basic Home / Contact

Short review of 65 articles on tests or studies related to cholesterol.


These 65 were winnowed from 111 articles. These are all the significant tests covered by over 500 articles in the NY Times from 1981 to the middle of November 2006.

They should be analyzed, keeping the following 4 factors in mind.

1) Do they prove or disprove cause and effect for heart disease, stroke or death (separately or in total) vs. cholesterol level.

2) Ignore all reports that show a reduction of cholesterol until the above is proven -- or strongly indicated

3) Remember -- one test shows 6,000 people -- half of which was on a statin and half were not. Those on the statin had a 2% incidence of heart disease (1200 people). Those that were not on the statin had a 3% incidence (1800 people). This was reported as a 50% increase in heart disease when not taking a statin. But it is more fair, in my opinion, to say -- “even when successful -- if 100 people take the drug -- it will save only one life.”

4) Side effects of the drugs

INDEX TO SUMMARY OF ARTICLES RELATING HIGH CHOLESTEROL TO HEART PROBLEMS AND STROKES

See list of articles and how to get copies -- scroll down on link.

Study # 1 / Date 1/8/81
Subject / Cholesterol and early coronary death / American men
Quantity / 1,900

Study # 2 / Date 1/8/81
Subject / as above
Quantity / as above

Study # 4 / Date 6/18/81
Subject / Low cholesterol diet / American men with high choleterol levels and high cholesterol diets
Quantity / 1,200

Study # 6 / Date 1/13/84
Subject / Reducing cholesterol by a drug -- cholestyramine / Norwegian men
Quantity / 3,806

Study # 15 / Date 1/12/85
Subject / Coffee / American medical students
Quantity 1,000

Study # 19 a / Date 11/28/86
Subject / Cholesterol and death from heart disease / Men in the U.S.
Quantity / 361,662

Study # 19 b / Date 11/28/86
Subject Lovastatin / People with high cholesterol
Quantity / 101 ????

Study # 19 c / Date 11/28/86
Subject HDL / Framingham
Quantity / 1,605

Study # 20 / Date 12/10/86
Subject / see #19 / Location Men / Framingham
Quantity / 1,605

Study # 22 / Date 4/9/87 / Summary in table below
Subject / DeBakey’s experience / Location Patients and bypass operations
Quantity / 15,000 patients and 1,400 bypass operations

 

SURGEON QUESTIONS CHOLESTEROL ROLE / By SANDRA BLAKESLEE, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES

Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, the heart surgeon, said today (4/9/87) that 30 years of observation of more than 15,000 patients had led him to conclude that cholesterol was not the central cause of atherosclerosis, the artery-clogging condition that kills hundreds of thousands of Americans each year.

His findings, which include a study of 1,400 artery-bypass patients, contradict most of the recent studies conducted on the role of cholesterol in heart disease.

See full article as reported in NY Times


Study # 23 / Date 6/19/87
Subject / Shrinking fatty deposits ( mortality not studied??) / USC School of Medicine / men with clogged arteries and bypass surgery
Quantity / 162

Study # 29 / Date 11/12/87
Subject Gemfibrozil / Finland / men
Quantity / 2,000

Study # 37 / Date 6/20/89
Subject / Aspirin / American doctors
Quantity / 22,071

Study # 38a / Date 9/26/89
Subject / cholestyramine / American middle-aged men / Coronary Prevention trial
Quantity / ???????

Study # 38b / Date 9/26/89
Subject / Gemfibrozil / Helsinki heart study
Quantity / ????

Study # 38c / Date 9/26/89
Subject / Men who had coronary bypass / USC
Quantity / ??

Study # 48c / Date 9/22/92
Subject / Vitamins / elders / Massachusetts
Quantity / 1,271

Study # 50a / Date 3/4/93
Subject / Nuts / Seventh Day Adventists (US??)
Quantity / 31,208

Study # 50b / Date 3/4/93
Subject Nuts
Name / Location ??
Quantity 18

Study # 52a / Date 5/20/93
Subject / Vitamin E / Men and women / Boston? /
Quantity / 87,000 healthy people

Study # 52b / Date 5/20/93
Subject / Vitamin E
Name / Location Harvard???
Quantity / 40,000 Health profesionals

Study # 54 / Date 2/22/94
Subject / Lipoprotein-a / strokes / Austria
Quantity / 2645 stroke patients and 289 healthy people

Study # 55 / Date 8/24/94
Subject / Fatty acids / Boston???
Quantity / 46 people with heart disease and 24 healthy people

Study # 56a / Date 11/2/94
Subject / Elders / Yale ??
Quantity / 997 men and women

Study # 57 / Date 11/17/94
Subject / Reducing cholesterol saves lives (FIRST TIME SHOWN) / Sivistatin Survival Study / Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Quantity / 4,444 men and women age 35 to 70

Study # 58 / Date 3/1/95
Subject / Medicine for lowering cholesterol causes depression
Quantity / 174 men undergoing angioplasty

Study # 6 / Date 8/16/950
Subject / Elderly patients / HDL / mortality / USA
Quantity / 3,904 men and women from 70 to 90 years old

Study # 61 / Date 9/13/95
Subject / Screening guidelines fail 1/2 the time / North America
Quantity / 3,678

Study # 66a / Date 1/29/97
Subject / Lp(a) / Sweden
Quantity /600 women

Study # 66b / Date 1/29/97 (August ‘96)
Subject / Tufts (Framingham) Lp(a) / Boston/ Framingham
Quantity / 2,000 ???

Study # 66c / Date 1/29/97 (previous)
Subject / Lp(a) / Location Tufts / Framingham
Quantity / 3,000 ???

Study # 67 / Date 6/25/97
Subject / Cholesterol / strokes / Winstom/ Salem??
Quantity / ???

Study # 68 / Date 11/1/97
Subject / Mental edge diminished / lovaststin / mevacor / USA ??
Quantity / 194 men and women

Study # 69 / Date 3/17/98
Subject / Reduction in Cholesterol linked to violent death / Review of other tests from 1965 to 1997 / U.C. San Diego
Quantity / ???

Study # 71 / Date 11/5/98
Subject / Pravachol / Australia
Quantity / 9,014 survivors of heart attacks

Study # 72 / Date 1/7/99
Subject / Thickening of carotid artery predicts heart attack and stroke / USA???
Quantity 4,476 healthy medicare beneficiaries / avg. age of 72

Study # 74 / Date 2/8/2000
Subject / Nuts reduce heart attacks / Nurses Health Study (previously reported ?)
Quantity / 86,016 - also mentioned 7th Day Adventist study of 34,192 people

Study # 79
Subject / Lovastatin / USA ???
Quantity / 6,605 healthy men and women / middle aged to elderly / average cholesterol levels / HDL was low (these people were probably at risk because of the low HDL??)
(Only 3% of the undrugged control had a heart attack or other serious symptoms -- that dropped to 2% for those taking lovastatin) That means the drug “saved” only 1% of those taking the drug

Study # 89 / Date 11/14/02
Subject / C-reactive protein as an indicator of heart attacks and styrokes to come / Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston
Quantity / 27,939 women

Study # 93 / Date 7/15/03
Subject / Metabolic syndrome is more accurate in predicting heart disease / Scotland
Quantity / 6000

Study # 95 / Date 10/15/06
Subject / Centenarians / their offspring / large lipoprotein molecules seem to be protective / Location ????????
Quantity / 700 divided into 3 groups

Study # 96 / Date 11/5/03
Subject / Heart attack patients / HDL mimic cleans arteries, reduces plaque / Location ???????
Quantity / 47

Study # 97 / Date 11/13/03
Subject / Pravachol vs. Lipitor (Lipitor won) / Reduction of LDL and plaque (heart attacks and deaths not considered)
Quantity /502 heart disease patients

Study # 98 / Date 3/9/04
Subject / Lipitor vs. Pravachol (a different study than #97, above) / Harvard
Quantity / ????????

Study # 100a (2 studies ???) / Date 1/6/05
Subject / C-reactive protein -- lower levels help patients / Dr. Ridker ???
Quantity / 3,745 patients who had been hospitalized

Study # 100b / Date 1/6/05
Subject / C-reactive protein / statins / lowering Crp slows artery problems / people with severe heart disease
Quantity / ???

Study # 102 / Date 1/11/05
Subject Crestor / caused death
Quantity / ???????

Study # 103a / Date 2/9/05
Subject Lipitor reduced heart attacks and strokes -- but not death
Quantity / ?????????

Study # 103b / Date 2/9/05
Subject / Norvasc -- a hypertension reducing drug -- vs. beta blockers / Mixed results for fatal coronary heart disease -- (confusing)
Quantity / 20,000 patients with high blood pressure

Study # 104 / Date 3/29/05
Subject / Smart side of cholesterol -- it raises mental ability
Location / Framingham (again)
Quantity / About 2,000 men and women (toyal)

Study # 106 / Date 5/24/05
Subject / Crestor / High rate of serious side effects when compared to Pravachol and Lipitor
Quantity ?????????????

 commercial messages to go in this column