Last month, the inventor of statins died.
His name was Akira Endo, a Japanese biochemist.
He moved to New York from Tokyo in 1966 to work at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Arriving in the USA, he remarked upon the large number of overweight people, and elderly people with coronary heart disease.
When he went back to Japan, he started looking into the link between cholesterol levels and heart problems.
Thus began his quest for a drug that blocked the enzyme HMG-CoA, which was involved in cholesterol regulation.
He eventually discovered it in a fungus called Penicillium citrinum.
This is why, when he eventually had his breakthrough, he was described as the man who found ‘a penicillin for cholesterol’.
Now here we are with as many as 8 million adults in the UK taking his invention, statins.
As you’ve read in this letter many times before, statins are controversial.
Critics (like Yours Truly!) argue that statins are overprescribed, especially for people with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, when lifestyle changes should be prioritised.
There’s a ferocious debate about whether they even do the job of heart disease prevention, as advertised.
Meanwhile, many people who take them complain of muscle pain and weakness, memory loss, confusion and liver damage.
However, surely, you’d expect the INVENTOR of statins to support them?
Well, no.
When Akira Endo got a medical check-up in 2004, he was told that he had high cholesterol and should take statins.
But he refused.
He said he would prefer to lower his cholesterol through diet and exercise.
When asked to explain his decision he used a Japanese saying:
“The indigo dyer wears white trousers”.
I looked this proverb up to find out more about it, and what it means is this…
The indigo dyer knows that his dye is toxic, so he prefers to minimise his exposure to it – even as he happily sells his products to others.
So they are deeply troubling words, in my opinion!
Anyway, I am going to write a lot more about this subject on Friday, because I am actually having my own ‘bad cholesterol moment’.
Stay tuned!
