re: Heart Surgeon declares "we were wrong" re causes of heart disease

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What he is saying is that unless you have inflammation of the arteries, you're not going to have heart disease. Obviously if you have inflammation, high cholesterol will increase your likelihood over someone with lower cholesterol.

What he is basically saying is if you change your diet so that you aren't damaging your arteries you will lower your risk of heart disease better than trying to reduce your cholesterol.

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Eso. Go paleo and you will be fine. I always use lard instead of Crisco. Use what nature gave us.

And stop following salt recommendations (unless you are salt sensitive). Eating low in salt will make you overeat (our bodies will perfectly regulate our body salt, regardless of how much you consume), because most of us need a lot more than what they are recommending. If you don't eat enough, your body will send signals to eat more to get to the correct salt levels.

Not exactly an earth shattering revelation. Inflammation is the natural response to injury. The pathophysiology behind plaque formation is well-defined and requires the production of cell adhesion molecules (VCAM). His oversimplification as to the cause is a bit suspect though. Some injury may result from a chemotactic response, others may be physical/mechanical. It's simple enough to understand the difference between omega 3 and 6 and the production of anti or pro-inflammatory cytokines. But, it doesn't fully answer the question as to what caused the initial injury. Also, the heart is highly susceptible to oxidative damage from oxygen free radicals converting to peroxyl radicals and peroxide. The lack of catalase in the heart and the overabundance of iron forces peroxide through the Fenton pathway and the ultimate production of more damaging hydroxyl radicals. So his observation is correct. I'm less convinced by his ultimate conclusion; though likely beneficial.