WEBVTT - #2078 The Statin Delusion - David Gillespie 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:03.160 I get a team Craig Anthony Harper reporting in It's 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.240 four oh two, it's bloody, it's New Year's Eve, it's news. 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:10.280 I don't even know why we're recording today. Well I 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:12.480 do because I asked David and he's got no life 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:16.360 and I've got no life between the two of us, 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.680 los as we went. Fuck it, let's record an episode 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:21.360 of the Year project. Happy New Year, mate? 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:21.840 How are you? 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:23.239 Yeah? Good? How are you? 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:25.040 I'm good? 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:28.800 You don't I could get in trouble saying this, but 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:31.960 fuck it, I'll say. You don't strike me as the 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.280 super festive type. Am I right or wrong with that? 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:40.479 I think you're probably right. I don't tend to go 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:45.800 in for celebrating things. I guess yeah. 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:48.640 I'm also just quite happy if people ignore my birthday 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:49.640 and things like that too. 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:53.600 What, yeah, is that a personality thing with you? Is 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:56.080 that just a personal preference? Where have you always been 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:57.440 like that? 0:00:57.600 --> 0:00:57.720 Like? 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.560 I can't ever see you despite the fact that you 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:03.520 have a profile and you're very public in a way, 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.800 you seem you don't seem like an introvert, but you 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:12.959 definitely seem like somebody who doesn't want to be in 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:14.960 the middle of a crowd or be the center of 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.679 attention at all, unlike a lot of other public figures. 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:24.319 Yeah, I've well, I guess maybe it's just laziness. I 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:26.440 think being the center of attention takes a lot of 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:32.320 work and is unnecessary for a lot of what I 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:36.400 have to do, in the sense that all the things 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:42.760 I've written about are really about providing people with knowledge 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:48.760 and the tools to do something about something in their lives. 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:51.920 Like I don't bother writing books, you know, clutching our 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:56.640 pearls and wringing our hands about climate change even though 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.760 it's very real and very dangerous and so on, because 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:02.760 I can't think of a way to write a book 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.000 that results in someone being able to meaningfully affect it. 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:12.520 And it's sort of something that I follow with everything 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:14.480 I write. The person has to be able to put 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:19.359 the book down and immediately implement something at a personal 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:28.160 level that changes something about their lives. And I guess 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.040 that doesn't need me to be an Instagram star to 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:38.840 do that. It just needs me to be accurate and constant. 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:45.480 And like I said, probably all boils down to laziness 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.120 in the end, because to be an Instagram star, I'd 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:50.720 have to do all sorts of things I quite frankly 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:54.880 wouldn't be comfortable doing, you know, tiktoks and videos and 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.200 unboxings and all that sort of crap. 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.400 Maybe yeah, I just think for you though, like. 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.520 I know, you've got a profile and you you know, 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:08.919 I guess if I asked ten people, have you heard 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:13.679 of David Gillespie, the author you know, Sweet Poison, blah 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.560 blah blah all that, I don't know. I think maybe 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:20.640 three or four ossies might have heard of you, compared 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.040 to none out of ten for me, which I'm fine with. 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:27.320 But I just think for you, the bigger the bigger 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:31.120 your social media presence, the more awareness around your messages, 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.280 Like if you had a million followers on Instagram, not 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:36.480 because you're dancing like a fuck with at a train 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:41.880 station or unwrapping a fucking you know, a high def 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.320 TV or I don't know. 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.040 Look here's here's my breakfast. Hey everyone, you know. 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:50.080 I mean, there's a lot of that, But I just think, 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:53.960 like for you, I actually get frustrated because your writing 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:58.120 is so brilliant, and I just think enough people don't 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:00.640 see it, and there's so much shit out there. There's 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:06.280 so much poor writing and poor information and misinformation that 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:11.640 is overexposed, you know. Yeah, And I guess I guess 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.240 I live in hope that you know, there's an old 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.479 saying and I can't remember who said it, probably Mark Twain. 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:19.599 He comes up with all the best ones. You know, 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:23.359 if it's really news, it'll find you. And I guess 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:27.080 I live in hope that if someone really needs to 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.320 hear anything I've got to say, there's enough of my 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:34.640 stuff out there in various places that they will find it. 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:41.479 And m I just you know, I'd love to have 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:44.960 a million followers on something, because, as you say, a 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:47.039 lot more people would read what I had to say. 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:54.359 But I'm not prepared to get into the churn that 0:04:54.480 --> 0:05:01.960 is required to make that happen. So yeah, like I said, 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:03.600 it comes back to laziness. 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:06.560 Well, I think, yah, maybe maybe wisdom. 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:08.840 I think sometimes I put a fair bit of effort 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:13.320 into my Instagram, only my Instagram, not really Facebook or whatever. 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:16.799 And I've got across Facebook and Instagram over one hundred 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:20.200 thousand followers, which is a few, but it's not bizarre, right, 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.320 But sometimes I think for the time, effort and energy, 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.960 and also what's funny is sometimes I will write something 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:31.400 that is, you know, as close to profound. 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:31.800 As I'm going to get. 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.560 Like, it's quite deep and thoughtful, insightful, and potentially if 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:37.320 somebody would turn that theory into behavior. 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.280 It might be really valuable. And it'll get out of ten. 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:43.720 Let's say it gets a one response, and then I'll 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.400 put up I'll write on my whiteboard, don't be a 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:48.400 fucking idiot, and that'll get a nine. 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:50.640 Right. It's like the. 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.680 Stuff that is so base and so and it's almost 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:59.520 like the more I swear, the greater the response. In fact, 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.839 it's not. It's not like it is. There's a direct correlation. 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:05.880 And in fact, I think you've discovered. 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.880 You discovered Ricky Gervais's secret success. 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.719 Then I think I discovered before him. I mean, my 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:16.000 second book had fuck on the front cover, and that 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:20.040 was twenty ten, so that was fifteen years ago. And 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.719 that my subsequent book to that, which Penguin saw that 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.640 was just called stop Fucking Around thirty Principles for Blah 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:31.240 blah blah. Right, And Penguin saw that book and reached 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:33.400 out to me, which I know is not the normal 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.440 kind of protocol, and said, we had a look at it, 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:38.520 we liked it, and I sold a lot, right, I 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.120 sold a lot of that book, as you know, like 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.799 I think in Australia ten thousand is the best seller, 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.920 and it was way way, way more than that, with 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:52.160 no distribution, no publisher, al self published, no interviews, right, 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:53.960 And so they went, we want. 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.000 You to do a big version of that and. 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:01.279 Anyway, so I spent I got paid to write a book, 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:02.480 as you do, and. 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:04.279 Then I had to deliver it within one hundred and 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:06.880 eighty days, which I did. But blah blah blah blah. 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:10.360 I did all this stuff and then they named it 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.680 pull Your Finger Out, which I fucking hated. Right the 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:16.840 first one stopped fucking around, and this was meant to 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:18.000 be the bigger, better version. 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:20.960 I'm like, and I said to them, that's a terrible name. 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.120 And they're like, oh, you know, we've done all the whatever, 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:28.360 the testing out, you know, and it really tested well, 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:32.480 and I just said, it absolutely won't work. And I 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.000 don't know if you've ever done this, but I went 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.680 into Penguin and I sat down in a boardroom with 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.360 like ten people who worked on it and marketing and 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:44.440 branding and market research and all the you know, look 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:48.400 and feel and color and vibe, and which was great, 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:50.960 and they were great. Everything was great except the title, 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:53.559 and then that book, which was a much better book 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:58.240 in my opinion. I wrote both it it was outsold 0:07:58.280 --> 0:07:59.880 by the first one six to one. 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.360 Yeah, just because it's a shit title, you know. 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:09.040 Well, yeah, and you will have discovered that it doesn't 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:11.800 matter what you think of the title. If you signed 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:19.119 a standard Penguins publication contract, they have entire control over 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.520 the title to cover everything that's on the front and 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:28.200 back cover, and you they ask you, out of courtesy 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:32.680 what you think of it. But if you it's a 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.800 pr exercise. If you say it sucks, I want something else, 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.000 they'll say, well, thank you for your input, and go 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:39.200 ahead and do what they were going to do. 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:43.800 Anyway, I told them like I sat in the boardroom 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.560 and they literally had this reveal where they had an 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:50.600 a frame with the book on the cover right so 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:54.439 that all the artwork, and they pulled off a sheet essentially, 0:08:55.679 --> 0:09:00.760 and my first words were I hate it, and everyone 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.960 looked at me like, apparently you're not meant to say that, 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:04.959 But anyway. 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.120 I'm having a similar experience at the moment with the 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.599 title of my next book, which but I look, I 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:17.520 come from the position of I think, never having successfully 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:22.920 given a good title to anything, and so I have 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.959 no confidence in my ability to be any better at 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.360 it than they are. So, you know, no matter what 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:33.480 my opinion of their title, I doubt anything I would 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:36.520 come up with is any better. You know, I find 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:38.280 that even when in writing an article. You know, at 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.480 the end of writing an article, I have to think 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.520 of a title for it, and I'm usually pretty stumped 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:48.880 about what to call it. And I doubt I've cracked 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.719 the magic. You know, this is highly clickable if you 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:55.520 just call it this title. You know, for starters. I 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:57.439 don't use the word fucking any of the titles of 0:09:57.720 --> 0:09:59.160 any of my pieces or books. 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.640 Well, you've gone okay, So I don't think, well, who knows, 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:06.440 I mean, you got you are going okay. 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:08.719 But maybe I should, Yeah, maybe I should. Do you 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:10.840 know there's that new thing on substack where they do 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:13.480 the what are they called the ab testing, where you 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.800 can give it alternate titles, and it spends the first 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:20.319 hour dividing up your audience with various titles and then 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:22.480 picks the one that worked the best. Maybe I should 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.360 try a few profanities and see what happens. Huh. 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.840 I did a just tongue in cheek, completely ridiculous. You know, 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:31.800 how you develop scales and then you get scales validated 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.480 over the time. So for my PhD I developed a scale, 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.679 but just for fun, I did another bullshit scale called 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:44.960 called the fuck scale, which is friendship, understanding, caring, and kindness. 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:49.760 And it was an emotional kind of investment scale friendship, understanding, caring, 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:52.320 and kindness and fuck was an acronym for those four words, 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:54.800 and it was like how many one to seven fucks 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.280 on a like art scale, like how many fucks do 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:57.600 you give? 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:59.160 Right? Anyway? 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:03.480 And it was just complete, Well, that went nuts my 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:09.439 actual scale that I put up, which is a psychometric 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.120 evaluation like a real one. 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:16.080 Yeah, whatever sounds boring this other one, you know, the 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:20.880 fuck scale, Oh my god. Anyway, it's what happens before 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:23.040 we talk about our actual topic, which will take. 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:27.280 Six minutes knowing you and me or more. I wanted 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:32.840 to ask you how would you label How would you 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:33.800 label your. 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.800 Books or your writing? Would you call it would you 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:40.200 call it self help, would you call it education? Would 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:43.120 you call it something else? Or would you call it 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.199 a synthesis of a few things? 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.760 It's education sound like I'm trying to lecture to people, 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:56.200 which I'm not. I really really hate Ritchie self help books, 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:02.400 you know, it did really really turned me off. I 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.920 sort of think of it more of you as invested 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:15.280 investigative journalism with some self help stuff or how to 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:18.400 apply this at the end of it. You know, so 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:22.440 this is all terribly interesting, but what does it mean 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.840 to you and me? And I don't like to just 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.680 do the research and not be able to do that, 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:34.440 and so it's yeah, it's mostly yeah, it's that it's 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:39.720 not education. Sounds a little bit creachy, like I'm trying 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:41.839 to teach you something, like like I know it and 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.439 you don't, and I've got to teach you. And usually 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.240 in my books, I don't know the answer before I start. 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.960 I just have a sense that there's something wrong in 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:58.280 what we're being told about how something works, and I 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:01.920 like to dig in, and the book ends up being 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:09.320 the documentation of what I found. And there's been many 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:15.839 starts at books where I find, actually what we're being 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.160 told about this is the sum of our knowledge on this, 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:22.680 and there is no other evidence. And so there really 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:28.000 is no point writing a book that says, well, you know, 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:30.680 everything the Heart Foundation says is absolutely correct. 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.240 You know who's buying that, yeah, yeah, or a book 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:37.760 that says, hey, the other books were right, You're welcome 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:39.120 the next time. 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.640 The less boat into it. I have looked into it 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:43.600 and they were right. 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:49.480 I can I can confirm your honor. Yeah, I for me, 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.880 one of them consider I was going to say battles. 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:55.560 It's not a fucking battle. But one of my constant 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.840 considerations is like, even like I did a gig recently 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.640 for actually for a supplement company down here, but it 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.760 wasn't We didn't talk about their supplements. It's just an 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:13.800 education night for blokes, you know, in that health, fitness, wellness, performance, aging, 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:19.200 anti aging, just general stuff, you know, food, exercise, lifestyle, sleep, stress, anxiety, 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:24.840 self management, all that stuff. And I'm constantly going, so, 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:28.080 here's something that's worth thinking about, or here's some information, 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.680 here's what we know, here's a bit of research. But 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:33.480 then I've kind of got to go so what can 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:34.280 we do about that? 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.320 Though? So that's all well and good, but now what 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:39.840 does that mean to do to you? And what can 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.320 you do with that? Because I think as well as 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:48.720 presenting potentially information and problems and current flowared thinking or 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:50.360 dodgy science. 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:53.520 You've still got to say. You've still got to give 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:57.920 them some hope or direction or information or some answers 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.920 that they might be able to, at the very least say, well, 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.560 I'm going to try this because what he spoke about, 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:07.320 I'm dealing with that. So starting tomorrow, I'm going to whatever. 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:09.160 I'm going to walk for fifteen minutes a day for 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:10.960 the next hundred days and see what happens. 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:14.600 You know, just so people have got a little bit 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:15.680 of an. 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:20.000 Action plan at least that applies generally except for the 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:23.960 topics like the one we're going to discus today, which 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:28.640 is about drugs. And you know, I don't want anyone 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:31.520 to be asking me, like you, for example, at the 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.080 end of what we discussed today, so what does this 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.560 mean we should do? Because my answer will be talk 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:42.240 to your doctor, because I don't want to get into 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:45.480 a space where I'm telling someone to take a drug 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.880 or not take a drug. In this particular space, what 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.920 we're talking about is what is the evidence actually say? 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:58.720 And I guess what does it say about us? Given 0:15:58.760 --> 0:15:59.320 the evidence? 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.360 All right, well, let's jump into it. We're talking about writing. 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:08.040 Let's talk about some of your writing from a substack. 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:11.000 So this went up two days ago. It's called the 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:14.480 statin delusion. Everyone, So if you don't follow galspo and substack, 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.760 it's free and it's a great resource, so you should 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.640 definitely do that, all right, tell us about the statined delusion. 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:25.480 We are trading the remote possibility of a heart attack 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:28.400 for the certainty of metabolic decay. 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:30.240 Is the kind of subheading. 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:34.560 Yeah, so, and I start with an analogy in the 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:40.120 article and can read that. Go ahead, Yeah, yeah. 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:42.240 I think that might set it up nicely for people. 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:46.240 Imagine taking your car to the garage for a road 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:50.680 worthy certificate. The mechanics circles the vehicle and hums. He 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:54.600 admits the engineers in pristine. The engine is pristine, and 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:58.760 the car runs perfectly, but he insists on replacing the transmission. 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:02.120 This is not because is broken. It is because a 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:06.400 complex algorithm suggests a four percent chance it might shudder 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:08.439 in two thousand and thirty two. 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.560 That's funny. You'd call the police. You'd call him a 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:12.359 fraud and a thief. 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.200 Yet we thank doctors when they do the exact same 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:19.399 thing with our cardiovascular system. We then head to a chemist. 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.600 This is the state of modern medicine in Australia. We 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:27.040 are witnessing a monumental act in pharmaceutical theatrics. Health is 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.080 treated as a deficiency of medication. 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:32.959 All right, I could go on, but I'll let you 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:33.560 jump in. 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:39.800 So this is about statens and the interesting thing about 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.040 that so well, first of all, what are staturns. So 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:46.960 statins are the most prescribed drug in Australia today, the 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:54.280 most prescribed drug, and I think the stats are pretty extraordinary. 0:17:54.440 --> 0:18:00.320 I think it's something like half of everybody over the 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:02.880 age of sixty five and a significant proportion of those 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.240 under the age of sixty five in Australia are on statins. 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:10.840 If a person is over the age of sixty five 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:13.080 and also has type two diabetes, they've got an eighty 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.320 percent chance of being on Staaten's in Australia. So statins 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:20.040 are handed out like lollipops at the fate. You know 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.560 this is this is a drug that is massively prescribed 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:26.879 in Australia. Australia is, by the way, the world leader 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:29.480 in the prescription of statns. There is no one who 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:33.920 prescribes more of them on a per capita basis than Australia, 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:35.280 and we've. 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:38.640 Just sorry for the ten people who are going, what 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.200 are they They treat high cholesterol, right. 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.320 So what they do. What they do is reduce the 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:48.280 level of LDL cholesterol, which is theoretically the bad cholesterol. 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.840 And we could go into why I say theoretically and 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:58.280 you're imagining parenthesis around the bad bit there, and we 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:00.320 might or we might not. We might leave that for 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.680 another show. But what they do is they do definitively 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.439 or a lot of people, not everyone, but for a 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:12.119 lot of people, lower the level of LDL cholesterol. And 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:15.240 if you've ever been to a doctor and had a 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:19.399 blood test, they'll they'll show you a print out that 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.320 will give you a level of LDL cholesterol. It will 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:24.560 give you sort of total cholesterol, also give you ld 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:29.119 old cholesterol and sometimes HDL cholesterol, which is theoretically the 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:35.479 good cholesterol. And Staton's lower for many people the number 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:42.240 LDL cholesterol. And for a long time now, the accepted 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:47.800 science has been that that's a good thing. That if 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.240 you lower people's ld OL cholesterol, it should present prevent 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:55.919 them having fatal heart attacks or any heart attacks, or 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:57.720 you know, should reduce the number of heart attacks they're 0:19:57.800 --> 0:19:59.600 likely to have or reduce their risk of heart attack, 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:02.439 or any number of ways of spinning it, but in general, 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.240 the theory is that if you lower LDOL cholesterol, you 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:13.520 should have less cardiac events in your life. And initially 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.119 these drugs were used when they first sort of hit 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:19.320 the market in the nineteen eighties or late nineteen eighties 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:22.960 early nineteen nineties, they were initially used to give to 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:27.520 people who had already had a heart attack, so they've 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:32.600 had their first cardiac event, often young, younger people sort 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:35.399 of around you, under fifty or so, and they were 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:40.000 given to them as a way of presenting preventing further 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:44.879 cardiac events. And there were some early studies that suggested 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:48.520 that they were reasonably effective at that and honestly, those 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.400 studies have not to my knowledge, been debunked in any 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.600 great degree since then, despite some of the problems I'm 0:20:54.600 --> 0:21:01.200 about to discuss with the studies. But the what has 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:03.880 happened though, is that the drug companies have taken that 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:09.359 glimmer of success. And you might imagine that people under 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:12.040 fifty who've had a heart attack, well it's actually only 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:14.879 men under fifty who've had a heart attack. The studies 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:19.600 didn't show any definitive benefit for women, but men under 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:24.720 fifty who've had a heart attack is a relatively small market, 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:28.720 and it's certainly not getting you anywhere near the numbers 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:30.840 I just gave you before. You know, with six out 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:33.919 of ten people over the age of sixty five taking 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:36.760 a drug every day of the week, you're not getting 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:40.920 near that. So the drug companies managed to convert that 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:46.879 glimmer of success into over the last thirty years, a 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:51.680 widespread program of everyone being given or as many people 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:54.919 as possible being given these things as a preventative measure. 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:58.320 So you might feel perfectly well. And this is why 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.399 I use the mechanic analogy. The start, you might feel 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:04.840 perfectly well. It might you might look perfectly well. There 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:07.000 might be nothing wrong with your heart to you know, 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:10.280 the casual observer or the medical observer, but you never know, 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:16.120 you know, just in case, just in case, take this thing, 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:20.000 and you know it'll it'll reduce your risk of ever 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:20.959 having a heart attack. 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:25.280 Well, based on that logic, I should wear my motorcycle 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:27.919 helmet on and off the motorbike. I should wear that 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:32.359 around the house pretty much, same logic, exact same logic, Yeah, 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:38.040 which is you just never know. And even though you've 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:40.200 never had a heart attack and you don't seem to 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:43.080 be at risk of having a heart attack, why not 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:46.960 And if these and if the drugs that we're talking 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:51.120 about were completely harmless, like if I was talking about 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:52.320 here was a sugar pill. 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:58.200 And it made people feel better to take one every day, 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:01.600 to you know, you say, oh, you know, I've said 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:03.640 my three hele Mary's and I've taken a sugar pill, 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:06.600 So I'm definitely not having a heart attack today. That's 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:10.000 that would be fine. People can believe what they want 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:14.760 to believe, but these are not harmless. Their mechanism of 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:20.320 action is to shut down the liver's production of something 0:23:20.320 --> 0:23:23.880 which is used to produce cholesterol called coenzyme Q ten. 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:28.840 So coenzyme Q ten you might have heard of before 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:33.160 if you've ever seen any cosmetics commercials, because it's often 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:35.480 touted as being something that you want to rub on 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:38.760 your skin or something. I've never quite followed the logic 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:43.160 of that, but it's it is actually a pretty handy 0:23:43.200 --> 0:23:44.960 thing to have in your body. It's it's kind of 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:49.480 regarded in medicine as the starter motor for your cellular metabolism. 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:54.520 So it's it's the spark that gets cells producing the 0:23:54.600 --> 0:23:58.960