When a larger point is buried in a story

A few weeks ago, there was an article about a study that listed four things people can do to extend their lifespans. The study found that simply taking exercise, not drinking too much alcohol, eating enough fruit and vegetables and not smoking extended lifespan "regardless of how overweight or poor they were." Sort of tosses the whole BMI, overweight always = unhealthy conventional out on its ear, doesn't it? Imagine a world in which "living a healthy life" doesn't always require the kind of lifelong obsession with everything one puts into one's mouth that the diet/regain/diet/regain cycle that most overweight people live on does.

When you hit 50, the doctors start wanting to start you on statin drugs if your cholesterol is a tenth of a point above optimal, despite the fact that recent research seems to indicate that inflammation is a greater cause of heart disease than simple blood cholesterol levels, and despite the fact that one of the early statin drugs, lovastatin, was simply red yeast rice -- a dietary supplement that the FDA banned in 1999 after studies showed that it was effective in lowering cholesterol. Yes, folks, the FDA banned an inexpensive dietary supplement so that the pharmaceutical companies could make money selling it to you as a prescription drug. So far I've avoided the siren song of statins, admittedly by just not getting blood drawn for the past year, choosing instead to address saturated fat intake and banning trans fats from my diet.

Now the results of a clinical study show that a new cholesterol-lowering drug, Zetia, and its combination form, Vytorin, are not only ineffective in reducing the growth of fatty plaques, but even accelerated such growth.

But buried in this New York Times editorial on how long it took for the companies that produce the drug to release the study results is this (emphasis mine):

The findings also raise doubts about the current belief that lowering cholesterol is the key to cardiovascular health. The study showed that Vytorin reduced bad cholesterol significantly more than Zocor alone. The problem was that it failed to reduce the formation of plaque.

Say what? Uh...isn't it just as important that the study calls into question the entire notion of cholesterol being a significant risk factor for heart disease as that the drug doesn't work? Then why the hell are millions of Americans on statins, thinking that it's some kind of gospel truth that lowering cholesterol is some kind of magic bullet?