Gary Taubes on uncritical faith in cholesterol-lowering: warns against

Gary Taubes has questioned whether lowering cholesterol — for example with statins — prevents heart disease, arguing that the clinical-trial evidence was weaker than claimed. He developed this line in his September 16, 2007 New York Times Magazine article “Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy?” (title verified via Wikipedia’s Gary Taubes entry).

His stated reasoning: he argues that the clinical trials of cholesterol-lowering drugs were interpreted with undue confidence, and that the gap between what the trials showed and what the field claimed grew into an unquestioned faith in cholesterol reduction as the lever on heart disease.

Criticism worth noting: statins are among the most studied drugs in medicine, and cardiology guidelines continue to endorse cholesterol-lowering as a cornerstone of cardiovascular risk reduction. Taubes’s skepticism here is a minority position in cardiology. This site reports his position and the dispute without taking a position; it is not medical advice.

This page chronicles a stated position of the person above. It is not medical advice and not the site's own conclusion.