Medical Profession 'Brainwashed' on Cholesterol

Interviewer:  Dr., can you talk about what role cholesterol plays? That seems to be a hot topic these days. Has it's danger been over blown? 

Dr. Derrick DeSilva: What role does cholesterol play and has it's danger been over blown? Boy, are you [laughter]  hitting a hot topic with me. Did you do more research on me that you really found out that, that was one of my hot topics?

Interviewer: I'm not allowed to say [laughter].

Dr. Derrick DeSilva: You're not allowed to say that, oh boy. That is...

Interviewer: I do my homework.

Dr. Derrick DeSilva: That is one of my hottest buttons that you can press in me. And I'm not sure which answer I should give you. I'm not sure whether I should give you the answer that I give the doctors in the lounge, or the answer that I should be giving patients when I'm sitting one on one, or whether I give the answer that I do when I'm in the media. I'm going to give you my media answer, since we're doing media. My media answer is, be careful. I think the more we look at cholesterol, the more data there is on cholesterol, we know that cholesterol is not the villain that a lot of people think it is.

Interviewer: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Derrick DeSilva: We also know is that 40% of people, actually that number is higher, percent of people that have heart attacks have normal cholesterols. We also know that people that take cholesterol medications continue to have heart attacks. That mortality, their death rate has not changed. We also know that women, the drugs that we give women, are less effective on heart disease then on men.

Interviewer: Hmm.

Dr. Derrick DeSilva: We know that. We know that data is there. We also know that if you're over the age of 70, this was reported in JAMA New England Journal of Medicine 5-8 years ago. We also know that in that group of people, that they should never be started on cholesterol medication. Data, studies, published, nobody listens to that. Nobody listens to that because, we in the medical profession have been so incredibly brainwashed that cholesterol is a villain. My opinion, to a degree yes, but not to the degree that it's been doubted to be. That's my standard answer. If you come in to see me as a patient, I'll give you a different answer.

Interviewer: Why?

Dr. Derrick DeSilva: Because I think, we have to, because a lot of times I have done a lot of media interviews. I've been quoted a lot in the media, and I have been misquoted. You know, you told me...

Interviewer: Mm-hmm

Dr. Derrick DeSilva:  you were a sports caster.

Interviewer: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Derrick DeSilva: You know how things can be taken out of...

Interviewer: Yup.

Dr. Derrick DeSilva: context. Right? Oh, DeSilva said that cholesterol is not a problem. It's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, we need to look at this, we need to look at people. I need to look at your blood work, I need to look at you, I need to look at your risk factors, and I need to look at your family history and then decide is it appropriate to you. 

Interviewer: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Derrick DeSilva: Medicine, as its been suggested, cholesterol medicine, being put in the drinking water, literally, is not appropriate. So that's my answer.