Heart Surgeon Admits Huge Mistake!

By Dwight Lundell, MD

Part 1 of a 2-part article

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.

[Ed. Note: 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. Click here now to learn more.]

Green Living:
Start Small -- My Best Advice for Beginning Gardeners
By Mort Mather

The days of growing up on a small organic farm in New Jersey were far behind me when I dug my first garden as an adult. It was only five or six feet square and done at my wife's behest so she could have some home-grown tomatoes. We crowded in half a dozen tomato plants and a couple of short rows of potatoes using spuds from the store that had sprouted. We then neglected the patch pretty much until harvest. Amazingly we got tomatoes and potatoes.

For the gardener with a small plot like my first one, all you really need is a spading fork. It may seem like an awful lot of work if you look too far ahead, but it is really the best way for the soil life. It's also excellent exercise. One forkful at a time is turned. The first row is the hardest. I suggest shaking the soil loose from the roots as you go along and removing the plant material to the compost pile.

A six by six garden is really a pretty good way to start. You can get some lovely salads from one or two tomato plants, lettuce, radishes, kohlrabi and scallions. Pole beans or a few potato plants might suit you better.

If you feel pretty sure you want to be serious about raising a substantial amount of your own food, I suggest you not go much larger than my first serious garden which was about 450 square feet. Even with a garden this size, the only tools you'll need are a spading fork, garden rake, and a hoe.

If you're still new to sustainable gardening, I suggest you don't go much larger than 450 square feet so you'll have a happily successful experience. There is a lot to learn about how the plants perform, the weather, weeds, insects, water needs, how long it takes to tend the garden, how to be a self-starter, and how much your body can take.

In my next article, I'll have some advice on how to start a garden that can grow a substantial amount of food to feed your family for a year.

[Ed. Note: Mort Mather has been gardening organically for 35 years. He is the author of Gardening for Independence and has founded two non-profits -- one saved a farm on the Maine Coast and the other saved the historic Ogunquit Playhouse. Mort is a certified organic farmer supplying vegetables for his family-run restaurant (http://joshuas.biz) in Wells, Maine. To learn more, click here.]

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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs [Issue 02-03-09] which offers alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com/