Dr. Paul Mason – “The truth about statins”
Low Carb Down Under
youtube.com/watch?v=Odvt4EaGPLw
In this short video, we get a quick romp through statin history. In 1976, a Japanese scientist named Akira Endo made a discovery that led to the development of statin drugs. By 1980, he had dropped his pursuit of statins because his test dogs kept dying. American pharmaceutical companies, who don’t care about minor side effects like death, picked up the research from there, and by 1987, Lovastatin became the first statin drug to go on the market.
Why are statins so popular? Because they lower cholesterol levels in the blood. Why would anyone want to do that? At least partly because of a Russian study where rabbits were force-fed cholesterol, which led to atherosclerosis. Rabbits are very bad test subjects because they do not metabolize food, especially cholesterol, like humans do. Rabbit atherosclerosis is also different than the human version. But shut up about that. We’re trying to make money here.
The William S. Merrell Company (which marketed thalidomide) came up with a cholesterol drug which caused cataracts and, you guessed it, atherosclerosis. Again, animal tests had shown there were problems. But shut up about that. We’re trying to make money here.
Then there is Baycol, a cholesterol-lowering drug made by Bayer. It also caused pesky side effects like death. Bayer has paid out over one billion dollars for that. It doesn’t look like they are making much money there.
Nevertheless, statin drugs are the most popular drugs in history. They must be effective somewhere, somehow, right? How long does a statin extend life? Those who had already had a heart attack gained 4.1 days. Those with no heart disease gained 3.2 days. And those numbers are likely greatly exaggerated. But shut up about that because we’re trying to. . . you know. The thumb for this video is UP.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Spring 2023
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