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.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I would not recommend deep frying in any solid fat. It drips onto the plate, solidifies, and looks weird. I know, I tried it.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Bump...

[editor-surveyor]

>> “Let’s throw out 50 years of peer-reviewed published research” <<

.
Just one set of liars supporting another.

A liar’s peer is another liar. The results speak for themselves; polyunsaturated oils do cause type II diabetes, and probably alzheimers too.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I challenge all people making such claims to produce analyses of old food versus new or “franken” food. That’s what turns the anecdote (the plural of which is not “data”) into something like science.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[AnTiw1]

i really haven’t heard a convincing argument against frankenfoods, whatever genetic material in them gets broken into individual aminos, sometimes unusual amino balances will have certain effects; none life threatening...like an overdose of tryptophan at a turkey dinner makes you sleep thru the ball game, etc...

the bad effects on non-franken plants thru cross pollination i can see, but there are remedies...

what is the big danger in frankenfoods that i’m missing? all the warning literature seems high on hyperbole and short on substance...

[Nik Naym]

“LOL, who was the old hippie that said eating trees would make you live forever,”

Do you mean natural foods expert Euell Gibbons?

He’s dead.

Died of “Natural Causes”.

Really.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

In the past few decades, wheat has been hybridized and cross-bred again and again to bring out qualities such as resistance to pests. But at no time, as the wheat genome was effectively being tampered with, were new strains of modern wheat tested on animals and humans to see what the results would ultimately be, health-wise.

And this I have gotten just from reading the first part of the book. I’m about to read the second part, where all the negative health effects the author says result from modern wheat are discussed.

From what I understand, simply eating a diet rich in carbohydrates is detrimental to people, too.

[PA Engineer]

Let’s throw out 50 years of peer-reviewed published research and instead go with some retired doc who sells T-shirts, 9/11 conspiracy books, and “channeling” seminars on the sidebar. Yes, of course, eat less processed food but that isn’t the answer for most.

Maybe you have not been keeping of with "peer-reviewed" research. You can start with:

High Ratio of Triglycerides to HDL-Cholesterol Predicts Extensive Coronary Disease

Cardiovascular and Hormonal Aspects of Very-Low-Carbohydrate Ketogenic Diets

Endothelial inflammation in insulin resistance

Here is a quick summary. Cholesterol is not the enemy. It was insane to identify it as the culprit for heart disease to begin with. The relationship was not causation, but association. Cholesterol is a marker and reflects an inflammatory response. This inflammatory response is prevalent in metabolic syndrome or syndrome X. Metabolic syndrome is a precursor to Type II diabetes. Type II diabetes is insulin resistance. Insulin resistance results in increased Triglyceride lipid levels. Insulin resistance and increased Triglyceride levels are associated with endothelial inflammation or vascular heart disease. Cholesterol is the bodies way of repairing the arterial walls. The constant repair of the arterial wall results ultimately in blockage. Blockage results in heart attacks.

Lower Cholesterol is the same as a fire department going to the house to put out the smoke. Now go back to the NIH and the 7 year statin study. There was a big problem. At the end of this big study there was no evidence that statins saved lives. The opposite was actually found. People died of other "natural" causes. Specifically cancer became a risk factor and people were still dying of heart disease. How did the NIH resolve this? They came up with an entire new school of statistics involving "relative lives saved." Not actual, but a nebulous relative predictor. From that conclusion we were off and running with statins.

Now you need to go back to how our government handled dietary guidelines and specifically the food pyramid. Obesity, metabolic syndrome and Type II diabetes were low prior to the pyramid adoption. Afterwards during the following decades these disorders began to track to the epidemic proportions they are today. Did I mention that the food pyramid was not "peer-reviewed", but adopted by government fiat under the McGovern commission during the peanut farmer Carter years. Many Cardiologist were furious about this. I wonder why?

The end effect of the food pyramid was to load up the American diet with carbohydrates. It does not matter if it is a grain or sugar. The end result in the Krebs cycle is the same. The pyramid required that Americans change their diets to a carbohydrate based one versus a balanced fat, protein and carbohydrates. There really should have been no surprise what the end result would be on insulin levels.

Finally and especially over the past 10 years the issue of a carbohydrate based diet is getting further attention by medical researchers. Just Google or Bing Triglycerides and Very Low Carbohydrate (VLC) diet. Here is one random pick:

Study Shows Low-Carb Diet Improves Cholesterol.

This study is from Duke. Now let's be honest. Is this a 9/11 truther site?

It is getting late. On a final note I would add that no one should be taking statins unless they truly have familial hypercholesterolemia. Sadly, even the levels for this diagnosis have been corrupted. If you don't have this disorder than the important thing is to lower your Triglyceride levels with Niacin and VLC diets. It just works. The ratio to be attained is <2.0.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

None of them go through testing on animals and humans, as far as I know, so it cannot be determined either way, without extensive research, what the effects are after consumption has already begun.

[PA Engineer]

Thanks for the post. Please see my post 69. We have all been had. The fingers always point back to an intrusive and incompetent Federal Government.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I'd still assert that there haven't been enough years of experience with "pure" polyunsaturates to establish such a link in humans, even though monounsaturates are believed today to be healthier. (One notable study claimed that a goodly portion of olive oil would knock your chance of getting a heart attack down by almost 50% in the following 12 or so hours. Intriguing and a good excuse to eat more olives and olive oil, but I'd like to see the science affirm it.)

Anyhow, the partially hydrogenated fats, such as the old Crisco, were the form in which these polyunsaturates were mostly incorporated in the American diet. That period really cannot be counted in evaluating the effect of the polyunsaturates.

[editor-surveyor]

>> “Nobody explains how wheat is supposed to be responsible for a situation that came upon society centuries after it began to consume wheat.” <<

.
That’s not completely true.

We’ve changed the type of wheat we use, and the ways we use it. Bleached white flour is unnatural.

We’ve switched to using Hathi whole wheat flour, and all of the wheat issues disappeared almost instantly.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And of course publishers (book and newspaper) often have no better reason to publish what they do than that it grabs eyes with startling statements?

[HiTech RedNeck]

I’d say any diet in which you prepare your own everything that has wheat in it — even if using bad old Gold Medal bleached flour — is going to be watched more carefully than one where all has been prepared for you.

[PA Engineer]

It explains the bogus Lipid Hypothesis and the story of the McGovern committee that led us into this mess. It’s presented in a light comedic way. Informative and entertaining. Refutes Morgan Spurlock’s Supersize Me as well.

Thanks. I missed that one. If people only knew how badly they have been played.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

“You have no credentials”

I’m a physician. What I am saying, and I can back it up with more publications than you would have time to read, is that cholesterol deposition, and inflammation play crucial roles in the genesis and progression of coronary artery disease. Further, they are linked.

This guy is not a scientist. He’s just another cardiovascular surgeon. Sewing grafts onto blood vessels doesn’t make you an expert on lipids, or inflammation, or atherosclerosis. He did not discover the concept of vascular inflammation, and if you look at the biomedical literature over the past decade alone you will see a huge amount of literature on the topic of inflammation and vascular disease. It’s an absolutely established concept. Not something new that this guy came up with. There is nothing Earth shattering or new about what he is saying. Patients with lupus, for example, can have very early and very severe atherosclerotic vascular disease, related in large measure to the vascular inflammation that occurs as part of that disease. Nothing new.

The irresponsible part is when he implies that cholesterol levels don’t matter. There is absolutely no scientific basis for that statement, and a plethora of published data to the contrary.

I didn’t attack you, and I respect your right to your opinion.

[maine-iac7]

You say: “Genetically modified crops are key to feeding the world, both now and in the future. The crops can also be engineered to provide better nutrition and other health benefits. There’s no need to use scare language about a technology which already makes it possible to feed millions who might otherwise starve.”

The proof is in the pudding - and it’s coming home to roost.There’s a reason some 30 countries have banned GMO’s and some are suing (France, India, Spain, for Monsanto violating the ban.)

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oG7nf2kFlPgXkAmBVXNyoA?p=countries%20reject%20monsanto%20gmo&fr2=sb-top&fr=ytff1-

Now, SUPER BUGS are developing that are resistant to the chemicals - rather like the super bugs that are resisting the antibiotics in medicine. (How did man ever survive for tens of thousand of years without all these chemicals?)

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oG7jpVj1lPhxwAMTUQRAUJ?p=resistant%20to%20roundup&fr=ytff1-

A lot of big money invested in forcing countries/farmers to use their patented seed. Bill Gates has 23 million invested in Monsanto. Gee, I wonder why he pushes Monsanto’s GMO’s?

And medically -

http://www.livestrong.com/article/216714-dangers-of-gmo-foods/

Monsanto chemicals increase yield? Is that their real goal - or is is “Who controls the food, controls the people”?

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/science/failure-to-yield.html

Once a farmer plants GMO (or the wind blows GMO pollen onto another farmer’s crops) that farmer cannot save seed to plant next season - he must BUY Monsanto’s seed, year after year...not a good deal for any farmer, let alone in poor countries. And his land is now toxic...

just a tiny bit of the picture

[taxcontrol]

I have noticed that by adding flaxseed oil and ditching the margarine in favor of real butter has helped a lot. Not only do I feel better, but I have lost 25 lbs, taken 4 inches off my waist, have less desire to eat and my blood pressure has dropped significantly. Still have several dozen lbs to lose but it is heading in the right direction by ignoring the conventional wisdom.

[PA Engineer]

Thanks for the post. You saved me a great deal of time taking his BS apart. I cover some of this in my post at 69. Thanks again. I am just so tired of the the “True Believers.”