Loading ...Featured Article THB UndercoverRisking Our Lives for Big Pharma Profits
Several months ago we had the pleasure of introducing heart surgeon, Dr. Dwight Lundell to our readers. The response to his highly controversial two-part article was overwhelming. Dr. Lundell has taken the courageous stand of exposing the mainstream myth that high cholesterol is the cause of heart disease.
Now in this revealing interview, he explains why this great lie was perpetuated for so long and how the medical profession actually made heart disease and diabetes a national epidemic.
Melanie: Dr. Lundell, you had a very impressive and successful medical career as a cardiac surgeon. You certainly were steeped in traditional medicine. You made a change from repairing hearts every day to being a crusader of truth in medicine. Why did you take this step?
Dr. Lundell: There’s a great quote by Albert Einstein, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” I was beginning to feel like that when patients kept returning for second operations and some were returning multiple times. Most of these repeat patients had normal cholesterol levels. So cholesterol couldn’t be blamed for blocked arteries and heart attacks. Something wasn’t quite right with the accepted thinking.
What I was seeing every day in patients on my table though, were classic signs of inflammation. At the same time, research began emerging that cholesterol was entering the artery wall because of underlying inflammation.
I guess it’s fair to say I reached a point where it wasn’t possible for me to continue doing the same thing and hoping for better results. I felt strongly medicine had to change the way we were treating coronary heart disease. I wanted to see this disease prevented and save countless premature deaths and disability.
Melanie: So, what did you do?
Well several things. I knew my role had to change in how I treated heart disease. I began speaking to my colleagues and questioning our hospital committees on current methods we were using. I spent 25 years in the medical arena yet was quite surprised to learn hospitals and physicians do not take criticism or new suggestions very well.
I began to see the extent of control that device and drug companies have on the medical establishment and regulators. The FDA, the National Cholesterol Education Program, The American Heart Association and most of the medical journals are basically controlled by the device and drug industry.
The US Department of Agriculture food pyramid is the product of lobbying and influence by the big food makers. What I was saying was hardly welcomed. If I was going to expose inflammation as the cause of heart disease, it wouldn’t be in this setting where my freedom of speech was being threatened.
I think it is important for readers to understand that back in the early 2000’s my opinions about inflammation and heart disease were seen as heresy. Then and even now, treating cholesterol is the standard of practice, and a deviation from this is a threat to what every doctor had been taught and was practicing.
So, in 2003, I made the decision to close my surgical practice. I spent the next year in my clinic developing a program of supplementation, lifestyle and dietary changes geared to reduce inflammation. My testing confirmed these simple changes could radically alter the risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other inflammatory diseases.
The changes my patients experienced on this program were as dramatic as open heart surgery. Only these changes were forever, as opposed to surgery’s temporary fix. And they were very inexpensive.
Melanie: This must have been a very pivotal moment for you when you learned the critical role inflammation played in heart disease and so many other diseases. You’ve been on quite a crusade since, haven’t you?
Dr. Lundell: Yes, you could say that. This information had to be shared with as many people as possible so this epidemic of heart disease could be stopped. But we have a difficult task. A nation of people has been told for 40 years cholesterol caused heart disease.
It is sad yet true that health takes a back seat to profits when medicine is controlled by the pharmaceutical industry. Their profits from statin medications are staggering. When you add food industry profits from packaged low fat foods that create inflammation, it’s a combined mighty force.
For six years, I’ve taken every opportunity to share the truth about cholesterol and heart disease. I’ve written articles and books and done dozens of radio interviews. I now have an upcoming TV show that will reach 80 million households.
Melanie: Is it fair to say the dietary recommendations of the last 40 years that complied with the cholesterol theory created inflammation?
Dr. Lundell: It is very fair to say those dietary recommendations caused the epidemics of diabetes, heart disease and obesity. The good news is — we know this now. By knowing the foods that cause inflammation and eliminating them from our diets, we can get rid of those epidemics and be far healthier.
Melanie: Do you think mainstream medicine will one day acknowledge inflammation causes heart disease and take its focus off cholesterol?
Dr. Lundell: Yes, but it will take a very long time. Medicine changes very slowly and economic influences at the moment are so great and pervasive that it will take time. I say, rather than wait for that to happen, let everyone begin now by becoming better informed and taking control of their health.
People vote every day with their wallet. If we continue to buy bad food, that is what we will get. If we buy good food, that is what we will get. Food makers will try to influence us to buy foods with the most profit for them. But we have tremendous buying power. Wal-Mart now carries loads of organic fruits and vegetables. Is it because they believe in it? No. It’s because the consumer demanded it and they responded.
We register a vote, so to speak, every day with our purchases. My goal is to get everyone to use their purchasing power and vote for real foods and avoid those that cause inflammation.
Melanie: Thank you for this candid interview, Dr. Lundell. We’re happy to help you reach as many people as possible with this life-saving message.
Note to readers: Dr. Lundell will take his message to the TV show “Living in Style” beginning in September. It will air several times on select cable networks and local ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX or I-Network affiliates. Please urge your friends and family to watch. It’s time we put a stop to The Great Cholesterol Lie.
Before You Start Taking, Or If You Are Taking Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor, Mevacor, Pravachol, Altocor, Lescol… or any other statin medication - STOP!!
You Need To Read Dr. Lundell’s Alarming Bulletin Immediately, Because…
Dropping Your Cholesterol Levels Will NOT LowerYour Risk Of Heart Disease, Attack, Or Strokes!
Dr. Dwight Lundell says, "In my career as a cardiac surgeon, I’ve performed over 5,000 heart surgeries. Most of these could have been easily prevented had the patients been given the right information."
YOU Can Prevent And Cure Heart Disease AND Reverse Damage That’s Been Done Without Statin Medication!!
You have the power, and if you will take control now, your life changes from this moment on. I want you to forget everything you have heard, read or been told about low-fat diets, saturated fats, cholesterol and the causes of heart disease. Click Here to learn more.
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This squares with everything I have learned since undergoing angioplasty in 2000. My research has convinced me that cholesterol is not the problem. Pravachol and Plavix nearly killed me following surgery and led me to start my research.
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 6:47 am. PermalinkArticle I rate poor because it did not tell me how to avoid inflamation. Afterall, how to avoid inflamation is what I really want to know
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 7:00 am. PermalinkThe argument is compelling. I have suspected this for sometime. but I concurr with Richard. How about a link? My sympathy for folks who try to eat a “proper” low cholesterol diet.
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 8:19 am. PermalinkDr. Lundell is right when he says that conventional medical wisdom and the pharmaceutical companies are all about super profits at the expense of the suffering patients and offers an alernative. However it appears that he is no better than those whom he criticizes because by the time everyone buys his book for $49.95 (discounted) he will be just as rich and the patients so much poorer with no guarantee of improvement in their ailments. I am not sure that this is an indication of great concern by a doctor for his patients but just another opportunity to cash in on peoples’ fears and insecurities. I hope I am wrong but cannot help but feel so.
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 8:21 am. PermalinkHi there, I must say I’m not surprised that the pharmaceutical companies are like that. They are the same here in South Africa. They are all just out to make money not worried much about the poeples health. It seems to be like that all over the world. But I’m glad Dr Lundell is taking his stand. As a new but regular THB reader I only regret that we cant get the recommended “medication” or even the books here. I would like to know if there are any outlets in South Africa?
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 9:16 am. PermalinkThank you for an honest report. Hopefully, the general
public will open their eyes, ears and hearts to the truth.
However, we can’t discern the truth, if it’s not our
practice to tell the truth. If you don’t know investigate/
study, find out for yourself.
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 9:26 am. PermalinkHe is right on about inflammation. Inflammation is the cause of more of our day to day maladies than anything else.
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 9:43 am. PermalinkI would like to recommend the book-”Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type” by Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo
How to avoid inflamation is what I really want to know
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 10:11 am. PermalinkBravo to Dr. Lundell. Finally, the truth about cholesterol will be aired on the major TV channels.
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 10:21 am. PermalinkThis article is so true. Bravo!
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 10:21 am. PermalinkDr. Lundell is so right! The incapable, under-staffed, “on-the-take” FDA and the pharmaceutical industry and their all too powerful lobbyists call the shots. I am “sick” of the cholesterol lies and scare tactics perpetrated on the American public by Big Pharma on TV day in and day out. With Big Pharma it’s all about the bottom line and blatant GREED!
Their latest “game” is the swine flu outbreak and its over-exaggerated, hyped-up publicity. Glaxo-Smith-Kline and Roche stand to make untold fortunes with their vaccine for same which has been inadequately tested on humans. The push is for everyone to get vaccinated, already mandatory in Massachusetts. WRONG! I will not be a guinea pig for their virtually untested vaccine nor should anyone else. Who knows what side effects could be lurking in this vaccine over the long term? Interesting to note that nothing has been said about “preventative” measures other then the rudimentary hand-washing. Supplementing with vitamin D3 regularly is just one of many ways to boost your immune system which is key to avoiding or greatly lessening the effects of the swine flu or any known flu for that matter.
Having such great confidence in their vaccine, the first people who should have received the flu shots should have been the executive management of Glaxo-Smith-Kline and Roche.
But as long as Big Pharma can make a buck from the over-priced “toxic potions” they continue to foist upon the American public where in most cases the side-effects are far worse than any benefit derived from same things will never change. God forbid if they ever came up with a cure for anything… no residuals… there goes the bottomline!
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 10:27 am. PermalinkDr. Lundell,
What do you think of alkalized, ionic, hexagonal water for
treating dis-ease??????
Thank you in advance!!!
Develyn
347 750 4535 Cellular Phone
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 11:55 am. Permalinkthis article is absolutely great. thanks for confirming what i suspected.
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 11:57 am. PermalinkRICHARD RIETZ, and Roger O, avoiding inflammation is hard.. but easy at the same time. Stop eating grains. That was teh hardest part for me because we have a grain-based diet, whichis a lot of the problem. That’s the biggest thing you can do. Then cut out all processed foods. So basically it’s just eat lots of veggies, moderate on the fruits, and lots of good protein and fats. Remember that fat (except for trans-fat) is NOT the enemy. Since our beef also eats and un-natural diet of grains, find a source of grass fed and grass finished beef, without hormones or antibiotics. I live in Texas and get my meat from Burgundy Pastures. They are only 25 miles from my house, but they deliver to me for just $5. They’ll do nationwide too.
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 1:01 pm. PermalinkAlso, ditch all vegetable oils. Make your own dressings with virgin olive oil, herbs, spices and red and white wine vinegar. Cook with organic virgin coconut oil. I get mine from Nutiva.com by the gallon.
Good luck to you. I’ve been eating like this for a year and a half now and lost 30 lbs (of fat). I’m now 6′ tall and 150 lbs, and all muscle! I’ve got my high-school abs back (I’m 49) lowered my blood pressure from 135/90 to 110/68. I also cured my blood sugar problem. All I do for excersize is weight training at home with a weight set for 25 minutes 2-3 times a week.
Informative article. I cannot afford to buy the advertised book, but the comments by RN are a great help!
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 1:28 pm. PermalinkI know this is off topic, but we need to protect against the flu…
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 2:22 pm. PermalinkDon’t forget to optimize those vitamin D3 levels to protect against the flu (and lots of other things to). Please have your D3 level measured first. Mine was 37, and I’m aiming to get it up to about 75 or so. After 6 months on 5000U a day it was up to 57. So I upped my dose to 10,000U and will re-measure soon. I’m also increasing my sun exposure so my body will create more D.
Before you start supplimenting with D3, please get your level checked FIRST. It’s important to know where you are starting from.
Go to http://www.grassrootshealth. org and you can read all about it and get a D3 level test from them too.
People are slowly becoming aware of the many harmful effects of inflammation in the body. What is needed is total commitment to eat healthy and stop using food as “recreation”, or “solace” or “excitement” or to calm ourselves. Eating must be a rational activity, based on knowledge of what our bodies need. Tall order? That depends on how important is it to us to retain maximum good health for as long as possible.
Entered: September 2nd, 2009 at 8:02 pm. PermalinkI had high cholesterol and high inflammation. I bought this book last month. I haven’t taken Lipitor since. Someone wrote above about cost. Would you rather have this book that tells you what to do to get healthy or buy another month of Lipitor?
You get his book. Chapters of foods that cause inflammation and ant-inflammatory rommendations. 3 hours of MP3 interviews of him. Hearing him talk is a revelation. He sends free samples of a product called HeartShot he developed that brings down inflammation–naturally!
He explains how the cholesterol theory began and why it was wrong from the beginning. Then how to eat out in fast food restaurants and avoid inflammatory foods.
Total Health Breakthroughs, you do a great job bringing great information like this. I’m a loyal reader.
Entered: September 3rd, 2009 at 3:32 am. PermalinkIt wasn’t an ‘article’ it was simply a ’sales pitch / hook’, nothing more.
I find it insulting to call it an article.
Entered: September 3rd, 2009 at 3:48 am. PermalinkPoor Mark! You must not forget to take your medication every day! Such a pity by rubbishing, discounting others you try feel taller better and smarter. I suggest you seek help to deal with this attitude and delusions. The energies you have can be turned into positive efforts for th rest of us. You are not a bad person but what you say is cynical crap. You are really better then that! Try study and understand any issue or topic you disagree with before you put pen to paper. I am willing to enter into dialogue with you and consent you getting my e-mail to contact me.
Be well! joseph
Entered: September 3rd, 2009 at 5:37 am. PermalinkDr. Lundell is right on the dot. I can testify to everything he says, me being a laid person w/out medical knowledge, about 20 years ago I went on a crusade to find out about what was making me sick. Today at 61 I’m feeling better than I’ve ever been, maybe except when I was in my teens. When I was able to tackle the sources of inflammation I started to feel better. I do not take ANY form of drugs, and yes, I eat natural foods, vitamins, lots of teas and water, keep active, and found that life has a lot to offer, whithout the need to cling on to dear BigPharma to make you better.
The human body has the innate, (DIVINE) ability to heal itself, so if you give it the right nutrients, as nature intended, there’s no need to poison ourselves with ready-made food,(America eats the most poisonous food on the planet, and they are drugging us with every bite) other people’s ideas as to how I should feel and how I should treat myself. I’m the captain of my own ship, thank you. When people say “Oh, but I don’t know where to start”, how about eating a salad instead of a burger? How about reading from this newsletter and others that are free instead of searching for porno sites on the internet? How about if you went for a walk instead of watching American Idol? How come I know about all these healing abilities when my background has nothing to do with the medical or health industry, much less if we are going to consider my complete ignorance about biology? And all this was before we got Internet.
Yes, to want to be healthy means we have to really, REALLY WANT IT!!! AND STOP MAKING EXCUSES!!!
So yes,I’ve been on a CRUSADE of one against big pharma techniques to make us SICK instead of healthy, I do not go to doctors, I shy away from over the counter medicines, and YES, I’m also planning on NOT TAKING THE VACCINE, as I do not believe there’s any epidemic, pandemic, or whatever you want to name it. Just plain profits for FDA, BP, (as in BigPharma) government bureaucrats, and all those that have an interest in it. Homeopathics, vitamins, herbs, healthy, fresh food, excercise, fresh air, distressing, and living a simpler life made all the difference in my life. Simple.
And, oh, Mark, probably you are one of them, a doctor or BigPharma shark that notices how your pocket is getting thinner and thinner with every patient that is shifting away from the drugs that kill people, the operations that are not coming in, the profits from emergency room ’stays’
Entered: September 3rd, 2009 at 9:21 am. Permalink(The most expensive night at a “hotel” at $5.000 a night).
Some day you’ll have your awakening too. Or you’ll be dead
before that thanks to BigPharma Corps. Just pray it won’t happen to you or one of your loved ones. In the meantime,
the CRUSADE is against US. Have you ever read what’s the REAL purpose behind the medical industry’s pushing of drugs?
Exactly: profits, control, and the submission of the masses.
Hats off to Dr. Lundell!!!! Many before him have tried to
Entered: September 3rd, 2009 at 10:02 pm. Permalinkright this devestating wrong perpertrated against humanity….to name a few, …Atkins, Corsello, Rife, Clark, Douglas, Wright, Whitaker, Brayzynski….and so on and so on……Gladiators all who picked up the “standard”
in the name of humanity and Alternative Medicine…..More
importantly…where is our “government”?????!!!!! Why are they letting the big corporations creatate a sick society all in the name of greed???!!!! Why do we need 34,000 Lobbyists in DC who do nothing but hand out money and assorted favors to those who are supposed to be defending the Constitution Of The Undited States and its citizins???
We have some 544 Legislators in one capacity or another who are supposed to be passing intelligent laws, defending our
Constitutional rights, abiding by the Constitution, supporting that this is a Christian country “IN GOD WE TRUST” and just plain doing the job they were elected by the people and sent to DC to do…….Not self gratification and gain!!!!!! Why must we have to beat the bushes to try to find the Alternative medical care that we seek and try to uncover doctors too intimaited by the FDA
to openly treat their patients the way they deem fit???
I love this country with every breath I take and have served her in her time of peril as did my two brothers..We are God loving, country loving proud to be Americans who demand the greed to stop, the giants to be made to stop their genocide and for us to circle the wagons
Thank goodness! A doctor with the guts to stand up against Big Pharma, the FDA, the AMA and the health insurance companies! You wanna bet they knock him off the air? The TV stations carry many Pharma commercials and can’t afford to lose those advertisers. Pharma isn’t going to stand still for a single doctor telling the truth. The revolution won’t happen until we all demand the truth from our doctors and that can’t happen until we are all convinced that Pharma is out to get our money — period! And there are many who believe their only hope is to continue taking the drugs that are poisoning them.
Entered: September 6th, 2009 at 7:58 pm. PermalinkI think the best health insurance reform would be to require the insurance companies, including Medicare and Medicaid, to pay for alternative treatment, i.e., Naturopaths, Homeopaths, etc. that have been producing cures for years. Right now, they will not pay for “unproven” treatments, no matter how well they work or for how long they have been used. Yet they pay for treatment that merely strings us along and never produces a cure. They could save huge amounts of money if they would allow us to choose doctors who are producing cures for cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. They are out there!
Hello everybody! Some of you commented that this isn’t an article. You’re right! This is an interview, not an article. So start all over and read the interview and follow up with the comments, which are very useful. Thanks for your insight people!
Entered: September 7th, 2009 at 7:17 am. PermalinkGreat interview, Melanie, and hats off to Dr. Lundell for his insights and honesty! My father was a cardiologist and died at 49 of a heart attack in 1979. If only he had lived long enough to recognize “the mainstream myth that high cholesterol is the cause of heart disease” as Dr. Lundell has…
It’s up to us to “vote with our wallets,” as Dr. Lundell says, and to spread the word about his great work, which I intend to do.
Thanks again!
Entered: September 7th, 2009 at 7:56 am. PermalinkJackie
If we each forward this to our Representives and Senators
and to Pres Obama and to Sec of health, Sebalious Enoough such messages might have some effect on the health care scramble.
The method of payment, via insurance or taxes or however - there is no solution to health care by juggling pay method.
The problem is the cost of the silly FDA/Pharma collusion
profit driven industrial medical non-system the USA has allowed to grow. It is a Medical Mafia. The key problem is the FDA. Wrong policyies, wrong method of support, wrong directors.
Put that list of alterantive doctors mentioned above in charge of the FDA and the medical problems would soon be solved. Costs would drop, Health would become the world’s best. KEY forward with your message!!
( I have been on alternative medical in practice for 92 Years.) ( I’m 91, Mother was on it when I was concieved.)
Entered: September 7th, 2009 at 10:38 pm. PermalinkBob
I am glad that somebody took a stand about cholesterol and inflammation. Thanks Dr. Lundell!
Entered: September 21st, 2009 at 2:12 am. Permalink“..supplementation, lifestyle and dietary changes”
Dr. Lundell hit the mark. I just lost a church friend last week from a heart attack at a rather young age.
And in America, not just the BigPharmas but the fast food industry as well have been advocating Big is good. (Big Carl vs Big Mac)
We have been ‘trained’ for so many years that healtcare is about medication. Instead of healthcare, I think we are now more into what Paul Zane Pilzer call ’sickness-care’.
@Dave, RN, I’ve been starting to use virgin coconut oil instead of canola oil (specially on stir frying).
It’s about time we vote with our wallet.
Entered: September 22nd, 2009 at 7:51 am. Permalinkyour interview is fine . i hope you will take more interview the public to rise their voice against the govt to provide better food than better medicine.
Entered: October 3rd, 2009 at 2:47 am. Permalinksarath, india