Sometimes things are repeated with such ad nauseam consistency that they’re just assumed to be true...even though they’re not.

Take Roosevelt’s “New Deal.” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is credited in virtually every classroom textbook as the president who salvaged the country from economic hardship thanks to the policies he implemented under the New Deal. In reality, however, the New Deal severely PROLONGED the Great Depression and made money matters far worse for the average American than they would have been had the free market been allowed to operate, well, freely.

This isn’t an opinion of some right-wing conservative commentator, mind you. This is a documented fact backed by scientifically conducted studies, one of which was done by UCLA researchers and published in the Journal of Political Economy in 2004.

This “repeat it often enough and it becomes true” mentality applies in the health world as well, particularly with regards to statins. Statins are credited with helping people gain control of their cholesterol levels. This has been repeated so often that it’s now a general assumption for so many people that if they want to curb cholesterol, just pop a pill.

This is the most illustrative example of why people that assume “makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me,’” as the saying goes.

For those of you who frequent natural health websites like mine, what I’m about to tell you won’t come as a surprise. For everyone else, though, listen (or read) closely: Statins ARE NOT the elixir to cholesterol problems. To the contrary, they are the catalyst for a host of problems, including numbness in the extremities, persistent muscle pain; they even elevating blood glucose levels, a dangerous proposition for anyone with diabetes.

Up to now, the reasons for these side-effects were widely unknown. But a new body of research from the University of California Santa Barbara’s School of Medicine has uncovered why so many people suffer from statin-related side effects.

The researchers cite how prolonged use of statins harms the body’s mitochondria, which is fundamental in the maintenance and production of energy for the body’s cells. When mitochondria aren’t functioning properly, free radicals fill that energy vacuum and sap the body of crucial energy-producing enzymes like Coenzyme Q10. Coenzyme Q10, among many other functions, helps transport antioxidants throughout the body to fight off free radicals. Prolonged statin use reduces that capability, giving free radicals free reign to wreak havoc.

The research also says that some people have certain genetic triggers in their DNA that make them more susceptible to the side effects associated with statin use, which helps explain why some people have been able to use statins without much of a problem.

But herein lies the problem: Because no one can know if they have those genetic triggers, it’s basically a role of the dice when using statins – Will they help or hurt?

It’s best to avoid statins entirely. As with everything in life, one has to weigh the costs and benefits, and the scale is heavily weighed down with costs.

For information on how to lower your cholesterol levels naturally, visit the cholesterol section under “A to Z Health.”