Found this a quite entertaining read, a quite serious topic written in a style that engaged me quite well. He asks whether or not Statin drugs are actually useful or just a moneymaking venture by drug companies that don't help most of the patients but give side effects. He also asks if Cholesterol is actually the bad guy or if our ideas of diet are misguided. He argued persuasively and made me think about this diet experiment we're living through. ( )

I've previously reviewed Uffe Ravnskov's book on the same subject - "Fat and cholesterol are good for you". I thought that was a great, essential read, but this book is even better.

Kendrick like Ravnskov demolishes what he calls the diet-heart hypothesis (aka the Cholesterol hypothesis) and quotes from Blackadder - "It is wronger than a very wrong thing".

His basic theses are:

1) A high-fat diet saturated or otherwise does not affect cholesterol levels.

2) High cholesterol levels don't cause heart disease.

3) Statins do not protect against heart disease by lowering cholesterol levels.

4) The protection provided by statins is absolutely negligible and non-existent for women.

5) Statins have nasty side-effects including causing horrible deformities in babies.

In a study carried out by the author on saturated fat consumption in various countries, it turned out that every single one of the seven countries with the lowest saturated fat consumption had significantly greater rates of heart disease than every single one of the seven countries with the highest saturated fat consumption.

Other studies confirmed that a low cholesterol level after the age of 5o (and under 50 for men) is significantly associated with all-cause mortality. In a study from France of women living in a nursing home, the lowest mortality was at an average cholesterol level of 7.0 mmol/l, while the highest mortality was at an average cholesterol level of 7.0 mmol/l. It is dangerous to have low cholesterol levels! - under the age of 50 there is a 429% increased risk of death per 1 mmol/l cholesterol drop according to the Framingham study and after the age of 50 a low cholesterol level is associated with a significantly greater overall mortality.

These are just a few of the facts I've plucked from the book. A chapter is devoted to the dangers of statins and the author also delves deeply into the actual causes of heart disease, concluding that stress is the main causal factor, particularly what he terms "social dislocation" - ethnic cleansing, migration to another country, or when an entire society or population is forced to undergo massive change.

Kendrick (like myself) is a Scot, and his style of writing is highly entertaining, so this is in no way a dull book, though the subject-matter is deadly serious.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone. ( )