Page 56 - Winter2009

All Thumbs Book Reviews

The Great Cholesterol Con: or the use of statins.
The Truth about What Really Causes The book is funny and sarcastic and is an
Heart Disease and How to Avoid It easier read than Uffe Ravnskov’s The Cholesterol
By Dr. Malcolm Kendrick Myths. By giving the historical precedents and
John Blake Publishers, 2008 reviewing the present literature, it is worthwhile.
In fact, I have recommended it to my patients
The great American essayist H.L. Mencken who buy into the Big Pharma-driven-statin drug
wrote, “There is always a well-known solution craze, so they can get the real picture.
to every human problem—neat, plausible, and Dr. Kendrick, who is a leading Scots cardiol-
wrong.” This observation is also true of the car- ogist, makes the case against the distortions, but
diovascular disease problem and Ancel Keys’s comes to a conclusion that is only partially cor-
cholesterol-avoidance solution, which Dr. Mal- rect. Instead of indicting all the known offenders,
colm Kendrick systematically demolishes in his he stops at psychological stress. Although stress
recent book. levels are a powerful cause of heart disease, it is
The pharmaceutical industry successfully hardly the whole enchilada.
obfuscates the details regarding actual cardio- Kendrick believes that social dislocation,
vascular death rates versus overall mortality. As which is the loss of your support network, causes
Kendrick makes perfectly clear, one should be elevated cortisol levels, which in turn cause in-
more concerned about the date on one’s death flammation that is correlated with heart disease.
certificate rather than the descriptive cause To give credit, he does make an argument using
of death. And then there is the inconvenient assorted data. These include countries that have
fact (Ravnskov, The Cholesterol Myths) that had forced dislocation and resulting increased
autopsies are rarely performed to confirm the death rates, depression, increased Monday morn-
diagnosis, so whatever is recorded on the death ing deaths among Americans, and increased rates
certificate is just a guess, and not suited for so- among Asians on dates that have the number four
phisticated statistical manipulation. in them (because four is considered unlucky and
Kendrick makes the case for and against in numerous Asian languages the words for four
statins with the following trio of facts: and death are eerily similar).
You might be In the process, however, Kendrick ignores
able to make 1. Statins do not reduce overall mortality in the larger picture of how nutrition can affect
your internal stressors. The late Dr. Mendelsohn
women.
a weak case 2. Statins do not reduce overall mortality in stated that a social meal eaten slowly, resulted in
for men men without heart disease. much better digestion than one gobbled quickly

who have 3. Overall mortality is not reduced in greater or consumed in isolation. This example illus-
than ninety five percent of the population.
trates the difference between dietetics or the
suffered a consumption of food, verses assimilation, which
cardiovascular In other words, you might be able to make is what gets absorbed by the intestinal villi. Your
event to take a weak case for men who have suffered a car- dining environment and choice of companions
diovascular event to take statins, but don’t count will have a great effect on the nutritional status
statins, but on it. If there is a benefit, it is likely due to an of that meal.
don’t count interruption of the acetyl CoA cycle, rather than What is less obvious is the social effect on
on it. cholesterol reduction. This hardly constitutes an the menu. Social eating often places an emphasis
endorsement of either the cholesterol hypothesis on taste and health, which makes nutritionally
54 Wise Traditions WINTER 2009