Another call by leading doctors and academics, to scrap the proposed increase in the use of statins, has been heard today.
With NICE, the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence, proposing to put millions more people on statins to lower their cholesterol levels, are we seeing yet another pharmaceutical led scam of the general population?
This advice comes despite figures for deaths from heart attacks and strokes showing a decrease over the past few years. In fact, dissent from certain quarters is already pointing out that the side-effects from taking statins can often outweigh the benefits. But surely they are completely missing the point here.
The ‘Western Diseases’, heart attack, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and increasing obesity cannot be prevented or treated by statins. The cause of all these illnesses is entirely down to the western diet, and predominantly the massive consumption of meat and dairy products.
People will say, in defence of their lifestyle, that man has eaten meat and dairy for centuries, which of course is true. However, the rapid rise in the level of consumption, allied to the increase in average life-span caused by advances in medicine means that heart disease is fast becoming the number one cause of death in the west.
So rather than prescribing statins, and then other drugs to deal with the side-effects that they cause, we should all be concentrating on our diet and taking more exercise, prevention rather than cure. Of course, the pharmaceutical companies don’t want us to do that, they can’t make billions from healthy people.
As always, in our Utopian capitalist society, ‘they’ are trying to make money by keeping the general public unhealthy and ill-informed. If your doctor suggests that you start taking statins, politely decline and instead take a good look at your lifestyle to see how you can change it to prevent these problems long before you need a cure.
For more incentive to make that change, you might want to watch this informative video.
In light of all this political palaver over the 
Faith in Buddhism is not blind faith that rejects reason. It is in fact a rational function, a process of the cultivation of wisdom that begins with a spirit of reverent searching.
I’m always going on about this brilliant book, but The Buddha, Geoff and Me is the perfect gift for pretty well anyone you know. It is full of wisdom, courage and compassion.
With a friend about to start his holiday working as a member of a racing yacht crew I thought this was rather apt …
Today would have been my Dad’s 88th birthday.
So many of the ills in modern society are driven, if not caused, by our insatiable desire to earn, to own, to use, more and more.
Nichiren wrote:
The Sanskrit word Buddha means “One who is awakened [to the truth].”
Going back over your own mistakes, asking yourself those painful questions and giving honest answers is a difficult, but cathartic experience.
The Search For Enlightenment 
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