Heartache (Continued)

In this, to-be-continued edition, I wanted to follow-up on the discussion of last week where I explained that conventional thinking on the cause of heart disease is being challenged.  In case you missed, everyone still agrees that ischemia (a lack of blood flow and oxygen to the heart) is the cause of heart attack.  What is being called into question is mechanism that the build-up of cholesterol in the coronary arteries is the major cause of this ischemia.  The new research is showing that this is merely a symptom and the real cause has to do with the nervous system; in particular a lack of nerve flow from the Vagus nerve.

The Vagus nerve is considered the major parasympathetic nerve in the body that regulates the function of most every major organ in the body.  Your nervous system is broken into two parts – the parasympathetic and the sympathetic.  This sympathetic is more commonly considered your fight-flight nervous system that speeds up your heart and lungs as well as other organ function for survival needs.  The parasympathetic does the opposite and serves to slow down the heart and lungs.  It’s easiest to think of the sympathetic as the gas and the parasympathetic as the brakes.  Different lifestyle factors affect the “tone” of the nervous system and shift us into fight-flight mode just like changing the tuning of a guitar.  These factors are the standard poor habits including chronic stress, lack of sleep, sugar, trans-fats, smoking, and processed grains.  When we stay in a revved-up or sympathetic state, adrenaline levels go up and the metabolism of the heart muscle shifts from fat fuel sources to sugar metabolism.  This will result in a dramatic increase in lactic acid production in the muscle cells of the heart.  This creates an acidosis in the muscle that prevents calcium from entering into the cells effectively, thereby making the heart muscle cells less able to contract.  These cells begin to swell and malfunction which is the basic mechanism of ischemia to the heart cells or more commonly, “heart attack."

Your take-home on this should be that there is much more to heart disease than plaque build-up of the coronary arteries.  Cholesterol is an effect, not a cause!  When all we do to prevent heart disease is take drugs to lower cholesterol, the result is death from heart attack with better looking cholesterol numbers.  What we should be doing is engaging in stress-reducing activity such as exercise and meditation, embracing loving relationships, increasing the fruits and vegetables in our diet, drinking water in place of sugar drinks, making adequate sleep a priority, and taking time to be grateful for what we have rather than stressing over what we don’t have.  These are the very activities that move us out of fight-flight and into a more parasympathetic state that has been proven to be healing to the heart (and also cholesterol).   So if you’re still looking for some New Year’s resolutions, there are about seven options for you to choose from.

It’s a Heartache

I recently found an article that challenged everything that we thought we knew about the cause of heart disease and heart attacks.  Since one out of every two Americans will die of heart disease, this caught my attention.  Traditionally, we are taught to believe that heart attacks occur due to problems in the coronary (heart) arteries.  But new research is suggesting that the problems likely happen as a result of event happening in the muscle of the heart known as the myocardium.

So, heart disease is caused by a lack of oxygen to the heart muscle from a buildup of plaque in the arteries as a result of excessive cholesterol, right? And preventing heart disease comes from opening those arteries by reducing cholesterol and various emergency procedures such as coronary bypass, stents, or angioplasty?  Well, that’s what most of the free world believes.  However, doctors and researchers alike are starting to question this conventional thinking due to the results of a couple recent studies.  First, angiogram studies, where radiographic dye is injected into the coronary arteries and observed, shows that blood gets to the heart even where the major coronary arteries are completely blocked off.  Another 2003 study conducted at the Mayo clinic concluded that bypass surgeries, stents, and angioplasty can indeed relieve symptoms of heart disease such as chest pain, but that they do not prevent further heart attacks.  The explanation for this is that shortly after birth, a normal heart develops an extensive network of what are called collateral blood vessels that will provide numerous alternate routes for blood flow.  Think of this as taking the scenic route when the highway is blocked.  In fact, the body is so smart that even when a blockage does develop in a coronary artery, these collateral arteries can grow new, at any age, to bypass and reroute the blockage.  Nobody is trying to say that high cholesterol, especially the inflammatory LDL’s is a good thing; they’re just saying that this is not the end of the story with heart disease.  If this were true, don’t you think that, with all the cholesterol drugs that have been given out along with all the emergency and preventive procedures performed, there would have been a dent in heart disease over the last 30-40 years?

So what is really going on?  The researchers performing these newer studies believe it comes back to the effect the nervous system is having on the heart and particularly the rate of your heart.  Your nervous system is broken into a fight/flight or sympathetic side as well as a parasympathetic side that is considered to be active when we sleep, heal, and digest (or relax).  The major parasympathetic nerve (the Vagus) comes off the brainstem and serves to slow and relax the heart.  Multiple studies have shown that a decrease of parasympathetic nerve flow results in ischemic heart disease where the oxygen is being cut off.  Next week, I would like to discuss how this happens and what the real-life factors are contributing to this #1 killer in America.

Your Choices Matter

Over the years, I've discussed the process of epigenetics on several occasions in this column.  In case you've forgotten, epigenetics is really a more evolved perception and understanding of genetics.  In genetics, we get our genes from our parents and whatever hand we are dealt is what we get to live with throughout life.  Epigenetics says, yes, we do have genes passed to us from our parents (and their parents) but those genes can adapt and change based on what environment they are exposed to.  In epigenetics, we refer to the expression of our genes.  The scientific journals have been loaded with research on epigenetics over the last decade and I wanted to share some new discoveries with you this week.

Most of the medical researchers now believe that our genetics make up 20-30% of our outcomes when it comes to health versus disease, but that our lifestyle makes up the rest.  This concept that lifestyle will alter gene expression is the very definition of epigenetics.  Even though we may not always act like it, I believe we all have an understanding that what we eat, drink, and breathe into our lungs as well as how we exercise, sleep, and think has an impact as to whether we will develop diabetes, heart disease, cancer, or virtually every other disease.  I hope we recognize this to be true to ourselves – if we continually expose our bodies to a toxic environment, our genes will begin to adapt to that environment and the end result will be chronic illness.  That’s what happens to us, but what about future generations.  A recent article in the journal Science reported that yes, we truly are what we eat, but also that the nutrition of the parents, even before conception, will influence the health of future generations through changes in DNA.  Oops!  The study went on to show that exposure to excessive calories by a grandfather (before he started having children) is linked to increased risk of stroke and diabetes for his children and that this risk is passed on for multiple generations.  The scientists in the study explained that our DNA “remembers lifestyle insults.”  Other studies have suggested that these lifestyle factors involved in epigenetics affects 7-8 generations.  In our culture, we tend to believe it’s the mother who needs to stay healthy before and during pregnancy to ensure better development of the fetus.  However, studies like this one are showing that the father’s lifestyle and environmental factors before conception are more important than even that of the female.  For instance, we know that the father’s body mass will have a greater impact on the health of his children and a father who smokes is more likely to have kids with increased body mass.  Again, these are factors that are important even before the baby is conceived!

In our 8 Weeks to Wellness program, we teach that your life will begin to change when you recognize that your choices matter.  I hope this information drives this home to you.  Please recognize, that epigenetics goes both ways.  Not only will poor lifestyle change gene expression and have detrimental effects, but healthy lifestyle choices will improve DNA expression and result in genes that are driven to health and vitality.  In a very real sense, everything we eat, drink, and think is moving us (and our ancestry) either toward disease and away from health or hopefully our choices are moving us toward health and away from disease.

Fake Fats

I haven’t picked on trans-fats in a while.  While it’s been well recognized that these fake, unnatural fats have been linked to heart disease for some time, very recent research from the American Heart Association shows a link between trans-fats and advanced dementia or Alzheimer’s as well.

For decades it was the saturated animal fats that were thought to be the culprits to chronic disease.  So for years, fats were reduced and removed from foods while things like butter and lard were replaced with margarine and vegetable oil.  This strategy simply has not worked and it’s contributed to millions of early deaths.  The reason why this didn’t work and what you really need to know about trans-fats is that they are synthetic and they prevent the production of a chemical in your body known as prostacyclin which is necessary to keep blood flowing.  As a result, trans-fats cause clogging of the artery walls.  Likewise these oils including vegetable, soybean, corn, and sunflower oils when heated oxidize (or break down).  This reaction causes clotting and hardening of the arteries.  It is this same oxidation that is thought to contribute to the plaques in the brain that are related to Alzheimer’s.  In order to avoid trans-fats, you need to avoid any foods containing or cooked in hydrogenated vegetable oil.  This means avoiding all fried foods such as french fries and many other highly processed foods including chips, cookies, crackers, and cereals.  Even though these pseudo-foods have become the staple of the American diet, the good news is that the body can eliminate trans-fats in about a month when we quit putting them in our pie holes.  This makes eating out very difficult and fast-food almost impossible.  The best strategy is cooking natural whole foods at home.

Please understand that I am not advocating going fat-free.  Your body needs fat for brain function and hormone production!  You just want to reduce and eliminate these toxic fats and replace them with natural fats such as organic butter, avocados, fish oil, coconut and coconut oil, raw nuts (almonds, pecans, and macadamia) and seeds.  And even organic egg yolks and grass-fed meats are on the healthy list.  Another factor to be aware of is that statin drugs for cholesterol also increase the risk of dementia/Alzheimer’s because they deplete the brain of essential fatty acids and coenzyme Q10.  However, when you replace the trans-fats with healthy fats, cut sugar, and add in some exercise and stress reduction, most (if not all) people would not have a need for statin drugs to begin with.  So if you’re looking for a New Year’s resolution, consider going no trans-fats for a month and see what happens.

Vitamin Vindicated

Do you know someone with an autoimmune disease?  These diseases occur when your immune system turns against your own body instead of fighting pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. Autoimmune diseases affect different areas of the body and include illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Chron’s, psoriasis, Grave’s, type I diabetes, amongst numerous other ailments.  Little is known about how or why autoimmune diseases occur and once diagnosed, you’re looking primarily at management of the disease as treatment is very limited.  At a conference recently, I saw a speaker presenting some research that suggests vitamin D is important in preventing these diseases and I went looking for the link that makes this possible.

From what I can find, there are a few things going on here.  First of all, just like any disease process, it is agreed that autoimmune disease starts with inflammation and this inflammation is directly linked to lifestyle (diet, stress, and exercise).  In particular, an inflammatory diet rich in grains, gluten, and sugars will increase inflammation in the gut or intestines.  This inflammation creates swelling in the cellular lining of the gut.  This lining is important because it serves to allow favorable nutrients to pass from the intestine into the bloodstream while keeping unfavorable toxins from getting in.  When the lining becomes swollen, the gut becomes “leaky” allowing the toxins to pass through.  This is known as leaky gut disease and is associated with inflammatory bowel diseases.  The resulting toxicity of the blood gets into the cells, causing damage and putting the immune system in an alarmed state.  Over time this increased immune state can lead to autoimmune disorders.  It turns out that vitamin D plays a critical role in preserving the integrity of the intestinal lining thereby reducing inflammation and allowing the gut to heal appropriately.  Other research at Harvard and similar studies from Oxford found that vitamin D helps regulate the genes that are involved with autoimmune disease as well as many different cancers.  My personal belief is that it is likely the toxins in the blood from the swollen gut that get to the cells and alter the genes in the first place.

There are still professionals out there that tell people taking vitamins is a waste of time and money.  They clearly don’t follow their own research.  The blood test to check for your vitamin D levels costs about 35 bucks and the vitamin itself is one of the cheapest ones out there.  Over the years, I've shared several other reasons why D is so important, but if, for some reason, you were still on the fence, I hope this new information will motivate you to get your levels checked.  Remember that we get D naturally from sunlight in the summer, but it is estimated that 50% of the adults and children out there are deficient.  Do yourself a favor and get yourself and your family checked and supplement until your levels are optimal.