In the past few years, one heart surgeon has been standing up for what he believes and making right his ‘wrongdoings.’ Dr. Dwight Lundell, a heart surgeon with at least 25 years of experience is working to ‘write the wrong with medical and scientific fact.’
Dr. Lundell is the author of the book The Cure for Heart Disease and The Great Cholesterol Lie and is the past Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Banner Heart Hospital in Mesa AZ. He wrote an article back in 2012 for Prevent Disease and it is one that has stuck with me for quite some time. While many people believe statins are helping them Dr. Lundell is making it known that they are not.
He wrote as follows on the subject:
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 are caused by the low-fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine.
His words ring quite deep for me and have me really thinking. To hear him speak check out the video below. To read more of his article please click here. What do you think about all of this?