I recently interviewed Dr. David Gardner; assistant professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He is best known for his weight loss comparisons among various diets like Atkins and Ornish. His research focus is on the role of nutrition and preventive medicine, with particular interests in plant-based diets and phytochemicals; cardiovascular disease and cancer prevention; weight loss diets; clinical trials and epidemiology.

 

Dr. Gardner's work underscores why we need to partake in low-carb diets, calorie counting and exercise in order to lose fat while building life-sustaining, sexy muscle. We cannot simply rely on just one of these weight loss methods - as Anthony Colpo taught in his interview.

 

Dr. Gardner's study on garlic is most intriguing to me because it showed that this highly sought after supplement/functional food has no effect on cholesterol levels. Remember this the next time some supplement company tries to scam you for a few bucks by selling you "cholesterol-lowering garlic." 

 

I of course reasoned that garlic has no effect on cholesterol because cholesterol has never been proven to be a causative factor in the progression of heart disease - it is merely a statistical association...Association does not mean causation. I asked Dr. Gardner to redesign the study to look at other "surrogate end-points." But he admitted that funding only comes for cholesterol and that a "fishing expedition" for other causative factors does not garner funds...My Hidden Truth about Cholesterol Lowering Drugs explains this paradox in detail...And teaches some of the real causes of heart disease and how to avoid early death from a heart attack, despite rising cholesterol levels. After all, rising cholesterol is a natural part of aging. It has never been proven to cause heart disease.

 

Toward the end of the interview, Dr. Gardner notes that his family suffers from heart disease. He attributes this to a genetic predisposition and "high cholesterol." I would argue that if heart disease does run in the family, it is more attributed to sharing certain habits than it is sharing genes. Habits are far more deadly (or life giving) and “contagious” than genes and we are more likely to adhere to similar habits among family members than genes! For example, if Pops is sedentary and smokes, Junior is more likely to also sit on his ass and smoke. Thus, both are more likely to die from heart disease early. If both have high cholesterol at death, somebody would be sure to say, "See, I told you cholesterol is deadly." Not true! I bet they both had refrigerators too! This doesn’t make refrigerators deadly…Unless they are loaded with highly-f#@%-up corn syrup…

 

Take home message here: Genetics and so-called high cholesterol are rarely a death sentence. They are merely a loaded gun. Lifestyle factors and mindset pull the trigger. 

 

Enjoy the interview! And thanks for your time and insight Dr. Gardner. I do appreciate it.

 

Shane: More than half the people who die from heart attack have "low" cholesterol. What are some other risk factors that might be helpful to identify heart disease early?

 

Dr. Gardner: Unfortunately, it's a long and confusing list. Those that pop to the top include established and easy to identify conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking, and harder to identify conditions like chronically elevated inflammation. A sedentary lifestyle is also at the top of the list for risks, but defining "sedentary" and "active" is difficult.

 

[Get a FREE Insulin Control/Fat Burning workout by sending an email to healthmyths@getresponse.com]

 

 

Dr. Gardner: If there are benefits they could come from lowering blood pressure, lowering inflammation, improving blood flow, and a number of other possible effects on the human body. Unfortunately, none of those have been clearly proven in rigorously conducted studies yet. Until the evidence is there, be sure to consume real garlic (not pills) and have it in the form of hummus on whole wheat pita, or as an important flavor enhancer for the Asian vegetable stir fry you can have for lunch or dinner. Whether or not the garlic itself improves your health, the hummus, whole wheat pita and veggie stir fry will be good for you.

 

 

Dr. Gardner: The improvement over the other diets wasn't very large. But for what increased benefit there may have been for weight loss, it is probably attributable to the simplicity of the message, the focus on avoiding refined carbohydrates, the satiety from the higher protein diet [and fat], the displacement of sweetened caloric beverages with water (the Atkins group got the strongest recommendations for increasing water intake....eight 8 ounce glasses/day).

 

 

Dr. Gardner: Physical activity is now considered to play only a modest role in weight loss itself, but a vital part in weight loss maintenance. It’s easier to lose weight by cutting back on calories then by increasing your activity (which sometimes builds lean tissue and ADDS lean muscle mass). But once weight has been lost and levels off, weight loss maintenance is greatly improved if you are physically active from that point on.

 

 

Dr. Gardner: Treating the symptoms, not the cause. Statins only work [to lower cholesterol] while you are on them. I find it difficult to believe that being on a statin from childhood on....for the rest of one's life....won't have adverse effects for some individuals.

 

 

Dr. Gardner: We just completed a study of its role as a blood thinner. It was published this last month. Our results do not suggest that it has a strong effect on blood thinning. I don't think the evidence exists to consider using it as a replacement for aspirin. Aspirin is very effective, although not tolerated by everyone.

 

[Aspirin is effective in that it thins blood. But like Dr. Gardner notes, it is not tolerated by everyone. A safe alternative is white willow bark tea!]

 

 

 

Dr. Gardner: I have been a vegetarian for 25 years. My diet is very plant-based. My grains are whole grains, however, I don't consider them the base of my food pyramid. I consider vegetables the base of my personal food pyramid, and beans are included in that base. Then nuts and seeds, then whole grains, and lastly fruits. I don't each fish, but if my motivation were purely for health purposes I would add fish to that list at least a couple of times/week.

 

[I really like that his fruit intake is minimized! This is important. Too many people consume way too much fruit!]

 

My father has had triple bypass surgery for his heart attack. His brother died at age 40 of a heart attack. On my plant-based diet, weighing 165 lbs and being 5'10", and getting lots of exercise (biking, running, volleyball, ultimate Frisbee, rock climbing) my total cholesterol is ~150, my LDL-C is under 100, and my triglycerides are always well under 100. I am genetically predisposed, but my lifestyle helps keep this potential for heart disease in check. If I did have high cholesterol and couldn't address this with all my dietary and physical activity efforts, I might consider taking a statin. However, my efforts have been successful up to this point, so I haven't considered it.

 

 

Shane “The People’s Chemist” Ellison has an MS in organic chemistry and has first hand experience in drug design and synthesis. He is an internationally recognized authority on therapeutic nutrition and the author of Health Myths Exposed, The Hidden Truth About Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs and The AM-PM Fat Loss Discovery. Get a 10% discount on these products by clicking the link below: http://www.thepeopleschemist.com/foundation.html