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Heart Surgeon Admits Huge Mistake!
By Dwight Lundell, MD
We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority
often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to admit we are
wrong. So, here it is. I freely admit to being wrong. As a heart surgeon with 25
years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, today is my
day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact.
I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labeled “opinion
makers.” Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education
seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact
of elevated blood cholesterol.
The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a
diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would
lower cholesterol and heart disease. Deviations from these recommendations were
considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.
It Is Not Working!
These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The
discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause
of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and
other chronic ailments will be treated.
The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity
and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of
mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.
Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive statin medications
and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more
Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before.
Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans
currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million
have pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger and younger people in
greater numbers every year.
Simply stated, 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 not complicated -- it is quite simply your body's natural
defense to a foreign invader such as a bacteria, toxin or virus. The cycle of
inflammation is perfect in how it protects your body from these bacterial and
viral invaders. However, if we chronically expose the body to injury by toxins
or foods the human body was never designed to process, a condition occurs called
chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is just as harmful as acute
inflammation is beneficial.
What thoughtful person would willfully expose himself repeatedly to foods or
other substances that are known to cause injury to the body? Well, smokers
perhaps, but at least they made that choice willfully.
The rest of us have simply followed the recommended mainstream diet that is low
in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, not knowing we were
causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. This repeated injury creates
chronic inflammation leading to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity. Let
me repeat that. The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by
the low fat diet that has been recommended for years by mainstream medicine.
What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they 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.
In Part 2 of this two-part article, I'll discuss which foods cause inflammation,
how those foods trigger the inflammatory process, and the foods to eat that will
cure inflammation.
Dr. Dwight Lundell is the past Chief of Staff and
Chief of Surgery at Banner Heart Hospital, Mesa, AZ. His private practice,
Cardiac Care Center was in Mesa, AZ. Recently Dr. Lundell left surgery to focus
on the nutritional treatment of heart disease. He is the founder of Healthy
Humans Foundation that promotes human health with a focus on helping large
corporations promote wellness. He is the author of The Cure For Heart Disease
and The Great Cholesterol Lie.
This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs,
offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary
subscription, visit
http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com
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