Heart disease

Luv2Smile55

. Unprocessed foods are fresh fruit and veggies, (frozen is ok, but not best, as long as there are no added sugars or sodium)

Actually, in many cases frozen fruits and veggies are BETTER nutrition-wise because they are picked and then frozen shortly after. "Fresh" fruits and veggies lose nutrients the more time that passes after picking. Just wanted to share this.

neanderthin

. Unprocessed foods are fresh fruit and veggies, (frozen is ok, but not best, as long as there are no added sugars or sodium)

Actually, in many cases frozen fruits and veggies are BETTER nutrition-wise because they are picked and then frozen shortly after. "Fresh" fruits and veggies lose nutrients the more time that passes after picking. Just wanted to share this.

bcattoes

Who is this guy and how old is this article??

Inflammation being a cause of heart disease is hardly news. While some laymen might not be aware, it's been widely known in the medical community for a pretty long time. And too much processed food is bad for you? An unbalanced diet is bad? Also, hardly a news flash.

And this statement is just a little scary coming from a cardiac surgeon: "Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol."

Less than 1/2 of the people with heart disease ever have high cholesterol. No rational thinking person could think it was the only cause. It is simply one risk factor.

Carnivor0us

If this is the case, how does one explain cases like mine, where my cholesterol levels have improved significantly over time despite high quantities of sugar intake?

Would have been nice if he gave references for some of these claims.

Well, he does say that losing weight also significantly lower cholesterol, as well, if I'm not mistaken. That's true, there are no references, but I do think that diet plays a huge role, as well as genetics, since so many of my patients say they take their meds religiously, and stick to a much healthier diet, and still come back.

Then as a nurse, you'd know that patients aren't always honest about compliance and diet/exercise habits at home. Those patients that say they are, aren't a reliable source of information either, even though they should be for their own sake.

Yeah, those patients are filthy liars. No way those meds might actually be useless.

No one's saying the meds are the end-all, be-all. But I can tell you from experience (clinical research) that people lie their butts off about whether they're taking their meds, and whether they are following the correct protocol for taking their meds - even meds that have few if any side effects and have a definite positive effect on symptoms. The worse the drug is perceived, the worse compliance becomes. It's common enough that many trials pay for additional blood or urine testing every visit to confirm that the appropriate levels of meds are found.

I'm not talking about trials where that stuff is tested. I'm talking about actual patients who need to take their medications as prescribed, not because they're getting paid by a study to do so. I've worked in pharmacy for years, and most patients are pretty compliant with things like cholesterol medications, if their insurance has anything to say about it (not wanting to pay for another refill so early). People aren't perfect, maybe they miss a day or two, and YES some aren't compliant but they're usually not coming in to fill their scripts anyway.

wolfsbayne

I can't speak for anyone but my experience was such that when I cut out the processed foods, ate "cleaner" as it were (I guess cleaner for me), started exercising regularly, which consequently made me lose weight, my cholesterol improved.

DancingOnCloud9

Bump, (enjoying the different views and experience I have poor circulation and heart disease in my family, keeping this thread in my mix)

Charlottesometimes23

That's my impression to N, but if someone is saying the data is there to indicate certain dietary choices lead to chronic inflammation I'm rather interested. Of Amy Sue h data exists I want to see it.

You might be interested in this article. A New Dietary Inflammatory Index Predicts Interval Changes in Serum High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2777480/#!po=22.0000
It's available on PMC for free and it provides details of how the dietary inflammation score was calculated ie. how foods etc. were weighted.

Abstract: Inflammation is associated with a number of chronic conditions, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Reducing inflammation may help prevent or treat these conditions. Diet has consistently been shown to modulate inflammation. To facilitate research into the inflammatory effect of diet on health in humans, we sought to develop and validate an Inflammatory Index designed to assess the inflammatory potential of individuals' diets. An Inflammatory Index was developed based on the results of an extensive literature search. Using data from a longitudinal observational study that carefully measured diet and the inflammatory marker, serum high-sensitivity (hs) C-reactive protein (CRP), in ~600 adults for 1 y, we conducted analyses to test the effect of Inflammatory Index score on hs-CRP as a continuous and dichotomous (≤3 mg/L, >3 mg/L) indicator of inflammatory response, while controlling for important potential confounders. Results based on continuous measures of hs-CRP suggested that an increasing Inflammatory Index score (representing movement toward an antiinflammatory diet) was associated with a decrease in hs-CRP. Analyses using hs-CRP as a dichotomous variable showed that an antiinflammatory diet was associated with a decrease in the odds of an elevated hs-CRP (P = 0.049). The results are consistent with the ability of the Inflammatory Index to predict hs-CRP and provide additional evidence that diet plays a role in the regulation of inflammation, even after careful control of a wide variety of potential confounders.

CPR is kinda like insulin resistance, if you got it, it was something else that caused it. It is an indicator, but not something I would use as a bulls eye, but that's just my opinion. I will say though, that when refined carbs and sugar is decreased in the diet CRP levels decrease. I've also seen a few studies where the paleo diet was better at reducing inflammation than the inflammation diet, probably because of grains and the oil from grains that are generally heavy in omega 6's, which can be pro-inflammatory.

I agree, it's not a perfect indicator. Some studies also use TNFalpha as a second measure.

I thought is was interesting to look at the way they worked out the dietary inflammatory index.

neanderthin

That's my impression to N, but if someone is saying the data is there to indicate certain dietary choices lead to chronic inflammation I'm rather interested. Of Amy Sue h data exists I want to see it.

You might be interested in this article. A New Dietary Inflammatory Index Predicts Interval Changes in Serum High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2777480/#!po=22.0000
It's available on PMC for free and it provides details of how the dietary inflammation score was calculated ie. how foods etc. were weighted.

Abstract: Inflammation is associated with a number of chronic conditions, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Reducing inflammation may help prevent or treat these conditions. Diet has consistently been shown to modulate inflammation. To facilitate research into the inflammatory effect of diet on health in humans, we sought to develop and validate an Inflammatory Index designed to assess the inflammatory potential of individuals' diets. An Inflammatory Index was developed based on the results of an extensive literature search. Using data from a longitudinal observational study that carefully measured diet and the inflammatory marker, serum high-sensitivity (hs) C-reactive protein (CRP), in ~600 adults for 1 y, we conducted analyses to test the effect of Inflammatory Index score on hs-CRP as a continuous and dichotomous (≤3 mg/L, >3 mg/L) indicator of inflammatory response, while controlling for important potential confounders. Results based on continuous measures of hs-CRP suggested that an increasing Inflammatory Index score (representing movement toward an antiinflammatory diet) was associated with a decrease in hs-CRP. Analyses using hs-CRP as a dichotomous variable showed that an antiinflammatory diet was associated with a decrease in the odds of an elevated hs-CRP (P = 0.049). The results are consistent with the ability of the Inflammatory Index to predict hs-CRP and provide additional evidence that diet plays a role in the regulation of inflammation, even after careful control of a wide variety of potential confounders.

CPR is kinda like insulin resistance, if you got it, it was something else that caused it. It is an indicator, but not something I would use as a bulls eye, but that's just my opinion. I will say though, that when refined carbs and sugar is decreased in the diet CRP levels decrease. I've also seen a few studies where the paleo diet was better at reducing inflammation than the inflammation diet, probably because of grains and the oil from grains that are generally heavy in omega 6's, which can be pro-inflammatory.

I agree, it's not a perfect indicator. Some studies also use TNFalpha as a second measure.

I thought is was interesting to look at the way they worked out the dietary inflammatory index.

I think it should be noted that it's chronic inflammation that we should be worried about, otherwise we would never exercise, get involved with extreme sports or dabble in day trading. All these increase adrenaline and cortisol which effects inflammation and probably more so than a red pepper. :happy:

TeamMillerJCM

Holy crap, Angioplasty on my 49th birthday narrowly averted an untimely death. Lifelong athlete and distance runner in great shape, no issues with blood pressure and good diet with low bad cholestoral, but unfortunately low good cholestoral too. Damn you bad genes! Running hard and working hard to get back in shape after 2 and 1/2 months of inactivity. Need to loose some recently gained poundage too. Making steady progress slowly and feeling great. Any tips and motivation is appreciated. Hooah!

AnnPT77

My N = 1: I've eaten less-processed foods and lots of fruits/veg for a long time (vegetarian for 43 years). I've been very active (cardiovascular exercise) for a dozen years. Despite this, my LDL/VLDL cholesterol & triglycerides stayed high, HDL low. From details I won't bother listing, I suspect chronic inflammation was pretty high, though I have no test results to prove it.

I tried some other eating changes, based on personal research, trying to improve the situation. Only very slight improvement.

Next, I lost 1/3 of my body weight, getting down toward the lower end of normal BMI. Result: LDL plummeted, VLDL below the lab's normal reference range, HDL up dramatically, well into desired target range.

I don't think I've got much genetic predisposition to lipid oroblems. Some friends who do have family history have struggled with lipid problems even after reaching a healthy weight, however.

For those of us without genetic complications, healthy weight may be one of the simplest, most helpful strategies to use . . . and unlike drugs, the side effects are overwhelmingly positive.