NYMC Faculty Publications
LDL-C Does Not Cause Cardiovascular Disease: A Comprehensive Review of Current Literature
DOI
10.1080/17512433.2018.1519391
Journal Title
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
First Page
959
Last Page
970
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
October 2018
Department
Medicine
Abstract
Introduction For half a century, a high level of total cholesterol (TC) or low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) has been considered to be the major cause of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD), and statin treatment has been widely promoted for cardiovascular prevention. However, there is an increasing understanding that the mechanisms are more complicated, and that statin treatment, in particular when used as primary prevention, is of doubtful benefit. Areas covered The authors of three large reviews recently published by statin advocates have attempted to validate the current dogma. This paper delineates the serious errors in these three reviews as well as other obvious falsifications of the cholesterol hypothesis. Expert commentary Our search for falsifications of the cholesterol hypothesis confirms that it is unable to satisfy any of the Bradford Hill criteria for causality, and that the conclusions of the authors of the three reviews are based on misleading statistics, exclusion of unsuccessful trials and by ignoring numerous contradictory observations.
Recommended Citation
Ravnskov, U., de Lorgeril, M., Diamond, D., Hama, R., Hamazaki, T., Hammarskjold, B., Hynes, N., Kendrick, M., Langsjoen, P., Mascitelli, L., McCully, K., Okuyama, H., Rosch, P., Schersten, T., Sultan, S., & Sundberg, R. (2018). LDL-C Does Not Cause Cardiovascular Disease: A Comprehensive Review of Current Literature. Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 11 (10), 959-970. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512433.2018.1519391