Some in the medical profession are seeing through the myth

[Sonyajba]

drjohnm.org/2014/06/growing...

[MikePollard]

Deafening silence so far.

No comments re 'He's got a book to sell' or perhaps promoting LCHF junk.

Maybe he's just a maverick like Malholtra, Kendrick, Eenfeldt, Ravnskov, Briffa etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc...

C'mon guys, have a go!

[DakCB-UK in reply to MikePollard]

Well, it's a lot more balanced than most of the linkspam posted here. He writes mostly about "low-risk patients" which isn't many of HEART UK's traditional audience. When it comes to us, he's less conclusive: "what about in younger patients and those with familial high cholesterol? These patients are definitely at increased cardio-vascular (CV) risk. So cholesterol levels are surely not unimportant. There is convincing data, for instance, that higher HDL (good cholesterol) levels associate with lower CV risk."

Also, interestingly, when writing about Drug-Lifestyle interaction, he's saying that statins have an outcomes benefit which is outweighed by the drawbacks of unhelpful lifestyle choices, isn't he?

[MikePollard in reply to DakCB-UK]

Linkspam? You embarrass yourself!

[DakCB-UK in reply to MikePollard]

Just saying what I see here. This forum has gone steadily downhill with so many posts just being links to borderline-irrelevant articles posted with almost no interesting comment.

[Sonyajba in reply to DakCB-UK]

I agree he does write mainly about ' low risk ' patients but these are the very people statins are aimed at. The medical profession along with drug companies are finding every way possible to make these low risk patients become ' high risk' as they continuously move the goal posts re cholesterol.

20 years ago the health professionals told us a cholesterol reading of 8 and under was perfectly healthy, now it's 5, why?

It couldn't possibly be that 9 out of the 10 on committee actually had links with drug companies producing statins could it?

I have FH cholesterol my father died of CVD at 55 years, I've had cholesterol readings of over 8, taken statins then it became 3.2 now im statin free, eat butter, saturated fat, full dairy products and currently have a cholesterol of 5.6, although this does go up and down depending on my health.

[DakCB-UK in reply to Sonyajba]

Low-risk patients might be the very people statins are aimed at (I don't know, I've not see the strategies of Merck and whoever) but they're not the people HEART UK was aimed at.

20 years ago (8 or so years after my diagnosis) the health professionals treating me weren't happy with FH patients having a cholesterol reading of 8. I know that because mine was hovering around 8 around that time and they really didn't like it. At least for me, the goal has actually become slightly relaxed over time and now if it's below 6, they don't argue too much.

I'm glad you've found something that works for you, though, but I suspect you're atypical.

[Sonyajba]

I know, it's like banging your head against a brick wall