Thread by @VigilantFox

First, they scammed you on skin cancer when the sun is good for you.

Now, they're scamming you again on cholesterol to sell you a lifetime medication.

This entire narrative of cholesterol being the villain in heart disease was built on a lie.

What doctors fail to tell you is that the sugar industry bribed scientists to shift the blame for heart disease from sugar to cholesterol. This has been revealed by internal documents that have surfaced.

The result? A massive push for statins, now taken by 35% of Americans over 40, with devastating consequences.

Studies now show that after five years of daily use, the average person gains only three to four extra days of life—just a few days for a lifetime of potential harm.

Even more alarming, 20% of statin users suffer serious injuries like muscle deterioration, liver damage, and nerve dysfunction.

Statins are well known for having a high percentage of patients discontinue the drugs due to side effects. Two separate studies have found nearly half of people stop taking statins within a year.

The evidence is clear: statins are not the life-saving drugs we’ve been told they are.

Still don’t believe it? Watch Jimmy Dore break down this article by @MidwesternDoc—and prepare to become livid at what you learn.

Over 40 million Americans are on statins. It’s time they learned what these drugs are really doing. 🧵

Over a trillion dollars.

That’s how much has been spent pushing cholesterol-lowering statins as the solution to heart disease.

We were told they save lives.
We were told cholesterol clogs arteries like grease in a drain pipe.
We were told lowering it was non-negotiable.

But what if that premise is fundamentally flawed?

And what if the drugs built on it are quietly injuring millions?

And what if most of modern medicine knew, but hid the truth?

It turns out that statins provide what amount to minuscule benefits.

At best, taking them for years may extend life by only a few days.

A few days.

In exchange, these drugs are among the most common causes of pharmaceutical injury.

Muscle damage.
Liver dysfunction.
Nerve injury.
Cognitive impairment.

Yet questioning them remains off-limits.

We have to ask ourselves why.

There’s a consistent biological pattern that must be considered each time an intervention causes visible harm.

If a drug produces visible catastrophic reactions in some people, far more subtle injuries are occurring beneath the surface to far more people.

Available data suggests statins injure roughly 1 in 5 recipients.

That is not rare.

That is a signal that we can’t ignore.

And signals at that scale demand scrutiny.

Common statin injuries include:

• Muscle pain and inflammation
• Fatigue—especially with exertion
• Diabetes (particularly in women)
• Liver dysfunction and failure

More severe cases include:

• Depression
• Confusion
• Aggression
• Memory loss
• ALS-like syndromes
• Parkinson’s-like disorders

These are not cosmetic side effects.

These things alter lives. And many are permanent.

An unsettling and common experience report is that almost overnight, statin users feel decades older.

As one physician described:

“Many statin victims say that abruptly, almost in the blink of an eye, they have become old people.”

That isn’t subtle. It’s systemic decline.

And we have to stop ignoring it.

One doctor, Duane Graveline MD, experienced sudden global amnesia after beginning a statin.

When he suggested the medication might be responsible, he was told nope, statins don’t do that.

Dr. Graveline stopped taking the drug.

And guess what? His amnesia disappeared.

Then he restarted it. Six weeks later, it happened again—this time worse.

Dr. Graveline later uncovered data from early Lipitor trials that revealed 11 out of 2,503 patients suffered severe cognitive disturbances, including transient global amnesia.

That’s 4.4 per 1,000.

Yet “not one word of warning” was transmitted to prescribing physicians. None.

That silence matters.

In the full article from @MidwesternDoc, the early trial data on statin-induced cognitive injury is examined in detail—alongside patterns many doctors were never warned about.

midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-great-st…

Statins work by blocking a key enzyme necessary for cholesterol production.

But that enzyme doesn’t only make cholesterol.

It helps generate multiple essential biomolecules.

Which means that blocking it disrupts interconnected metabolic systems.

This is not a narrow intervention. It’s a cascade!

Did you know cholesterol itself is not waste? It’s actually essential.

Cholesterol is a precursor to numerous hormone, required for synaptic function, and critical for memory.

The brain produces its own cholesterol. But statins inhibit that internal production.

One study detected minor cognitive impairment in 100% of statin users when sufficiently sensitive testing was applied.

100%.

As you might expect, there is a tragic pattern seen in statin users experiencing side effects.

Rapid cognitive decline after starting a statin is often dismissed as aging.

Statin-associated dementia frequently includes aggression.

Reports also link statins to ALS, with some cases improving after discontinuation.

These are not temporary inconveniences.

They are life-altering neurological events.

Statins also deplete CoQ10.

CoQ10 is essential for mitochondrial energy production and cell membrane stability.

Its depletion is widely considered a primary mechanism behind many statin side effects.

Yet CoQ10 is rarely prescribed alongside statins.

Because acknowledging that it is need would imply that statins are causing harm.

But the consequences of CoQ10 depletion are very real and shouldn’t be brushed aside.

Mitochondrial damage.
Chronic fatigue.
Heart failure.
Shortness of breath.

Structural weakening can lead to:
Pancreatitis.
Rhabdomyolysis.
Tendon rupture.
Hepatitis.

When liver damage became frequent, diagnostic thresholds were reportedly raised.

That shift speaks volumes. And it exposes what’s really going on.

Statins are aggressively prescribed to diabetics.

Why? Because diabetics have higher cardiovascular risk.

Yet statins significantly increase diabetes risk. And multiple studies show this.

So the drug meant to prevent heart disease may create metabolic dysfunction linked to heart disease.

What?!

That contradiction is huge and shouldn’t be ignored.

@MidwesternDoc Long-term statin users have shown a 14 to 26-fold increased risk of peripheral neuropathy.

Burning pain.
Tingling.
Numbness in extremities.

The same condition diabetics are already vulnerable to!

This overlap magnifies harm.

Some argue the small cardiovascular benefit of statins comes from anti-inflammatory effects—not from cholesterol lowering.

They inhibit NF-kB and lower C-reactive protein.

But immune suppression carries consequences.

In a major trial, statins slightly reduced heart attack deaths—but significantly increased cancer deaths.

The net benefit vanished.

@MidwesternDoc The deeper pattern is difficult to ignore.

@MidwesternDoc connects the cancer signals, immune suppression, and metabolic disruption into a larger framework that challenges how statins are justified.

midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-great-st…

So if cholesterol isn’t the initiating cause of heart disease, what is?

The competing model suggests this:

1: Blood vessels become damaged.
2: The body repairs the damage with clots.
3: Clots become incorporated into the vessel wall.
4: Repeated injury forms plaques.

Cholesterol is present—but as part of clot debris.

Not as the primary aggressor.

Plaques form most commonly at arterial branch points—areas of highest shear stress.

And they contain debris consistent with blood clots.

Red blood cells carry substantial cholesterol and deliver it into clots during repair.

There is no established mechanism explaining how circulating lipoproteins simply penetrate intact endothelium.

That assumption (and it is assumption) underpins the dominant narrative.

Lipoprotein A accumulates in plaques—NOT cholesterol lipoproteins.

Lipoprotein A helps repair damaged vessels, but it also makes clots more resistant to breakdown.

Higher levels are associated with a threefold increase in heart attack or stroke risk.

Damage first.
Clot formation second.
Plaque incorporation third.

That sequence reframes everything.

@MidwesternDoc In the full article from @MidwesternDoc, the endothelial injury model is expanded—and the evidence challenging the “fat clogging a drain pipe” story is laid out step by step.

midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-great-st…

Many cardiovascular risk factors share one trait. They damage the endothelium—the vessel lining responsible for regulating circulation.

Inflammation.
Severe stress.
Cigarettes.
Chronic psychological strain.

It all causes damage.

And when endothelial function declines, nitric oxide production falls and circulation suffers.

This is a vascular injury model—not a cholesterol model.

If the foundational premise is flawed, decades of treatment strategy must be reevaluated.

The cholesterol narrative was simple.
Visual.
Emotionally persuasive.

But simplicity can obscure complexity.

If heart disease begins with endothelial injury—not cholesterol accumulation—then the real priority becomes restoring vessel function.

Meanwhile, as older statins go off-patent, newer cholesterol-lowering therapies are emerging. Things like custom antibodies and gene-based approaches blocking cholesterol absorption.

More aggressive.
More expensive.
And potentially more dangerous.

The paradigm isn’t retreating.

It’s actually escalating, despite all the evidence.

Heart disease is real.

And vascular injury is real, too.

But if endothelial damage is the root issue, then focusing narrowly on cholesterol misses the larger picture.

Restoring nitric oxide.
Reducing stress.
Protecting mitochondrial function.

That represents a fundamentally different direction.

For decades, we were told fat clogs arteries like a drain pipe.

It was easy to explain.

Very easy to visualize.

And easy to sell.

But easy explanations can become oversimplified, rigid dogmas.

When trillions of dollars align with a story, it becomes very hard to question it.

But those are the stories we should be questioning the most.

If the underlying model is incomplete, then millions may have been treated for the wrong target.

The real conversation isn’t about defending dogma, it’s about understanding the real mechanism.

And when our understanding shifts, medicine must shift with it.

That discussion is long overdue.

@MidwesternDoc Thanks for reading!

This information was based on a report originally published by @MidwesternDoc. Key details were streamlined and editorialized for clarity and impact.

Read the original report here:

midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-great-st…

@MidwesternDoc For a deeper dive into what modern medicine has overlooked—or intentionally buried—check out these other eye-opening reports by @MidwesternDoc:

The Great Alzheimer’s Scam and The Proven Cures They’ve Buried for Billions

midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-great-al…

@MidwesternDoc The FDA’s 50-Year War on the Safest Painkiller Ever Discovered

midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-remarkab…

@MidwesternDoc What They Don’t Tell You About C-Sections

midwesterndoctor.com/p/what-the-don…

@MidwesternDoc While you’re at it, give @MidwesternDoc a follow.

No one brings more research, clinical insight, or historical context when it comes to exposing the health myths we’ve all been fed.

This is easily one of the most valuable accounts you’ll ever follow.

--> @MidwesternDoc