Smith and Pinckney reviewed all of the cholesterol-lowering trials that had been done before 1991. The studies found that using drugs to lower cholesterol was quite effective—at lowering cholesterol. The problem was that they weren’t much good for anything else—for example, saving lives. If cholesterol lowering was in fact the holy grail of preventing heart disease and death, then we would expect the research to show a reduction in heart attacks, strokes, and deaths when cholesterol was effectively lowered, wouldn’t we?
