CHOLESTEROL  It’s possible that cholesterol is not as big of a problem as the medicine taken to reduce it. For instance, deleterious side effects of cholesterol- lowering drugs have been reported to the American Food and Drug Administration. Statin cholesterol-lowering drugs cause cancer both in animals and in human beings, cognitive decline and memory loss. Other side effects include liver damage and nerve damage. Patients on cholesterol-lowering drugs have short tempers, cognitive decline and memory loss. Statin use during pregnancy may lead to serious fetal malformations. Muscle damage is the best known "side effect" of statin use. In severe cases, statins can cause kidney failure, which has claimed the lives of several hundred people thus far and resulted in one of the worst offending statins (cerivastatin) being withdrawn from the market. Cardiologist Peter Langsjoen notes that statin cholesterol-lowering treatment may lead to heart muscle weakening and heart failure. According to Langsjoen, "It occurs because statin drugs block the production of coenzyme Q10, vital for the production of cell energy." Pharmaceutical companies push using higher doses of cholesterol-lowering drugs, while their publications warn you that such use will result in even more complications, including, death. High cholesterol is not a risk factor for old people; on the contrary, many studies have shown that old people with low cholesterol run a greater risk of dying whereas those with high cholesterol live the longest. This fact is also de-emphasized by protagonists of cholesterol lowering, if it is mentioned at all, although about 90 per cent of all cardiovascular deaths occur in people above age 60. The probable reason why high cholesterol seems to be beneficial is most because LDL and other lipids protect us against bacterial and viral infections. The Big Pharma recommendations are based on distorted statistical analyses of relative risk reduction that misleads doctors and the public. Their drugs are designed to turn healthy people into patients. A commonly held myth is that high cholesterol, especially LDL cholesterol, is a major risk factor for heart disease (known as arteriosclerosis). Thus, in a panicked attempt to prevent this pandemic killer, millions of people are using cholesterol-lowering drugs. 1. Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine (UCSD) show that no study has proven that cholesterol-lowering drugs lower overall mortality in women. 2. Researchers at the UCSD also point out that high cholesterol in those over 75 years of age is protective, rather than harmful and that low cholesterol is a risk factor for heart arrhythmia's (leading cause of death if heart attack occurs). 3. The European Heart Journal has published the results of a three year study involving 11,500 patients. Researcher Behar and associates found that in the low cholesterol group (total cholesterol below 160mg/dl) the relative risk of death was two 2.27 times higher relative to those with high cholesterol. The most common cause of death in the low cholesterol group was cancer, while the risk of cardiac death was the same in both groups. In support of their findings these researchers point out that previous studies found a higher increase in lung cancer when total cholesterol levels were maintained below 170 mg/dl. This has not stopped Pfizer from suggesting that total cholesterol levels should be at 150 mg/dl (see www.lipitor.com) 4. The most widely respected medical journal, The Journal of the American Medical Association, published a study entitled: "Cholesterol and Mortality. 30 Years of Follow-up from the Framingham study." Shocking to most, this in-depth study showed that after the age of 50 there is no increase in overall death associated with high cholesterol! There was however a direct correlation between low levels (or dropping levels) of cholesterol and increased death. Specifically, medical researchers reported that CVD death rates increased by 14% for every 1mg/dl drop in total cholesterol levels per year. 5. The Journal of Cardiac Failure published the findings of Tamara and colleagues in a paper entitled, "Low Serum Total Cholesterol Is AssociatedWith Marked Increase In Mortality In Advanced Heart Failure." In their analysis of 1,134 patients with heart disease they found that low cholesterol was associated with worse outcomes in heart failure patients and impaired survival, while high cholesterol improved survival rates. Additionally, their findings showed that elevated cholesterol among patients was not associated with hypertension, diabetes, or coronary heart disease. 6. And finally, despite the successful attempts to lower cholesterol with pharmaceutical drugs, the death rate from heart disease has not changed over the last 75 years and mortality from heart failure is more than double what it was in 1996. Hence, those who think they are safe from heart disease because they lower their total cholesterol levels may want to seriously rethink their preventative efforts. Sadly though, some of the most well-respected health practitioners, medical doctors, and herbalists in the world have fallen victim to pharmaceutical propaganda. This can be seen by their often regurgitated, ill-thought out hypothesis that lowering cholesterol prevents heart disease. Meanwhile, people continue to die (2,700 people die every day from heart disease), while pharmaceutical companies enrich themselves with the sales of cholesterol-lowering drugs. The CEO of Pfizer, makers of the popular cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, was compensated 33.9 million dollars in 2004 (not including the tens of millions in stock options). This equates to 2.8 million per month, which is about $94,000 per day.