SOLUTION FOR THE MOST COMMON CAUSE OF HEART DISEASE
The solution for the most common form of heart disease is to reduce intake of free radicals, take a supplement(s) of manganese, zinc, and selenium to further reduce free radicals, and take a supplement of pantethine and carnitine to increase HDL. Of course, avoiding trans fats is also necessary. Diets that raise antioxidants and HDL reverse heart disease, lowering cholesterol does not. Cholesterol plaque is not the cause but a symptom of heart disease.
The FDA on Trans Fats (.gov)There are many forms of heart disease. The main symptom of the most common form of heart disease, atherosclerosis, is a thickening buildup of plaque on artery walls. In the U.S., heart disease kills an average of 500,000 men and women each year, even though heart disease is preventable. On this site “heart disease” refers to atherosclerosis. The main symptom of atherosclerosis is plaque buildup inside arteries.
Cholesterol Does Not Cause Plaque Buildup
You’ve likely seen the commercial saying cholesterol “comes from two sources”; your mother and father, grandmother and grandfather, from your aunt and uncle, and from foods like cream pie and rib roast. The only way cholesterol can come from your aunt and uncle is if you eat cream pie and rib roast made by your aunt and uncle. Genetically, you don’t have any genes at all from your aunt nor your uncle. They’ve since removed the aunts and uncles from the commercials.
Cholesterol is made by the liver of an organism. The cholesterol in animal food is made by the liver of the animal. There is no cholesterol in plant food because plants don’t have a liver. Cholesterol does not dissolve in water. The medium of blood is water. Whether cholesterol enters the bloodstream from animal food through the digestive system or directly from the liver, the only way cholesterol can enter the bloodstream is by being contained inside molecules of LDL. Once in the bloodstream, plaque build up occurs only when free radicals oxidize LDL (ox-LDL) and only when the oxidized LDL comes in contact with an interior artery wall. LDL that is not oxidized does not cause plaque buildup in artery walls. The intake of cholesterol and how much cholesterol the liver makes is much less important than the two actual causes of heart disease - free radicals and low HDL. (Less than 10% of the cholesterol in food is taken up by LDL and moved into the bloodstream.)
Logically, reducing cholesterol without reducing oxidizing free radicals would increase the percent (or concentration) of oxidized LDL and therefore might actually increase the number of times artery walls are damaged by oxidized LDL and also the number of times other areas of the body that use cholesterol are damaged by oxidized LDL.
Saying cholesterol causes plaque buildup is like saying that having too much gasoline in the tank causes more car accidents and that reducing the amount of gasoline in the tank will decrease car accidents. Gasoline catching on fire or exploding out of control is the problem. Gasoline sitting in the tank is not a problem. Cholesterol becoming oxidized is the problem. Cholesterol sitting inside a molecule of LDL is not a problem. Cholesterol sits inside molecules of LDL because LDL carries cholesterol to places in the body that use cholesterol. Cholesterol is necessary for making cell membranes, bile, vitamin D, brain tissue, and much more.
LDL is known as “bad cholesterol” or cholesterol that causes heart disease. HDL is known as “good cholesterol” or cholesterol that protects the heart. Neither of them are cholesterol. Both pick up and drop of molecules of cholesterol. Oxidized LDL (ox-LDL) is harmful and becomes oxidized by free radicals. What is bad is not cholesterol but free radicals. HDL does not become oxidized and protects the body by bringing oxidized LDL (and other harmful molecules) to the liver for dismantling and recycling or removal.
Heart Disease In The U.S. (.gov)Not Solutions
The current medical treatment is reducing the liver’s ability to make cholesterol with statin drugs. Statins cause a deficiency of coenzyme Q10. Coenzyme Q10 is necessary for the production of energy in heart cells and throughout the body. According to the FDA, “Scientific evidence confirms the existence of detrimental cardiac consequences from statin induced CoQ10 deficiencies in man and animals.”
FDA Quote, see 2nd page, #4 (.gov)W/O Coenzyme Q10 Vitamin E Harmful (.gov)
Coenzyme Q10 and Heart Disease (.gov)
Another medication advertised on TV reduces the ability of the intestines to absorb cholesterol from food (Zetia). Researchers haven’t believed dietary cholesterol contributes to heart disease for a long time. “There’s no connection whatsoever between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in blood. And we’ve known that all along. Cholesterol in the diet doesn’t matter at all….”(1). The conclusion of a study of 6,433 men significantly reducing their cholesterol, saturated fat, and calories compared to the same number of men who made no changes to their diet was, “The overall results do not show a beneficial effect on coronary heart disease or total mortality from this multifactor intervention.”(2) Another conclusion on the same study from the Journal Of American Medicine, “Mortality from coronary heart disease and from all causes was not significantly different among the two groups.”(3)
1) Ancel Keys Ph.D. 1997, Ret. Prof., U of Minn.
2) Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial Research, 1982
3) JAMA, 1982; 248:1465-77
In mid January 2008, tests results of the retesting of Zetia were terrible. According to the New York Times, “While Zetia lowers cholesterol by 15 percent to 20 percent in most patients, no trial has ever shown that it can reduce heart attacks and strokes — or even that it reduces the growth of the fatty plaques in arteries that can cause heart problems. This trial was designed to show that Zetia could reduce the growth of those plaques. Instead, the plaques actually grew almost twice as fast in patients taking Zetia along with Zocor than in those taking Zocor alone.” Vytorin is Zetia combined with Zocor. Side effects of Zetia not so great either.
Drug Has No Benefit in Trial (click top link)Risks Not Fully Revealed
Avoiding Trans fat means choosing food products made with vegetable and other plant oils. Unfortunately the plant oil often substituted for trans fat is the saturated fat Palm oil from the fruit of the palm tree - one of the the fruits orangutans live on. So palm farmers first remove the forest the orangutans live in, grow palm, the orangutans try to eat from the palm tree farm, the farmers kill the orangutans. Don’t buy products with Palm oil.
Tropical Oil Farming Threatens Orangutans (video)Orangutan Populations Declining Sharply (ABC News)
Palm Oil Found In Many Foods
The Oil For Ape Scandal
The Root Cause Of The Most Common Cause Of Heart Disease (Atherosclerosis)
The word “cause” is usually used in place of two different terms, root cause and intermediate cause, which often prevents people learning what the root cause of an illness (disease), which can create a sense or understanding that an illness is spontaneous. There is no such thing as spontaneous illness. All illnesses have a root cause. Root cause is what started an illness. Intermediates causes of illness are symptoms that cause more symptoms. Plaque buildup in heart disease is not a root cause of heart disease, plaque buildup is a symptom that causes other symptoms.
The root cause of heart disease causes too many free radicals, which oxidize LDL, which causes a reaction in the lining of arteries, which causes plaque buildup, which slows blood flow, which reduces delivery of oxygen to cells of the heart and other cells, which causes the heart to speed up to try to get more oxygen, and if it doesn’t get more oxygen heart muscle tissue dies making the heart weaker, which can cause the heart to stop beating temporarily or permanently. Every symptom of heart disease just listed is an intermediate cause of the next symptom.
There are two root causes of heart disease (and degenerative diseases in general). First, free radicals cause cholesterol containing LDL to become oxidized. When oxidized LDL comes in contact with the lining of an artery wall it causes a series of chemical reactions in the artery wall resulting in plaque buildup on the artery wall. Free radicals come from two sources; your body chemistry and your diet. Free radicals come from normal chemical reactions in the body during the breakdown of food molecules for energy and spare parts. Free radicals are also in food additives and irradiated foods. Antioxidant neutralize free radicals. So obviously too many free radicals not being neutralized by antioxidants causes plaque buildup.
Free radicals are always being created, especially the oxygen form of free radicals (ROS). Because most free radical damage is caused by oxygen free radicals, free radical damage is not called free radical stress but rather oxidative stress.
From the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “…Oxidative stress has been associated with the development of many chronic and degenerative diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and neuronal [nerve] degeneration such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as being involved in the process of aging. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) [oxygen free radical] can damage biological molecules such as proteins, lipids, and DNA.”
USDA Quote (.gov)Antioxidant Strength Chart (.gov, .pdf)
Much More On Free Radicals
The second cause of heart disease is low HDL. HDL is garbage pick up service in the body, bringing oxidized LDL to the liver for dismantling and removal. Low HDL comes from two sources; maternal and paternal genes and HDL level is pushed lower by trans fats (hydrogenated vegetable oil), smoking, and other chemicals lower HDL. HDL does not become oxidized by free radicals because HDL contains an antioxidant (paraoxonase).
HDL Antioxidant Paraoxonase (.gov)So the actual cause of heart disease is (the number of free radicals being created in the body + the number of free radicals being eaten and or inhaled) being greater than (the intake of minerals needed for the body to make its own antioxidant enzymes + the body’s production of antioxidant enzymes + the antioxidants found in plant food) and the level of HDL not high enough to counter this difference. Put another way, the cause of heart disease is:
(free radicals)>(antioxidants+HDL)In other words, those with highest “sum” of antioxidants and HDL can eat more freely and won’t develop heart disease, while those with the lowest sum of antioxidants and HDL (or much higher level of free radical stress - like smoking) develop heart disease more easily.
Heart disease starts out as a nutritional condition. When plaque buildup is thick enough to pose a danger (significantly reduced blood flow) a medical condition has developed from the nutritional condition. If the deterioration (plaque buildup) results in physical damage, then a medical condition was created from a nutritional condition. The nutritional condition doesn’t become a medical condition. A nutritional condition doesn’t go away because a medical condition developed. Having a medical condition and continuing the poor diet that created the medical condition means an earlier death. No prescription drug can stop deterioration (plaque continuing to build up) but ending the nutritional condition that created plaque buildup can. So it makes no sense at all to wait until a medical condition develops to start preventing plaque from building, and for others prevent plaque buildup from getting worse.
Surgery can fix some types of damage, but nothing can fix dead heart muscle tissue (caused by lack of oxygen due to reduced blood flow). Heart disease not only often leads to a heart attack, but often leads to a stroke. Stroke kills an average of 100,000 women each year and 65,000 men each year.
Top Causes of Death in the U.S. (.gov)Overview of Heart Disease (atherosclerosis, .gov)
Plaque Buildup Can Be Seen With Cardiac MRI (.gov)
Realize that genes play a small part in heart disease, but genes are talked about in advertising, probably to try to create a feeling of helplessness and fear in people. If a person can’t run a 4 minute mile no matter how much training, does that mean the person has a genetic problem? More often than not, degenerative disease that supposedly runs in the family is not genetic at all but dietary weaknesses of the culture being passed from generation to generation.
The Solution
The solution to removing and preventing plaque buildup in artery walls is twofold. First, reduce the amount of free radicals to a normal level. Second, if HDL is increased enough, it can remove enough oxidized LDL from the blood to prevent oxidized LDL from causing plaque to build on artery walls. Because HDL is garbage pick-up service, HDL can remove plaque from artery walls, especially if free radicals are kept low. The solution in preventing heart disease and removing plaque from artery walls is to make this happen:
(antioxidants + HDL) > (free radicals)Reducing Free Radicals
Free radicals are atoms that are missing an electron and alter the atoms they react with. Reduce free radicals by reducing creation of free radicals. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals so getting enough of the three minerals needed by cells to make their own antioxidant enzymes (zinc, manganese, and selenium) will definitely reduce free radicals.
First: Reduce Creation Of Free Radicals
The break down of protein into amino acids and saturated fat into fatty acids and glycerol creates a lot of free radicals. Most people in the U.S. get much more protein and fat than the RDA. So reducing protein and fat intake will reduce free radicals.
The RDA for protein is 50 grams. A third of a pound of animal food contains about 50 grams of protein. A third of a pound of animal food is a normal size serving (or less than normal for some). So three meals of a third of a pound of animal food is three times more protein than necessary and thus three times more free radicals created than necessary.
The RDA for saturated fat is 20 grams. All animal fat is saturated fat, and a few tropical plant oils are saturated fat. Beef labeled “80%” is 20% fat (80+20 = 100). A third of a pound of 80% hamburger contains (.33 X .20).066 pounds of fat. One pound equals 457 grams. A third of a pound of 80% ground beef contains about (.066 x 457) 30 grams of fat, which is 50% more than the RDA for saturated fat for the whole day. So three meals of a third of a pound of 80% ground beef is (0.5 + 1.5 + 1.5) 3.5 times more saturated fat than needed and thus 3.5 times more free radicals created than needed.
Putting the numbers for fat and protein together for one day of three meals of 80% hamburger and you get 6.5 times more free radicals than necessary. It sounds too bad to be true but that’s why meat-eating countries like the U.S and others suffer with so many degenerative diseases and countries with a plant food based diet have almost no problems with degenerative diseases.
Food Values (”W” list more useful, .gov)Quantity to Eat - By Age (see left side, .gov)
Cook with saturated fat (animal fat, ie lard, butter) or monounsaturated fat (olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil) but not with polyunsaturated oils (usually referred to as vegetable oil) like sunflower seed oil, corn oil, safflower oil, etc. When these oils are heated to cooking temperatures free radicals are created. It’s best to use polyunsaturated oils for salads. It’s doubtful monounsaturated oils are good for commercial frying because chemicals are added to keep the oils from becoming rancid from such high temperatures.
Many foods are irradiated to remove bacteria by subjecting the foods to radiation. Radiation creates free radicals. When someone dies of radiation exposure, they actually die of excessive free radical destruction of the body. A lot of food in the U.S. is irradiated, although consumers aren’t informed which foods are irradiated. Tobacco smoke contains a ton of free radicals and certain drugs lead to creation of free radicals. Don’t be afraid to ask your grocer in writing if a food you’re interested in is irradiated.
Second: Increase AntioxidantsAntioxidants neutralize free radicals. The ability of an antioxidant to neutralize free radicals is the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity of the antioxidant, usually abbreviated as ORAC. Antioxidants can be both water soluble (hydrophilic) and fat soluble (lipophilic). Some foods contain only fat soluble antioxidants, others contain only water soluble antioxidants, and some foods contain some of both. The ORAC of the water soluble antioxidants of a food + the ORAC of the fat soluble antioxidants of a food = the Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC) of a food (or supplement). When a food has almost no water soluble or almost no fat soluble antioxidants, the TAC value of the food is considered the same as the ORAC value, and often an ORAC value is given instead of a TAC value.
Minerals No mineral is an antioxidant. Zinc, selenium, and manganese are necessary mineral components of the very powerful antioxidant enzymes (made by the body, the liver) glutathione and SOD. The RDA for zinc for the average adult is 15mg, selenium 70mcg, and manganese 2mg. The amount of zinc by supplement should not exceed 25mg daily or 50mg every other day. Zinc citrate and zinc picolinate are the best forms of zinc. Five to ten milligrams of manganese is more than enough. 200mcg of selenium is more than enough. More than the amount of a mineral (or vitamin) the body can use usually does cause symptoms. Minerals probably do more to reduce free radicals than anything else. According to the National Institutes of Health,
“Selenium is incorporated into proteins to make selenoproteins, which are important antioxidant enzymes. The antioxidant properties of selenoproteins help prevent cellular damage from free radicals. Free radicals are natural by-products of oxygen metabolism that may contribute to the development of chronic [degenerative] diseases such as cancer and heart disease.”
Free Radicals and Aging (.gov)
Much More On Antioxidants
Antioxidant Strength (.gov, .pdf)
Astaxanthin, Lycopene, and Beta Carotene These natural chemicals are phytochemicals, not herbs but single chemicals found in some plants. Astaxanthin and lycopene are two of the most powerful antioxidants. They’re both fat soluble, so be sure to take them with food that contains fat to be able to absorb as much of them as possible, preferably salad oils but also animal fat you would normally eat, like beef or other animal food. (Oils are liquid fats.) Don’t waste these phytochemicals by taking them on an empty stomach.
Astaxanthin and LycopeneBeta Carotene is also a phytochemical and is taken by many in place of vitamin A. Using zinc, the body will convert as much beta carotene to vitamin A as it needs. Beta carotene is an antioxidant but not as powerful as other phytochemical antioxidants. The numerous chemicals in tobacco and or tobacco processed for cigarettes and cigars causes adverse chemical reactions with beta carotene, and increases the risk of cancer. If you smoke, don’t take beta carotene take vitamin A.
Fruits and Vegetables There are a number of plant foods that have natural chemicals (phytochemicals) that have very high ORAC values. These plant foods are sometimes referred to as antioxidant food.
Red Kidney beans - 2/3cup: 15,000Blueberries - 2/3cup: 6300
Cranberries - 2/3cup: 6000
Black Plums - 1plum: 4800
Russet Potato -1potato: 4650
Blackberries - 2/3cup: 4450
Plums - 1plum: 4100
Strawberries - 2/3cup: 3960
Apples (all types average) - 1apple: 3700
Granny Smith - 1 apple: 5380
Red Delicious - 1 apple
with peel: 5900
without peel: 3750
Raspberries - 2/3cup: 3500
Raisins - 1/2 cup: 2490
Walnuts - 1oz: 3800
Pecans - 1oz: 5100
Pistachios - 1oz: 2250
Cinnamon, ground - 1 gram: 2675
Cloves, ground - 1 gram: =3140
Wolfberry Juice (Goji) - 8oz: 20,000
Pomegranate Juice: ORAC= ?
100mg ascorbic acid (Vitamin C):Only 560
Antioxidant Strength Database (.gov, .pdf)
Blueberries (.pdf)
More
Grape Juice
Antioxidant Drug
The two most convenient foods to eat that are delicious and have great ORAC values are plums and apples. Other than orange juice, it’s hard to find bottled fruit juices without high fructose corn syrup. Wyman’s makes a Wild Blueberry fruit juice that has no high fructose corn syrup and has plenty of antioxidants. BJ’s Wholesale sells it.
The antioxidant value of a food is wasted when smothered in corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, and sugar in general, because the large amount of carbohydrates of these sugars creates a large amount of free radicals, so it’s best to read fruit juice labels looking for sugar before buying. If you’re going to have apple pie, blueberry pie etc., make your own filling from scratch because it won’t have high fructose corn syrup and will have less sugar, and taste better than store bought pie. Some of the foods listed above may be in your local health food store instead of your local grocery store.
Antioxidants from food and supplements do not interfere with antioxidants enzymes made by the body. There are antioxidant supplements made from exotic plants and have an ORAC value as high as 10,000 per several capsules.
Vitamins Some vitamins are antioxidants but all vitamins that are antioxidants are very weak antioxidants. It’s a big secret in the nutrition world, especially in the retail nutritional supplement area. Many vitamins supplements are advertised as great antioxidants but the ORAC value for the different vitamins are not given in the advertising nor on the label - because the ORAC for vitamins is very low. Of course, vitamins are needed by the body in order to stay healthy and alive for many reasons unrelated to their antioxidant value. If a product advertised as an antioxidant supplement doesn’t list the ORAC (or TAC) value, don’t buy it for its antioxidant value. Write companies that advertise their vitamin products as antioxidants and ask what the ORAC value of their product is. Beware though, some nutritional supplement companies add different high ORAC value plants to their nutritional supplements to hide the low ORAC value of vitamins.
Raising HDL: Pantethine and Carnitine
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