KevinMD September 19, 2025
As a practicing internist and lipidologist, I have long been trained to believe in the cholesterol hypothesis. Statins were not just recommended; they were the gospel. Lower LDL, save lives. That mantra was repeated at every lecture, every conference, every guideline committee.
But like many dogmas in medicine, the cracks are there if you dare to look. And some of the most damning cracks are found in a set of randomized trials that rarely get mentioned in the statin narrative.
These are the ignored trials. Left out of the widely-cited meta-analysis by Silverman et al, they tell a story that should shake every clinician who still reflexively reaches for a statin prescription.
The shocking numbers
- In the EXCEL trial,...
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