n this featured segment, Dr. Lundell’s message, one he has been sharing for over six years, is clear and to the point: Cholesterol Does Not Cause Heart Disease.

While traditional mainstream medicine, physicians and pharmaceutical industry continue to insist cholesterol must be controlled by medication, Dr. Lundell marches to a very different drummer and perspective having performed 5,000 heart surgeries spanning 25 years.

Dr. Lundell had one goal when he dedicated his life to healing the human heart and that was to see an end to heart disease in his lifetime.   As the years went by and the number of heart surgeries he performed escalated annually, he grew increasingly troubled by what he saw in every patient on his operating table.

Each patient had noticeable inflammation in the arteries of their hearts and more than half had normal cholesterol levels.  When he approached his colleagues with his growing concern medicine was chasing the wrong cause of heart disease, his words were met with derision and seen as heresy.

An unusual physician in today’s world, he took a most unusual approach by leaving his surgical practice in 2003 to open a clinic where his theory that inflammation caused heart disease could be tested.   The results of his clinical testing in patient after patient confirmed that without the presence of underlying inflammation, cholesterol would not become trapped in the artery wall.

Inflammation Traps Cholesterol In The Artery Wall

Let’s be clear on what this means.  Reducing the amount of cholesterol in the body through medication will not prevent cholesterol from becoming trapped; rather, reducing the amount of inflammation will free cholesterol to flow throughout the arteries and body as nature intended.  That subtle, yet significant difference is enormous.

For over forty years, Americans have felt tremors of fear upon receiving the news their blood indicates “high cholesterol” translated to, they are on the verge of heart disease.  As we reach for the prescription being handed to us, we rarely question adding statin medication.   It is time we do.

Through the years we became thoroughly convinced cholesterol caused heart disease from our physicians, our government and masterful marketing over truth in medicine as is seen nightly on TV commercials for Crestor and Lipitor.

Cholesterol is not evil and as science shows, decreasing cholesterol through medication has dangerous side effects for our cognitive functioning.  Cholesterol is a vital substance to human life yet this tragic theory stays front and center as the cause of heart disease.  Let’s look at a few facts.

National Cholesterol Education Program

In 2001, the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) revised their guidelines by lowering the cholesterol level seen as dangerously high.  That substantial lowering placed 36 million more Americans in the category of requiring statin medication.  Profits soared for statin mediation.

In the melee that followed, it was discovered  of the nine members on the panel that wrote the new cholesterol lowering guidelines, six received research grants, speaking or consulting fees from at least three and in some cases all five of the manufacturers of statins; only one had no financial links at all.

For the year 2007-2008, The American Heart Association received $1,160,000 from Crestor’s manufacturer, AstraZeneca; $2,629,116 from Lipitor’s manufacturer, Pfizer and $3,053,470 from Zocor’s manufacturer, Merck & Co.  That’s a lot of funding for the AHA.  Could there be a conflict of interest concern visà-vi the AHA’s advice on statin medication and managing heart disease?

Inflammation, The Silent Killer

On the other hand, there isn’t a prescription to help lower inflammation.  Inflammation is neither mysterious nor complicated yet the damage it causes running amok coined an apt term for inflammation  – the silent killer.

In The Great Cholesterol Lie, you’ll learn how dietary recommendations born of the faulty cholesterol theory steered a nation of people away from real, wholesome foods in favor of low fat packaged foods laced with sugar and Omega-6 oils creating an epidemic of inflammation.  Why?  The human body’s response to the low fat regime is inflammation and an obesity epidemic.

Understanding what caused inflammation to escalate throughout our bodies and learning how to bring it under control is now Dr. Dwight Lundell’s role in medicine as thoroughly explained in his book.

For the last six years, Dr. Lundell has written books and articles, given speeches, radio shows interviews and created preventative health care programs for businesses.  His mission today is to expose the truth that by treating inflammation, heart disease can be prevented and reversed.

The “Living in Style” television series offers uncommon insight into a variety of topics to educate and tackle life’s daily challenges with valuable information.  Check your local listings

Reported widely by the New York Times, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, CNN, and Time, among others is attributable to the marketing strategy of Crestor’s manufacturer, AstraZenca rather than any significance in the findings.

The JUPITER Study

Before anyone rushes to add statin drugs to lower the risk of heart attacks when their heart shows no sign of disease, let’s take a close look at the findings for they reveal a more important discovery, one I saw in 5,000 heart surgery patients, inflammation, the real cause of heart disease.

The study intended to assess whether prescribing statin therapy to apparently healthy individuals with normal LDL cholesterols but elevated C-reactive protein levels (CRP 2.0 mg/L) was advisable. C-reactive protein is a marker that determines the level of inflammation in the body.

1.9 Years, 17,802 Men And Women

To qualify for the study patients had to be apparently healthy, have normal cholesterol but with an elevated CRP.   Over 1.9 years, 17,802 men over 60 and women over 50 were treated with one-half receiving 20 mg. of Crestor daily and the other half receiving a placebo. AstraZenica, the manufacturer of Crestor, funded the study when Pfizer declined to do so.

As many noted after release of the findings, even though patients were classified as healthy, many had a number of cardiovascular risk factors such as overweight with the median body-mass index (BMI) of 28.3 kg/m^2. It would be unfair to say these patients had no other risk factors.

Very few individuals have ideal risk factors, including LDL-cholesterol levels. Many have suggested ideal LDL-cholesterol levels, based on hunter-gatherer societies and non-human primates are likely in the range of 50 to 60 mg/dL.

The benefit to treatment of patients as well as any changes to public-health policy depends on the absolute benefit and not the relative risk reduction. This is very important in assessing the significance of the results. The risk of having a heart attack in the placebo group was 1.8%. The risk in the group treated with Crestor was .09% for a real reduction of .9% also called the absolute risk deduction.

Conclusion

While this is a 50% reduction in relative risk, the actual real difference is less than 1%. This does not mean 50% reduced the risk of heart disease as many headlines stated. [emphasis added]

Despite the marketing madness that went on across the internet, media, radio and news stations attesting to the magnificence of the findings, only one person out of 120 patients treated over 1.9 years avoided a heart attack.  I want to repeat that for emphasis-only one person out of 120 avoided a heart attack.

If it takes treating 120 people with a drug to prevent one heart attack, there is nothing in this study to generate this much excitement or use statin therapy preventatively unless you are the drug company anticipating astronomical sales.

New England Journal Of Medicine

Dr. Mark Hlatky reporting in the New England Journal of Medicine, wrote, “The relative risk reductions achieved with the use of statin therapy in JUPITER were clearly significant.  How the absolute difference in risk are more clinically important than relative reductions in risk in deciding whether to recommend drug therapy since the absolute benefits of treatment must be large enough to justify the associated risks and costs.

The proportion of participants with hard cardiac events in JUPITER was reduced from 1.8% (157 of 8,901 subjects) in the placebo group to .09% (83 of 8,901 subjects) in the rosuvastatin group; thus, 120 participants were treated for 1.9 years to prevent one event.” [emphasis added]

The Exorbitant Cost

The cost for treating 120 people with Crestor is $3.45 a day or $266,616.00 for 1.9 years-an  exorbitant amount of money to prevent one event.

In addition to this cost, there would be the cost of 2,520 doctor’s visits with 2,520 cholesterol tests. What JUPITER revealed is only one person avoided a heart attack and there were significant side effects in the increase in people who developed diabetes and other complications.

The patients all began with normal cholesterol and markers for inflammation.  The finding in the study that has far more significance is the reduction shown in inflammation. Cholesterol in the patients began within normal range so reducing it further is not the reason there was a small reduction in risk; rather, the reduction in inflammation was accountable for the small difference in heart attack rates.

I am all in favor of prevention and do not want anyone to have a heart attack but once again, medicine, under the influence of  drug companies, takes the wrong and most expensive approach. AstraZenica stock is up 45% since the news and they expect to double the sales of Crestor from 3 billion to 6 billion dollars annually in the next few years-great news if you hold the stock, not so great for really preventing heart disease or controlling costs of health care.

Let’s Be Truthful

If Astra were honest, they would ask the FDA for permission to market Crestor as an anti-inflammatory for the blood vessels-a much better use of statin drugs but expensive. Although this study showed only a small benefit, it does re-confirm that inflammation is the cause of heart disease. The cholesterol theory, while exceedingly false, is the dogma of the day and it is time for truth and fact in medicine.

There are alternatives to statin therapy to reduce inflammation and in turn, prevent and cure heart disease; alternatives that do not involve drug therapy and yet have a higher absolute reduction in cardiac deaths. The medical community fails to acknowledge the simple alternatives that are much more effective than drugs, less remunerative of course, but with astounding reductions in cardiac deaths through treating inflammation.

Alternatives

The DART trial showed a 62% reduction in cardiac deaths by taking fish oil.  Fish oil has proven repeatedly to reduce CRP and other signs of inflammation.  Another trial, The Physicians Healthy Study showed a 90% reduction in sudden cardiac death with fish oil; once again, not risk but actual reduction. Another, the GISSI trial, showed an absolute reduction in deaths by taking fish oil and a 47% reduction in sudden cardiac deaths.  These are not risk numbers but real reductions.

The most significant and overlooked results of the JUPITER study that confirms the findings in DART, GISSI and The Physicians Health Study is that the reduction in inflammation was responsible for decreasing the risk of heart disease. The patients’ all had normal cholesterol when the study began; reduction in cholesterol was not responsible for the small decrease in risk.

As a physician who performed 5,000 heart surgeries and saw inflammation in the arteries of every patient, it is maddening when medicine ignores simple things such as fish oil that are much more effective than drugs.  In terms of cost, the simple alternatives that are highly effective range from $50 to $100 per month.

There is no comparison to health, or to the wallet, in terms of these alternatives and the exorbitant cost of statin therapy for cholesterol when cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease.  However, it is noteworthy there is a benefit to statin therapy in that it has some impact upon inflammation but at a much higher cost than fish oil.

Treat inflammation and the absolute risk of heart disease not only decreases, heart disease is preventable and curable.

To get my free report, Inflammation, The Fire within, simply enter your name and email address at the top of the blog.

Dr. Dwight Lundell

The fine print required says “in a large clinical study 3% of people taking a placebo had a heart attack and 2% of those taking Lipitor had a heart attack.”  Let’s do the math.

For every 100 people in the trial that lasted 3 l/2 years, 3 people on the placebo and 2 people on Lipitor had heart attacks. That is one less heart attack for every 100 people.

In other words, 100 people had to take Lipitor for 3 l/2 years to prevent one heart attack. What this really means is, 99 out of 100 people taking Lipitor received no benefit.

There is a little known statistic, “Number Needed To Treat,” (NNT) defined as the number of patients who need to be treated in order to prevent one bad outcome. In the case of Lipitor, 100 patients needed to be treated for 3 l/2 years to possibly eliminate one heart attack.

Let’s compare that number to today’s antibiotic treatment to eradicate ulcer causing H. pylori stomach bacteria. The Number Needed To Treat H. pylori is 1:1. That means if you give the antibiotic to 11 people, 10 will be cured.

Several recent scientific papers peg the NNT for statin medications at 250. That means 249 of 250 would receive no benefit. Dr. Jerome R. Hoffman, Professor of Clinical Medicine at UCLA asks:

“What if you put 250 people in a room and told them they would have to pay over $1,000 per year for a medicine they must take every day that might give them diarrhea and muscle pain and that 249 of those people would get no benefit, how many would take that?” Very, very few.                                

Marketing Over Medicine

Drug companies have a responsibility to their shareholders to make a profit. We need drug companies to develop new medicines; however, when they grossly overstate benefits and spend enormous dollars influencing physicians, it leads to potential corruption.

The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) 2004 guidelines lowered the targets for cholesterol treatment and recommended more Americans take statins. The panel that issued the guidelines was comprised of 9 experts, 8 of which had ties to the drug industry.

We physicians who speak out take great risks as medicine and government agencies do not like criticism. For example, Dr. Henry C. Barry of the Michigan State University College of Medicine recently stated, “The NCEP guideline and process went awry.”

Dr. Barry and 34 other experts sent a petition of protest to the National Institutes of Health  saying the evidence was weak and the panel biased because of its ties to the drug industry.

Dr. Rodney A. Hayward, Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School said, “current evidence supports ignoring LDL cholesterol altogether.”

In response, The National Cholesterol Education Program stated strongly, “Dr. Hayward should be held accountable in a court of law for doing things to kill people.”

We might expect this kind of harsh response from zealots and extremists but not from government agencies or scientists. If we spent just a fraction of the money we now do on cholesterol testing, cholesterol lowering drugs and doctors visits, on educating people about proper diet, exercise and weight loss, we’d be far healthier.

–Dr. Dwight Lundell

The theory began in 1948 with the Framingham Study, a study that was responsible for good information until 1961 when those early researchers focused on cholesterol and tunnel vision set in.  From then on, cholesterol was deemed evil rather than the vital substance it is to life.

Over the course of 25 years and 5,000 heart surgeries, I’d often look at a patient on my table and wonder why he (or she) was there.  His cholesterol was in check, he was not obese, did not smoke and in fact, had none of the typical risk factors associated with heart disease.   

I repaired his heart knowing well statistics were high he would be back for surgery again within 10 years with his cholesterol still in check.

Over 25% of the population takes statin medications.  Now there’s a feverish rush to prescribe statin medication preventatively to otherwise healthy people.  If statins prevented heart disease, why has heart disease soared year after year and is the number one taker of human life?

Just that fact alone should have everyone questioning the validity of the cholesterol theory and taking statin medications.  Cholesterol doe not cause heart disease-inflammation in the arteries does.  What is inflammation and where is it coming from?

The answer to that question is both tragic and sad.  The very dietary recommendations born of the cholesterol theory of no-fat and low fat foods cause inflammation.  Polyunsaturated Omega-6 oils; packaged and processed foods created for shelf life and not long life; sugars and simple carbohydrates create inflammation.  This is the cause of an epidemic of heart disease, obesity and other chronic illnesses.

Do you have unhealthy levels of inflammation?  If you have been eating the typical American diet with the typical American lifestyle, more than likely yes.  A simple C – reactive protein test will determine the level of inflammation in your body.

The good news is, you can treat inflammation naturally by following the recommendations in Chapter 6.  To join others healing their hearts right now, click here.

Dr. Dwight Lundell

Cholesterol Is Vital, Not Evil

The Great Cholesterol Lie, by Dr. Dwight Lundell exposes needless loss in human life from medicine continuing to chase the cholesterol theory of heart disease.

Truth emerges that science and medicine traipsed an endless, tortuous path for over 40 years by insisting elevated levels of cholesterol caused heart disease and heart attacks.

As we faithfully followed the American Heart Association, the National Cholesterol Education Program, The Food Pyramid and our doctors’ recommendations to eliminate saturated fat in favor of low-fat foods, heart disease responded with a mighty roar reaching epidemic proportions.

Statin Medications

Along with the demonization of saturated fats came cholesterol-lowering medications (statins). These drugs have been called “the most successful medicines in history” – but not for their success in curbing heart disease. In that regard, these drugs have been a royal flop.

Their “success” is for the manufacturers, who saw a staggering $33 billion dollars in sales worldwide last year.   Pfizer’s Lipitor alone earned $13.6 million.

A recent American Heart Journal Study tested the cholesterol of heart attack patients admitted to 500 hospitals.  The disturbing findings reveal:

• 75% of those patients had LDL cholesterol levels below the current guidelines of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) of 130 milligrams.

• 50% had LDL-cholesterol levels below 100 milligrams.

• 17% had LDL-cholesterol levels below 70 milligrams, which is the new, more stringent guidelines.

Cholesterol, A Vital Substance

This vital substance deemed evil is an essential component to all cell membranes.  It is a precursor to steroid hormones without which the body could not make estrogen, testosterone, and other vital hormones.  We cannot live without cholesterol.  The liver produces 80% of cholesterol with 20% coming by way of foods.

The human body manufacturers the cholesterol it requires. If you take in enough, this brilliant organism known as your body won’t produce anymore. When cholesterol levels are unnaturally tampered with, side effects from painful muscle cramping and cognitive dysfunction results.

Want to Heal Your Heart?

Get a C-Reactive Protein test to determine the level of inflammation in your body.  Then follow Dr. Lundell’s clinically tested recommendations to return inflammation to healthy levels.

It is neither complicated nor mysterious. The steps are extraordinarily simple with a few essential nutrients added, eliminate foods that cause inflammation and best of all, giving your body the foods taken away so long ago deemed evil.

Do you want the truth about statin medication and heart disease?  Is your physician insisting that you begin statin medication “preventatively.”

Then you need this book before you make that decision!  It is inflammation, not cholesterol, you need to bring under control and Dr. Lundell shows you how to do simply and effectively, without medication!

You are one step away from taking your health into your hands!  Go here now to learn more truth about heart disease.

You are here because heart disease has you worried—as it does most of us since it is the number one taker of human life year after year.

It is not earth-shaking news that science and medicine have failed the American people with their inability to stop heart disease.

Now, one courageous cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Dwight Lundell, who has an immense desire to keep you from being a statistic, writes the truth about heart disease in his book, The Great Cholesterol Lie.

Having performed 5,000 heart surgeries spanning a 25-year career, no one is more uniquely qualified than this very wise and caring surgeon who dedicated his life to heart disease.

2004 Brings Realizations

In 2004, Dr. Lundell reached a life-changing moment when he could no longer overlook that every patient on his table had inflamed arteries, more than half had normal cholesterol and just s many did not smoke nor were they obese.

He no longer believed nor could he ever again support the 40-year old tragic and flawed theory that cholesterol caused heart disease.

With that realization and fighting traditional medicine’s approach, he closed his 25 year surgical practice to speak the truth to as many people as possible.  And that truth is simple: you have the power to heal your heart and avoid the crisis stage of surgery without drugs and medications.

Tragic Theories Create Inflammation

The Great Cholesterol Lie exposes the tragic history and fallacy of the cholesterol theory, statin medication, plaque, and stents that he calls “bandages for the heart.”

Written with great simplicity, we learn how eliminating saturated fat in favor of low-fat dietary recommendations led to an epidemic of heart disease, inflammation, obesity and diabetes.

We learn what inflammation is, how it affects the arteries of the heart, where it comes from and how this silent killer can be stopped from taking more lives.

In Chapter 6, Dr. Lundell gives his clinically proven recommendations of essential vitamins and nutrients that combat inflammation.  You’ll learn foods to eliminate that create inflammation and how to avoid those foods in restaurants and fast food chains.

And, you’ll be armed with the information you need to defend against traditional medicine’s insistence that you take statin medications.

Follow the simple steps in this wonderful book and you’ll breathe a sigh of relief you found the truth and the path that will heal your heart.

Click here for the truth about heart disease!