Heart Surgeon Speaks Out on What Really causes Heart Disease

This article is by Dr Dwight Lundell, a heart surgeon of 25 years experience who has performed over 5000 open-heart surgeries.  Do read the entire article, but here's a summary:

"I freely admit to being wrong" says Dr Lundell.

Dr Lundell explains to us that it is inflammation in the artery wall, and not simply high cholesterol from a high fat diet, that is the real cause of heart disease.

"Without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes.  Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended.  It is inflammation, that causes cholesterol to become trapped."

Inflammation is "quite simply your body's natural defence to a foreign invader such as bacteria, toxin or virus."

So what causes inflammation?

"The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine".

The biggest culprits of chronic inflammation are "the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods."

Dr Lundell explains that it's this type of diet over time which does the damage.

"I have peered inside thousands upon thousands of arteries.  A diseased artery look as if someone took a brush and scrubbed repeatedly against its wall.  Several times a day, every day, the foods we eat create small injuries compounding into more injuries, causing the body to respond continuously and appropriately with inflammation."

Consuming simple carbohydrates raises blood sugar rapidly and in turn your pancreas secretes insulin to drive the sugar into your cells for energy, but once the cells are full, excess sugar is stored as fat.  The body aims to control blood sugar in a narrow range.  Excess sugar injures the blood vessel wall.  

"This repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation."

"When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels."

"There is no escaping the fact that the more that we consume prepared and processed foods, the more we trip the inflammation switch little by little each day.  The human body cannot process, nor was it designed to consume, foods packed with sugars and soaked in omega-6 oils."

So what should we do?

"There is but one answer to quieting inflammation, and that is returning to foods closer to their natural state.  To build muscle, eat more protein.  Choose carbohydrates that are very complex such as colourful fruits and vegetables.  Cut down on or eliminate inflammation-causing omega-6 fats like corn and soybean oil and the processed foods that are made from them."

"The cholesterol theory led to the no-fat recommendations that in turn created the very foods now causing an epidemic of inflammation.  Mainstream medicine made a terrible mistake when it advised people to avoid saturated fat in favour of foods high in omega-6 fats.  We now have an epidemic of arterial inflamation leading to heart disease and other silent killers."

"By eliminating inflammatory foods and adding essential nutrients from fresh unprocessed food, you will reverse years of damage to your arteries."

Source article: http://www.sott.net/article/242516-Heart-surgeon-speaks-out-on-what-really-causes-heart-disease If you Google Dr Lundell you will find a page called "Quackwatch" which says some disparaging things about him.  In this online interview (towards the end) Dr Lundell addresses this criticism.

~ take every opportunity to put the good stuff in ~

This blog is about me, what I'm doing, what's working for me, and what's not. It includes my experiences and opinions. It is for general information only and is in no way intended to replace the advice of a health care professional.