Heart disease

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  • slattert
    slattert Posts: 3
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    I am a 44 year old male that suffered a heart attack last year. I flatlined twice at 3 minutes each. After quick action by the paramedics and medical staff, and a shiny new stent in my right coronary artery (100%) blocked, I have a second lease on life.
    I am a semi-active ex-college athlete that fell into the trap I have read so much about on these boards. Trapped into convenience foods, fried foods, lots of ice cold beer, wings and so forth I began carrying 60 extra pounds all right at my belly. My cholesterohl was never high, in fact low-- even the good kind. Needless to say, am struggling to get to my goal weight, and it absolutely is 100% relative to what I fuel my body with.

    I cannot agree more that inflammation is the root of ALL DISEASE! In no way do I see in his article that the doctor recommends to cease taking meds, quite the opposite. What he is saying, is to limit the known causes of inflamation. You wouldn't throw gas on an already raging fire to attempt to put it out, so why would you do so to your own body? As a heart attack survivor, I firmly believe you only get ONE chance at a SECOND chance. May as well give all you can. No if i could only get some help with portion sizes and feeling satiated, that would be awesome!
  • fittocycle
    fittocycle Posts: 827 Member
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    Thanks so much for sharing this article. Like you said, I cannot see any harm in eating a clean diet and counting out (or at least limiting) processed foods. I'm sure I'll get blasted for saying this but if the food contains ingredients that I can't recognize or pronounce, then I'm not eating it. That said, it's nearly impossible to follow the same rules when eating at a restaurant. So I eat as healthy as possible at home and try to cook meals from scratch. :flowerforyou:
  • NRSPAM
    NRSPAM Posts: 961 Member
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    I am a 44 year old male that suffered a heart attack last year. I flatlined twice at 3 minutes each. After quick action by the paramedics and medical staff, and a shiny new stent in my right coronary artery (100%) blocked, I have a second lease on life.
    I am a semi-active ex-college athlete that fell into the trap I have read so much about on these boards. Trapped into convenience foods, fried foods, lots of ice cold beer, wings and so forth I began carrying 60 extra pounds all right at my belly. My cholesterohl was never high, in fact low-- even the good kind. Needless to say, am struggling to get to my goal weight, and it absolutely is 100% relative to what I fuel my body with.

    I cannot agree more that inflammation is the root of ALL DISEASE! In no way do I see in his article that the doctor recommends to cease taking meds, quite the opposite. What he is saying, is to limit the known causes of inflamation. You wouldn't throw gas on an already raging fire to attempt to put it out, so why would you do so to your own body? As a heart attack survivor, I firmly believe you only get ONE chance at a SECOND chance. May as well give all you can. No if i could only get some help with portion sizes and feeling satiated, that would be awesome!

    Glad you're still here with us. Thank you for sharing your story. :)
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    So how do researchers measure and quantify inflammation levels? I have some reading to do.
  • alexandriax03
    alexandriax03 Posts: 289 Member
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    Bump for later
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    Good info on inflammatory markers and the process of inflammation leading to atherosclerosis.

    http://m.circ.ahajournals.org/content/107/3/499.full
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
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    Also, I have read many credible articles that do say that inflammation plays a huge role in heart disease. He's also suggesting that cholesterol is not the actual problem, as to why heart attacks occur.
    This Johnny. He's discounting the cholesterol theory in favour of the inflammation theory.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,021 Member
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    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.
    Sugar lowers cholesterol levels.
  • NRSPAM
    NRSPAM Posts: 961 Member
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    So how do researchers measure and quantify inflammation levels? I have some reading to do.

    If I'm not mistaken, and I may be here, C-reactive protein is the blood test they check to see if you have high levels of inflammation. That first statement, I'm not sure about, however, I do know that some doctors use that lab test to see if you are at high risk for a heart attack. Also, I realize that this article is not one that most would consider a legitimate source, so I went looking for one that might be more legit, and couldn't find anything. I did find that docs are starting to realize that inflammation plays a huge role, but all they say causes the inflammation, is smoking, lack of exercise, and high/low levels of the wrong types of cholesterol. However, like the other guy said, his bad cholesterol levels were fine, it was only that his good cholesterol was too low. Not to sound too conspiratorial here, (is that even a word?) but honestly, the pharmaceutical companies are not going to make their money by keeping us healthy. Neither is the medical industry. Just sayin'. :wink:
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    I'm finding limited amounts of actual data. If anyone can link to any research or unbiased reviews of the literature on this topic, please post here.
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
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    So how do researchers measure and quantify inflammation levels? I have some reading to do.

    If I'm not mistaken, and I may be here, C-reactive protein is the blood test they check to see if you have high levels of inflammation.
    That's correct. That is the marker I'm trying to reduce. I won't take statins to reduce LDL until they will test for types of LDL, and at that point I still may ignore it. It would be nice to re-examine the Framingham study more vigorously.
  • jeardawg
    jeardawg Posts: 110 Member
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    OK first I will say that I don't pretend to know anything, but I spend a fair amount of time hashing this subject over with my father in law who has a ton of time to study this very issue. It became important to him about 2 years ago when his doctor put him on Lipitor in order to lower his cholesterol and lower his blood pressure. At the time he started looking into lifestyle and diet changes in order to follow up on this issue. He adopted a diet that consisted of super clean eating, he doesn't touch nearly any processed foods, and largely eats vegan. He also exercises (primarily cardio) in a way that could only be described as nearly extreme. Genetically he is in a really bad place too as his father died young of heart disease and 2 brothers all have heart issues of one type or another. Shortly after he started taking lipitor he decided he didn't like it. ( I know how bad that is, my wife is a cardiac nurse) He never told his doc, but for the last year and a half his doc has RAVED at how low his cholesterol and high blood pressure has been due to the lipitor, while the whole time he has not been on it. I am not really ready to go claiming that his way is the end all beat all, but his results have been good for him....
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,021 Member
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    Also, I have read many credible articles that do say that inflammation plays a huge role in heart disease. He's also suggesting that cholesterol is not the actual problem, as to why heart attacks occur.
    This Johnny. He's discounting the cholesterol theory in favour of the inflammation theory.
    Inflammation has always been the cause. Certain LDL particles (sdLDL) get caught up between the cell walls, oxidize and create inflamation. The body sends out macrophages from our immune system, just basically white blood cells to help repair the lesions but eventually get overrun with more LDL particles creating foam cells and when that happens it's pretty much the road to atherosclerosis.
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
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    Also, I have read many credible articles that do say that inflammation plays a huge role in heart disease. He's also suggesting that cholesterol is not the actual problem, as to why heart attacks occur.
    This Johnny. He's discounting the cholesterol theory in favour of the inflammation theory.
    Inflammation has always been the cause. Certain LDL particles (sdLDL) get caught up between the cell walls, oxidize and create inflamation. The body sends out macrophages from our immune system, just basically white blood cells to help repair the lesions but eventually get overrun with more LDL particles creating foam cells and when that happens it's pretty much the road to atherosclerosis.
    Yes. So it looks like inflammation, not high cholesterol is the cause. We'll always produce and ingest cholesterol.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,021 Member
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    So how do researchers measure and quantify inflammation levels? I have some reading to do.

    If I'm not mistaken, and I may be here, C-reactive protein is the blood test they check to see if you have high levels of inflammation.
    That's correct. That is the marker I'm trying to reduce. I won't take statins to reduce LDL until they will test for types of LDL, and at that point I still may ignore it. It would be nice to re-examine the Framingham study more vigorously.
    A VAP, Vertical Auto Profile tests for particle density and when you do some research, you'll soon find it pretty interesting I'm sure, I know I have.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,021 Member
    Options
    Also, I have read many credible articles that do say that inflammation plays a huge role in heart disease. He's also suggesting that cholesterol is not the actual problem, as to why heart attacks occur.
    This Johnny. He's discounting the cholesterol theory in favour of the inflammation theory.
    Inflammation has always been the cause. Certain LDL particles (sdLDL) get caught up between the cell walls, oxidize and create inflamation. The body sends out macrophages from our immune system, just basically white blood cells to help repair the lesions but eventually get overrun with more LDL particles creating foam cells and when that happens it's pretty much the road to atherosclerosis.
    Yes. So it looks like inflammation, not high cholesterol is the cause. We'll always produce and ingest cholesterol.
    Well, I wouldn't go that far, or rely on information that says that low LDL is preferred, sounds like an oxymoron I know but total particles is where most new research on cholesterol is going. Basically 2 people could have identical LDL numbers but vasty different total particles and it's pretty much a given that it's the very small dense LDL that is atherogenic and not all LDL particles....
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
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    So how do researchers measure and quantify inflammation levels? I have some reading to do.

    If I'm not mistaken, and I may be here, C-reactive protein is the blood test they check to see if you have high levels of inflammation.
    That's correct. That is the marker I'm trying to reduce. I won't take statins to reduce LDL until they will test for types of LDL, and at that point I still may ignore it. It would be nice to re-examine the Framingham study more vigorously.
    A VAP, Vertical Auto Profile tests for particle density and when you do some research, you'll soon find it pretty interesting I'm sure, I know I have.
    I know the test can be done, but whether it becomes a standard paid by the Canuck/Ontario govt. is another story.
  • NRSPAM
    NRSPAM Posts: 961 Member
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    A role for inflammation has become well established over the past decade or more in theories describing the atherosclerotic disease process.4,5 From a pathological viewpoint, all stages, ie, initiation, growth, and complication of the atherosclerotic plaque,6,7 might be considered to be an inflammatory response to injury. The major injurious factors that promote atherogenesis—cigarette smoking, hypertension, atherogenic lipoproteins, and hyperglycemia—are well established

    Johnny, I read the article and found this^^. Basically, what I gathered from it, is that inflammation is a major cause of atherosclerosis, and their risk of causing a heart attack. I have not found any actual data that says that the inflammation is caused by "not eating clean". It just says that causes of inflammation are due to cholesterol levels, smoking, and the typically well known causes. However, think of all the stuff they put in our food that we don't even know about. How long have they been putting "pink slime" in our food, and we're just now recently finding out about it. I know not all documentaries are factual either, but I've watched a few on how animals that we eat are raised. It's not natural. Their raised with NO sunlight, and fed diets of corn. Naturally, those animals are supposed to be eating grass. All of the preservatives that are put in all of those packaged and canned foods can't be good for us.
  • BigUncaMo
    BigUncaMo Posts: 1
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    Here's a good discussion of the way to measure what everyone's talking about here.

    http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/C-Reactive_Protein_test_to_screen_for_heart_disease.htm
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,021 Member
    Options
    So how do researchers measure and quantify inflammation levels? I have some reading to do.

    If I'm not mistaken, and I may be here, C-reactive protein is the blood test they check to see if you have high levels of inflammation.
    That's correct. That is the marker I'm trying to reduce. I won't take statins to reduce LDL until they will test for types of LDL, and at that point I still may ignore it. It would be nice to re-examine the Framingham study more vigorously.
    A VAP, Vertical Auto Profile tests for particle density and when you do some research, you'll soon find it pretty interesting I'm sure, I know I have.
    I know the test can be done, but whether it becomes a standard paid by the Canuck/Ontario govt. is another story.
    LOL.....hell no, we pay for that. I'm from Ontario as well and I get the test done regularily, well every 6 months for the last 5 years. You could get a CAT scan and check for calcification....no calcification, no problems. I've done that as well.

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