Atherosclerosis is the hardening and narrowing of the arteries. It’s an inflammatory response initiated by damage to the endothelium.
That's the most important thing to remember: Damage to the endothelium leads to heart disease.
The endothelium is the innermost layer of the arteries. Damage can happen anywhere in the body, but 90% of the time it happens in the spaghetti-sized arteries of the heart (coronary arteries), probably due to the mechanical stress in this region coupled to sugar, alcohol, belly fat and artificial flavors.
If you want to preserve your heart health, don’t bother trying to artificially lower your LDL cholesterol levels. In fact, these cholesterol compounds are nature's band-aid! The higher your cholesterol the longer you live!
It’s far more important to prevent damage to the endothelium of the arteries. Many biological disturbances, including poor lifestyle habits, can damage the inner layer of the coronary artery.
10 Reasons Why You Might Have Heart Disease:
- Increased levels of homocysteine attributed to lack of folate and nutritive B vitamins (best source of these vitamins are Brewer’s Yeast and whole eggs)
- Increased levels of cortisol (i.e. stress)
- Lack of exercise (Use www.18minworkout.com)
- Lack of nutritive vitamin C (best source is citrus fruits)
To protect your heart, work on eliminating all of the above “inflammatory disturbances” from your life. By doing so, you’ll pre- vent plaque build-up and the subsequent atherosclerosis or premature death that may follow.
The absolute best way to do that is with hawthor-rich Cardio FX and the cinnamon/milk thistle combo Cinnergy.
Both found here:
How Cholesterol Protects You
Once damage occurs to the inner layer (endothelium) of the coronary artery, the body’s natural repair mechanism takes over.
This is because as humans, we’re equipped with a natural instinct to live. The repair mechanism begins by circulating levels of low density lipoproteins (LDLs) into the damaged area, particularly between the smooth muscle layer and endothelium of the artery.
Once LDLs move into the damaged area of the endothelium, an alteration in endothelium function takes place. This alteration begins the inflammation cascade.
To signal for help, the endothelium begins producing reactive oxygen species (ROS). Like a citizen calling 911, this attracts the immune cells to the damaged site, which forms a protective shield around the damaged area of the blood vessel. Eventually, the combination of LDL, immune cells, muscle cells, and debris from the initial damage create “plaque.”
The most important thing to understand is that plaque is nature’s fix to damage within the arterial wall. Plaque forms in response to this damage, regardless of LDL cholesterol levels. This, in part, explains why researchers have failed to find a correlation between levels of cholesterol and the growth of atherosclerosis.
If damage to the endothelium persists, atherosclerotic plaque accumulates on the arterial walls. This leads to decreased blood
flow from the heart, which prevents oxygen and nutrients from being disseminated throughout the body.
It’s similar to a grocery store suddenly dead-bolting its doors shut, preventing access to the food inside.
A chronic lack of oxygen and nutrients leads to major problems not only for your heart, but also for your brain, lungs, kidneys, penile reaction, and eventually every bodily system.
Over time, build-up of atherosclerotic plaque initiates heart attack and stroke. Sometimes this happens without warning.
As the artery narrows, tiny blood clots (which are normally harmless) become a death threat. In normal circumstances, these tiny blood clots are usually capable of passing through a healthy artery—but when the artery is narrowed, they get caught in the plaque and pre- vent blood flow. If an artery is blocked in the heart, a heart attack is the result. If a blockage occurs in the brain, a stroke is the result.
Quitting sugar, minimizing alcohol and getting off the fruit juice, almond milk and other calorically-rich beverages are a must to preserve arteries!
Dare to live young!
The People's Chemist |
