The cause of heart disease is high cholesterol. It is a medical and scientific fact. Or is it?
There is evidence that not only is this not the cause of heart disease, it is a misconception that is actually causing health problems and obesity in America. Renowned heart surgeon Dr. Dwight Lundell, former Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Banner Heart Hospital in Mesa, Arizona is one of the people who has evidence to support this claim.
According to Lundell, prior to the discovery that inflammation in the arteries could be the real cause of heart disease, the only course of action to prevent or treat heart disease was prescription medications to lower cholesterol and a diet to severely reduce the intake of fats.
These low-fat dietary recommendations that have been long accepted as a beneficial "heart healthy diet" have actually been the culprit behind the epidemics of diabetes and obesity in the United States.
"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," said Lundell.
The Real Cause Of Heart Disease
So if elevetaed blood cholesterol isn't the culprit, then what is? The answer is inflammation. Inflammation of the artery wall causes cholesterol to get trapped in the arteries where it causes damage. Without inflammation, cholesterol could flow freely through the blood without getting trapped.
Inflammation is your body's natural response to foreign invaders such as a virus or bacteria or toxin. The cycle of acute inflammation is a healthy and important cycle in our bodies, however, when we continually expose our body to the agent that is causing the inflammation, it doesn't have time to heal and thus chronic inflammation is born. Repeatedly consuming food that humans were never designed to process regularly exposes our bodies to unfamiliar bacteria, which leads to chronic inflammation in our bodies and our arteries.
Why would someone repeatedly consume food that is causing this damage? According to Lundell, it is because they had been following the mainstream low-fat, high carb diet that was prescribed to prevent heart disease, not knowing that they were actually causing injury to their bodies.
"The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine," said Lundell.
What Causes Inflammation
The biggest culprit of inflammation in our bodies is the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates - sugars, flours and all of the products made from them - and the excessive consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils such as soybean, corn and sunflower oils that are found in many processed foods.
Because these foods have a very long shelf-life, they have become staples of the American diet for the past several decades, and according to Lundell, have been poisoning Americans ever since. Although those sweets taste delicious when we consume them, they are wreaking havoc on our bodies.
"A diseased artery looks 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," said Lundell.
How Do Carbohydrates Cause Inflammation?
How does a little piece of cake cause so much damage? When we consume simple carbohydrates like sugar, our blood sugar rises rapidly. In response to this, our pancreas produces a substance that exists to bring the sugar into our cells, where it is then stored as fat. However, if the cell is full and doesn't need any more sugar, it will reject it. This increases blood sugar and production even more, creating more excess in the body.
These excess sugar molecules attach to proteins in the blood vessel wall and cause repeated injury, and this injury eventually causes chronic inflammation. And when you consider that that piece of cake or that sweet roll not only contains simple carbohydrates, but is also likely coated in or contains several vegetable oils, the inflammatory property increase exponentially.
"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. While you may not be able to see it, rest assured it is there. I saw it in over 5,000 surgical patients spanning 25 years who all shared one common denominator — inflammation in their arteries," said Lundell.
So What Is The Real Heart Healthy Diet?
Omega-6 oils are not dangerous in-and-of themselves, it is only when they are eaten in excess and the balance between omega-6 oils and omega-3 oils shifts drastically. According to Lundell, the mainstream American diet of processed foods has produced a huge imbalance of these two fats in favor of omega-6.
"There is no escaping the fact that the more 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," said Lundell.
So what can we do to reduce inflammation and truly lower our risk of heart disease?
The one simple answer is to return to eating foods that are closer to their natural state, pure and unprocessed. Eat more protein, choose carbohydrates that are very complex such as colorful 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.
Instead of choosing corn or soybean oil, use natural olive oil or coconut oil, or even butter from grass-fed beef. And add fats back in to your diet. With all the facts surrounding inflammation, it is no longer a legitimate concern to be worried about consuming fats. In fact, quite the opposite. Consuming a proportional amount of saturated fats, especially animal fats is actually good for your body and your heart. Healthy fats can be found in animal products, coconuts and nuts.
"By eliminating inflammatory foods and adding essential nutrients from fresh unprocessed food, you will reverse years of damage in your arteries and throughout your body," said Lundell.
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Source: Dr. Dwight Lundell, M.D. "World Renowned Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease." Disclove.tv. Jan. 21 2015. <http://m.disclose.tv/news/World_Renowned_Heart_Surgeon_Speaks_Out_On_What_Really_Causes_Heart_Disease/113103>
