High Cholesterol Causes Heart Disease? : Part 11

I'm back with the final post of this whole hypothesis of cholesterol and heart disease. I have to apologize for not able to complete the post as I was not up to it, as I was exhausted. I had to sleep and rest my brain that night after a hectic few days. Today I hope, I could finish off writing this post, and share with you guys about the real cause of heart disease. Bear with me, this will be a long post, and probably my last post ever, for this blog. I'm just don't see any reason to keep writing and sharing all these health information, well, unless something comes along to turn on my 'motivation' button.

Before I continue with this final post, I would like to express my apology to someone whom I was introduced recently by a friend. This girl, although I never had the real chance to get to know her personally yet, my instinct tells me that she is somehow rare, in a way of having the curiosity wanting to learn and absorb knowledge about health, fitness and nutrition. I give her a bonus point for these value in her, and I think she has a bright future in health and fitness industry, if she follows the right track, the right knowledge, and not to falls into the 'conspiracies' of food, pharmaceuticals and 'fradulent' health medias. If anyone who is in nutrition, fitness and health background, once you derails off track,  it would be very difficult to make that big U-turn, as your believes and misguided learnings are cemented into your mindset for years.

I felt bad and didn't realized that I unintentionally 'hurt' someone with my thoughts and expression about health recently. My bad, I'm the type of person who is bluntly honest and realistic when it comes to nutrition, health and fitness. A lot of times I said things to people somehow may sound very blunt and 'difficult' for them to swallow, but even though those stuff that I said are facts and the truth, it turned out for them requiring some time to 'digest' what I tried to explain and share these knowledge in anyway I could. I meant no harm nor having any intention to offend anyone at all.

As I was having dinner tonight with my close friend, I was telling him of my early days before I was in the field of nutrition and health. I love sports and exercise, I played various types of sports and workout as much as I could, I thought I'm on the right path of optimum health, fitness and doing the right thing. My diet consists of protein shakes and 'eat whatever I can'. In laymen term, junk diet. I was bulky and muscular, accompanied with lots of body fat composition too. What does that tells me? Well, I was clueless, trying to find the missing puzzles to explain why I could not maintain 'peak' immune system, lean body mass, low body fat composition and feeling great. I occasionally falls sick, having occasional gut problems, and feeling burned out. I thought exercise as much as I could with different sports and loads of hours in gym will help my health and fitness. My body kept telling me otherwise, answer is NO. I used to love doing cardio, running, long hours of pumping iron, but when I learnt about the science of physical transformation and how our body response to different types of stressors (such as types of exercise), I had to admit, it took me some time to digest what I believed all this while, that what I was doing, is against optimum health and fitness. I love cycling everyday to my university and do cardio running before every workout session. I had to stop, when I realized these types of exercises DON'T actually burn fat, build muscles and stimulate our metabolism. Imagine all your life, you love to eat bread, and when the day you realized and found out that gluten is harmful to your body and digestive system, it would be very difficult to withdraw from eating food made of gluten, grains, wheat in particular. You feel sad for not being able to enjoy your usual cereals for breakfast and you thought the food pyramid guide is right all along this time, advising all of us to eat 4-8 servings of grain based food per day.

Anyway, back to where I left off few days ago. Visceral fat. Yes, the 'bad ass' fat which is a villain comparing to subcutaneous fat. Now, has anyone figure out what causes build up of visceral fat? Well, the answer is dysfunction of HPA axis and abnormal cortisol levels. Did you forgotten about Cushing's disease? 

In addition to its effects on raising glucose and insulin levels, and its impact on muscle and fat distribution, a high cortisol level also causes the following abnormalities.

• Raised VLDL
• Low HDL
• Raised LDL
• Raised blood pressure
• Raised fibrinogen levels (clotting factor)
• Raised Lp(a) level (clotting factor)
• Raised Von Willibrand level (clotting factor)

Does anything seem familiar to you? Do not worry about the naming convention of these clotting factors. It will soon be familiar to you, IF you develop heart disease or even stroke. You will know why when the time comes. 

You could say that people with Cushing's disease have accelerated atherosclerotic plaque growth, and dramatically increased risk of heart disease. You could in fact confident enough to say that cortisol level itself that is causing the damage, rather then some other factor. 

Now, steroids, plays a role in this part as well. How? This drug is one of the most prescribed of all medications. They are also called 'corticosteroids', because the building block of all steroids is cortisol.  What this means, is that you are effectively giving yourself Cushing's disease when you take steroids. 

Why would anyone want to do this? Well, one effect of cortisol that is surprising is that it greatly inhibit the immune system. Because it does, it is used to treat diseases when you want to shut down an overactive immune response. For instance, autoimmune diseases such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, etc. Steroids are also used after a transplant, as they prevent the body from rejecting the 'new' organ. In situation like this, steroids is a powerful yet life saving drugs. However, if you keep taking them for a long period of time, you will end up with the same exact set of abnormalities found in Cushing's disease, high blood sugar and insulin levels, low HDL, high VLDL/LDL, whole range of blood clotting factor abnormalities and increased of visceral fat deposition.

What's more, people who take steroids long term, are at greatly increased risk of dying of heart disease. Even fit, young healthy people. And it can happen very fast too. We have bodybuilders taking anabolic steroids abusively, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. You can have a young healthy man with no risk of heart disease, and with 1-2 years of anabolic steroids consumption, he can develop severe occlusion of major arteries in the heart, as well as heart attacks. 

So, now we have two 'different' conditions where cortisol levels are significantly raised. Cushing's disease and steroids abuse. Clearly though, these two 'conditions' represent a very serious form of HPA axis dsyfunction indeed. Equally clearly, not everyone who died of heart disease, has Cushing's disease or abuse steroids. 

There are also other factors which causes HPA axis dsyfunction. One of them is depression. Sounds surprise?   Well, it has long been known that people with depression, are at great risk of developing heart disease. In addition to other metabolic problems, depression also increase build up of visceral fat. This observation, is to make clear that build up of visceral fat, is the result of underlying problems with the HPA axis dsyfunction and abnormal cortisol level. Again, this doesn't happen by genetics. No magic whatsoever. 

Depression is a very good model to demonstrate that long term dsyfunctions of the HPA axis, is created purely by psychological stressors, works through the same mechanisms as Cushing's disease to cause heart disease. I could have presented chronic stress or anxiety, and both of them will shows exactly the same thing as well. It's all about psychological upset which messed with the HPA axis. 

Next, smoking. I know you have heard about the relation between smoking and hypertension. Now, how about the effect of cortisol and DHEA levels? In addition to the affects on HPA axis, smoking also has major impact on blood clotting factors. According to a study which I've read previously, it is confirmed as below:

"In the controlled group subjects, cigarette smoking induced a striking increase in the circulation concentrations of ACTH and cortisol, with peak response of 1.4 to 1.5 times higher then the baseline of 20 and 30 mins respectively."
                                                                  
                                                                       Coiro V et al, Alcohol Clin Exp Res, September 1999;23




I know some of you might not understand what the statement in the research means, basically in a nutshell, smoking increases both your ACTH and cortisol sharply, within a timeframe of less then 30 mins. But, with all the nasty ads in the cigarette box, smokers are still addicted to this dangerous substance, just like sugar, caffeine and MSG.

Moving on, spinal cord injury. Yes, doesn't make sense? How could spinal cord injury has anything to do with heart disease? Keep reading. Smoking and spinal cord injury may not initially seem to have anything to do with heart disease, especially HPA axis dysfunction. However, in reality, spinal cord injury has impacts with massive force on HPA axis . This is because when you break vertebrae and snap your spinal cord, you usually sever many of the sympathetic and non sympathetic nerves at the same time.

As a result, this leads to enormous disruption of the neurohormonal system. Based on statistics and research, spinal cord injury patients have low HDL and lipid abnormalities such as low VLDL. Spinal cord injury also raise cortisol levels. Patients with spinal cord injury, have sharply raised blood clotting factors such as Lp(a) and fibrinogen levels. Also, spinal cord injury leads to insulin resistance and visceral obesity as well. These patients are at greatly increased risk of heart disease.

Do these factors then go on to cause heart disease? Some of them may have a direct impact on heart disease, such as raised blood clotting factors. Others are probably just signs of an underlying problem, for instance, low HDL levels.

Meanwhile, I would like to discuss a bit about the INTERHEART study. In this study, there are a list of factors measured and found to have a close connection with heart disease. Some of them were associated with increased risk, and some were associated with reduced risk.

The factors associated with increased risk of heart disease were:

• Smoking
• Diabetes
• Psychosocial stress
• High Blood Pressure
• Abdomimal Obesity (increased visceral fat)
• High ApoB/ApoA-1 ratio

This study, treated each risk factor as acting in perfect isolation, having no relationship whatsoever to any other factors. These factors, can be directly linked to a dysfunctional HPA axis and raised cortisol levels. Two of them, smoking and psychosocial stress, are causes of HPA axis dysfunction. The rest of the factors result from HPA axis dysfunction, high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, diabetes and dyslipidaemia.   

If any of you might have analyzed this study intensively, 52 countries involved, a raised LDL level or raised cholesterol level, was not identified as a risk factor. Meanwhile, this study indicates that approximately one third of the risk of heart disease could be due to psychosocial stress, if you look at the evidence in a different way, it could be argued that the entire risk of heart disease is due to a dysfunctional HPA axis, otherwise known as STRESS.

By now, you should be convinced that a whole range of different 'stressors' can upset the HPA axis. Question is, how do the metabolic abnormalities created go on to cause heart disease or atherosclerotic plaque growth? This is actually related to 'response to injury' hypothesis where it explains the first step in plaque formation is that a patch of endothelium becomes dysfunctional or damaged.

Well, when this happens, a section of the underlying arterial wall is exposed. This, in turn, acts as a very powerful stimulus to the clotting system to form blood clot to plug the gap. By the way, blood clot is also known as thrombus. Once the thrombus has covered over the area of the damage, the clotting process is brought to a halt. This is the basic of 'response to injury' concept.

Then what happens? Well, for a moment, I would like you to think about what happens to your skin if you scratch or cut it. Blood escapes for a bit, then clot forms, which turns into a scab. After a while, the skin regrows to seal up the scratch under the scab, and the scab falls off.  If the same process were to happen to your arteries, then any blood clot that formed on a damaged bit of endothelium would eventually fall off, travel a bit further down the artery, and then jam solid once the artery narrowed. This would cause catastrophic problems, including strokes.

Clearly, this is not a good thing. Therefore, blood clots forming on arteries cannot be allowed to fall off when the endothelial healing process is complete, unlike scabs on your skin. In order to stop blood clots breaking off artery walls, and causing downstream havoc, they have to be drawn into the artery wall and then disposed of. How does this happens? Answer is, your bone marrow creates millions upon millions of 'pre-endothelial' cells that travels about in your bloodstream. When they see breach in the endothelium, it's their job to cover it up.

Normally, however, a blood clot will have got there first, so these pre-endothelial cells stick to the surface of the blood clot, grow into full blown endothelial cells, and cover over the damage with a new layer of endothelium. In this way, blood clots are, effectively, drawn into the arterial wall behind a new layer of endothelium. Usually, they are then broken down and removed, leaving no trace that they were ever there in the first place.

I hope by now, it all these explanations makes perfect sense to you. It may sound a bit complex and hard to swallow at first, have some time, think it through, use some of your many years of health and medical knowledge and background ( to those who study health science, sports science, science or degree in medicine), and connect the dots by yourself. For those who have no medical or health knowledge or background whatsoever, these explanations will prove to be a very good piece of health information for your own self. Whether you accept it or not, it is entirely up to you, as I have hard time trying to convince some of my family members and friends about this cholesterol and heart disease topic.

Once again, I warned patients on cholesterol lowering drugs, DO NOT put your health or life, on the hands of a single 'doctor'. It is simply true, that doctors who is lack of knowledge, WILL kill you! Good luck and I wish everyone best of health. I truly hope, this ridiculous cholesterol hypothesis will die off soon, will it? We will have to wait and see.

High Cholesterol Causes Heart Disease? : Part 10

This is will be the final double post about cholesterol and heart disease. Today, I would want to share with you guys about how stress relates to autonomic nervous system, which then could lead to heart disease. Let's waste no time and dive straight into this crucial discussion. Now, because if the neurohormonal system gets seriously out of balance, you are likely to suffer catastrophic metabolic problems, then heart disease and other life-threatening disease such as cancer, diabetes, etc. 

The hormones involved on the 'stress' side include adrenaline, cortisol, growth hormone and glucagon. On the 'relaxation' side, for the purposes of this discussion, I shall concentrate on insulin. Release of stress hormones is controlled by the hypothalamus and pituitary gland acting in unison. Under a stressful situation, for instance, a man pointing a gun at you, the hypothalamus sends alarm messages to the pituitary gland, which then fires off hormonal messengers to the adrenal glands to get them release adrenaline and cortisol, among other things. 

This three part hormonal system, consisting of hypothalamus, pituitary gland and adrenal glands, if often referred to as the HPA axis. The HPA is intimately connected to, and intertwined with the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system has two divisions, the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. Neither of these divisions is under your conscious control, unless you are some sort of expert Guru or master. 

The sympathetic nervous system has a wide range of actions. These include speeding up with heart rate, reducing saliva production and redirecting blood supply to your muscles. It also stimulates the liver to release glucose, thus pushing up blood sugar levels, and triggers the release of various clotting factors. These are the sorts of things you need when physical danger threatens, which is why this whole process is sometimes called the 'fight or flight' response. 

On the other hand, the parasympathetic nervous system has directly opposing actions. It slows your heart, stimulates insulin production and the release of bile. It also increases the flow of saliva, and directs blood to the guts to aid digestion. 

Well, another way to look at this is to say that an activated sympathetic nervous system is working in conjunction with raised 'stress' hormones, which represents 'catabolic' state. You have probably experienced this state after a physical activity such as tennis or badminton, when you know that you should be hungry, but find that when you sit down to eat, you have no appetite. Reason? The stress hormones are still ruling your metabolism, and are telling you that you are not yet ready to eat.

On the other hand, an activated parasympathetic nervous system, working in conjunction with a raised insulin level, represents the 'anabolic' state, a state in which you are ready to eat, digest and store energy. Within our bodies, we have these two systems, that are essentially directly antagonistic to each other. Anabolism and catabolism.

Remember this, if you are stressed, and then tried to eat, your metabolism would be thrown into confusion. You would be commading the neurohormonal system to activate catabolism and anabolism simultaneously. This would mean high levels of insulin. Adipose tissue would be under instructions to both absorb and pump out fats into the bloodstream. At the same time, the liver would be trying to store and release glucose. 

With food inside them, your guts would be automatically switched to 'absorption'. But, the sympathetic system would be fighting to direct blood away from the guts to the muscles. Wherever you looked, a fight for metabolic supremacy would be going on. Perhaps the most important battle would be for control of blood sugar levels, a battle ending up with  'spikes' of blood sugar, as insulin tried, and most likely to failed. 

In short, eating under stress was likely to be pretty unhealthy. Still munching on those whole grain breads while working out in the gym? Or egg whites and protein powder shakes immediately after workout session? 

Now, I will discuss the causes of dsyfunctional HPA axis in the following . Please do read carefully and try to understand as I try to be as non technical as possible. I do hope so. 

Causes of Dysfunctional HPA axis

Let's see. Probably the most dramatic dysfunction of the HPA axis occurs when a tumor develops in the pituitary gland, which then proceeds to pump out for too much in the way of stress hormones. Several types of these tumors can develop. A tumor producing too much of growth hormones can lead to gigantism, a tumor producing too much adrenaline can cause a condition known as phaeochromocytoma. 

In this discussion, I will focus on corticotropin, or also known as ACTH. ACTH is a precursor hormone, which in turn, stimulates cortisol secretion from the adrenal glands. So, a tumour in the pituitary gland effectively increases blood cortisol levels. This condition is known as Cushing's disease.

Cushing's disease, in turn, has a wide range of different effects, which are a direct result of the many actions that cortisol has around the body. Below are some of the examples:

• Triggers the liver to release its stores of glucose.
• Stimulates the breakdown of triglyceride stores in adipose tissue, leading to an increase in free fatty acids in the blood.
• Activates breakdown of muscle protein into amino acids.

People with too much cortisol surging about in the system, have high blood sugar levels, and a high degree of what is known as insulin resistance. In fact, most people with Cushing's disease develop diabetes. People with Cushing's disease also lose muscle bulk, due to breakdown of muscle proteins.

There is also a redistribution of fat from the periphery, which is arms and legs, to the abdomen. The reason why this happens is because you have two very different types of fat in your body. Both of these fats are known as visceral and subcutaneous. Subcutaneous fat sits just underneath the skin, and is found all over the arms, legs, neck, etc. Sumo wrestlers have lots of this type of fat.

Visceral fat, on the other hand, is mainly found around the organs in your abdomen. It is the type of fat that builds up in those who develop 'beer belly'. While both types of adipose tissue can each store and release fat, that is the beginning and end of any similarity.

From a metabolic perspective, one is fat, one is anti-fat. I will try to explain this as plain and layman as possible, as both is enormously complex. Cortisol stimulates subcutaneous adipose tissue to release fat, thus, making it shrink in size. On the other hand, cortisol stimulates visceral fat to do the exact opposite, by storing fat.

Now, what causes visceral fat to build up and accumulate in our body? Can anyone tell me? The thing is, visceral fat doesn't just build up by itself. No matter how you would believe or heard from whichever media or source, it doesn't just accumulate or sort of happens. And no, it is not due to genetic susceptibility as well.

Stay tuned to find out...I'm just darn tired to continue writing. 

High Cholesterol Causes Heart Disease? : Part 9

It's been a crazy week, a very exhausting yet stressful working couple of days. It's one of the worst week of my working career, and I could barely cope with it. I'm down with suspected viral infection,  but my immune system is fighting against these host of pathogens, trying to naturally heal without any drugs. I'm not sure if I still have the time to continue writing and keeping this blog alive, due to my new working requirement. I just don't have the motivation and passion to continue blogging. My work is killing me, too stressful, starting to hate my job!

Today, I would want to share with you probably the most important post of this whole series. What causes heart disease? Yes, the ultimate answer to this obsessed cholesterol hypothesis. After reading previous eight posts about cholesterol, saturated fat, statin drugs and its adverse effects, you must be wondering, what really causes heart disease? I'm not sure if I could have the time to write and squeeze the facts into this post, I might just resume another post to complete this cholesterol series.

Now, are you ready for the true cause of heart disease? The answer is STRESS! Yes, stress. I'm not talking about only mental or work stress. There are many types and layers of stress including environmental, mental, physical, relationship, nutritional and spiritual stress as well. You must be wondering, how could stress cause heart disease? Well, the question is, do you even know that there are so many types of stress which could bombard our body? Yeah, thats what I thought.

First of all, let me explain to you about stress. What is stress? Many people think of stress as a form of time pressure. Busy, busy, busy, so much to do, so little time for it. Others might think of stress as a type of constant worry, like money problems, incompatible boss at work, or even relationship issues.

I remember I told a friend of mine recently during lunch that I will write a comprehensive post about stress and cardiovascular health, particularly regulation of hormones and physical activities and exercise. He has a female friend who is into cardio exercise, long distance running, marathon trainings, etc. And guess what? His female friend has a degree in Sports Science. That raised my eyebrows as I wonder how could someone who has a degree in Sports Science, is not AWARE of oxidative stress, hormone regulation and how physical stress affects our human body. More importantly, adrenal fatigue. Well, same scenario when we have conventional doctors think that elevated cholesterol causes heart disease and it is alright to prescribe statins to patients.

Many people believe that stress is good for us, and without it we would just lounge about doin nothing at all. Firstly, we need to seperate out things that causes stress. What I would call it 'stressors', from the stress response. There are two basic stress response, healthy and unhealthy. I provide a sample list of both stress responses as below.

Physical stressors that create a healthy response:

• Exercise (not all of them)
• Competitive sport
• Massage
• Sauna
• Singing
• Bungee jumping
• Rock climbing
• Roller coaster rides

Phychological stressors that create a healthy response:

• Your soccer team winning
• Passing an exam
• Clinching successful business deal
• Organising an enjoyable social evening
• Giving well-received lecture
• A busy shift in hospital with no one dying
• Being a prime minister

Physical stressors that create an unhealthy response:

• Excessive, intense, forced exercise
• Being a fighter jet pilot
• Cocaine or heroine use
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Smoking
• Eating under pressure
• Major trauma/surgery
• Spinal cord injury
• Steroid use

Phychological stressors that create an unhealthy response:

• Suffering racism
• Money worries, long term debt
• Low status in social hierarchy
• Poor social network
• Non supportive, abusive, unloving spouse
• Soccer team losing
• Getting up on Monday morning
• Bullying boss

All of the above, are not the full list of 'stressor' responses. But, the list gives you the idea of different types of stressor responses which I'm talking about. Next, I will explain how unhealthy stress response causes heart disease. In order for me to explain to you, I need to introduce to you neurohormonal system. This hugely complex system consists of two parts, the hormonal part, and the nervous system part.

For every hormone in nuerohormonal system that fires you up, there is another one that calms you down. And for every set of fibers that revs you up, there is another network that relaxes you. Eastern philosophy call it Yin Yang, the internal balance of energy.

In my next and probably the last post for this cholesterol discussion, I will explain how autonomic nervous system response to stress and causes heart disease. Stay tuned folks.

High Cholesterol Causes Heart Disease? : Part 8

After I have shared with you about Dr. Graveline's true story of how statin drugs almost destroyed his life, I would want to share with you more about other problems with statins. Yes, the leader of the pack, Lipitor. 

And so, gentle reader, our scientific knowledge has now advanced to the point where it can no longer be written off as a 'coincidence' that people of cholesterol-lowering drugs are more likely to die violent deaths of one sort of another. A clear causal chain now exists with every link in place. 

How widespread are all these problems? Who knows? If they exist they will be, almost without exception, under reported. A bit of memory loss here, a lapse into depression there, well, almost everyone is depressed nowadays, aren't they? Feelings of anger and aggression, a bit of road rage, some muscle pains. Which patient are is going to report such symptoms to their GP? 

And even if they do, how seriously is the GP going to take it? I would say almost NONE! Unless we have a very knowledgeable physician. Now, what are the other problems with statins? Let me share with you a list of all the related problems caused by these cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Polyneuropathy

- It is known as peripheral neuropathy and characterized as below:

• Facial weakness
• Difficulty in walking
• Difficulty using arms, hands and feet
• Sensation changes, such as pain, tingling, numbness or decreased sensation
• Difficulty swallowing
• Speech impairment
• Loss of muscle function of feeling in muscles
• Pain in the joints
• Fatigue
• Changing or hoarseness of voice

Muscle Damage 

Although rhabdomyolysis itself is rare, muscle pains and weakness are relatively common with statin use. Statins can cause oxidative damage to the muscles. Apart from athletes, the burden of muscle problems is generally underestimated because such problems tend to creep up slowly. 

A high percentage of people on statins will suffer some symptoms of muscle ache, but most of them won't report the symptoms, and the doctor won't ask. Some old folks would think that their old age is the reason why they are suffering from muscle weakness or ache. 

Liver Damage

This is reasonably common, and mostly it takes the form of raised liver enzymes levels in the bloodstream. These tend to go away when you stop taking the statin. 

Cancer

This is probably the biggest long term worry as far as I'm concerned. The pharmaceutical companies have attempted to stomp on this fear by setting up studies that appear to show that statins, rather then causing cancer, actually prevent it. This is probably the biggest joke of the century! There are tons of living proof out there consuming high loads of cholesterol food all their lives, generations after generations, the Eskimos, and maintain a supreme health and their diet is at least 80% saturated fat! Saturated fat contains high levels of cholesterol. 

Bear in mind that cholesterol has been protecting humans for millions of years for diseases such as cancer. It is anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and precursor to our steroidal hormones. Without cholesterol, our body wouldn't be able to produce Vitamin D3. We wouldn't even have sex hormones estrogen and testosterone. With low level of cholesterol, all our trillions of cells will have massive problems repairing and building new cells. The outer membrane of all our body's cells are made of cholesterol! I could go on and on with this, but cholesterol is our guardian, a good thing, and everyone should realize that if you push your cholesterol level lower then it should naturally be, all your cancer rates is off the roof! Period!

The headlines about statins preventing cancer are complete and utter guff as usual. They reflect marketing spin, pure and simple. Goodness me, is there nothing these drugs can't do? 

Heart Failure

Now, supposedly patients take statins to prevent heart disease, agree? What if people like us found out that cholesterol lowering drugs could cause congestive heart failure? Here is how this could have happened. Folks, you might want to be more serious about this piece of information.

Anyone heard of Coenzyme Q10? Co Q10 is found in all cells, everywhere in the body. It is found in particularly high concentrations in high energy cells such as muscles, and especially cardiac muscle cells, where it plays a key role in the production of ATP. ATP, if any of you could still remember from biology, is to a cell, what fuel is to a car. Converstion of ATP to ADP releases energy that cells need to work. When ATP runs out, the cell dies. Which means that a reduction of ATP production could be rather serious matter.

Especially in heart muscle, the muscle that can never rest. Indeed, both animal and human studies have shown that reduction in Q10 levels can lead to left and right-sided ventricular dsyfunction. What this means? Heart failure! So, you are paying for a drug which you think could prevent heart disease, but it does the opposite? How on earth does this make any sense at all?

You see, cholesterol and Q10 share the same biosynthetic pathway. They both originate from Acetyl CoA, and if you block cholesterol synthesis, you also reduce Q10 synthesis. if low Q10 can lead to heart failure, and statins block the production of Q10, then statins could cause heart failure. Simple logical explanation ain't it? Now you know, why certain doctors prescribe Co Q10 with statins at the same time for patients.


So, by now you should have educate yourself about statin drugs after reading this post. The effects of statins are life-threatening, and taking a drug which suppose to prevent heart disease, but enables one to have heart failure is simply absurd, bonkers. 

High Cholesterol Causes Heart Disease? : Part 7

In this post, I would like to discuss about statins and heart disease. I would like to also discuss about three key questions, which usually would give medical professionals hard time answering those questions. Below are the three questions which I love to pose to medical professionals such as doctors. 

Question 1

Why don't veins develop atherosclerosis? 

You may think that veins and arteries are very different. However, in general structure, arteries and veins both have a thin layer lining, one cell thick, known as the endothelium. Behind this, lies a thicker layer made up of muscle and connective tissue, known as the media. Wrapped around this, and holding the blood vessel together, is the externa.

In basic structure, therefore, arteries and veins are identical. Indeed, they start life exactly the same way in the embryo. The only difference is that arteries are thicker then veins because they have to deal with a higher blood pressure.

Given the fact the veins and arteries have exactly the same structure, and are exposed to exactly the level of LDL, oxidized or otherwise, you would think, would you not, that if LDL causes plaques to develop in an artery, it would also cause atherosclerotic plaques to develop in a vein? If it is a case of LDL somehow passing through the endothelium into the artery wall, and this is a function of the level of LDL in the blood. 

Yet, atherosclerosis never develops in veins. Ponder that thought for a moment, and see if you can come up with an answer that involves LDL as a cause. But, if you take a vein from the leg and transplant it to the heart, the vein rapidly develops severe atherosclerosis. In this case, veins can develop atherosclerosis, if you make them do the job of an artery. Clear? 

In conclusion, something about the position of arteries within the body or the job they do causes atherosclerosis to develop. That something cannot be LDL, or oxidized LDL, because this factor remains constant throughout the circulatory system. 

Question 2

Why does atherosclerosis develop in discrete plaques?

Well, another major problem with the LDL hypothesis is the fact that, even in severely diseased individuals, most arterial walls are completely unaffected. If the level of LDL, oxidized or otherwise, is the main cause, how come some bits or artery don't get touched? 

This, I suppose, is actually a similiar problem to the vein/artery conundrum. Why don't veins get atherosclerosis, and why are some areas of arteries vulnerable, while others are not? If LDL is leaking through the endothelium, or being transported through endothelium, and then entering the arterial wall behind, this should happen everywhere, in all arteries. 

But what you would probably then go ponder is that plaques start at the areas of endothelial damage. But LDL does not damage the endothelium, no matter what the levels. 

Question 3

If a high LDL causes atherosclerosis, how can people with low LDL levels get the same disease?

This might apply to the same question "How can high levels of cholesterol cause heart disease if people with low cholesterol get exactly the same disease?" The ad-hoc hypothesis that 'everyone in the West has a high cholesterol level' is well known to many people including medical professionals. In comparison, the 'primitive' man, everyone in the West has a cholesterol level that is far too high. Thus, everyone in the West who dies of heart disease automatically must have a high cholesterol level. Is that right?

How can this argument actually be supported? We have no idea what the 'healthy' cholesterol levels of our free range ancestors might have been? Surely we must be guessing right? Well, not so. According to an American cardiologist named JH O'Keefe, we should look at the surviving communities of hunter gatherers left in the world, animals in the wild, and infants as yet 'uncontaminated' by the western lifestyle. By analyzing these groups, we should be able to see what a natural, healthy, 'primitive' LDL level should be. In order words, the level we should strive to attain.

Moving on to the free living primates and other wild animals which were chosen by this cardiologist are as below.

Baboon
Horse
Boar
Night Monkey
African Elephant
Black rhinoceros

If any of you interested to read his research, feel free to Google him up and read his article. I'm just too lazy to explain in details about his research. Probably feeling too sleepy and partial brain fog after too much of stress at work. Damn.

What I want to stress here, is that the lower your cholesterol level as you grow older, the higher the risk of developing diseases such as cancer and other life threatening diseases. Besides, high LDL do not cause atherosclerosis or heart disease. Period.


Now, let's talk about statins and heart disease. Let's start off with UK. Despite the complete and utter lack of confidence of any mortality benefit, GPs in the UK are actively encouraged to check cholesterol levels in women, and further encouraged to get the cholesterol level below 5.0mmol/l. If they achieve this in a high enough percentage of their practice population, they are then paid large sums of money.

For god's sake, how can you justify putting millions upon millions of women on powerful and potentially very damaging drugs, when they will not save a single life? The question requires an answer. Perhaps you think that statins are harmless, so it doesn't really matter all that much? Well, if you are a fetus, statins are not harmless at all.

Making things even more likely to go wrong, statins have been presented as a universal panacea, with no side effects worth mentioning. Taking a statin, is now viewed among doctors, as to taking a multivitamin or low does aspirin! Shockingly unbelievable!

In primary prevention, statins do not only have ZERO effect on overall mortality, they also have zero effect on heart disease. So, you get absolutely no benefits at all. Quite hard to believe? Why not go on statins for years and see what happens? I've personally known quite a few people directly and indirectly to have been victims of statin drugs. I've tried hard to convince and explain the cholesterol hypothesis and the devastating effects of this drug to the people I know (who is on statins treatment), but most of them have fixed mindset and prefer to believe their doctors' advise. I thought doctors are supposed to save lives? What is happening?

Now, let's discuss a bit about the side effects of statin drugs. The primary way that statins kill people is through a side effect known as rhabdomyolysis, which is breakdown of skeletal muscle. I do not want to explain too technical and I'll try to be as layman and brief as possible. Basically, your muscles dissolve away, the waste products from this process destroy the kidneys and you can die of kidney failure. And yes, I'm not joking.

The major problem with  statins though, is not that they kill a few hundred people here and there, it is that they create a huge burden of side effects, most of which go unnoticed or dismissed. You feel tired? Well, you are getting older after all. Muscle pains? We all get them. Even when you suffer from a complete belter of a side effect, most doctors refuse to believe this could possibly have anything to do with statin you are taking.

To whoever colleagues or friends reading this right now, I'm sure you have heard me telling you about a true event of an astronaut with NASA and his cholesterol story. His name is Duane Graveline. He is a doctor in the USA as well. Some years ago, he was found to have a raised cholesterol level and was put on a statin. He had no problem with this, as he fully believed in the cholesterol hypothesis and the benefits of statins.

However, he then suffered a highly disturbing episode of memory loss, so he stopped taking the statin. He had no further problem for the next year, so his doctor persuaded him to start a statin again, and he did so. Shortly after this, he suffered a much worst epidose of memory loss, during which he regressed into his teenage years, unable to recall training as a doctor at all. After regaining his memory, he was very shaken by the whole episode and binned the statins for good.

The doctors treating him refused to accept the possibility that statins could be the cause, and neither would anyone else. He then published a letter on a website asking if anyone else taking statins had suffered the same thing. He immediately received hundreds of replies from distraught patients and relatives. They describes a full array of cognitive side effects from amnesia to severe memory loss to confusion and disorientation, all associated with statins, mostly Lipitor.

When his doctor doubled up his statin dosage, he couldn't remember his brother's phone number, his recent trips, the meeting he should attend, the restaurant he ate in, and the list goes on. He is 39 years old at that time, and had been on Lipitor for 4 years.

Folks, I will continue another post about cholesterol hopefully tomorrow. I'm out now, finished my workout session, feeling tired, gotta get some good sleep. Stay tuned.

High Cholesterol Causes Heart Disease? : Part 6

In this post, I would want to reveal to all of you how this whole cholesterol hypothesis started. I would also want to discuss about how high saturated fat diet has nothing to do with heart disease. The rise of the cholesterol hypothesis. Would any of you believe if this powerful hypothesis was a huge conspiracy between governments across the world? Governments pursuing a neo-imperialist pro-globalization agenda, in conjunction with the pharmaceutical industry. 

To find out how the cholesterol hypothesis actually started, we have to travel back far into the past, to Berlin in the mid 19th century. It started with a famous pathologist by the name of Rudolf Virchow. He found that plaques in the arteries contain a great deal of cholesterol. He then ponders where could this cholesterol comes from? The blood seem the only possible place. The questions is, how could he knows it is cholesterol in the arteries back in year 1850? He must have some sort of bionic eyes and unique brain power to realize this fact. 

Then, many years passed without anyone taking much interest in heart disease. In year 1850, you could die from a small scratch. Tuberculosis felled millions of people, as did infection during childbirth. Indeed, it would seem to have been at least 50 years before the next significant move forward was made, this time, by a Russian researcher. Unfortunately, I can't recall his name. He fed rabbits a high cholesterol diet, their arteries then thickened and filled up with cholesterol. So, cholesterol in the diet is deadly, and causes heart diseases in human, case proven? Well, this Russian researcher certainly thought so. Well, first of all, it is superbly silly, to prove anything about humans by carrying out dietary experiments on rabbits. If you add both Rudolf Virchow and this Russian researcher, the cholesterol bandwagon has started to roll. 

However, even after this Russian researcher's experiment, no one was really interested in heart disease. In reality, it was not until World War II, that doctors started to get really interested in heart disease. After the upheaval of the war was over, people noticed that middle aged men were dropping like flies. This appeared to be the start of an epidemic that had swept in from nowhere, and it began in the USA.

Then, we have Ancel Keys and his famous seven countries study. He looked at saturated fat consumption in seven countries and found a straight line relationship between heart disease, cholesterol levels and saturated fat intake. Despite the crippling flaws of his study, most people believed that Ancel Keys had proven the cholesterol hypothesis beyond doubt. Well, if any of you interested to read about Ancel Keys study, go do your own research on the internet and connect the dots if you may.

Anyway, in the 20th century, most people were utterly convinced that fat in the diet, saturated or otherwise, caused blood cholesterol/LDL levels to rise. And the subsequent rise in cholesterol was overwhelmingly regarded as the primary cause of heart disease. But, it wasn't until the arrival of the statins that the cholesterol hypothesis fully conquered the world. 

Now, let's move on to discussion about diet with relation to heart disease. I always remember, family members, friends and colleagues tell me, "don't eat too much egg yolks, you will have high cholesterol". Even doctors said that to me! Question, does eating a high fat or high cholesterol diet cause heart disease? Let's look at some of the population around the world,  proven that high fat or cholesterol diet does not cause heart disease. 

The French consume more saturated fat than any other nation in Europe, and they have the lowest rate of heart disease. The only other nation that comes close to their super low rate of heart disease is Switzerland, and the Swiss have the second highest consumption of saturated fat in Europe. Then, we have Inuit and Eskimos, these population have very high consumption of saturated fat, and yet very low rates of heart disease. 

Also, we have study in Malmo, Sweden in 2005, study conducted with more then 28 thousand middle age people, and the conclusion of the finding is that saturated fat showed no relationship with cardiovascular disease in men. Among women, cardiovascular mortality showed a downward trend with increase saturated fat intake. 

On top of that study, we have list of countries in Europe such as Netherlands, Iceland, Belgium and Finland, all these countries have high saturated fat intake, and low rates in heart disease. There are also other studies which show that high saturated fat diet does not affect the risk of heart disease as well.  

From what I could tell you, choose good quality saturated fat for consumption. For instance, if you would to eat food high in saturated fat, choose clean organic grass fed meats (beef), chickens fed on their natural diet, organic coconut oil, free range eggs and etc.