If you would like to see a fascinating counterblast to the current statin promotion madness I recommend you have a look at the following film made by Justin Smith.
(A bit of self promotion here, as I am – of course – one of the stars).
I strongly recommend, and hope you can help to make it go viral. This message is needed more than ever.
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick 
I can’t wait to see the full version! Am I right in thinking it is only going to be available online?
I’ll try my best to spread it and hope you won’t catch anything nasty from the industry!
statins are bad for you. can’t wait for the full docu.
It shouldn’t be available only on line. It should be televised at a prime time.
Julia. I fully agree, but the media are still in the thrall of medical ‘experts’ who will rubbish this film.
I read that ‘experts’ who are anti statins are demanding an inquiry into the side effects. Let’s hope it happens. I couldn’t walk upstairs holding two mugs of tea in the morning and also had burning feet in the middle of the day as opposed to just in the morning. Also had ectopic beats and palpitations. I stopped taking Lipitor on August 30th and since then have had none of these !
Your book was the first I ever read about cholesterol, in the main because I was being hounded by my doctors to take statins. I didn’t then and I certainly won’t now. But after your book I became very interested in the subject and I’ve spent a few years reading everything I can on the matter. Statin Nation was a great finale. All my favourite author doctors in one place and a couple of new ones to look into.
Thank you for the book, for your help in making me realise my health is my own concern and I must take charge of it. I have lent the book to someone and not got it back. Neither did he read it. I recommended the film in glowing terms to another friend who had just been scared by his doctor and he didn’t watch it. I find it so frustrating when people won’t try to learn! But I’m personally proud of the note now attached to my files at the GP surgery “Drug Averse” is clearly written on them. Damn right I am drug averse.
Thank you for your comment. Yes, it is frustrating that many people are less interested in this area than you (or I). But in the end you can only do what you can do, and accept that people have different priorities and interests.
Dr Beatrice Golomb is currently conducting independent statin trials in the US, particularly looking at side effects. This is the first truly independent study, and if you understand just how corrupt the current study system is, totally rife with conflicts of interest, then you will know how important that is.
The writing is on the wall for this demonic drug, the pharma’s will probably replace it with something even more evil ! lovely money !Mind you if they continue to wreck lives their income stream may well decline !
Roy. I sincerely hope that statins will soon be swept into the dustbin of history. But I am not sure.
Dr Kendrick, I had a total heart transplant 18 years ago, my consultant at Papworth has been trying like mad to keep me on statins. Out ofthose 18 years I took them for about 2 years with very bad results concerning muscles and general well being.I have finally convinced that consultant that I do not wish to take the dreaded stains.I have a Total Cholesterol level at 7.5, it works for me.I have had your book along with Barry Groves et al for many years now, I fully expect to be reading them in 20 years time ! Good luck, keep up the excellent work !
That’s not quite how it works. The pharmaceutical business model is to treat symptoms and prolong illness, sure, many tens of thousands of people are killed by this evil system every year, but there are still plenty of people left who are brainwashed into thinking that their doctor (who’s education was paid for and controlled by big pharma) is giving them the absolute best advice when he prescribes them another drug. The doctors are all well meaning, decent people I’m sure, but they have been manipulated by a corrupt system for many decades. Only now, because of the internet, are people able to talk openly about this and share information that would have otherwise been suppressed before it reached the mainstream media. For this reason we must all make sure that the internet is NEVER able to be controlled by the elite few in the same way as the mainstream. If that happens, then I have serious doubts about the future of the human race.
Is there any study showing levels of dementia in statin takers versus non statin takers? Have overall dementia levels increased since the introduction of statins? I would be very interested to know as I have relatives showing memory and cognitive problems and they are on statins. Of course their problems have been associated with old age and may well be but if most doctors are not making any association with statin use then nothing will be reported to the drug companies.
Yes, there have been studies. One very recent, that I may try to drag out, demonstrating that when you start a statin the Mini Mental Score (a way of scoring dementia), drops two points. When you stop, the score rises by two points. Statins clearly damage cognition, and this is a recognised side-effect listed in the British National Formulary and MIMS. Most GPs remain blissfully unaware of this fact.
I spotted a study done at Boston University which seems to show a level of protection from dementia by statins. I wonder what your take on the research would be. I did notice the support given to the researcher by the drug companies, although the study was apparently independent!
I read the book “$29 Billion Reasons To Lie About Cholesterol” a couple of years ago – it is very well researched, so I would say this film will be well worth watching. Along the same lines, I can also recommend anything written by Uffe Ravnscov, Malcolm Kendrick, Gary Taubes, Sally Fallon & Mary Enig.
Stumbled across this video and your website. It has stopped me in my tracks. I’m being encouraged by GP and cardiologist not just to take statin but to up my dose to the max possible (to “aggressively target LDL”). I’ve already halved my LDL from 3.6 to 1.8 in a year on simva 40mg and a very low fat diet. Now they want to put me on 80mg atorvastatin. I was treated Sept 2011 for coronary artery disease with a stent in a severely narrowed LAD. Yet I’m 42, very active, with none of the traditional risk factors. The only thing that’s been flagged to me as possibly explaining my very early onset of CAD is an extremely high level of lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a), which I had tested privately (it never even came up for discussion in my NHS treatment). Now I’m seriously considering whether I ditch all the medical opinion I’m getting and drop the statins and even the very low fat diet. And maybe just target the Lp(a) with niacin – even though there’s no clinical trials evidence to say it delivers better outcomes (but then it seems no-one out there is researching it – after all, it’s not a drug that could be sold for big bucks but is a dietary supplement). I am left in a quandary by what I’m reading on your site (I have two young kids and really want to do the right thing by them), but I am very glad someone out there is challenging the received wisdom and the might of the global pharma industry. Thank you.
Lp(a), as you have probably discovered is LDL (low density lipoprotein a.k.a. ‘bad cholesterol’) with apolipopotein (a)1 attached to it. This apolipoprotein is chemically identical to plasminogen (the enzyme that breaks up blood clots), however, it is not activated by plasminogen activator. So, if Lp(a) is incorporated into blood clots that clot cannot be broken up by the body. The interesting point is that Lp(a) is only produced in animals that cannot synthesize vitamin C. Humans, gorillas, fruit bats and a couple of others that I have forgotten. Vitamin C deficiency causes blood vessels to ‘crack’ open and thus Lp(A) forms thrombi over the ‘cracks’ that stop people with vitamin C deficiency (scurvy) from bleeding to death. Linus Pauling and Matthius Rath noting these facts, felt that vitamin C supplementation would be a good idea as it would stop any potential blood vessel cracks opening up with Lp(A) then creating impossible to break up thrombi forming all over the place.
In short, you might like to think about taking vitamin C. Whilst you’re at it, take vitamin D, L-arginine and potassium supplementation. I think there is good evidence that vitamin C may be particularly good for you – with a high Lp(a). Vitamin D is just a good vitamin/hormone to have enough of. L-arginine increases NO synthesis in the arterial wall and should reduce blood clot formation. Potassium is the best ion there is reducing BP, improving arterial wall elascticity and is a generally good thing to consume for protection against CVD.
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply – and for offering a clear explanation and some ideas. I’m thinking now about the supplements you mention – plus possibly also niacin. And I’m seriously dubious about doubling my statin dose as, from what I understand, that won’t touch the Lp(a).
More generally, if Lp(a) is such a good marker of coronary artery disease, and could well be causative, I’m amazed it gets so little attention (at least from my experience) from the medical community. Perhaps because there isn’t an easy treatment (aka blockbuster drug) for it? So much easier to keep the focus on statins.
Recent research about vitamin D suggests the optimum level of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D is 21 nanograms per milliliter (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/vitamin_d_more_may_not_be_better). Does this affect your thinking about supplementing with vitamin D?
“Healthy people have been popping these pills, but they should not continue taking vitamin D supplements unchecked,” says study leader Muhammad Amer, M.D., M.H.S., an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “At a certain point, more vitamin D no longer confers any survival benefit, so taking these expensive supplements is at best a waste of money.”
Move along, nothing to see here. Don’t bother with expensive supplements! After all, the statin industry alone is only worth a trivial few hundred billion dollars per year. If one spends money on expensive supplements that leaves less money to spend on lovely pharmaceuticals.
In summary, in answer to your question “Does this affect your thinking about supplementing with vitamin D?” :
No.
Dr. Kendrick. I have a number of GP’s that are friends. What is the best way to present this information to them? I feel it is vital that they have a new look at this. I have your book and the Statin Nation DVD’s. Give them one or both.
You can lead a doctor to new information, but you can’t make them drink. The harder you try to convince, the harder they argue back. I would suggest book first, as they are more likely to read it bit by bit. They won’t sit through a video
I think there are other things that can be done to help doctors get the message. The most important is to get the corporate money out of politics. Every problem we have that concerns lies and misinformation being pushed by government agencies has its route cause in the backroom deals arranged between politicians and corporations in the name of “campaign contributions”. The next thing we can do is then weed out all the conflicts of interest in all these agencies enabling them to be controlled by big industry. Then we might look into the way medical education is funded, and who exactly gets to decide what is taught. The huge agricultural, sugar, processed food companies etc have infiltrated every single government agency, review board etc, and this is how they have been able to keep a lid on the truth for so long. Other than that, it would be good to make sure that all new student doctors get to read this book before they become “indoctrinated”, and maybe they can build dissent from the grass-roots up too.