Cholesterol. It’s the buzz-word in medicine. It’s the darling of the cardiologist. The lower the “normal” level of cholesterol is set, the more patients cardiologists have to see. And what’s considered “normal” has fallen dramatically in recent years. The question is “Why?”

Today millions of Americans are being told by their doctors that they need to take a potentially toxic, and very expensive, medication for 40, 50, or more years. Many of them are totally asymptomatic. Their only mistake was to have their cholesterol level checked in the first place. Once that is done, many of them will end up taking one of an army of statin drugs.

And can they ever lower cholesterol … often by up to 50%. The only kicker is that how much the cholesterol level is lowered has NO relation to any benefit the drug may provide. If this sounds absurd, you need to read the book The Cholesterol Delusion. If you do, the trust in your doctor, and in medicine in general, will be changed forever.

We have all been inundated by the adds for drugs like Lipitor and Crestor. We will be discussing how these drug companies “legally” distort the purported benefits of these drugs with a well-known statistical trick. You’ll learn how funding of heart research for the last generation has been more political than scientific. And you’ll get a sense of why doctors feel compelled to treat a number (your “high” cholesterol level) rather than treating the patient (you!).