5. Old West Story: Cholesterol, Statins, and the Modern Snake Oil Salesman

This is the Fifth Article in the Heart Health series.

“Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain” (Eze 22:27, NIV).

The leaders of God’s people had become very evil and corrupt. This passage from Ezekiel was one of several listing the sins of these leaders. They wanted money and gain so much that they were willing to kill for it. Does this remind you of what may be happening today?

The Old West Snake Oil Salesman

A tumbleweed blew by them as the man and his horse sauntered into town, towing a small wagon behind.

“Whoa, boy. I think we’ll stop right here. I don’t think we’ve been in this town yet,” said the good doctor to his horse. He pulled up near the church and tied off his horse. After a little stretching and shaking off some dust, he rolled back the curtain on his wagon and let down the gate.

The wind blew some dust down the road. It had been a little while since it had rained.

The good “doctor” set up a sign for his tonic. He called it Peabody’s Nectar. He put out his price sign and began to ring his bell. Calling everyone’s attention to himself, he began to extol the virtues and properties of the green Peabody’s Nectar.

“It will cure the common cold, and if you’re shot, after a couple of days, you’ll be back on your feet. No more disease, no more health worries, you’ll feel great.”

After some time of selling his fine nectar, the local sheriff got wind of the good doctor’s activities. The sheriff made his way over to the wagon, where he inquired about the good doctor’s credentials.

Pulling back his hat, the sheriff said, “Can I inquire what school you might have graduated from?”

After the “doctor” failed to produce any reliable document about his credentials, the sheriff asked him to kindly shut down and leave the town. The good doctor, not wanting to make enemies, promptly left town for his next stop.

The Framingham Study and Cholesterol Claims

By the way, the conclusions from the Framingham study used flawed evidence and logic.

“The question is hardly academic. In 1992, forty-four years after the Framingham project began, study director William Castelli, M.D., wrote the following in an editorial in the Archives of Internal Medicine:

‘In Framingham, Mass., the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol … we found that people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, [and] ate the most calories weighed the least and were the most physically active’” (1).

In other words, those with the best hearts ate the most fat and the most cholesterol.

We think we have gotten rid of the snake oil salesmen. We didn’t get rid of him. He now rides around in a fine car and peddles his wares with a suit and tie right inside the doctor’s office. He has the backing of the AMA (American Medical Association), the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and everyone else.

A statin drug is modern-day snake oil, only worse. It not only doesn’t help; it actually harms the person taking it.

Statins, LDL Cholesterol, and Particle Size

Statin drugs lower LDL type alpha (LDL-A) cholesterol. This is large particle cholesterol. They don’t lower LDL beta (LDL-B) type cholesterol. The beta cholesterol is the hard, small particle cholesterol. The small particle cholesterol is the only type that causes harm.

The small particle cholesterol is the only type small enough to get stuck in the cracks of arterial linings. The large particle cholesterol floats right on by the cracks. Lowering the large particle cholesterol will do nothing to help.

The way to lower small particle cholesterol is to avoid simple sugars. You can’t lower it by avoiding fats or taking statins (1).

When doctors order a cholesterol test, the results only show a measurement of large particle cholesterol. It does not show small particle cholesterol. Again, only the small particle cholesterol matters because only the small particles get stuck in arterial fissures. At one point, Boston Heart was the only lab in the country that offered a small particle cholesterol test.

Do you want to protect yourself from small particle cholesterol? Try cutting down on or cutting out the simple sugars like table sugar, bread, pasta, white rice, white potatoes, etc.

Why Cholesterol Matters in the Body

Overall, cholesterol is important to human health because it is a key part of the body’s processes for making all the steroid hormones. One steroid hormone is testosterone. Testosterone is an important hormone in protecting the heart muscle (1). Lower testosterone means a greater chance of a heart attack and a greater chance of heart disease in general. If you lower overall cholesterol artificially, you will lower testosterone.

Lower cholesterol can also lead to a greater chance of having cancer. Cholesterol protects us from cancer, as do proper levels of testosterone and other hormones (1).

Additionally, much of the brain is made of cholesterol. Lower cholesterol means lower brain function. And, lower testosterone also means lower brain function because testosterone is also protective of brain function (1). Many people on statins have memory issues. Sometimes this is very severe.

Are Statins Treating the Cause or the Sign?

At best, high cholesterol may possibly be a sign of other things going wrong in the body. Lowering cholesterol through statins is about as useless as putting a Band-Aid on a broken bone. Even if it is a big Band-Aid, the bone will still be broken. Doctors are lowering a meaningless sign and not looking at the cause.

Lowering cholesterol through statins is like fighting chicken pox with face makeup. Sure, you can’t see the pox, but the disease that caused them is still there, and so are the sores. They’re just covered. Curing a meaningless sign doesn’t make the patient better.

If you actually lower your cholesterol because you increase your Omega-3 or take vitamin E, then you likely have improved the patient’s health, but his large particle cholesterol levels are still largely irrelevant. All this talk about cholesterol levels is smoke and mirrors.

In 1987, statins were approved for anyone with a total cholesterol of 240 mg/dL. In 2024, this number had been lowered to 70 mg/dL. It seems like every other year, they lower the number on how high your cholesterol should be: 240, 200, …, 99; who’s counting? Some people even want to add statins to our drinking water.

Conclusion: The New Snake Oil Salesman

The number one prescribed medication in the US today is statin drugs. Who says we have gotten rid of the snake oil salesman? It’s good for what ails ya.

References

1. Bowden J, Sinatra ST. The great cholesterol myth: why lowering your cholesterol won’t prevent heart disease–; and the statin-free plan that will. Beverly, MA: Fair Winds Press; 2015.