Righting a Cholesstewrong Much is made about the purported benefits of prescription cholesterol ("statin") drugs. They're the world's best-selling class of drug, topping $22 billion in domestic revenue in 2005 alone. One reason these drugs sell so well is that they're assumed - by both the general populace AND the doctors who are doling them out - to be among the very safest in terms of side effects and risks of adverse reaction. But when it comes to cholesterol-lowering medication, things aren't always as warm and fuzzy as they seem. Case in point: Drug giant Pfizer - maker of statin Lipitor, the best-selling drug on planet Earth - has abruptly shut down clinical trials and development of its latest cholesterol drug... Because of a larger-than-expected number of DEATHS AND CARDIOVASCULAR EVENTS among human test subjects. Pfizer, the world's biggest drug maker (made so in large part by the success of risky statin drugs), recently released recommendations to investigators to halt all trials of torcetrapib, its much-ballyhooed new cholesterol drug designed to be taken in conjunction with Lipitor. According to an Associated Press report on the scandal, the company had hoped to gain FDA approval on the drug by the second half of 2007... But now it's on the scrap heap where it belongs (like most prescription drugs). Unfortunately, a number of people had to DIE to put it there. The AP piece cites the fact that 82 people died in test groups taking torcetrapib AND Lipitor, while only 51 perished in groups taking Lipitor alone. That's a mortality increase of more than 60%. The AP article doesn't specify how many more non-fatal cardiovascular events occurred among trial participants because of the drug combo... The article states that safety concerns about torcetrapib are nothing new - apparently, a previous study showed that the drug increased blood pressure. None of this surprises me - I've known of the risk of statin and other cholesterol drugs for years. I've reported on it until I'm blue in the face. In fact, it doesn't even surprise me that our medical establishment keeps pushing "safe" cholesterol medications on us when we DON'T EVEN NEED THEM. For the most part, the notion of needing to lower cholesterol at all is medically fallacious. As I've said about a million times before, cholesterol is vital for your energy levels, brain function, and bodily synthesis of crucial vitamin D - which is a boon to your heart. In fact, I've been saying for years that I'd consider anything less than a combined HDL/LDL blood cholesterol number of 300 (twice what the mainstream now considers ideal) to be TOO LOW. Yet these facts don't stop the medical establishment from revising their guidelines for "healthy" levels of cholesterol ever downward. Back in 2004, the federally funded National Cholesterol Education Program recommended that those "at risk" of cardiovascular events decrease their LDL levels to between 70 and 100 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter)... The following year, sales of statin drugs ballooned 46% to over $22 billion. Hmmm. Seem like a meaningless coincidence to you? Or does it seem like a calculated plan to boost Big Pharma's bottom line? That's how it plays for me, especially considering this: A review of cholesterol drug studies published in the October 3, 2006 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine found NO HEALTH OR MORTALITY BENEFIT to artificially lowering cholesterol levels using statin drugs. Heck, I could've told them this. Oh, wait, I HAVE been telling them this! As absurd as this must sound to those indoctrinated by the mainstream's drug-crazed thinking, I wish they'd invent a drug that RAISED cholesterol... It would save more lives than statins ever did, I guarantee it. | 
