(1 of 2) How Cholesterol Logic Fails

A brief presentation of my personal thoughts on what's wrong with the pervasive logic involved not only with the "cholesterol myths" but where the same faulty logic is being used by policymakers to divert public opinion in required directions.

(This is v1.00 and I already spotted a couple of minor typos but they're not a big deal - if there's any erratum I will correct in due course)

I give a practical analogy which might hopefully shed some light on what's wrong with substituting "strong association" for quality proofs. By the end of it you may have more of an appreciation as to why the statistical method and lax logic used by those who favour such methods are to be found amongst the most corrupted and corrupting sections of our society.

There are very real dangers in over-dependency on statistical association which can lead policy-makers to get causality completely confused and, worst of all, take action which may be diametrically-opposed to that required to provide an actual solution.

As I point out, the danger is tha tif you are wholly invested in a false conclusion from a non-causal association AND that belief or dogma is 180 degrees out of synch with the real cause with the problem under consideration then you WILL fail to resolve the problem by intervention 100% of the time. This is precisely what we're seeing with the current AMA/ADA diet recommendations (the dietary pyramid) and the contemporary explosion of diabetes, Alzheimer's and obesity

For the dimwitted YouTuber who might be looking for cheap shots such as "ad hominem" or the classic "strawman" when I refer to corruption I don't defer to "conspiracy theory". I refer instead to "commercial fact". If you're having a problem distinguishing between the English terms "theory" and "fact" (as people who bandy the term "conspiracy theorist seem to have) you can find both terms defined here:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/theory
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fact

Here are the links embedded in the video for those who wish to research a little further:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cum_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spurious_relationship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primum_non_nocere
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/cumhocfa.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

Recommended Websites:

Duane Graveline's Site:
http://www.spacedoc.net

The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics:
http://www.thincs.org/

Uffe Ravnskov's Site:
http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm

Barry Groves' Site
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/

The Weston Price Foundation
http://www.westonaprice.org/

I'll add this excellent lecture on the dangers of dietary fructose by Robert M Lustig, presented at UCSD although there are probably a couple of points I'd not support...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

If you *really* want to dig deep then I'd recommend following up the connetions between most of the chronic/degenerative diseases and insulin. In particular connections between insulin dysregulation and vitamin D, insulin dysregulation and Alzhimer's and insulin dysregulation and "cholesteriol".

If you want to make a serious study then I'd recommend the following reading list just for starters (Joel Kauffman's marvellous work in particular) ...

How to Lie with Statistics -- Daryl Huff
The Cholesterol Myths -- Dr Uffe Ravnskov
The Cholesterol Con -- Dr Malcolm Kendrick
Trick and Treat - Barry Groves
12 Malignant Medical Myths (Myth #3) -- Dr Joel Kauffman Ph.D.
Good Calories, Bad Calories -- Gary Taubes
The Diet Delusion -- Gary Taubes
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration -- Weston A Price
Alzheimer's Solved -- Henry Lorin
(Good for a cholesterol biochemistry backgrounding)
Lipitor, Thief of Memory -- Duane Graveline MD

Video:

Fat Head - The Movie (YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/user/FatHeadMovie

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Musopen.Com Orchestra Gli Armonici, 100908 Concerto della Madonna dei fiori, 07 A.Vivaldi, RV606, Laudate Dominum

Category:

Education

Tags:

• cholesterol
• statins
• health
• logic
• critical thinking
• queing theory
• diagnostic methods

[therunningpianist42]

Thank you very much for all the links and reading suggestions.