Table Of ContentFat and Cholesterol
Don’t Cause Heart Attacks
and Statins Are Not the Solution
A Tribute to Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD
and his Establishment of THINCS,
The International Network
of Cholesterol Skeptics
Paul J. Rosch, MD, FACP, Editor
Published by Columbus Publishing Ltd 2016
www.columbuspublishing.co.uk
ISBN 978-1-907797-54-5
ver 20160912
Copyright © 2016 individual authors
Each contributing author has asserted their right to be identified as the authors of their work in accordance
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Cover design by Andy Harcombe
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Brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners
The information provided in this book should not be construed as personal medical advice or instruction.
No action should be taken based solely on the contents of this book.
Readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and well-
being.
The information and opinions provided here are believed to be accurate and sound and are based on the best
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the authors for their patience and prompt cooperation in
finalizing this tribute to Uffe Ravnskov. Special thanks to Andy Harcombe for
facilitating its speedy publication and for his expertise and advice during every
stage of this process. I am also grateful for Donna Telyczka’s assistance with
research and administrative assignments.
Paul J. Rosch, MD, Editor
About The Editor
Paul J. Rosch, MA, MD, FACP is Clinical Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry
at New York Medical College, Chairman of the Board of The American Institute
of Stress and Honorary Vice President of the International Stress Management
Association. He did his internship and residency at Johns Hopkins, and has a
Workers Compensation subspecialty rating in cardiology, endocrinology and
metabolism. In 1993, he began devoting a series of sessions on the fallacies of
the lipid and diet-heart hypotheses at the annual Montreux International
Congress on Stress that featured leading authorities from all over the world. This
was long before the advent of THINCS and he was unaware of Uffe Ravnskov’s
contributions at the time.
Dr. Rosch is a Fellow and Life Member of The American College of
Physicians, and has served as President of the New York State Society of
Internal Medicine, President of the Pavlovian Society and Expert Consultant on
Stress to the United States Centers for Disease Control. He has been the recipient
of numerous honors here and abroad, including the Outstanding Physician’s
Award of the New York State Medical Society, the Innovation Award of The
International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine, and
The I.M. Sechenov Memorial Medal from The Russian Academy of Medical
Sciences.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Preface: Why And How This Book Was Written – Paul
J. Rosch, MD
Chapter Two: On The Origin And Evolution Of THINCS: An
Interview with Uffe Ravnskov – Paul J. Rosch, MD
Chapter Three: How Dietary Guidelines, Bad Science, Politics and
Profit Have Contributed To The Current Epidemic of Obesity and
Incidence of Heart Disease – Zoë Harcombe, PhD
Chapter Four: The Culprit In Coronary Heart Disease Is Trans Fats,
Not Cholesterol: But Why Did It Take Decades To Ban Them? – Fred
A. Kummerow, PhD
Chapter Five: Industrial Control of Guidelines for Lipid Nutrition
Harumi Okuyama PhD, Peter H. Langsjoen, MD, Alena M.
Langsjoen, MS, Naoki Ohara, PhD
Chapter Six: Why The Lipid Hypothesis Of Coronary Heart Disease
Is Fallacious And Dangerous – Paul J. Rosch, MD, Uffe Ravnskov
MD, PhD
Chapter Seven: Historical Perspective OnThe Use Of Deceptive
Methods In The War On Cholesterol – David M. Diamond, PhD, Uffe
Ravnskov MD, PhD
Chapter Eight: People With High Cholesterol Live Longer –
Tomohito Hamazaki, MD, PhD
Chapter Nine: A Role for Sulfur Deficiency in Coronary Heart
Disease – Stephanie Seneff, PhD
Chapter Ten: Stress as Cause of Atherosclerosis: The Acidity Theory
– Carlos E. T. B. Monteiro
Chapter Eleven: The role of infections, lipoproteins and
hyperhomocysteinemia in the pathogenesis of vulne-rable
atherosclerotic plaques. – Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD, Kilmer S.
McCully, MD
Chapter Twelve: Cardiovascular disease is primarily due to blood
clotting – Malcolm Kendrick, MD
Chapter Thirteen: Statins and Cancer: Cause or Cure? – Paul J. Rosch,
MD, Luca Mascitelli, MD, Mark R. Goldstein, MD
Chapter Fourteen: Deciphering The Dilemma Of Perilous vs.
Pleiotropic Effects Of Statins – Paul J. Rosch, MD
Chapter Fifteen: Critical Review Of Recent Drug Company
Sponsored Trials About Statin Efficacy And Safety – Michel de
Lorgeril, MD, Mikael Rabaeus, MD
Chapter Sixteen: Why Reported Statin Side Effects Are Just the Tip of
a Titanic Iceberg – Duane Graveline MD, MPH, Paul J. Rosch, MD
Chapter Seventeen: Systemic Evaluation of Statin Therapy Side
Effects. Do The Accrued Adverse Effects Outweigh The Benefits? –
Sherif Sultan, MCh, MD, PhD, Edel P. Kavanagh, PhD Niamh Hynes,
MD
References
Chapter One
Preface: Why And How This Book Was Written
Paul J. Rosch, MD
What Causes Heart Attacks?
If you ask anyone “What causes heart attacks”, the vast majority, including
physicians, would undoubtedly blame high cholesterol from eating too much fat,
or include this along with unavoidable influences like heredity and stress. That’s
not surprising, since this dietary fat ⇨ elevated cholesterol ⇨ heart attacks
scenario has been repeated over and over so many times for the past 70 years,
that it has become accepted as gospel. As William James, the father of American
psychology noted. “There’s nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough,
people will believe it.”
But there was apparently nothing absurd about this. It was easy to visualize
how fatty foods could elevate blood cholesterol, which was then deposited in
arteries where they reduced and ultimately blocked the flow of blood. Animal
studies seemed to support this sequence of events and large scale epidemiologic
studies in different countries purportedly showed a close correlation between fat
consumption and deaths from heart disease, and in some instances, with
cholesterol levels. Proponents of this “Diet-Heart” or lipid hypothesis included
eminent researchers and physicians who received the Nobel Prize, Lasker and
other Awards for their contributions to this theory.
As a result, reducing fat intake, especially saturated fat, has been U.S. policy
for the past 35 years. These official guidelines are the basis for determining the
foods that will be used in the military, government cafeterias, schools, food
assistance programs, industry food formulations, and restaurant recipes, as well
as recommendations made by nutritionists and dieticians. And since they were
also endorsed by leading authorities and prestigious organizations such as the
American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, it was
assumed that restricting fats would provide cardioprotective and other health
benefits. The advent of statins, which allegedly prevented heart disease by
lowering cholesterol, appeared to prove the validity of the lipid hypothesis, and
statins quickly became the best selling prescription drugs ever.
How Could We Have Been So Wrong For So Long?
The above erroneous beliefs began 100 years ago based on studies showing that
feeding rabbits purified cholesterol obtained from egg yolks for two or three
months produced lipid laden lesions rich in cholesterol in the aorta and other
arteries. However, since rabbits are herbivorous, cholesterol is a foreign
substance and blood levels were 4-5 times higher than those seen in humans.
More importantly, these results could not be replicated in rodents or carnivorous
animals so they were not relevant to humans. In addition, there was little clinical
interest in any of the above, since prior to 1920, less than 10% of all U.S. deaths
were due to heart disease.
That changed dramatically in the 1950s, when this had escalated to over 30%
as an epidemic of heart attacks in middle-aged men was sweeping the U.S. This
was also attributed to increased intake of fatty foods by Ancel Keys, after whom
the K-rations used by US troops in World War II had been named. He
demonstrated an almost straight line relationship between death rates from
coronary disease to fatty food consumption in six countries, with Japan having
the least and US the most. This was confirmed in his subsequent much larger
Seven Countries study that showed heart attack and stroke death rates were also
directly related to serum cholesterol levels and that saturated fats were the main
culprit.
The problem was that although Keys had data on 22 countries, he cherry
picked the seven that best supported his theory. When all the countries were
included, there was no fatty diet-heart disease link, and had he selected Israel,
Sweden, Germany and France, he would have concluded that the more
saturated fat consumed, the lower the incidence of coronary heart disease.
Nevertheless, Keys was featured on the cover of the January 13, 1961 issue of
Time magazine, was referred to in the media as “Mr. Cholesterol”, and
triumphantly proclaimed, “No other variable in the mode of life beside the fat
calories in the diet is known which shows such a constant relationship to the
mortality rate from coronary or degenerative heart disease”.
The tremendous publicity given to his conclusions stimulated numerous
attempts to reduce coronary disease by low fat diets. The Anti-Coronary Club
Project launched in 1957 compared two groups of middle-aged New York
businessmen. One group followed a “Prudent Diet” with corn oil and margarine
