Statins are the so-called "wonder drugs" widely prescribed to lower blood cholesterol levels that claim to offer unparalleled protection against heart disease. Many experts claim that they are completely safe and that they are also capable of preventing a whole series of other conditions. This groundbreaking study exposes the truth behind the hype surrounding statins and reveals a number of crucial facts, including that high cholesterol levels do not cause heart disease; that high-fat diets—saturated or otherwise—do not affect blood cholesterol levels; and that for most men and all women the benefits offered by statins are negligible at best. Other data is also provided that shows that statins have many more side affects than is often acknowledged. This hard-hitting survey also points a finger at the powerful pharmaceutical industry and an unquestioning medical profession as perpetrators of the largely facetious concepts of “good” and “bad” cholesterol that are designed to convince millions of people to spend billions on statins. With clarity and wit, this appeal to common sense and scientific fact debunks common assumptions on what constitutes a healthy lifestyle and diet, as well as the idea that there is a miracle cure for heart disease.
The Great Cholesterol Con
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"[The Great Cholesterol Con] will save you a lot of heartache—LITERALLY!" —Examiner.com
About the Author
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick has contributed to numerous medical journals on the topic of coronary heart disease and currently runs a general practice.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
214 of 218 people found the following review helpful
By A reader
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you've somehow managed to sidestep the pressure to go on statins, this book will provide you with justification. Kendrick walks you, step by step, through your own physiology and bio-chemistry, and backs his contentions that cholesterol can not be the cause of heart disease by citing and summarizing published studies that bear this out. The book is technical but highly readable thanks to an easy conversational style (if your high school biology teacher had been Kendrick, you'd have understood everything and gotten an A). If you don't really care about arterial plaques and exactly how they're formed (and exactly how they're not) the take-away message is pretty much this: statins are ineffective for women, especially for women over 50 years old, and for anybody over 70 years old. Further, statistical studies may indicate that lowering cholesterol encourages cancer. Many of the points Kendrick makes here are also borne out in Gary Taubes' excellent "Good Calories, Bad Calories." Both of these books are recommended.
I also feel somewhat compelled to add this: While doctors will tell you they've rarely seen anyone with side effects from statins, among my own circle of middle-aged friends, I know 3 who've had serious problems with their livers, one who had some muscles permanently destroyed, one--a usually energetic tennis player-- who felt, for the few months he took statins, as though he had the flu, and could barely go to work-- and one who was left with ringing in the ears and a facial tic. All of these are listed as side effects of statins, as Kendrick points out.
I also feel somewhat compelled to add this: While doctors will tell you they've rarely seen anyone with side effects from statins, among my own circle of middle-aged friends, I know 3 who've had serious problems with their livers, one who had some muscles permanently destroyed, one--a usually energetic tennis player-- who felt, for the few months he took statins, as though he had the flu, and could barely go to work-- and one who was left with ringing in the ears and a facial tic. All of these are listed as side effects of statins, as Kendrick points out.
114 of 117 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another coffin nail for the fat/cholesterol theory of heart disease
January 19, 2008
By Paul Bergner
Format:Paperback
It is remarkable that the fat-cholesterol hypothesis of heart disease gained such an established place in US medicine, culture, and popular consciousness, despite a lack of any -strong- evidence to support the theories (including that "bad cholesterol" causes heart disease) and despite sometimes stronger evidence against the theories. The emergence into broader understanding of insulin resistance around the year 2000 was a watershed in the demise of these two theories. I believe the last two months will be looked back on and viewed as the death of these hypotheses.
Perhaps most important, last week results were published that showed that a drug that lowered LDL ("bad") cholesterol not only did not prevent heart attacks, but may have increased them. The LDL went down, but not the heart attacks. This fairly well disproves the idea that even "bad" cholesterol is really that "bad" in the first place.
There has also been the appearance of two very well researched books on this topic:
Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
The Great Cholesterol Con by Malcolm Kendrick (not the same title from Colpo)
Both are impeccable in their science, both show that the fat/cholesterol theory has been, well, frankly, fraudulent from a scientific point of view. Kendrick was lead author of the 14 Countries Study. He took WHO data on fat consumption and heart disease in a large group of countries. From these he selected the seven countries with the lowest fat consumption, and the seven with the highest fat consumption, and compared the rates of heart disease in the two groups. Every one of the countries with the lowest level of fat consumption had a higher rate of heart disease than any of the countries with the highest fat consumption. Do a double take? Read that again.
Taubes goes as far back as 1846 reviewing the science on the cause and cure of obesity (=carbohydrate consumption). He doesn't miss a stitch.
Both books describe in detail the scientific errors, and false thinking, that led to the acceptance of both hypotheses as if they were Laws, and "settled science" rather than controversial, from s true scientific point of view, from start to finish. Both make good case studies of the methods of good and bad science.
Now we are all going to have to do psychotherapy to treat our obsessive-compulsive fat/cholesterol delusional phobias. But will anyone REALLY stop buying 2% milk instead of whole, or discarding those luscious fatty skin from their chicken breast? I suggest everyone read these two books as part of their psychotherapeutic process.
Perhaps most important, last week results were published that showed that a drug that lowered LDL ("bad") cholesterol not only did not prevent heart attacks, but may have increased them. The LDL went down, but not the heart attacks. This fairly well disproves the idea that even "bad" cholesterol is really that "bad" in the first place.
There has also been the appearance of two very well researched books on this topic:
Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
The Great Cholesterol Con by Malcolm Kendrick (not the same title from Colpo)
Both are impeccable in their science, both show that the fat/cholesterol theory has been, well, frankly, fraudulent from a scientific point of view. Kendrick was lead author of the 14 Countries Study. He took WHO data on fat consumption and heart disease in a large group of countries. From these he selected the seven countries with the lowest fat consumption, and the seven with the highest fat consumption, and compared the rates of heart disease in the two groups. Every one of the countries with the lowest level of fat consumption had a higher rate of heart disease than any of the countries with the highest fat consumption. Do a double take? Read that again.
Taubes goes as far back as 1846 reviewing the science on the cause and cure of obesity (=carbohydrate consumption). He doesn't miss a stitch.
Both books describe in detail the scientific errors, and false thinking, that led to the acceptance of both hypotheses as if they were Laws, and "settled science" rather than controversial, from s true scientific point of view, from start to finish. Both make good case studies of the methods of good and bad science.
Now we are all going to have to do psychotherapy to treat our obsessive-compulsive fat/cholesterol delusional phobias. But will anyone REALLY stop buying 2% milk instead of whole, or discarding those luscious fatty skin from their chicken breast? I suggest everyone read these two books as part of their psychotherapeutic process.
38 of 38 people found the following review helpful
By Molly
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a person who has stuck to a low-fat diet and exercise to try to lower my cholesterol, only to see it rise dramatically instead, I had a keen interest in reading this book. Although it does tend to be highly technical, parts of it above my head even though Dr. Kendrick made a wholehearted attempt to explain it, I thought it was a terrific book. Most of what he says appealed to my sense of logic. Why did my cholesterol go up on a very low-fat diet? It did; I saw that first-hand. Maybe because I was eating more carbohydrates, which Dr. Kendrick says is more likely to raise cholesterol levels than fat. Not that high cholesterol is bad. People ask why doctors would push statins in they didn't believe in them -- I would say, for the same reason they pushed estrogen replacement therapy. Partly a herd mentality. Besides, you have to do what the AMA says because if you don't, and something goes wrong, you can be sued. If you follow the AMA and write down in the patient's record that you did, then you have a defense. Turning the AMA is like turning a very big, old ship. Even the establishment now concurs that high cholesterol is not a factor for heart disease in women over 65. My doctor has stopped pushing me to take statins, now that I'm getting older. A different doctor got downright mean with me because I refused hormone replacement therapy years ago. But she was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, and common sense was right. According to the book, statins can and do act as a blood thinner (anti-clotting agent), just like aspirin, they just cost a lot more. The stress effect on the HPA-axis makes a lot of sense to me. The establishment seems to be leaning that way also because now, even on medical websites, the emphasis is toward Metabolic Syndrome, rather than cholesterol. I intend to continue to follow a sensible diet (not as low-fat as I did) and exercise and relaxing my response to stress. But I think I will completely stop worrying about cholesterol. Once the veil is completely lifted, health care costs will drop a whole lot, I expect. We're wasting tons of money on testing for cholesterol and buying statins. When you've got a few people making billions of dollars and becoming filthy rich, somebody needs to ask some questions.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
There are Better Books Out There ON This Subject
A book of the same title "The Great Cholesterol Con" by Anthony Colpo, is a better book. Mr. Read more
Published 14 days ago by J. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars
Important book
To me this book has allready been and is still of utmost importance.
It made me think twice before taking all those statines, and what's more important: all the author's (in... Read more
It made me think twice before taking all those statines, and what's more important: all the author's (in... Read more
Published 15 days ago by Dck van IJperen
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Life-Saving Must Read
This book contains some very clear explanations of many of the different words and concepts of the cholesterol debate. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Pat Goltz
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mostly outstanding
This book has terrific messages and is 100% RIGHT ON in terms of its conclusions!! Everybody in the world needs to know the messages that Dr. Read more
Published 28 days ago by Scott Rose
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very useful information
I have a medical background so I found this book an interesting read. He has a good sense of the problem and the causes. As usual it's about money. Read more
Published 1 month ago by N. Edwards
4.0 out of 5 stars
Informative and entertaining!
It's rare for a medical book to be amusing but Dr. Kendrick manages to inform with a good dose of medical humor along with sound facts about cholesterol. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ruthanne Davis
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eye opening
I am one of the doctors who was almost in the group-think, but something was telling me not to prescribe statins. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Madeline
5.0 out of 5 stars
Informative
Very informative and thorough review of research. Amazing book. Everyone should read this before taking a station or any other drug for cholesterol and heart disease.
Published 1 month ago by Ed & Lisa A Barker
5.0 out of 5 stars
Facts
I appreciated the factual information in this book on this sensitive topic. I looked in vain, however for the author's credentials...
Published 3 months ago by Carla Mae Streeter, OP
5.0 out of 5 stars
first class eye-opener
About one year ago I read Malcolm Kendricks book in Dutch translation and I enjoyed it very much. For me, as a complete outsider on medical stuff, it is a very useful pack of... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Léon Vrins
