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The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It |  | Author: Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
Publisher: John Blake
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $8.62
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Seller: pbshop
Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 13204
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 238
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 1844546101
Dewey Decimal Number: 613
EAN: 9781844546107
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9781844546107 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
Statins are the so-called "wonder drugs" widely prescribed to lower blood cholesterol levels that claim to offer unparalleled protection against heart disease. Many experts claim that they are completely safe and that they are also capable of preventing a whole series of other conditions. This groundbreaking study exposes the truth behind the hype surrounding statins and reveals a number of crucial facts, including that high cholesterol levels do not cause heart disease; that high-fat diets—saturated or otherwise—do not affect blood cholesterol levels; and that for most men and all women the benefits offered by statins are negligible at best. Other data is also provided that shows that statins have many more side affects than is often acknowledged. This hard-hitting survey also points a finger at the powerful pharmaceutical industry and an unquestioning medical profession as perpetrators of the largely facetious concepts of “good” and “bad” cholesterol that are designed to convince millions of people to spend billions on statins. With clarity and wit, this appeal to common sense and scientific fact debunks common assumptions on what constitutes a healthy lifestyle and diet, as well as the idea that there is a miracle cure for heart disease.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 40
 About time..... January 20, 2010
Susan (Ossining, NY)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I think this guy hits the nail on the head. I've always been suspicious of all these statins since personally knowing so many people who've had to get knee operations from them. Most books of this nature bore me, but the way he writes with a sense of humor kept me interested all the way. A doctor with a sense of humor. Imagine that!
 A lot of theory with a lack of science January 17, 2010
Evan Gillespie (Cleveland, OH USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick is a G.P. in the United Kingdom and argues that stress is the main cause of heart disease. Towards the end of the book he advocates to stop smoking, take exercise, drink moderately, find a new job if you hate your current one and make a new friend. That is all probably good advice, but...
Stress can't be measured like cholesterol levels can. In fact, stress has no physical attributes or value. It is created inside our minds and occurs only inside our minds. Because of this, Dr. Kendrick can't prove his theory. While he is probably correct in criticizing the risks of statin drugs & the lack of mind-body studies in the orthodox-western medical establishment, ironically he doesn't produce a lot of evidence that support his own theory. Because of this, this book is a good critique of the obsession with cholesterol levels and a good warning about the potential dangers of statin drugs. The book also addresses stress, which apparently can potentially produce a whole array of chronic health conditions. This book, in my opinion, does little to help people that have risk factors for heart disease or have already been treated for heart disease. For people seriously interested in lifestyle change that reverses their heart disease, I would recommend: "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure" by Caldwell B. Esselstyn.
Some problems with "The Great Cholesterol Con":
pg 15 - Kendrick argues if saturated fats were so deadly they wouldn't be so delicious. That is just silly. Twinkies and bacon are not healthy, Mr. Kendrick.
pg 68 - Kendrick discusses a healthy, young man who had no traditional risk factors, yet died of a heart attack. Isolated anomalies when there are billions of humans does not prove a point.
Pg 87, 115 - Kendrick uses multi-national mortality rates to prove his point. The problem is that mortality rates can be irrelevant since different nations treat heart disease differently and availability and quality of medical care differ substantially. Perhaps measurement of the instance of cardiac events would have been better?
In conclusion, stress is probably a big factor in the development of many chronic diseases. And yes, statins do have their risks. But, most of us already knew that!
While addressing stress is likely very beneficial in understanding chronic disease, disregarding cholesterol is probably not a good idea.
Statins are a blood thinner; aspirin is cheaper January 13, 2010
Molly (NC)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As a person who has stuck to a low-fat diet and exercise to try to lower my cholesterol, only to see it rise dramatically instead, I had a keen interest in reading this book. Although it does tend to be highly technical, parts of it above my head even though Dr. Kendrick made a wholehearted attempt to explain it, I thought it was a terrific book. Most of what he says appealed to my sense of logic. Why did my cholesterol go up on a very low-fat diet? It did; I saw that first-hand. Maybe because I was eating more carbohydrates, which Dr. Kendrick says is more likely to raise cholesterol levels than fat. Not that high cholesterol is bad. People ask why doctors would push statins in they didn't believe in them -- I would say, for the same reason they pushed estrogen replacement therapy. Partly a herd mentality. Besides, you have to do what the AMA says because if you don't, and something goes wrong, you can be sued. If you follow the AMA and write down in the patient's record that you did, then you have a defense. Turning the AMA is like turning a very big, old ship. Even the establishment now concurs that high cholesterol is not a factor for heart disease in women over 65. My doctor has stopped pushing me to take statins, now that I'm getting older. A different doctor got downright mean with me because I refused hormone replacement therapy years ago. But she was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, and common sense was right. According to the book, statins can and do act as a blood thinner (anti-clotting agent), just like aspirin, they just cost a lot more. The stress effect on the HPA-axis makes a lot of sense to me. The establishment seems to be leaning that way also because now, even on medical websites, the emphasis is toward Metabolic Syndrome, rather than cholesterol. I intend to continue to follow a sensible diet (not as low-fat as I did) and exercise and relaxing my response to stress. But I think I will completely stop worrying about cholesterol. Once the veil is completely lifted, health care costs will drop a whole lot, I expect. We're wasting tons of money on testing for cholesterol and buying statins. When you've got a few people making billions of dollars and becoming filthy rich, somebody needs to ask some questions.
 Goog info on a scam. January 9, 2010
J. Wallace (NorthWest, USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Someone is finally explaining in detail of how the current ideas of cholesterol came about. Funny, sarcastic, informative.
 Raises good points but problems too December 17, 2009
Sodakgrrl
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'm glad I read the reviews that commented on Kendrick's sarcasm--the book would be much better without it, but because I was prepared I could get past it. Kendrick makes many good points, but some of his analysis is flawed by the same problems he points out with the pro-cholesterol-diet folks. For example, he tends to also use correlation=causation analyses when attempting to refute certain points. This makes it more difficult to believe the credibility of his other analyses, when depending on his interpretation of the research. Given that caveat, he raises many good points, worth researching in more depth on one's own. For that reason, I am glad that I've read the book, but I am hesitant to recommend it unless one is also reading other books/websites/articles addressing the issue. I also recommend the review of this book by Chris Masterjohn that is available at his website:[...]
Showing reviews 1-5 of 40
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