Cholesterolmania
The CDC now states that only 13 percent of U.S. adults have high total cholesterol. Hooray! Unfortunately, two-thirds of adults in the USA are overweight. Wait, what? The truth is that so many Americans take cholesterol-lowering drugs that no one thinks it is important to eat right or exercise. On the flip side, Big Pharma is happy. Hooray!
Well hey now, lets give the statins their due! After all, they do cause lots of muscle pain and they do increase the risk of diabetes and maybe they even cause memory loss, and that keeps the big fat docs getting paid for sitting on their big fat butts writing out more big fat prescriptions.
While I do think they have a place in select patients with CV disease, they are way overprescribed, and there are much less dangerous remedies for patients with a little high cholesterol, but it’s easier for the sheep to just keep doing what they’ve been doing and making a buck and getting out of that hellhole of an office.
I doubt the association between obesity and controlled cholesterol levels are causal as you imply. Do you really think that if patients stopped taking cholesterol rx that they would improve their eating and exercise habits? I find that unlikely. Also Big Brand Pharma is no longer the big winner here, especially with generic atorvastatin now available. Generic pharma, patients and physicians should be happy that only 13 percent of U.S. adults have high total cholesterol. Hooray! Getting rid of the beer bellies is a different and more difficult issue.
I don’t think taking a statin makes you obese. I do think that we are so fixated on the numbers that we forget the bigger picture.