At a time when immune support and the ability to fight bacterial and viral infections has never been more important, the UK Government announces that a new drug will be made available to reduce the immune capability of 300,000 people every year.
Today The Guardian reported "Patients in England are to start receiving a “gamechanger” drug that doctors say will protect tens of thousands of lives by cutting the number of people who have a heart attack or stroke."
"The treatment, inclisiran, works by boosting the liver’s ability to reduce the body’s level of “bad” cholesterol, even in those who have already tried using statins."
It has long been known in medical science that cholesterol (yes the supposed "bad" cholesterol is included here too) is an essential component of life.
30% of all of our cells is made from cholesterol.
Chris Masterjohn, a doctor with a PhD in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Connecticut stated "Cholesterol is found in every cell in the body. It helps to maintain the integrity of the membranes and plays a role in facilitating signalling. It keeps the membranes from turning to mush!"
Georgia Ede, MD stated in Psychology Today's online blog "Cholesterol helps guide nerve endings to their destinations. If the brain is too low in cholesterol its membranes and synapses can't function".
This is one of the reasons that statins, by lowering cholesterol, are implicated in memory loss, dementia and and cognitive impairment.
"LDL is able to inactivate 90% of the worst and most toxic bacterial products. Studies have linked low cholesterol to increased risk of infections." state Johnny Bowden and Stephen Sinatra in their best-seling book The Great Cholesterol Myth.
"A review of 19 peer-reviewed studies of more than 68,000 deaths, found that low cholesterol predicts a greater risk of dying from respiratory and gastric-intestinal disease." they explain!
They go on;
"Another study that followed more than 100,000 healthy individuals in San Francisco, found that those that had low cholesterol at the beginning of the the 15 year study were far more likely to be admitted to hospital with infectious diseases."
What about heart disease specifically then? Does lowering cholesterol save lives from heart disease?
Well not according to The Framingham Study, a long term study of residents of Framingham Mass, starting in 1948 and now the longest running study of heart disease. Here are some of the findings from Framingham.
"For each 1% mg/dL drop in cholesterol, there was an 11% increase in coronary and total mortality."
"For men at ages 48-57, those with mid-range cholesterol had a greater risk of heart disease than those with higher levels."
Malcolm Kendrick, a multiple best selling author on heart disease states: "LDL binds to exotoxins as they are released from bacteria, which protects the endothelium from damage. Because of this people with higher LDL levels are much less likely to end up in hospital with infections."
Without cholesterol we would die.
Without cholesterol we can't function.
Despite all this, the UK government, at great expense to the NHS, is going to make a new cholesterol-lowering drug available to 300,000 people with high cholesterol each year, in the misguided belief that in lowering their cholesterol they will somehow be protected from heart disease.
The Guardian article stated: "It (Inclisiran) is being made available immediately after Novartis, the company that makes the drug, agreed to lower the price in a deal with NHS England that will result in 300,000 patients using inclisiran in the next three years."
"The drug usually costs £1,987.36 for a 284mg dose pack. The size of the discount that the NHS secured has not been disclosed, but Novartis’s decision to charge less opened the door to Nice approving inclisiran as value for money and NHS England agreeing to make it widely available."
At these headline prices....two jabs per year for 300,000 people would set the NHS back £1.2 billion per year.......to put us at more risk of infections and not reduce heart disease risk.
The fact that heart attacks are experienced equally by people with high cholesterol and low cholesterol (like me), and that high cholesterol has no bearing on heart disease risk, has not featured at all in the muddled and factually-flawed thinking they have employed to reach this conclusion.
Additionally, with more reason than ever before to boost the poorly-maintained immune systems of a country that has been damaging its health through poor diet and lifestyle choices for generations, this new drug will further impair the health for hundreds of thousands of people every year.
Novartis must be pleased though.
As more people have started to become aware of the terrible side effects of statins, drug companies have been looking for alternative ways to cash-in on the false belief that cholesterol-lowering is a life-saving intervention.
With endorsement from the UK Government, and a deal with the NHS, Novartis now has a new revenue stream for the forseable future.
For more information on heart disease, cholesterol and how to reduce heart disease risk without resorting to medication, download my FREE book Use Your Head, Heal Your Heart at www.uyhhyh.com
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