Doctor Claims Everything You've Heard About Cholesterol and Heart Disease is Wrong

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/03/08/quick_hits_page ^ | 3-8-2012 | Rush Limbaugh

[sheikdetailfeather]

RUSH: Now, this health story. The website's called Signs of the Times, and the story here is by Dr. Dwight Lundell. "Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease." The upshot of it is that everything that we think we're doing to promote cardiovascular health is actually contributing to cardiovascular problems. This story prints out six pages. The doctor wrote it. So many times I have mentioned over the years about diet, health, food, how we are being manipulated by government goals, wrong medical ideas. Food activists with a logo and a fax machine putting out bogus information to the media, and they just run with it. As long as it contains "government has to step in to save us," then they'll be happy to promote whatever the lying data is.

So what we have here is a heart surgeon who is saying that he and his profession have been wrong for decades. This experiment with statins and low-fat diets has not worked. He says it's time to move on to another way. I'll give you some pull quotes before getting to the story. "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."

Another pull quote. "I saw it in over 5,000 surgical patients spanning 25 years who all shared one common denominator -- inflammation in their arteries." Not blockage, inflammation.

[djf]

Here’s what happened.
In the early studies of plaque in arteries of cardiovascular patients, they found cholesterol.

So they said cholesterol was the cause.

Same thing as if I went and studied kids who have cuts and then proceeded to blame the cuts on the band-aid they had on.

[PubliusMM]

Ping for later

[GeorgiaDawg32]

Euell Gibbons: Ever eat the bark off a tree?

I remember those commercials.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Didn’t Atkins say this a long time ago?

Reducing your consumption of sugar, flour and processed food can’t hurt, at the very least.

[org.whodat]

Only made tea. But the old man sure put a lot of saw shavings in my mouth with his chain saw when I was his pilot.

[Kenny Bunk]

The AMA says Chelation doesn’t work but I have talked to dozens of heart patients taking Chelation to know they are wrong. The NIH did a 3 year study of Chelation, one patient died so they quit. If they proved it did work many hospitals would go bankrupt, the heart is the mainstay of hospitals.

Chelation worked for me and it's on film. But now that I am retired I cannot afford the (absolutely non-insurance-covered) treatment at $80 a day... sort of like having a heroin habit!

Why this treatment isn't accepted is one of the great medical mysteries of our age. I have literally taken treatments with diabetics who were told they were going to lose a leg, who walked out a week later; candidates for bypass who were back on the tennis courts in two weeks. The tip-off? Many MDs take the treatment ... probably the same guys who sneak off to Chiropractors!

[Kenny Bunk]

Check out

www.drtauraso.com/

Then check out intravenous Vitamin C treatment.

[bert]

The cure for inflammation is aspirin.... one a day , every day

[Shimmer1]

marked for later

[sheikdetailfeather]

Thanks for your post! I found it very informative.

[lawdave]

I think I found out about a book called, “Why we get Fat,” in another discussion on this site that made this very argument about carbs, Went Carb free on Janaury 3, 2012. I have lost 20 pounds. Just saying.

[Vendome]

Thnx

[Rennes Templar]

Good to see you too!

(How do we know each other?)

[maine-iac7]

Thanks for the tip on spelt

I think I’m going to try it for ‘flat bread’ -

Myu daughter has become an expert on gluten free cooking - including cakes, cupcakes, etc - but can’t get a satisfactory bread combination.

And gluten free bread in stores are like bricks.

I refuse, however, to give up my Yorkshire Pudding, which requires gluten to be successful - so I make an exception for that ;o)

[maine-iac7]

from different past thread postings -

and your 'name' is so easy to remember - ;o)

[sheikdetailfeather]

Good for you! I have found that if I eat a lot of carbs I get acid reflux. When I stop the carbs it goes away overnight!

[matthew fuller]

" I clean it with hydrogen peroxide. It doesn’t smell and you can see the germs die."

Walmart sells H2O2 in small spray bottles. I keep one at each sink/lavatory. Beats the heck out of that 60% alcohol hand sanitizer stuff. I have problems with dry skin anyway, don't need to dry my skin out with alcohol.

[matthew fuller]

"The cure for inflammation is aspirin.... one a day , every day "

Do you mean 325 mg or 81 mg?

[bert]

-——Do you mean 325 mg or 81 mg?-——

My doctor has me taking 1 tablet 325 mg/day. I weigh 200 pounds.

I would look to see what Bayer has to say. they will always say ask your doctor before proceeding but they will I think have some advice.

I also have a heart attack first aid kit. Two aspirin 325 mg in a “small altoid tin”

[rxsid]

"Cholesterol is not the enemy."

No doubt about that. In fact, it's an absolutely essential component in the animal cell membrane.

At a high level, a few of the essential things it does in the body...

• Cholesterol Maintains the Integrity of the Cell Membrane
• Cholesterol Helps Maintain the Fluidity of Cell Membranes
• Cholesterol Helps Secure Important Proteins in the Membrane

Cholesterol's Importance to the Cell Membrane
http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Cholesterol-Cell-Membrane.html

Membrane Structure and Function
http://www.cytochemistry.net/cell-biology/membrane_intro.htm

Closer look at cell membrane shows cholesterol 'keeping order'
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-closer-cell-membrane-cholesterol.html

Plasma membrane cholesterol controls the cytotoxicity of Alzheimer’s disease
http://www.fasebj.org/content/16/12/1526.full.pdf

CHOLESTEROL AND CHOLESTEROL ESTERS
STRUCTURE, OCCURRENCE, BIOCHEMISTRY AND ANALYSIS

Cholesterol has vital structural roles in membranes and in lipid metabolism in general. It is a biosynthetic precursor of bile acids, vitamin D and steroid hormones (glucocorticoids, oestrogens, progesterones, androgens and aldosterone). In addition, it contributes to the development and working of the central nervous system, and it has major functions in signal transduction and sperm development. It is found in covalent linkage to specific membrane proteins or proteolipids ('hedgehog' proteins), which have vital functions in embryonic development. However, because plasma cholesterol levels can be a major contributory factor to atherogenesis, media coverage has created what has been termed a ‘cholesterophobia’ in the population at large.

http://lipidlibrary.aocs.org/lipids/cholest/index.htm

Of course, don't go eating an unhealthy diet...just realize that the human body absolutely must have cholesterol to function normally. It's an essential lipid in animal cells.

On a side, but related note, this makes for interesting reading:

High cholesterol or low vitamin D?
Published March 22, 2011 | By Dr. Craig Keebler

"One area receiving little attention is the role of vitamin D in the development of atherosclerosis, stroke, and heart attack.

Isn’t cholesterol the cause of “hardening of the arteries” and the related problems of stroke and heart attacks?

Yes, it’s one cause. But the story goes much deeper. How does that cholesterol in the blood get stuck inside artery walls? First, the artery wall has to get inflamed. Just like a cut in your skin can get red, swollen, and inflamed from an infection, artery walls can experience the same process. When that happens, white blood cells get drawn into the artery wall. From there, they reach out and gobble up cholesterol from the bloodstream, bringing it into the artery wall. Thus, the process begins.

It turns out that vitamin D is a potent inhibitor of this type of inflammation in artery walls. Vitamin D activates dozens of different genes that keep inflammation under control and prevent this process from getting started in the first place. People with bad atherosclerosis have extremely low levels of vitamin D – a fraction of the levels that are needed for maintaining good health.

High cholesterol affects about 37% of Americans. Low vitamin D levels affect a surprising 77% of us. Among African-Americans and others with darker skin, low levels are found in over 90%. Both high cholesterol and low vitamin D predispose to stroke, heart attacks, and atherosclerosis.

So when someone has a stroke at 41, I wonder what the vitamin D level is.

Do you know what yours is?

You should. Chances are it’s low.

How low?

Only a blood test can tell you. Testing your vitamin D also helps prevent overdose when you are using vitamin D supplements.

What’s a healthy level of vitamin D?

Researchers say between 32 and 90 ng/mL However, many experts believe truly healthy levels are more like 40 to 80.

How can I get my levels in that range?

Years ago, when most of us worked outdoors or got around on foot, we got most of our vitamin D from sunlight – at least in spring and summer months. Nowadays, most people prefer air-conditioned comfort on hot sunny days, prefer driving to get places, and use vitamin D blocking sunscreens when outdoors for any length of time. Those are some of the reasons why our levels of vitamin D have dropped in half over the past few decades.

With today’s indoor lifestyles and our concerns about skin cancer, the logical way to get enough vitamin D today is through inexpensive supplements. As I said in last week’s post, correcting low vitamin D is both easy and cheap.

A few pennies a day can purchase the vitamin D drops or pills to provide the 2,000 to 4,000 units a day that will get most Americans to healthy levels over several months.

Reaping long-term health benefits, however, requires maintaining those good levels indefinitely, which means taking the right amount of vitamin D forever.

Don’t forget about cholesterol though. If you want to lower your risk of stroke or heart attack, have your vitamin D level checked along with your cholesterol level. Get both of them into healthy ranges. It could save your life."

On a personal note, about 1.5 years ago, my Dr. started including Vitamin D test's during blood work for Cholesterol levels in his patients.

Mine was found to be pretty low, so he advised me to include a 2,000 IU Vitamin D with my daily Vit/Min (& Krill Oil, CoQ10). About 6 months later, I was right in the middle of the healthy range.

It appears that the benefits of testing for, and controlling Vitamin D levels is gaining popularity amongst the medical community.

A few additional resources that back up the role of inflamation in this process:

New Culprit in Atherosclerosis
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120109102922.htm (A Macrophage is a type of white blood cell, as mentioned above)

Heart-Disease Sleuths Identify Prime Suspect: Inflammation of Artery.
http://drkaslow.com/html/arterial_inflammation.html

Inflammation, aspirin, and the risk of cardiovascular disease in apparently healthy men.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9077376.1

Inflammation, atherosclerosis, and coronary artery disease.
http://www.coryi.org/cardiology/Hansson.pdf(From the New England Journal of Medicine)

Atherosclerosis: Basic Mechanisms
Oxidation, Inflammation, and Genetics
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/91/9/2488(From the Journal Circulation)