Policosanol is Garbage

- Roger Mason

     

Folks, by now you know from reading these articles that the natural supplement industry as a whole is generally full of liars, cheats, thieves, crooks, psychopaths, charlatans, poseurs, and conmen. Most companies have no interest in your health or welfare whatsoever and merely want to separate you from your hard earned money.

Any company that sells policosanol is a company you don’t want to deal with. Any company that tells you policosanol will lower your cholesterol and triglycerides is one you don’t want to buy anything from. Policosanol does not lower your cholesterol or triglycerides.

What is policosanol? A mixture of alcohols from of sugar cane wax formerly known as octacosanol, but in new clothes with a new name, basically. Octacosanol was a failure, so they just changed the name and came up with new claims. (Sugar cane is a good source of beta-sitosterol, but that is completely different from and unrelated to policosanol.)

This is a scam plain and simple. Cuba is a poverty stricken country that produces almost nothing but a little tobacco and sugar cane. All the phony “studies” on policosanol have come from this Communist backwater. All of them, not some of them. THERE IS NO SCIENCE IN CUBA! No scientific studies are done in Cuba because they don’t even have enough money to eat much less do research. You never see Cuban studies in scientific journals because there aren’t any.

The International Journal of Clinical Pharmcological Research (v. 22, 2002) published an article from the “Medical Surgical Research Center” in Havana. This is a storefront for God’s sake and not a research center! Castano, Mas and Fernandez were the supposed scientists. The very same volume published a second article on policosanol with these same esteemed gentlemen. In 2001 (v. 21) this journal published yet a third article from Castano, Mas and Fernandez. It seems the IJCPR is not very selective about who they accept articles from. Or maybe these are just paid advertisements. Anyway, it seems advertising is cheap there.

The journal Angiology published a similar article (v. 55, 2004) from the very same Medical Surgical Research Center with Castano, Mas and Fernandez. Angiology published another article the year before (v. 54) with Castano, Mas and Fernandez. Paid advertising.

The journal Drugs (v. 3, 2002) published one from the same “research center” by our good friends, Castano, Mas and Fernandez. More paid advertising.

Drugs and Aging (v. 20, 2003) published another article from the world renowned Medical Surgical Research Center with- who else? Castano, Mas and Fernandez.

Here come Castano, Mas and Fernandez again only calling themselves the “National Center for Scientific Research Cabanec”. Give me a break! This disaster was published in Clinical and Experiemental Pharmacology and Physiology (v. 29, 2002). All paid advertising.

Well, aren’t there any studies that weren’t done in Cuba at some phony medical center? No, there aren’t. The Alternative Medicine Review (v. 7, 2002) published a review of the Cuban literature! They did admit that until some studies are done outside of Cuba with non-Cubans that the validity has not been established. In the American Heart Journal (v. 143, 2002) another review was done of the Cuban studies at the University of Bonn in Germany. The reviewers were so stupid they actually fell for the whole scam! They felt that, “policosanol seems to be a very promising phytochemical alternative to statins…” Morons.

Folks, if you want to lower your cholesterol naturally please read my book, “Lower Cholesterol Without Drugs”. Eat a low fat, high fiber diet based on whole grains and vegetables. Take proven supplements such as beta-sitosterol, flax oil, beta glucan, soy isoflavones and guggul gum. Balance your basic hormones especially DHEA, testosterone, pregnenolone, melatonin, T3 and T4. DIET IS EVERYTHING HERE. Take dairy out of your life, cut down or cut out red meat, poultry, and eggs. You don’t need dangerous, toxic, expensive statin drugs.

And you sure don’t need crap like policosanol.