Arterial Plaques (atherosclerosis)

[ANC]

Hi Dr. Steve,

First of all I salute your homemade wine gift idea :thumbup:.

Two people I know of have recently had coronary problems related to arterial plaque build up. The more I hear of people suffering from a heart attack or needs a heart procedure I hear "arterial plaque" more and more being the cause. What is it exactly made up of, what causes the build up, and are there any nutritional measures one could take to reduce the risk?

Thanks,

Anthony

[Dr Steve]

Hi Dr. Steve,

First of all I salute your homemade wine gift idea :thumbup:.

ha ha, thanks! I thought they'd appreciate the humor behind "Suk Mai Pinot", but wow was I wrong! :-) Listen for our response on the December 27th Weird Medicine! :smile:



Two people I know of have recently had coronary problems related to arterial plaque build up. The more I hear of people suffering from a heart attack or needs a heart procedure I hear "arterial plaque" more and more being the cause. What is it exactly made up of, what causes the build up, and are there any nutritional measures one could take to reduce the risk?

http://www.stayinginshape.com/3osfcorp/libv/libgraph/artery_plaque.gif

Arterial "plaque" is composed of blood cells called "macrophages" that have taken up a lot of "Low Density Lipoprotein" or LDL. LDL is commonly known as "Bad Cholesterol", which explains why doctors are so concerned about cholesterol these days.

Here's a nice up-chucky photo of a real atherosclerotic plaque:

http://www.cirse.org/files/fotoalbum/0001_0002_1164809157_0001.jpg

every time you smoke a cigarette or eat a sausage biscuit, think of that picture...it'll help curb your appetite for such things :smile:.

Decreasing your LDL is a very cool thing to do. Also, INCREASING your HDL (high density lipoprotein, or "good cholesterol") is also a good thing. If you can get your Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio to equal 3 or less (i.e., have 1/3 of your total cholesterol be the good kind), you will be at decreased risk for atherosclerosis. For example, somone with a total cholesterol of 180 should have an HDL of 60 to have decreased risk. Your health care provider can do a simple blood test to dope out these numbers for you. If you have really bad numbers, drugs called "Statins" (Zocor, Lipitor, Crestor are examples) have been proven to reverse plaque formation and to decrease heart attacks and stroke.

If your numbers aren't that bad, "therapeutic lifestyle changes" will be prescribed. Some of these things you can do without medicine include:

1) A low-fat diet
2) regular exercise (increases HDL)
3) use olive oil or canola oil exclusively
4) drink 4 oz red wine or 4 oz red grape juice daily
5) increase soluble fiber in your diet (Citrucel, 2 scoops/day in 16 oz H2O, increase oat bran intake, etc.)
6) switch from butter to "Smart Balance"

There's a bunch of other crap you can do...your health care provider will have a ton of handouts on this if you're interested!

hope this helps!


your friend,


steve

[ANC]

ha ha, thanks! I thought they'd appreciate the humor behind "Suk Mai Pinot", but wow was I wrong! :-) Listen for our response on the December 27th Weird Medicine! :smile:



Me and my wife were cracking up when we heard that... well played sir :thumbup:... Can't wait to hear the new show!

Thanks for the info Doc! I should get my cholesterol checked just to see what my number is. Although I have had bloodwork done and haven't heard anything negative about it. The doc simply said it's normal. I was realy asking about it for preventative info. Looking at that picture, I know I'll do all I can to avoid it.

On the plus side I have a pretty healthy diet. Oatmeal everyday for breakfast, Whole Grain Breads, lean meats and plenty of vegetable. Also almost anything I cook I use olive oil. It looks like the 2 biggest things I have to work on is quitting smoking (which is high on my priority list now) and getting myself up and excercising again.

Thanks again buddy!

Anthony