Malcolm Kendrick

Malcolm Kendrick (left) with Michael R. Eades

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“”I don't happen to think that saturated fats are in any way damaging or dangerous. If they were, they wouldn't taste so damn delicious. Nature tends to warn us off dangerous foods by making them taste bitter and icky.

—Malcolm Kendrick

“”Saturated fat has no impact on cardiovascular disease. Never has, never will.

—Malcolm Kendrick

Malcolm Kendrick is a General Practitioner (GP), conspiracy theorist author, cholesterol denialist and low-carb diet advocate who has spent decades promoting the Atkins diet and more recently the carnivore diet. He is best known for his controversial claim that low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and total blood cholesterol levels do not increase the risk of heart disease. This is despite the fact that consistent evidence from numerous types of clinical and genetic studies has unequivocally established that LDL causes atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Kendrick dislikes the medical community and argues against the use of statins. Kendrick is associated with the pseudoscientific Institute for Natural Healing and writes articles for the RT network. He is a leading figure in the cholesterol denialist movement. In 2022, Kendrick appeared on carnivore diet podcasts hosted by Shawn Baker and Paul Saladino.

As of 2024, Kendrick is a writer for an organization that calls itself The Broken Science Initiative. He promotes a conspiracy that he has been targeted because of his anti-statin views.

Biography

Kendrick is a GP based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. He is a member of THINCS (The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics), a fringe think tank that disputes the role of cholesterol in cardiovascular disease. He is the author of The Great Cholesterol Con.

Kendrick has a few peer-reviewed papers published. In 2016, Kendrick and other colleagues published a systematic review to examine how low-density lipoprotein cholesterol is associated with mortality in older adults. They concluded that "High LDL-C is inversely associated with mortality in most people over 60 years" and since "elderly people with high LDL-C live as long or longer than those with low LDL-C, our analysis provides reason to question the validity of the cholesterol hypothesis." The review was criticized for cherry picking data and confirmation bias. Nine of the authors are members of THINCS. The National Health Service website observes that "the review searched only a single literature database, excluded studies only available in non-English languages, and excluded studies where the title and abstract did not appear to contain information on the link between LDL and mortality in older adults." Medical experts rejected the review's suggestions. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, commented that "there is nothing in the current paper to support the authors' suggestions that the studies they reviewed cast doubt on the idea that LDL cholesterol is a major cause of heart disease or that guidelines on LDL reduction in the elderly need re-evaluating."

Kendrick sits on the Medical Advisory Board for the Institute for Natural Healing (INH), a pseudoscientific cancer woo organization. The website advertises unproven cancer cures and promotes dubious vitamin and mineral supplements. According to the INH "Natural treatments—even cures—for cancer are all around us. They’re readily available to those who know about them. But they’re actively hidden by Big Pharma, the FDA, and mainstream medicine."

In June 2022, Kendrick was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had radiotherapy.

Claims

“”Medical scientists (an oxymoron if ever there was one), have a long and distinguished history of grabbing entirely the wrong end of the stick, closing their eyes tightly shut, holding on grimly and refusing to listen to anybody else.

—Malcolm Kendrick, medical scientist hater

According to Kendrick:

• A high-fat diet has no impact on blood cholesterol levels.
• High cholesterol levels do not cause or increase the risk of heart disease.
• Statins do not protect against heart disease by lowing cholesterol levels.
• The protection provided by statins is so small it is not worth bothering with.
• Statins have many negative side effects including death and creation of deformed babies.
• All medical experts should be ignored as they are paid large sums of money from statin manufacturers.
• The only expert that should be listened to is Malcolm Kendrick.

In The Great Cholesterol Con (2008), he argues the above claims but fails to back this up with reliable scientific evidence. It has an irresponsible chapter titled "Eat whatever you like (Diet has nothing to do with heart disease)". Kendrick is not a dietician and lacks education in nutrition. The book makes the following arrogant statement in regard to the above claims:

You may not think it now. But by the time you have read this book, you will be convinced that I am right, and everyone else is wrong.

So the entire medical community is wrong and Kendrick is right.^{Do You Believe That?}

Kendrick continues his crusade against medical scientists in his book A Statin Nation: Damaging Millions in a Brave New Post-Health World (2018). Contrary to what Kendrick has written, clinical and genetic studies have revealed that high blood cholesterol levels increase the risk of heart disease. Harriet Hall has written that Kendrick and others from THINCS "cherry-pick the scientific literature to find studies that support their theses, ignore the flaws in those studies, and ignore the vast body of literature that contradicts them."

Atkins diet

“”A high fat diet reduces VLDL, raises HDL and may even lower LDL. And a high carbohydrate diet does the exact opposite. In short, the metabolism does exactly what you would expect it to. So you see. Atkins was right all along.

—Malcolm Kendrick, Atkins fanatic.

Kendrick has endorsed a low-carb, high-fat diet (LCHF). He has spent years promoting the Atkins diet.

He has written numerous articles supporting Atkins; one of these was titled "ATKINS AND THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS" for THINCS which concluded "the reality about the Atkins diet is that, firstly, it works for many people. Secondly, it does not cause any health problems, as far as I'm concerned". Another article he wrote was "WHY THE ATKINS DIET IS HEALTHY".

In 2024, Kendrick in response to his RationalWiki article claimed he has never promoted the Atkins diet:

I have never actively promoted the Atkins diet. Although I have always believed it to be perfectly healthy. Certainly, far healthier than most people currently eat. Crispy Crème donuts, anyone?

Carnivore diet

Kendrick has supported the carnivore diet for over a decade. In 2013 he commented:

Our GI systems are, basically, the same as carnivores. We cannot digest most carbs – unless they are cooked first. It seems the most obvious common sense that eating other animals is going to be healthy. it is what we are designed to do.

He has appeared on carnivore diet podcasts with Shawn Baker and Paul Saladino.

Saturated fat

Kendrick states that consumption of saturated fat has no link with cardiovascular disease or any other chronic disease. In September 2022, Kendrick stated:

I suppose that what I am about to tell you is pretty much old hat. Many people, including me, have been saying – for many years – that saturated fat has no impact on cardiovascular disease. Never has, never will. The scientific support for it has always been non-existent, and the hypothesis has always been complete fact-free, evidence-free, thought-free, nonsense.

COVID-19

Kendrick dislikes the UK lockdown for the 2019-20 COVID-19 outbreak and has argued it will cause significantly more deaths.

Conspiracy theories

See the main article on this topic: Conspiracy theories

Kendrick's personal blog and books are filled with Big Pharma and government conspiracy theories. He also thinks a group of vegan activists deleted his Wikipedia article and are targeting other high-fat advocates.

He claims anyone that promotes a high fat low carbohydrate diet is somehow "silenced" around the world.

Kendrick has found a home as a contributor to the English language website of the Russian RT television network.

Lawsuit

In February 2020, Kendrick and Zoë Harcombe filed a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited (the owner of Daily Mail) and Barney Calman the Mail on Sunday Health Editor for defamation. Calman and Associated Newspapers Limited had authored several poorly sourced and sensationalist articles criticizing the statin denialism of Harcombe and Kendrick. One of these published by the Daily Mail was titled "The deadly propaganda of statin deniers: The drugs DO protect you from heart attacks but as this devastating investigation reveals thousands are refusing them". Calman had authored an editorial "There is a special place in hell for the doctors who claim statins don’t work". A special report published in The Mail on Sunday titled "Deadly propaganda of the statin deniers" profiled Kendrick with a photograph of him.

In April 2022, Harcombe and Kendrick's trials were split. The defendants argued for honest opinion, truth and publication on a matter of public interest pursuant to the Defamation Act 2013. According to a summary of the preliminary trial judgment in June 2024:

The judge also observed that, in consequence of his findings, the Defendants’ defences of truth and honest opinion as advanced in the Defence could not be maintained. Further case management directions would be required once the parties had had an opportunity to reflect on the contents of the judgment.

The articles written by Calman and Associated Newspapers Limited were poorly written and contained no scientific references. It was a lawsuit waiting to happen. As of 12 October 2024 the lawsuit resulted in an apology being issued to Kendrick and Harcombe with agreement to pay costs and damages. The Daily Mail have since removed the article from their website.

Conspiracy theory about Daily Mail article

Kendrick has argued that there is a conspiracy theory to crush anyone critical of statins and that Barney Calman's article was part of the conspiracy to silence him:

To my mind there can be no doubt that a powerful conspiracy was brought into existence to crush me, and Zoë, under a rock...

I was fully aware there was a long-standing conspiracy going on to crush anyone critical of statins. This is not restricted to the UK. I had been waiting for this attack for many years, and I knew precisely where it would originate. One of the main reasons I sued for libel was to expose those working behind the scenes…hopefully.

The irony, of course, is that I am being accused of being part of some great ill-defined conspiracy to do something or other, somehow or other, for some reason or other. In reality, the conspiracy exists entirely on the other side. You think not? You think that this was not a conspiracy?

Naming names part of the conspiracy

In October 2024, Kendrick on his website authored an article "The legal case – naming a few names". In the article he published emails written by Barney Calman and Sir Rory Collins taken from what he says are Court Disclosures. Kendrick alleges that these emails belong to a secret group of academics who are "working hard in the background" to destroy his reputation.

Selected publications

• The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It (2008)
• Doctoring Data: How to Sort Out Medical Advice from Medical Nonsense (2015)
• A Statin Nation - Damaging Millions in a Brave New Post-Health World (2018)
• The Clot Thickens: The enduring mystery of heart disease (2021)

See also

• Zoë Harcombe
• Aseem Malhotra
• Marika Sboros
• Gary Taubes

External links

• Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
• The Great Cholesterol Con-Artist: Malcolm Kendrick