Cholesterol, Lipitor, and Big Government: The Terror Campaign Against Us All

It's certainly the case that the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor is shoved on patients unnecessarily because both doctors and Pfizer make lots of dough from the whole swindle. Of course, people – that is, the patients – are ultimately responsible for not questioning the pharmaceutical-medical establishment’s products or researching potential health issues on their own. However, the anti-cholesterol terror campaign, and the years of pseudo-science supporting it, were ultimately propped up and empowered by government.

The US government, once upon a time, jumped on the panic train as regards cholesterol, thereby encouraging even more useless drugs for an already over-medicated America. On LewRockwell.com, in 2005, Chris Masterjohn pointed out that it was Ancel Keys – an interventionist and front man for lifestyle nannyism – who, in 1953, presented an anti-cholesterol case that not only failed to demonstrate the surefire dangers of high cholesterol, but Keys even admitted to the fact that one’s diet had a minimal effect on atherosclerosis. Discover magazine dares to mention that "the demonization of cholesterol began in 1959, when nutrition researcher Ancel Keys and his wife, Margaret, published Eat Well and Stay Well, which linked diet, cholesterol, and heart disease. The idea that excessive cholesterol causes atherosclerosis and heart disease has since become close to dogma."

Indeed, since that time, folks have been awash in anti-cholesterol terrorism as put forth by the government, its kept medical establishment, its fully-funded research arms and agencies, and the pharmaceutical corporatocracy that profits from it.

Dr. Paul J. Rosch, MD, President of The American Institute of Stress and Clinical Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at New York Medical College (referenced in "Who’s Who in the World), has researched the effects of high stress on heart disease, and is one of the heroic doctors who is brave enough to go against the grain regarding the cholesterol hoax. He has often made the point that approximately half of all heart attacks occur in people with normal cholesterol levels. At a 2003 conference in Arlington, Virginia, "Heart Disease in the 21st Century: Beyond the Lipid Hypothesis," Dr. Rosch noted that "anyone who questions cholesterol usually finds his funding cut off."

Dr. Rosch’s colleague, a Swedish physician by the name of Uffe Ravnskov, is author of the book The Cholesterol Myths and spokesman for the International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics. At the same conference, Dr. Ravnskov stated that "autopsy studies have shown there is no association between the degree of arteriosclerosis in the arteries and cholesterol concentration in the blood, taken either shortly or immediately after death," and also noted that the anti-cholesterol campaign – known as the lipid hypothesis – is so powerful because "there is prestige and money at stake." He notes, in his book, that some of the factors leading to heart disease are high stress, along with smoking, excessive polyunsaturated fat, and trans-fatty acids.

After all, cholesterol and other fats, known as lipids, are necessary to human life. Cholesterol is indispensable for the production of various hormones, and indeed, fatty acids are vital nutrients that our bodies can’t do without. The establishment’s narrative, however, generally presents cholesterol in this way: we have two types of cholesterol in our bodies, one good (HDL) and one bad (LDL). When bad cholesterol gets too high, it gets deposited into the walls of blood vessels. This leads to clogging of the arteries (atherosclerosis), and thus heart disease. Our total cholesterol level is an indicator of a cholesterol problem.

But David Robson, a natural bodybuilder and proprietor of Elite Physique Training Studio, notes this on bodybuilding.com:

There appears to be a considerable amount of confusion regarding the role cholesterol plays in helping to determine health status. Indeed, cholesterol is often considered to be extremely detrimental to ones health; hence the paranoia associated with eating the yolk part of an egg – a food high in cholesterol.

However, cholesterol, although harmful at elevated levels, contributes to many biological functions, and is undeserving of such a villainous reputation.

Cholesterol, remember, is only secondarily produced in our bodies via the foods we eat. Eighty-percent of our total cholesterol amount is produced in the body, mainly in the liver. In the May 2005 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the Wake Forest School of Medicine disclosed that its studies indicated that the liver produces about "80 percent of the high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or good cholesterol)." While the general medical establishment focuses on the overall cholesterol number, the research provided by Wake Forest suggests that it is the HDL level – and not the total cholesterol level – that draws the link with heart disease. So a low HDL within a high cholesterol level may indicate risk. Thus, it’s interesting to point out that similar research shows that low cholesterol may indicate a low HDL level, meaning that a low cholesterol level, too, may bear certain risk in regards to heart disease! But you won’t hear that from the anti-cholesterol terrorists.

Nevertheless, the State-empowered medical establishment has presented one, simplistic side of the argument – to do otherwise would be akin to biting the multiple hands that feed it. The interest on the part of government and its medical minions in maintaining the cholesterol terrorism campaign is obvious. Once Ancel Keys presented the State with a case for intervention as regards health and lifestyle, the door was opened to myriad "wars" seemingly in favor of optimum health for humanity – on the surface – while, in reality, these tyrannical, regulatory-state crusades slowly broke down resistance to establishment rule, eradicated skepticism concerning higher authorities, and convinced Americans to toss aside self-sufficiency in favor of Big Nanny’s cradle-to-grave warranty. The State became empowered, and the cooperative, medical minions received some of the spoils of victory.

The pharmaceutical corporatocracy makes out just as well. For instance, Pfizer’s Lipitor has a 40% market share in the whole cholesterol-lowering scam-a-rama. It has become the best selling drug in the world. For 2005, Pfizer, Inc. reported that US sales of Lipitor topped $8 billion. Hardly small change.

We are not supposed to talk about how Lipitor – as well as all statin drugs – oftentimes may present side effects far worse than the problem (or supposed problem) it is supposed to solve. Since cholesterol is a huge component of memory function, users of statins are experiencing myriad memory problems, including amnesia and early Alzheimers disease. Or there’s the research and skepticism as to whether or not statins even have an effect on lipids at all. In an unpublished letter to the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Rosch writes "There is abundant evidence that the cardioprotective effects of statins are related to their anti-inflammatory activities rather than any effects on lipids. Therefore, the current goal of lowering LDL to an arbitrary that the vast majority of patients are unable to achieve is not only inappropriate but dangerous. Contrary to pharmaceutical company propaganda, statins are not as safe as generally believed and since adverse side effects are related to dosage and duration of therapy, their incidence will surely increase if current guidelines are followed."

Meanwhile, Pfizer keeps on keeping on, with the State as its Sugar Daddy. You see, the anti-cholesterol hoax has produced a very profitable market, one such that competitors are looking to enter the arena and share in the spoils of statin drugs. Generic competitors are "threatening" Pfizer with their R&D efforts and numerous "deals" with insurance companies. Currently, approximately 12 million Americans have been sucker-punched by the government-medical-pharmaceutical complex, and are receiving cholesterol-lowering treatment. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) – a government agency – estimates that about 30 million more Americans have elevated cholesterol. The implication here is that they too need treatment. However, the shallow allusion to "elevated cholesterol" is a broad proclamation of no exacting significance. After all, precisely what does such a statement portend? Yet a people stripped of their autonomy, fighting spirit, and self-sufficiency really don’t know any better, do they?

So how will Pfizer keep making tons of dough on its sham drug? It stands to lose two of its patents on Lipitor – one in 2010, and the other the following year. Knowing that a cheaper, generic version of its Lipitor will hit the market at that time – uprooting Pfizer’s dominance in the cholesterol hoax – it is fighting to extend its patent deadline and stave off the generic competition.

An article on CNN Money tells us why monopoly via government patents is so important: "Deutsche Bank projects Lipitor sales will grow to $14.2 billion in 2007 if Pfizer successfully holds its patents, translating into annual earnings of $2.54 per share. But if Pfizer loses, it could face a $8.6 billion plunge in annual sales by 2007, most of it in U.S. revenue, resulting in annual earnings of $1.64 per share, according to Deutsche Bank. Bernstein's projections for Pfizer are similar." Thus, Pfizer’s government-granted patent monopoly on Lipitor pushes out the competition, keeps prices high, perverts the market for medical insurance, and ultimately leads to unscrupulous business and the distortion of legitimate science for the sake of protected profits.

In the end, the cholesterol scare has become yet another health hoax foisted upon an unsuspecting public, courtesy of the heavy hands of government and its statist corporate devotees. And what makes it so appalling is that, via pharmaceutical lobbying efforts, the middleman that is used to peddle this rubbish, and the lies that go with it, is that one person whom most of us place very high on our "most trusted" list – the family doctor.

Would you like to help stamp out the establishment’s terror campaign on cholesterol? Next time you eat an egg, don’t throw the damn yolk out – eat it! Most likely, your only risk is being tagged as someone who "is not with them, and therefore against them," consequently making you a part of the seditious, anti-cholesterol insurgency. Nothing wrong with that. In my mind, the real "war on terror" is the battle that needs to be waged against the State and its terror campaign on the people, which comes to us disguised as a pretty nursemaid.

July 25, 2006

Karen De Coster, CPA, [send her mail] has an MA in Economics, and, in her day job, is an accounting and finance professional. She is also a bodybuilding enthusiast and freelance writer with clients in the health, nutrition, and exercise industry. Currently, she is her own doctor, reads holistic material and journals, and consults with a D.O. when necessary. Her cholesterol level is just fine, and her ticker is hummin’ along nicely. See her website and blog. Send her mail. But don’t send her Lipitor.

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