My Dad’s been taking statins for two decades now, and I’ve been trying to get him to stop. It has noticeably affected his mental acuity, and from what I’ve read, they have next to no upside — as Slovenian guest noted.

Special thanks to SG, for the great comments and links.

“There are no good “vegetable” oils. Some are worse than others but none are good. Some nut based oils (e.g. coconut) are perhaps better, but were talking in relative terms, not absolutes. Unsaturated oils are not shelf-stable without chemical modification — that’s what “unsaturated” means, that there are open chemical bond sites on the hydrocarbon chain. Hydrogenated oils (if that word appears anywhere on the label) are trans-fats and the safe amount of them in your diet is zero. All plant-based oils are high in Omega-6 and while you do need some small amount of them in their natural form they are pro-inflammatory and thus promote heart disease. Note that historically the balance of Omega-3 (mostly in animal flesh) and Omega-6 (mostly in plants) was about 1:1. Concentrating the amount of Omega-6 oils by processing plants into oils has dramatically increased the ratio to, in most people, 10:1 or more!

The pharmaceutical industry is well aware of point this and has been for decades. In fact all of the OTC NSAIDS (Ibuprofin, aspirin, etc) work by reducing the metabolism of Omega-6 fatty acids into inflammatory compounds.

Let that sink in for a minute or two: Both your doctor and the pharmaceutical industry know, as a matter of scientific fact, that consuming these oils fuels inflammation because the method of action of some of the most-widely used over-the-counter drugs is to reduce that metabolic process.”

That’s why aspirin helps!

And there’s more:

“Alarmingly, an assessment of industry-sponsored RCTs showed the median increase in life expectancy for selected participants in secondary prevention trials who adhered to taking statins every day for several years was a mere four days.”

From The cholesterol and calorie hypotheses are both dead — it is time to focus on the real culprit: insulin resistance

Again found via the Market Ticker, where Karl Denninger further adds:

“Now tell me folks — would you agree to take a drug after a heart attack if (1) you knew it would cost you some amount of money — any amount of money — and (2) that the expected improvement in your survival time was four days if you took it every day for several years?

No, you would not — and you know it.

Yet not only the drug industry but your doctor have made billions of dollars selling you these drugs without telling you that the expected improvement in your life is four whole ****ing days.

Knowingly failing to disclose a material fact that would have changed your decision had you known it for the purpose of making a profit at your expense has a name: FRAUD. It is not a mistake, it is a crime.”