Nothing has become more synonymous with "heart disease" in American discourse than "cholesterol." It is repeated so often that a high cholesterol level (or high LDL, low HDL, take your pick) is a risk factor for heart disease that one might think it would almost become true-- were that how truth came about.

Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD, in his book, The Cholesterol Myths shows that this is just one of nine "cholesterol myths."

A risk factor, of course, simply means an association, or "correlation," between a disease and that factor. The first thing one learns in any introductory science course is that "correlation does not prove causation."

For an example, fire fighters are found more often around building burnings, but that does not mean that fire fighters set buildings on fire. Yet how quickly researchers forget.

The Cholesterol Myths and Some Awfully Odd Conclusions

If we were to believe that a correlation between high cholesterol and heart disease proved that cholesterol causes heart disease, using the data from the major studies used to support this idea, we would have to believe:

Obviously these are ridiculous conclusions. We as a public have been misled to believe that blood cholesterol levels are a strong, consistent, and systematic predictor of heart disease, but The Cholesterol Myths shows that the data from the studies that are cited to support this claim tell an entirely different story.

Clearly something else is going on.

And has your doctor ever told you that you, if you are a woman, or, if you are a man, your wife, sister, mother, and so on, do not need to worry about cholesterol because study after study has consistently shown that cholesterol is not a risk factor for heart disease in women?

I didn't think so.

The Development of the Cholesterol Myths

Dr. Ravnskov takes us on a tour through the history of what he calls the "diet-heart idea," beginning with the founding event of the cholesterol campaign, when, in 1953, Ancel Keys published a paper showing a graph of six countries. Their rates of death from heart disease were graphed against the estimated availability of fat as a percentage of available food.

The relationship was impressive. Japan, with the lowest percentage of food as fat, had the lowest rate of heart disease. The United States, with the highest percentage of food available as fat, had the highest rate of heart disease. The other four countries placed neatly on an upward slope between the two.

What was wrong with Ancel Keys' chart? It included six countries, when data was available at the time from twenty-two! In The Cholesterol Myths, Dr. Ravnskov adds in the other data points available at the time, and the relationship disappears. The data points are scattered all across the chart.

Mexico and Finland, for example, had about the same amount of available fat, yet Mexico had the lowest rate of death from heart disease, and Finland had one of the highest, about 30 times higher. Holland and the U.S. had similar levels of available fat, but the U.S. about three times as many deaths from heart disease.

The flaws don't stop there. The data rest on the assumption that what is written on the death certificate is actually accurate. Dr. Ravnskov describes a fascinating study in which experienced, academically trained doctors from three countries were given the same documents from the hospital records of deceased patients that included all relevant information except the diagnosis, and then were told to make a diagnosis for the death certificates.

American doctors were 33 percent more likely to diagnose "heart disease" than British doctors, and 50 percent more likely than Norwegian doctors! Asks Dr. Ravnskov:

"If death is labeled so diferently in the US, England and Norway where the medical education is similar, how is it labeled in countries such as Japan, Sri Lanka, or Mexico where the culture and medical traditions are fundamentally dissimilar?"

But even if the kick-off study was flawed, hasn't research for the past 52 years consistently shown that high cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease?

The Cholesterol Myths and Poor Fact-Checking

Although this is often claimed, The Cholesterol Myths shows that this is far from the case.

Those who don't make a habit of reading research first-hand may have a misunderstanding about how the scientific method is used. Typically the "scientific method" as it's presented in schools goes something like this:

That's the ideal scientific method. But as shown by Dr. Ravnskov's meticulous research and tracing back of every footnote to its source, the actual scientific method as practiced is very, very different.

In fact, you can perform an experiment with your friends to demonstrate the dynamics of the scientific method as practiced. Gather together ten or more friends and family, and sit together in a line. One person, and only one is responsible for reading a scientific study beforehand. The person who reads the study summarizes the study in a few sentences, and whispers them into the ear of the first person. The second person whispers what the first person said to the third person.

And so on. Each person whispers what the previous one whispered until the end. Then, have the last person in the group repeat the message to the group, and compare it to the findings of the study!

Note: This may more closely approximate the results of the scientific method, as practiced by cholesterol-myth proponents, if performed in a noisy and distracting environment such as a bar or a night club.

The pages of The Cholesterol Myths are filled with examples of major reports that are considered authoritative by government, doctors, and journalists, that misrepresented the studies that they cite. And then the misrepresentation is repeated. And repeated. And repeated. As if the repetition had made it fact.

For example, one of the largest and most often-cited studies of heart disease that is considered a cornerstone of the "diet-heart idea" is the Framingham study, which measured heart disease and many other factors in the 1950s.

The authors wrote in the report that when blood cholesterol decreased on its own, for every 1 mg/dL reduction of cholesterol, there was an 11 percent increase in heart disease mortality!

Yet how is this study often cited? A joint statement by the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute was released in their report, The Cholesterol Facts, "The results of the Framingham study indicate that a 1% reduction . . . of cholesterol [corresponds to a] 2 percent reduction in CHD risk."

Yet the original text of the study describes an 11 percent increase in mortality for a 1 mg/dL reduction. Until The Cholesterol Myths, that "cholesterol fact" has been repeated, but never corrected.

In fact it is quite frequent for researchers to make claims in summaries and reviews that are not supported by the data. That's why in the research commentaries of our free newsletter, we'll only comment on the full-texts of studies rather than the abstract or a review.

Dr. Ravnskov's brutal destruction of the cholesterol myths does not end here. In toto, he takes on nine cholesterol myths:

Dr. Ravnskov even thoroughly refutes the dubious notion that HDL is "good" cholesterol and LDL is "bad" cholesterol. He takes this myth to task by following up each study that is cited in the authoritative reviews making this claim, rather than taking the claim at face value.

The Cholesterol Myths is an excellent read, easy to understand for a non-scientist, but compelling and thorough enough to convince a doctor or scientist. It's laced with humorous cartoons throughout, and useful sidebars explaining relevant topics.

The Battle Against the Cholesterol Myths Moves On

But Dr. Ravnskov's valiant efforts to expose the truth about cholesterol do not end with this book. He has also vigorously fought, through his Cholesterol Myths website, to expose the risk that statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs, cause cancer, and has written an excellent article on how cholesterol in our blood helps protect us from infectious diseases.

He has also founded The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics, a growing network of doctors and scientists who share a skepticism of the invalid hypothesis that cholesterol causes heart disease.

Or shall we simply refer to that as a "cholesterol myth."

Buy this book.