Monday, March 19, 2012

Heart Disease Models Old and New

I was asked to expound upon the linked article from this post:
http://fireofthegodsfitness.blogspot.com/2012/03/ship-is-still-turning.html

 One model for the description of this doctor goes like this.

High carb intake results in high blood glucose which requires high insulin levels to defend the body from “acute glucose toxicity.” High polyunsaturated fat (PUFA) intake results in the cell walls of many cells, ...but most conspicuously LDL particle cells, being easily oxidized (PUFAs are susceptible to oxidation). So mixing the two is a devil’s brew.

First, the body is dumping insulin which has a number of effects, one of which is elevating the inflammatory state in the body. Inflammation helps fight off bugs, and helps begin the healing process by breaking down and clearing out damaged tissue after injury. Chronically high inflammation slows healing and seems to actually create damage – kind of like sending an elephant and rider to clean up a bunch of timbers, but it just keeps pulling down more trees, it never quits working.

Inflammation also accelerates oxidation – the equivalent of tissue ‘rust.’ Oxidized particles become irritating to surrounding tissues – one metaphor is that they are like glass, very useful until broken and then dangerous.

So the fad diet of the last 30 years has resulted in a nation of inflamed bodies, overfed on corn oil and soy oil and similar frankenoils produced cheaply as by products of other agricultural harvests, and sick from excessive chronic intake of carbohydrate.

The LDLs in the body do their think for a while (taking cholesterol to parts of the body that need repair) and then are taken up by LDL receptors for recycling. In a high oxidative environment, and given that the PUFAs are part of the cell walls of the LDL particles for many of us, LDLs oxidize rapidly. They become the little bits of sandpaper the doc referred to, which damage the arteries. The body attempts to repair the artery via cholesterol, forming large plaques.

Why in the coronary arteries? Hard to speculate. Size perhaps?

Bottom line – with carb restriction, you can treat gout, hypertension (80% of sufferers), dislipidemia, abdominal circumference, osteoporosis, abnormal glucose (IOW, all the correlates that describe metabolic syndrome), fatty liver disease, kidney disease, etc. In a way, the “why” doesn’t matter. If you go beyond carb restriction to add a few and delete a few more things from the diet, it gets better – treating hair loss, tooth decay, MS, acne, and more. 



Specific deep dig on the oxidation/LDL model at chriskresser.com, in the Chris Masterjohn podcasts.  See More

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