Heart Surgeon corrects long held belief that high cholesterol is the cause of heart disease

Live healthy and long

August 29, 2015

From Sott Heart Surgeon speaks the truth about heart disease

Inflammation, not cholesterol is the cause of heart disease

                                  From Dr Hyman, sugar not eggs cause heart attacks

By Dr. Dwight Lundell
Prevent Disease
March 1, 2012

The article was written heart surgeon. He has done 5,000 or so heart surgeries and is considered an opinion maker.  The long held belief for heart health, is that we need to lower cholesterol level, have a low fat diet, as this is the cause of heart disease. About 25% of the American population take statin medications, but despite this: 75 million suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 75 million have pre diabetes. He says it is time to correct this misconception as this does not work.  The current findings is that inflammation of the arterial wall is the real cause of heart disease.

Blood would flow freely in our blood vessel if there were no inflammation.

What is inflammation?

It is a simple thing, it a way of the body defending itself from the microbes and other invasion of the body.  The body responds well to a cycle of inflammation but body can not respond well to chronic inflammation

What causes inflammation?

 The low fat diet rich in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates cause our body to be exposed to repeated inflammation.

1.  Overload of simple and highly processed carbohydrates like sugar and flour
2.  Excess consumption of Omega 6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed food.

The effect is like brushing the blood vessel repeatedly with a brush

3.   Overload of sugar

      High sugar diet causes increase in insulin level. This increase is to cause sugar to be attached to cells,  If the cell is full, this further increases insulin level.  The excess sugar attaches to other proteins which injure the blood vessel.

Recommendation:

1.  Avoid processed foods especially loaded with omega 6 oils and sugar;This gives our body daily dose of inflammation.  Instead take foods that contain complex carbohydrates that are less likely to trigger inflammation.

2.  Use instead animal fats that contain 20% less omega 6, use olive or butter from grass fed cows.



Other references:

From Yoga international - on heart disease and inflammation

Mercola artilces