I would like to start by reexamining the claim that statins cut
heart attack incidence by a third. What exactly does this mean?
A meta study reviewing seven drug trials, involving in total
42,848 patients, ranging over a three to five year period,
showed a 29% decreased risk of a major cardiac event
(Thavendiranathan et al., 2006). But because heart attacks were
rare among this group, what this translates to in absolute terms
is that 60 patients would need to be treated for an average of
4.3 years to protect one of them from a single heart attack.
However, essentially all of them will experience increased
frailty and mental decline, a subject to which I will return in
depth later on in this essay. The impact of the damage due to
the statin anti-cholesterol mythology extends far beyond those
who actually consume the statin pills. Cholesterol has been
demonized by the statin industry, and as a consequence Americans
have become conditioned to avoid all foods containing
cholesterol. This is a grave mistake, as it