I'll note that in view of the reading I've been doing, I seem to be tilting toward the Keto diet myself, I just wasn't aware of it until I started revisiting the whole cholesterol/statins area of thought. Dr. Amen states that one side effect of statins is lowering of certain enzymes that affect mood via digesting fats. When I look up one of those in particular I see that supplementing with it when you're on statins can cause side effects of its own. Better, I think, to remove the statin than to add more stuff (all of those ads you see about taking CoQ10 if you're on statins - that's another one of them.)

The thing about the use of statins is that it's the answer to a popular idea that blood cholesterol has an effect on heart disease. It isn't backed by science; every time a study comes up that shows no connection between the two the powers that be suppress it. On page 53 in the Taubes book I'm reading now he shifts from examining the fraught science studies to show a link of fats to heart disease. For years one powerful and well-positioned researcher (Ancel Keys) had held fast to his hypothesis that saturated fat caused heart disease, but the studies weren't conclusive. He only accepted results from studies that seemed to confirm his bias. "Believing that your hypothesis must be correct before all the evidence is gathered encourages you to interpret the evidence selectively.^[24]"

After science failed to support the link, popular culture stepped in. In the 1960s counterculture ideas about humans eating less meat in order to feed the planet, and books like Erlich's The Population Bomb are where the "anti-fat, anti-meat movement evolved independent of the science.^[42]" And that is when George McGovern got involved. "It's possible to point to a single day when the controversy was shifted irrevocably in favor of Keys's hypothesis—Friday, January 14, 1977, when Senator George McGovern announced the publication of the first Dietary Goals for the United States. The document was "the first comprehensive statement by any branch of the Federal Government on risk factors in the American diet," said McGovern.^[44]" From there you look at who wrote and edited it, it wasn't the product from one of the medical research institutes, it was people still pushing Keys' hypothesis. "Once politics, the public, and the press had decided on the benefits of low-fat diets, science was left to catch up.^[53]"

I'll conclude this little book report with this: ("Most drugs have multiple actions," notes the University of Washington biostatistician Richard Kronmal. Saying that statins reduce heart-disease risk by lowering cholesterol, he adds, is like "saying that aspirin reduces heart-disease risk by reducing headaches.^[77]")

This comes from three different books I'm reading now. And I'm reminded of the few acquaintances who seemed displeased that I started statins (after resisting for years). I had the thought "it can't hurt," but over a couple of years on them, I'm realizing that they can hurt. I won't describe my symptoms here, but I've noticed changes, particularly in the last year, that have bothered me. The sleep study results may also tie into this. I've finally made the connection. While I'm forever on Levothyroxine and watching my sodium, I'm off the statins.

Resuming regular commentary: now it's out to lunch with my daughter, where I have several bins of stuff to hand over that she can use in her costume design work.