Treating Coronary Heart Disease

The most frightening fact about Coronary Heart Disease is that for the majority of Americans the first heart attack is sudden and unfortunately deadly (Myerburg, 2012).

How do we prevent and treat coronary heart disease? With the right foods.

The Therapeutic Food Protocol:

Beta Glucan High Potency Synbiotic– 1 heaping tbl twice daily (or two tbl once daily).
Phyto Power– 1 capsules daily
Garlic– 1 capsule daily
Cruciferous Sprouts– 2 capsules daily (preferably between meals).

It is well established in research that soluble beta glucan fibers in the diet will help in the lowering of LDL cholesterol. Two tablespoons of the Beta Glucan High Potency Synbiotic supplies enough beta glucans to significantly lower LDLs, and therefore to place the American Heart Association Seal for cardiovascular health on the label.

The pedigreed strains of probiotic bacteria utilized in the Beta Glucan Synbiotic reduce endotoxin producing bacteria in the gut, as well as, facilitate the tightening of the gut membrane so that endotoxins will not leak into the systemic circulation. Endotoxins can cause chronic systemic inflammation, which then causes a stiffening of the arteries (Erridge, 2011).

Food Science: Let’s discuss cholesterol, endotoxemia, and coronary heart disease.

There is a wide body of evidence that shows places in the world where heart disease is rare, due to dietary habits.

In the famous China Study, researchers investigated the eating habits and incidence of chronic disease among hundreds of thousands of rural Chinese.  In the Guizhou province, a region with half a million people, not a single death could be attributed to coronary artery disease among men under 65 over the course of three years (Campbell et al., 1998).

In Uganda, a country of millions in East Africa, coronary heart disease was described as “almost non-existent (Shaper, 1959). The researchers found that out of 632 people autopsied in St. Louis, Missouri, 136 had died of heart attacks, compared to the East African cohort where out of 632 people autopsied in Uganda only 1 was from a heart attack.

The almost non-existent cases of heart disease among rural Chinese and Africans was attributed to their amazingly low levels of cholesterol, averaging under 150 mg/dL.  Their diets were both centered on plant-based foods, such as grains and vegetables (De Biase, 2007).

Dietary choices at any age may prevent, stop, and even reverse heart disease before it’s too late.

William C. Roberts, editor in chief of the American Journal of Cardiology, states that the only critical risk factor for atherosclerotic plaque buildup is cholesterol, specifically elevated LDL cholesterol in your blood.  It is called bad cholesterol because it’s the vehicle by which cholesterol is deposited into our arteries.  According to Roberts, the optimal LDL cholesterol level is probably 50 to 70 mg/dL.  The population target should therefore be around a total cholesterol level under 150 mg/dL  (Benjamin, 2013).

To drastically reduce LDL cholesterol levels, you need to drastically reduce your intake of three things:  trans fat, which comes from processed foods and naturally from meat and dairy; saturated fat, found mainly in animal products and junk foods; and to a lesser extent dietary cholesterol, found exclusively in animal derived foods, especially eggs (Trumbo, 2011).

Nathan Pritikin, Dean Ornish, and Caldwell Esselstyn, all pioneers in the plant based diet, separately, within their own research, took patients with advance heart disease, and put them on the kind of diet followed by the African and Asians population sited above, and their patients got better— as their LDL cholesterol levels dramatically decreased, so too did the plaque in their arteries, resulting in improved circulation to their heart (Esslestyn, 2010).

Endotoxemia:  A single fast food meal of sausage and egg McMuffins can stiffen your arteries within hours, and this reduced elasticity will last for around 5 hours.  Eating these kinds of meat and fat laden foods daily shifts the gut microflora toward endotoxic producing bacteria, and when these kind of bacteria (or their cell wall parts, such as LPSs) enter into circulation, our immune system reacts causing the stiffening of arteries (Vogel, 1997).  Cardiac patients can experience relief [from angina] when placed on a diet composed primarily of plant foods (Ornish, 1998).

Note: This week I focused on the Beta Glucan High Potency Synbiotic, and its relevance in lowering cholesterol and reducing endotoxemia.  In subsequent emails we will focus on the other three products.

Bibliography:

• Benjamin MM., & Roberts. WC. (2013). Facts and principles learned at the 19^th Annual Williamsburg Conference on Heart Disease. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent); 26(2): 124-36.
• Campbell et al. (1998). Diet, lifestyle, and the etiology of coronary artery disease: the Cornell China Study. Am J Cardio; 82(108): 18T-21T.
• De Biase et al. (2007). Vegetarian diet and cholesterol and triglycerides levels. Arq. Bras Cardiol; 88(1): 35-9.
• Erridge, C. (2011). The capacity of foodstuffs to induce innate immune activation of human monocytes in vitro is dependent on food content of stimulants of Toll-like receptors 2 and 4. Br J Nutr; 105(1): 15-23.
• Esslestyn, C.B. (2010). Is the present therapy for coronary artery disease the radical mastectomy of the twenty-first century? Am J Cardiol; 106(6): 902-4.
• Myerburg, R.J., & Junttila M.J. (2012). Sudden cardiac death cause by coronary heart disease. Circulation 28; 125 (8): 1043-52.
• Ornish et al. (1998). Intensive lifestyle changes for reversal of coronary heart disease. JAMA; 280(23): 2001-7.
• Shaper A.G., & Jones K.W. (1959). Serum-cholesterol, diet, and coronary heart disease in Africans, and Asians in Uganda. Int J Epidemiol; 41(5): 1221-5.
• Trumbo, P.R., & Shimakawa T. (2011). Tolerable upper intake levels for trans fats, saturated fat, and cholesterol. Nutr Res; 69(5): 270-5.
• Vogel et al. (1997). Effect of a single high-fat meal on endothelial function in healthy subjects. Am J Cardiol; 79(3): 350-4.