OK, I'm back but I don't know for how long.

You know, it's really hard to know what to believe nowadays. Sometimes we don't have a lack of information, we have too much, and too much of it is contradictory.

I've had two heart attacks so I take all kinds of medicine in "preventative" mode. But even if I hadn't ever had a heart attack, there is one medicine I'd probably be taking - medicine to lower my cholesterol level. Not really liking to take medicine which messes with the function of my liver, I've been checking up on this stuff.

First all, some ads I've seen. In particular, the small print at the bottom of the screens. Now there's an older and cheaper brand called ZOCOR. The small print says something to the effect, "ZOCOR has been shown to lower the severity and likelihood of heart attacks." OK, sounds good. I'd like to know more, some figures, etc., but I'm different from most of the American public on that.

But ZOCOR didn't work for me, didn't lower my cholesterol. I take LIPITOR, which does and which is more expensive. Now the small print there says "LIPITOR has NOT been shown to reduce the occurrence of heart attacks." Hmmm. So, is this the same as the negative of what ZOCOR claims. And why am I taking it?

Does this mean that LIPITOR doesn't work? Actually, since the purpose of both medicines is to lower cholesterol, it would seem that it works better. So what does that small print really mean? Well, there's another screen in one of the ads, one that says "A lowered level of cholesterol has not been shown to reduce the occurrence of heart attacks."

Huh? Isn't the whole point is that lowering your cholesterol will help out in the heart attack area of your life? What goes on? I asked my doctor. He tells me that different companies do different studies so their results are different. Huh? Does lowering cholesterol help or not? Oh, definitely. Can you point me to studies that show that? No, there aren't any. Huh?

So, someone figures that this will help people, there is no proof for the conclusion but a LOT of profit for the pharmaceutical companies, and half of the country is taking medicine for the rest of their life.

Now I read that cholesterol is something used by your body in "membrane fluidity." Don't know what that is, but is it possible that by reducing your "membrance fluidity" you may be causing a problem? Maybe that's the reason that the cells stop using insulin effectively. Maybe that's the real reason that more people are now starting to develop diabetes. Tongue in cheek, but is it really?

Receive a publication from some heart organization, read two articles in one issue. In one of them there was the statement that 50% of Americans have high cholesterol. In another that half the people who have heart attacks have low cholesterol levels. Huh? That to me says that cholesterol level is immaterial, that the two populations have the same incidence of heart attacks.

Anyway, just some confusion on my part. And I'm sure that that's all it is. After all, all those doctors, quoting all those studies, can't be wrong. Can they? Doctors are always right, right? Well, got to go, have to be bled and the leeches are all hungry.