Heart Disease and Stroke
Heart Disease and Stroke
Introduction
In one 10-year Cardiovascular Health Study nearly all males over age 65 & females over 70 who have grown up eating a traditional, meat-based Western diet are already suffering from some form of heart disease. Heart disease remains the number one cause of death in the United States. It is an epidemic and we expend huge resources treating this disease which is mostly preventable. The artery damage and blockages that is characteristic of cardiovascular disease (CVD) also affects other parts of the body including the kidneys, legs, carotid arteries, and the brain. Indications are that we cannot consume a high-fat, low fiber, high calorie, low plant nutrient, excessively high protein, acidic and inflammatory diet without suffering huge costs to our health. In our country our interventional cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons, internal medicine physicians and others go to extraordinary efforts to successfully treat heart disease with coronary stents, coronary bypass surgeries, and elaborate regimens of medications including statin drugs; the number of people currently prescribed statins medications is staggering! Again, where are the primary prevention efforts? We live in a country that trivializes the harmful effects of the Standard American Diet (SAD). And, far too many healthcare providers, including some dietitians, do a poor job at educating patients about the toxic effects of this diet, both because they are uneducated themselves and because they are entrenched in traditional bureaucracies that refuse to be honest about these issues. Far too many healthcare providers believe that patients will not be compliant with a healthy diet. Most Americans believe in 'moderation in all things' and most of these people are addicted to unhealthy food. John and Ocean Robbins have commented that 'we are fed by a food industry that pays almost no attention to health and we are treated by a health/medical industry which, for the most part, pays no attention to food.' So, let's join together and pursue an honest dialogue about heart health and in the process let's keep it simple and attend to basic issues; we are eating far too many unhealthy foods every day and many of us do not exercise enough. Yes, genetics plays a role, and it can be a significant role, but it may be true also that whether these genetic variations express themselves in disease, and the severity of the disease, can depend on how we treat our bodies. As Dr. Dean Ornish has said: "Your genes are not your fate." Also, let's remind ourselves that when the healthiest, longest lived people's depart their indigenous environment and move to our country, they become ill with heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and a plethora of other illnesses. So, why is that? The biochemistry of the human body does not welcome a 'double bacon cheeseburger deluxe,' with fries and a chocolate shake, or what ever variation of that we are consuming .... Look for articles in this section that will present some current research about heart disease and will hopefully make more clear the interventions we need to reverse this chronic disease epidemic. wz Total cholesterol = LDL + HDL + triglicerides/5.
Current Research: 'Heart Disease Starts in Childhood'
A 1953 study published in JAMA documented coronary disease among United States soldiers killed in action in Korea. In a series of 300 autopsies performed on United States battle casualties in Korea, the average age of 22 years, 77% of the hearts had some gross evidence of coronary arterial sclerosis! Some of them had vessels that were clogged 90% or more. This study dramatically showed that atherosclerotic changes appear in the coronary arteries years and decades before the age at which coronary heart disease (CHD) becomes a clinically recognized problem. Follow-up studies from over 1500 coronary arteries acquired from autopsy material from 1954 1960 confirmed the original results.
How young does it go? Atherosclerosis begins in childhood with the appearance of aortic fatty streaks, the first stage of atherosclerosis. Aortic fatty streaks of some degree are present in practically all individuals from every human population that has been studied. In a 1969 study fatty streaks were found in 100% of kids by age 10!
What is accounting for this build up of plaque in the arteries of young children? In the 1980s we got our first clue from the famous Bogalusa Heart Study that looked at autopsies of those dying between the ages of three and 26 years. The number one risk factor was cholesterol. You could see the stepwise increase in the amount of their arteries covered by fatty streaks as the level of bad cholesterol in the blood increased. But this study only looked at 30 subjects. So, they decided to study 3,000 youth and atherosclerosis. 3000 accidental death victims ages 15 to 34 years old were evaluated. After developing a risk factor scoring system it was determined that a non-HDL cholesterol over to 120 mg/dL was a powerful risk factor for coronary artery disease. It was determined that a 16-year-old female with an elevated risk score can expect to have serious heart disease by age 30 without a modification in diet. Even in 15 to 19-year-olds, atherosclerosis has begun in a substantial number of individuals, and this observation suggests beginning primary prevention at least by the late teenage years to ameliorate every stage of atherosclerosis and to prevent or retard progression to more advanced lesions. You start kids out on a low saturated fat diet and you can see a significant improvement in their arterial/endothelial function by 11 years old. Exposure to high serum cholesterol concentration in childhood may accelerate the development of atherosclerosis, even in childhood. Consequently, the long-term prevention of atherosclerosis will be most effective when initiated early in life, e.g. by seven months of age!
Atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries, begins in childhood and progresses during adolescence and young adulthood; by age 10 nearly all kids have fatty streaks, the first stage of the disease. Then, the plaque starts forming in the 20s, and progresses from there; by the 40s people start dying. In our hearts, it is a heart attack; in our brain, is a stroke; in our extremities it can mean gangrene; in our aorta, it can mean an aneurysm. So, by age 10 the question is whether you want to reverse the heart disease you already have. Doctors Ornish and Esselstyn proved that you can reverse heart disease with a plant based diet.; So, we can start reversing heart disease in our children tonight! wz
Interval Training and Heart Health
Dr. Robert Vogel is a cardiologist, a diet consultant to the National Institutes of Health, a vascular biologist and is the chief medical director at the Pritikin Longevity Center. Just wanted to cover a few comments that Dr. Vogel has about interval training. This training technique is a type of physical training that involves bursts of high-intensity work interspersed with periods of low-intensity work. The high-intensity periods are typically at or close to near-maximum exertion, while the recovery periods may involve either complete rest or activity of lower intensity. Don’t overdo the peak exercise portions when you first start doing interval exercise. Build up slowly, using your heart rate as your guide If after the first peak, your heart rate is more than 90 percent of your maximum, you overshot your goal. If your heart rate is below 75 percent of your maximum, try jogging or running faster on the next peak portion. You will find that you will gradually become more comfortable at faster peak rates; this is a sign that you are increasing your fitness.
Heart rate can be estimated as 220 minus your age; but well-conditioned athletes often have a higher max heart rate …
Many runners estimate their heart rate during interval training, running fast until breathing is challenged, maintaining this for at least 2 minutes and then slowing down until heart rate decreases and breathing is less labored. Repeat the process for at least 30 minutes. We often run six to twelve ½ mile intervals while training for longer-distance runs, e.g. marathon distance. Those who are just starting out will do shorter duration and fewer intervals.
Remember, walking is good for you but jogging prevents heart disease better than does walking. Unfortunately, most Americans who jog just do it slowly, for hours. Dr. Vogel says that there is good data that interval training improves endothelial function, and is of maximum benefit to your heart. Endothelial cells are a specialized type of epithelial cell which forms the inner layer of blood vessels. The loss of proper endothelial function, is a hallmark for vascular diseases, and is often regarded as a key early event in the development of atherosclerosis. wz
'Protein Intake and Ischemic Heart Disease'
A recent (2011) Harvard University study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, volume 92, looked at risk of heart disease and protein intake in middle-aged men. Independent of source and independent of fat, total protein intake was not found to make a difference in heart disease. But what about the source of the protein? higher intake of animal protein was related to increased risk of heart disease in healthy men, meaning those without high cholesterol heart disease or diabetes.. And, there was a significant association between higher intake of vegetable protein and lower risk of heart disease. Meaning, the more plants and fewer animals one eats would appear to be better for the heart even independent of the fat issue. So the benefits of a plant based diet would appear to extend beyond just the issue of avoiding saturated animal fat.
But, isn't protein just protein? How does your body know if it's coming from a plant or an animal? Proteins are made up of a string of amino acids. And, there are some amino acids more common in plants than in animals. Particularly, glutamic acid: a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found glutamic acid to have independent blood pressure lowering effects which may contribute to previous findings of an advantage of plant-based diets in moderating the epidemic cardiovascular disease trend.wz
