003 Dr Ross Walker – The Heart of the Matter - Unstress with Dr Ron Ehrlich


Have you ever wondered whether you should be on low fat or high fat? What is cholesterol and is it good or bad for your health? Should we all be on cholesterol-lowering drugs, statins? Do you wonder when these messages change and who to believe? Well, my guest today is Dr Ross Walker, an internationally renowned cardiologist, he's written over seven books, he's got his own weekly national radio program called Healthy Living…..and he’s also my cardiologist.
Not only does he answer these confusing questions but he also talks about his five keys to eliminating 70 percent of all chronic degenerative diseases. He demystifies cholesterol, statins and diagnostic cardiology tests. Dr Ross Walker gets to the heart of the matter.
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Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   Hello, and welcome to Unstress, with Dr Ron Ehrlich. Have you ever had any confusing health messages? Have you ever wondered whether you should be on low fat or high fat? And do you always wonder when these messages change and who to believe? Well, my guest today is Dr Ross Walker. Now, apart from being an internationally renowned cardiologist, he's written over seven books, he's got his own two hour weekly national radio program called Healthy Living. We'll have links to all that.

He describes himself, and I love this term, an integrative cardiologist. Can't quite get him to say holistic, but he is integrative. And you'll hear what that just means. He's actually my own cardiologist. Happens to be an old-school friend of mine. A font of great wisdom and a great conversation. But, Ross talks his five keys to eliminating 70 percent of all chronic degenerative diseases.

He's going to share those with us. The whole story about cholesterol, you know what? I mean, honestly, cholesterol's an important part of every single cell in our body and, as Ross will point out, a whole lot more than that. So, we're going to clear up that myth. I mean, this whole business about fats, okay, you've heard it before, but how about hearing it from a cardiologist?

So, I hope you enjoy this conversation with Dr Ross Walker. Welcome to the show, Ross.

Dr. Ross Walker:                 Oh, thanks Ron. Pleasure to be here.

Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   Now, Ross, you describe yourself as an integrative cardiologist?

Dr. Ross Walker:                 Yeah. I think that's the best way to do it. See, what I believe in is combining the best bits of orthodox medicine, or allopathic medicine, with the best bits of complementary medicine. You see, the concern I have is there are people who are at extremes at either side, people who believe that if you can't fix it with a script pad or a scalpel, then it doesn't work, but then you've got other people in the complementary medical world who thinks that anyone in orthodox medicine sits at the right hand of the devil.

And anyone with any common sense knows that that's nonsense, that both sides are nonsense. You've got to work as the Buddhists say, follow the middle path. Go somewhere in the middle, which is combining the best bits of both, which is what I think I do.

Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   Yeah, I think that's what I do, too. I wouldn't use the word holistic, would you, Ross? Or is that a ...

Dr. Ross Walker:                 Oh, you can use the word holistic, if you like. Some people like holistic. I prefer integrative.

Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   Integrative. I like it, too. Now listen, after all this time, we've been following all the advice that we should be, what we should be eating, and all of that. How come heart disease and cardiovascular disease is still number one? What's the story there? What are we doing wrong?

Dr. Ross Walker:                 Because people aren't good at doing exactly what you said. If we all followed the five keys of being healthy, and I'll summarize them quickly, because we spoke about this on numerous occasions, before.