below the threshold levels, the risk rose to an astronomical 990 percent increased risk for dying.”
“They don’t tell you in medical school that 50 percent of people who suffer heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels,”says Dr.Brownstein.
Your friend in health,
Roy P. Williams