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The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease Paperback – April 14, 2003

by Uffe Ravnskov (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 266 ratings
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A highly qualified doctor and scientist analyzes the studies used to justify the cholesterol hypothesis and demonstrates that the idea that animal fats and cholesterol cause heart disease is based on flimsy, even fraudulent evidence and wishful thinking. Includes a discussion on the dangers of vegetable oils and cholesterol-lowering drugs.
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  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Newtrends Publishing, Inc.
  4. Publication date
    April 14, 2003
  5. Dimensions
    6.12 x 0.71 x 8.92 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0967089700
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0967089706
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

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...he is not a lone voice in the wilderness and he deserves to be taken seriously. -- Michael Gurr, PhD--Renowned Lipid Chemist

Dr. Ravnskov has done a magnificent service. . . must reading for all interested persons, nutritionists and physicians. -- Ray H. Rosenman, MD--Former Director of Cardiovascular Research, SRI

Dr. Ravnskov's measured and clear-eyed analysis actually serves as a sledgehammer that breaks down barriers to healthy, sensible eating. -- Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions

From the Author

The Cholesterol Myths is out of print. A new, updated and simplified version entitled Fat and Cholesterol are GOOD for You! is now available from amazon

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Newtrends Publishing, Inc. (April 14, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0967089700
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0967089706
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.12 x 0.71 x 8.92 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 266 ratings

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Uffe Ravnskov

Uffe Ravnskov

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Uffe Ravnskov was born 1934 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He graduated in 1961 from the University of Copenhagen with an M.D, but has worked most of his time as a clinician and a researcher in Sweden, where he got his PhD from the University of Lund. He has published more than 100 papers and letters critical of the cholesterol campaign; most of them in major medical journals. Honoured by the Skrabanek Award 1999 given by Trinity College of Dublin, Ireland for original contributions in the field of medical skepticism, and by the 2007 Leo-Huss-Walin Prize for Independent Thinking in Natural Sciences And Medicine. He is a member of the editorial board of two medical journals and is the creator and spokesman of THINCS, The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics (www.thincs.org), an organization that includes more than 100 researchers and other university graduates from all over the world. More details about Uffe Ravnskov are available on www.ravnskov.nu/uffe

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4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
266 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Gerald M. Vrooman
5.0 out of 5 stars Who is afraid of a little cholesterol?
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2003
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Every year millions of Americans are badgered by their physicians into taking a class of cholesterol lowering drugs called "statins". Doctors have become so obsessed with the dangers of high cholesterol that it has become difficult to get treated for anything else. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute has issued guidelines that urge that even more Americans be put on statins. The large pharmacutical companies earn billions annually on the sale of statins. If these drugs were merely innocuous and expensive, the situation wouldn't be so bad, but statins can have many dangerous side effects. If you are doubtful about the wisdom of taking statins, Uffe Ravnskov's book can provide you with the ammunition you need to resist your doctor's urging to take these drugs.
What makes this book compelling is Ravnskov's careful avoidance of accusations and ad-hominem attacks, and his heavy reliance on facts. Quoting one clinical study after another, he quietly demolishes the myth that cholesterol is dangerous. He then presents a detailed analysis of the various clinical trials involving statins, explaining the difference between relative risk and absolute risk. Drug companies love to tout the benefits of a drug in terms of relative risk, and minimize the side effects in terms of absolute risk. If you dig into Ravnskov's data, you can find some intriguing bits of information. Two trials involving Lovastatin actually showed higher overall mortality rates in the treatment group. One study of Pravastatin, which included women, showed a 1300% increase in breast cancer. The most successful statin trial showed a 42% reduction in fatal heart attacks, but only a 27% reduction in total mortality. Hmmm.
If Ravnskov's book has a flaw, it is his lack of alternatives to taking statins. Studies not mentioned in the book have shown that eating moderate amounts of fatty fish, or taking a fish oil supplement, can be just as beneficial as taking statins. Avoiding trans fats can give you a similar reduction in risk. Still it is an excellent book and well worth reading.
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Abacus
5.0 out of 5 stars The Thirteen Sins of Medical Statistics
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2006
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The first sin is misdirection. Many studies indicated there were inverse relationships between mortality and cholesterol, especially at advanced age, and with women. The researchers ignored this, and stated unequivocally the data showed a direct proportional relationship between cholesterol and mortality.

The second sin is data cherry picking. Ancel Keys, leading advocate of cholesterol theory, gathered data from 22 countries. He deducted that % of calories derived from fat in diet is related to cholesterol and higher mortality rate by selecting only the 7 countries that supported his hypothesis.

The third sin is ignoring qualitative differences in cultural practices. In U.S., coronary heart disease (CHD) is diagnosed related to uncertain causes of death 33% more often than in England and 50% more often than in Norway. As a result, the three countries respectively are associated with a high, moderate, and low level of (CHD). Yet, their consumption of cholesterol is similar. Keys ignored these factors and took out the countries that did not support his conclusion.

The fourth sin is confusing association with causation. Researchers sometimes derived that higher cholesterol was causing CHD. Meanwhile, the true cause may have been age, weight, or diabetes. The author shows how you could similarly demonstrate that radio ownership is correlated with mortality rate!

The fifth sin is not doing a random sampling. The Framingham study included a postmortem analysis concluding that cholesterol does cause atherosclerosis. But, this was after selecting only the 14% of the test subjects who died prematurely. A large proportion had familial hypercholesterolemia. This is a rare disorder associated with high cholesterol and CHD. But, this relationship between cholesterol and CHD does not exist in the general population.

The sixth sin is using the wrong test to boost significance. The two-tail t test is the appropriate one in medical hypothesis testing. But, researchers often used the one-tail t test to inappropriately boost confidence level from 90% to 95%. This allowed them to claim their findings were significant when they were not.

The seventh sin is not looking at the whole picture. When testing the impact of cholesterol lowering drugs, researchers focused on the reduction in death from CHD while ignoring increase in death from other causes. Those drugs often boosted total mortality.

The eight sin is focusing on relative risk vs absolute risk. If a drug reduces mortality from 0.7% to 0.6%, the pharmaceutical industry will broadcast that it reduces mortality rate by 14% (change in relative risk). This improvement overstates that it will reduce mortality by only 0.1% or save only one in 1000 lives (change in absolute risk). Medical studies use relative risk to boost claims of drug merits. They use absolute risk to minimize implication of side effects.

The ninth sin is adding variables to get the prediction you want. Researchers never found statistically adequate evidence that high cholesterol causes CHD. So, they added smoking. They found that the combination of smoking and high cholesterol did cause CHD. But, smoking was responsible for most of the CHD.

The tenth sin is not doing a double blind test. Many of the studies were done with doctors knowing who were the patients who received the drug. Invariably, such studies result in overly optimistic assessment of the tested drug.

The eleventh sin is believing frequency of a study's citation is proportional to its quality. Within medical research, the studies that demonstrate that a cholesterol lowering drug reduce CHD risk are cited 10 to a 100 times more often than the ones who don't.

The twelfth sin is testing the same hypothesis over and over. The scientific method consists in testing a hypothesis once. If results reject such hypothesis, the researchers should come up with a different hypothesis. Instead, medical researchers test whether lowering cholesterol reduces CHD until they get the results they want. That's not science.

The thirteenth sin is believing the consensus is more important than the source of funding. The reverse is true. The pharmaceutical industry funds the majority of studies. Thus, researchers reach their financiers' consensus. The few dissenters are dismissed. But, their judgment is not distorted by Big Pharma.

By uncovering statistical flaws, the author debunks the merits of the Mediterranean diet and the French Paradox. Similarly, he refutes the concept of good vs bad cholesterol and the related multiple between the two as a metric for CHD also falls apart.

He also refutes the merit of Dr. Ornish draconian diet (only 10% of calories from fat). He indicates that Dr. Ornish own study included so many variables (exercise, lifestyle, meditation) that he could not tell the low fat diet contribution. Ravnskov advances Dr. Ornish program would work as well without the diet component.

I recommend three other books: Charles McGee's "Heart Frauds", Lynne McTaggart's "What Doctors Don't Tell You" and Nortin Hadler's "The Last Well Person." The first book covers cardiovascular treatment. The other two books cover Western medicine. The books messages converge. Western medicine is costly, overly invasive, and not always effective.
168 people found this helpful
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Fred Amir
5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you Dr. Ravnskov
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2006
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I heard Dr. Ravnskov on a local radio show being interviewed from Sweden. For the first time I was hearing something sensible about serum cholesterol. I had read reports that most people with heart attacks have low cholesterol levels and people on cholesterol lowering medications had developed emotional problems and exhibited violent behavior and even suicide. So I was never really convinced that the medical industry was on the right track. Now that I have read his book, which is by the way extremely well researched and includes references to some of his own research published in Lancet and British Medical Journal, I am beyond convinced that there is no relationship at all between blood cholesterol level, diet, and heart disease.

Of course, we must not disregard risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, a sedentary life style, stress, smoking, and family history of heart disease. However, now we can relax and enjoy life without dreading the next blood test results.

You may also find it comforting to know that according to Dr. Ravnskov there is no evidence that a low fat diet prevents cancer.

This is one of many areas that the current medical practice is misdirected. As two recent studies revealed recently angioplasty three days after a heart attack and back surgery for back and leg pain are no more effective than noninvasive conservative treatments. So all those angioplasties and back surgeries with their complications and expense were no really necessary. Of course, it may take years before this type of research information makes its way into mainstream medical practice, as I experienced it first hand myself when I sought treatment for my back pain and disability.

So try to become as informed as possible to avoid being hurt by those who are suppose to help us, and I thank Dr. Ravnskov for his help in this.
23 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Another pharmaceutical scam
Reviewed in Canada on January 10, 2019
Verified Purchase
It is depressing to consider that our health is so irrelevant to drugs companies that they would suppress data and actively encourage us to modify our diets and consume drugs that have serious side effects in the absence of any real benefit to the patient. I strongly recommend reading this book which will open your eyes, and possibly make you ask yourself "what else are they lying about ?"
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Rookie
5.0 out of 5 stars Still a good topic.
Reviewed in Germany on October 31, 2018
Verified Purchase
I bought his book to dive into the topic cholesterol from a different perspective than the mainstream one. It is unfortunate that the topic is still an issue (first print 2000)!
The overall impression of the book is that of an author who only cares for his readers. No fancy photographs here, polemics or rhetoric turns. The book wants to deliver information which it does. It builds up a case and it presents arguments. I find it amazing how the author dissects clinical studies. I want to learn how to do this!

Regarding the content: it is not up-to-date any longer, as many other studies were published since its last edition. The author discusses far too many studies, I would have liked to see only some dissected in all details and most of them rather shorter. I would have also liked to see a chapter which explains methods to critically evaluate studies by oneself.

I read it in a few days (I am not a native speaker). The language is easy and understandable, and it does not require any elite education to understand the content.
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Pen Name
4.0 out of 5 stars We've been brain-washed by Big Pharma!
Reviewed in Australia on August 1, 2017
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Though some of this information was difficult to wade through I'm left convinced that as an older woman there is absolutely no benefit in taking high-price cholesterol-reducing drugs & I certainly don't want the side effects that come hand in hand!
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Gordon S.
5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for those considering the use of statins
Reviewed in Canada on December 28, 2018
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Having recently gone off statins when I began to experience harmful side effects at age 82, I can assure everyone that the changes since then have been very positive! I wish I had never started 40+ years ago!!!
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JessH
5.0 out of 5 stars Cholesterol is so important to the body, your liver makes more if you eat less!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2020
Verified Purchase
We evolve to eat saturated fat, plus berries, roots etc. When people ate saturated fat and hardly any sugar, we were nearly all slim. There was just one fat girl in my senior school in the 60's. Now people don't eat saturated fat, they eat vegetable oil (heavily processed) hydrogenated fat like marge (chemically altered/processed) carbs and sugar instead, and just look at any school playground or workplace or the street now. Most people are now overweight, why? Because they followed the wrong advice. Eat saturated fat and you'll stay slim (as I have, and I don't 'diet'). Eat low fat and you'll get fat, and possibly even diabetic as millions world wide now are. Highly recommend this book, please educate yourself, and enjoy improved health!
6 people found this helpful
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