Millions of people currently take statins to lower their cholesterol. However, Justin Smith, the author of a controversial book, $29 Billion Reasons to Lie about Cholesterol: Making Profit by Turning Healthy People into Patients, claims to have uncovered evidence to show that “most people do not need to lower their cholesterol”.
Using official statistics and references from medical literature, the
author makes a case against the mass prescription of cholesterol-lowering drugs and calls for a review of the situation. Key accusations made by the author include:
- What is being suggested as “high” cholesterol is in many cases simply a normal or average cholesterol level.
- Most people who have a heart attack do not have high cholesterol - their cholesterol tends to be average or below the average for the general population.
- The rate of heart disease continues to increase despite large reductions in the number of people with “high” cholesterol.
- The average cholesterol level for people in the UK is low when compared with the rest of Europe. Despite this, the UK has one of the highest rates of heart attacks.
