The Cholesterol Myths
by Uffe
Ravnskov, MD, PhD
The idea that too much animal fat and high cholesterol are
dangerous to your heart and vessels is nothing but a myth.Here are some
astonishing and frightening facts (see below)
If you think this is written by another Internet crackpot, take a look
at Dr. Ravnskov's credentials
and the reviews of his book.
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Evidence from the new cholesterol-lowering trial PROSPER,
that statin treatment causes cancer.
New cholesterol guidelines for converting healthy people into
patients
Read Dr. Ravnskov?s thought-provoking paper "High cholesterol
may protect against infections and atherosclerosis",
recently published in the prestigious Quarterly Journal of
Medicine...
... or choose the popular-scientific version
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Many well-known scientists agree with Dr Ravnskov. Go to THINCS,
The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics
Here are the facts! Click on the blue arrows if you want the scientific evidence!
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1 Cholesterol is not a deadly poison, but a substance
vital to the cells of all mammals. There are no such things
as good or bad cholesterol, but mental stress, physical activity
and change of body weight may influence the level of blood
cholesterol. A high cholesterol is not dangerous by itself,
but may reflect an unhealthy condition, or it may be totally
innocent.
2 A high blood cholesterol is said to promote atherosclerosis
and thus also coronary heart disease. But many studies have
shown that people whose blood cholesterol is low become just
as atherosclerotic as people whose cholesterol is high.
3 Your body produces three to four times more cholesterol
than you eat. The production of cholesterol increases when
you eat little cholesterol and decreases when you eat much.
This explains why the ?prudent? diet cannot lower cholesterol
more than on average a few per cent.
4 There is no evidence that too much animal fat and cholesterol
in the diet promotes atherosclerosis or heart attacks. For
instance, more than twenty studies have shown that people
who have had a heart attack haven't eaten more fat of any
kind than other people, and degree of atherosclerosis at autopsy
is unrelated with the diet.
5 The only effective way to lower cholesterol is with
drugs, but neither heart mortality or total mortality have
been improved with drugs the effect of which is cholesterol-lowering
only. On the contrary, these drugs are dangerous to your health
and may shorten your life.
6 The new cholesterol-lowering drugs, the statins, do
prevent cardio-vascular disease, but this is due to other
mechanisms than cholesterol-lowering. Unfortunately, they
also stimulate cancer in rodents, disturb the functions of
the muscles, the heart and the brain and pregnant women taking
statins may give birth to children with malformations more
severe than those seen after thalidomide.
7 Many of these facts have been presented in scientific
journals and books for decades but are rarely told to the
public by the proponents of the diet-heart idea.
8 The reason why laymen, doctors and most scientists
have been misled is because opposing and disagreeing results
are systematically ignored or misquoted in the scientific
press.
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Do you want to know more?
Read Dr. Ravnskov's book "The
Cholesterol Myths" at an updated and greatly extended version
of this page.
In addition to the subjects mentioned above, you can read about
...the many unsuccessful cholesterol-lowering experiments,
...the meaningless animal experiments,
...familial hypercholesterolemia and why you shouldn't bother too much about it,
...the myths about triglycerides,
...the dangers associated with an overconsumption of polyunsaturated oils,
...the illogicalities around the Mediterranean diet,
...the fallacies of Dr. Ornish?s life-style trial,
...and much more
including cartoons by Sidney Harris, Robert Mankoff, Johnny Hart, Junko Innanen, Tim Toles and Harley L Schwadron
Reviews
John Brignell, PhD, Professor
Stephen Byrnes, PhD, ND, RNCP
Michael Gurr, PhD, Professor
Bodil J?nsson, PhD, Professor (review in Swedish)
Joel Kauffman, Research Professor
Ira Pilgrim, PhD
Ray Rosenman, MD |
Available in many American bookstores, or go to
New Trends Publishing, Washington DC
Printing error: In the 2000 edition figure 1B is wrong. A correct figure
has been enclosed separately in the book, except, unfortunately, in
a few. The correct figure is available as a jpg
file.
A German edition of the book, "Mythos Cholesterin", is available from Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart.
About the author
Dr. Ravnskov is an independent researcher. No part of his research, including this website and his book, were funded or influenced by any governmental, industrial or charitable organization.
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