Heart Health

I was attracted to an article titled “The Real Cause of Heart Disease” written by a heart surgeon of 25 years experience.  His article was more of a retraction letter apologizing for the bad advice he had promoted over the years.  He stated that the standard advice of cholesterol lowering medications and a low-fat diet are no longer scientifically or morally defensible.  25% of the population is taking cholesterol drugs, yet more Americans are dying of heart disease every year and 75 million Americans are currently suffering with some level of heart disease.

This surgeon sited recent research proving that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart and all cardiovascular disease.  Without this inflammation, cholesterol wouldn’t accumulate in the vessel lining to begin with.  It’s the inflammation that traps cholesterol in the internal lining of the arteries.  From this point-of-view, cholesterol in the arteries is not the cause of heart disease, but merely another symptom.  Inflammation from diet and stress is the real cause and also the solution.  What causes this inflammation?  It’s the processed carbohydrates such as sugar and flour products as well as the omega-6 corn, vegetable, soybean and sunflower oils.

To solve the heart disease epidemic we must begin to choose more natural and complex carbohydrates such as fruits and vegetables over the processed grains and sugars.  Likewise, we don’t need to avoid fat because that strategy has not worked either.  Rather we need omega-3 fats found in fish oils, organically raised.

Today's mainstream American diet has produced an extreme imbalance of these two fats. The ratio of imbalance ranges from 15:1 to as high as 30:1 in favor of omega-6. That's a tremendous amount of cytokines causing inflammation. In today's food environment, a 3:1 ratio would be optimal and healthy. Eating a balance of healthy fats improves overall health leading to less heart disease.