How Big Pharma plans to get the world on statins

In spite of all of the bad news I've brought you about statins in the past year, there's always a new study that claims they're the best thing since sliced bread.

You'll love this next one: now statins are supposed to benefit patients with LOW cholesterol, too. Yes, you read that right: the world's top-selling prescription drug for high cholesterol has now found a new clientele. In short, Big Pharma now believes just about everyone should be taking a statin. Confused? I don't blame you.

The recent study tracked 18,000 healthy men and women with "normal" cholesterol levels, but who had elevated levels of C-reactive protein. CRP is a substance that is connected to inflammation, which is a major indicator of heart disease.

Those of us in the alternative health world have been telling you for years that inflammation plays a much greater role in heart disease then cholesterol. But the mainstream medical community was quick to turn a blind eye to this inconvenient truth - until now. So what's changed? It's easy…

Big Pharma now has "proof" that one of their drugs can lower levels of CRP. Suddenly, CRP is on every cardiologist's radar. Convenient timing, don't you think?

Here's what the study showed: When patients who had normal cholesterol levels but high CRP levels took Crestor, they had only half as many incidences of heart attack and stroke as did the placebo group.

I might be intrigued by the study if it hadn't been funded by Astra-Zenica - the makers of Crestor. But that minor detail didn't seem to matter to the American Heart Association when they presented the study's results at the AHA's Scientific Sessions, or to the New England Journal of Medicine, when they printed the study's results in their Nov. 20 issue.

As one of the lead researchers on the study put it, "Physicians can no longer assume that a patient with low cholesterol has a low risk for a heart attack or a stroke." As many as half of all heart attacks and strokes affect people without the traditional risk factors, or who have LDL cholesterol levels (that's the "bad" cholesterol) that's below the standard for prescribing statin drugs.

That's EXACTLY right - because cholesterol is NOT the risk factor for heart disease that everyone claims it is.

This study just convinces me of the inevitability that, before long, EVERYONE will be taking a statin-based drug of one form or another. That's the master plan, anyway. And if you think I'm jaded, just listen to what Mayo Clinic cardiologist and past president of the AHA said about it: "This study was DESIGNED to identify NEW GROUPS OF PATIENTS who could benefit from statin therapy…"

If that's not telling, I don't know what is.

Mark A. Hlatky, M.D., Stanford University professor of health and research policy, said, "We're talking about treating relatively low-risk people with a drug they will take for the rest of their lives… We can't just say everyone should be treated."

Don't fall for these bogus studies paid for by the very people who want you to think you need them for the rest of your life.

As always, follow the money - and forget about statins.

Study links Alzheimer's to junk food

It seems like every other week I'm reading about a new "cause" of Alzheimer's disease. It's hard to keep track. And now there's a new study that's managed to link junk food to this horribly degenerative disease of the mind: Swedish researchers found that mice fed junk food over the course of nine months showed signs of "brain tangles" similar to that of human Alzheimer's patients.

Looks like you've got yet another reason to drive past the drive through, huh?

The researchers suspect that high-fat and high cholesterol diets can combine with genetic predispositions toward Alzheimer's to trigger the onset of the disease. It's not only another potentially important discovery in the battle against this hideous and irreversible form of dementia, but it's yet another blow against high-calorie and nutrition-free fast food.

However, you can put this latest research near the top of your list of reasons to stay away from McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and other death traps that sell nothing but artery-clogging, heart-stopping foodstuffs. And don't forget it!