Raising Functional HDL To Fight Atherosclerosis

[MichaelJH]

An interesting piece of research just published:

medicalnewstoday.com/articl...

[Milkfairy Heart Star]

Very interesting....

It is true you can always find some research some where to support your life style choices!

I found this one about yoga🧘‍♀️ and how it may increase HDL levels😂

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2...

[Henry20]

Michael

Many thanks for posting this. It is certainly a very interesting article.

It makes me speculate about many aspects of current treatment and monitoring of us who have heart disease in any of it's multitude of forms.

My initial query (to anyone) is about inflammation.

How local is inflammation internally? It would appear that some of us can have both a clear artery and a blocked one simultaneously as plaque build-up is non-uniform (it certainly was for me).

How does my diet cause inflammation?

For example: Can I eat anything that reduces it, or is it that some foods cause inflammation whilst others do not? If so what is it in our food that is a trigger? (From other threads, I wonder if there is an obvious culprit - refined sugar; but that is speculation on my part.)

Once an artery has become inflamed, how long does it last?

Does vigorous exercise aid the reduction of inflammation in some way, or is exercise protective in some other way?

Is the increased blood flow during exercise simply increasing the rate at which LDL fragments get back to the liver for reprocessing? (If this is part of the mechanism, then why do fit and active people have heart attacks etc?)

Are there any ways in which I can tell if I am becoming internally inflamed? If not, are there any medical tests to measure inflammation, eg changes in the blood that can be used as markers?

I then have many thoughts about cholesterol, its level in the blood and fats .....

Henry

[fergusthegreat]

So if you can reduce high blood sugar and possibly insulin resistance and make your HDL more functional it might be possible to reverse atherosclerosis.

Whilst we wait for the new drugs, anyone wanting to try this as an additional way to try to combat their heart disease could try to lower there blood sugar by eating less simple carbohydrate rich foods.

Didn't we just delete some posts with Ivor Cummings saying exactly this.

[Adaboo in reply to fergusthegreat]

This is the path I chose, although it may not be right for everyone! I had a duplex scan last week to see what progression of plaque I have in 2 arteries that are pretty blocked. My blood velocity has improved in one from 7.5 to 40, and another from 6.31 to 19. Surgeon was suitably surprised and puts it down to exercise and diet. I am now off the surgery list for the time being. 😁😁

I can’t say plaque has regressed, it’s possibly collateral vessels have grown, who knows. But I’m chuffed to bits!

Disclaimer. Before I get jumped on again! I don’t recommend anyone to follow what I’m doing, you need to speak to your own GP/ surgeon. 😊

[Red18 in reply to Adaboo]

Hellooooo Adaboo. Could I please ask what diet you follow to have that progression of plaque? Well done you! Thankyou

[Adaboo in reply to Red18]

Hi Red,thanks for your kind words, can’t be sure it’s regressed or if it’s collateral vessels that have grown. I follow low carb ( not keto) normally around 50-70 grams a day and med healthy fat. I’ve cut sugar and the useless carbs, bread, rice, potatoes and pasta, no processed food, plus I try to fast after dinner overnight for 14-16 hours. I eat lots of veg, and grow most of my own now 😁.

[Henry20]

Londinium

Many thanks for your useful reply. I've got Kendick's latest book a couple of months ago and it seems to make a lot of sense to me although I struggle with the detail in the science). Never had a CRP (c-reactive protein) blood test, I haven't heard of it before. So thanks.

I've also come across Cummins and have never been sure about what he is saying, given his non-medical background. I think I'll revisit him on his channel. At least Kendrick's book contains many references, which I can get at and read, and see that he is largely simplifying the complexities, maybe, but he is reflecting what is written in refereed papers. As you say I have to make my own decisions, but I am cautious.

(Statins were disagreeing with me so stopped them - doctor knows, I had an interesting discussion with him). Taking any drug for the rest of my life means (a personal view) I really am needing to put a lot of trust in a system which doesn't help itself where statins are concerned.

I do make most of my own food and also cook my own bread. So most of the time I am in control of what I eat. I tried a plant only based diet, and just couldn't get on with it.

To explain a little more - the CAD (no HA) was a bolt out of the blue over a year ago now. Since then I have stopped drinking and changed my diet as far as I can to eat less fat and red meat meat (now a real rare item on my diet sheet). I also reduced the fat intake and what I did eat were high in unsaturates. However, I have been steadily loosing weight and this is continuing. As I was borderline underweight to begin with, I am now down to my weight as a teenager before A-levels. It cannot continue without me getting into other problems, I need at least 10-14 lbs.

I also need to get energy from somewhere; fats or carbs. My diet is biassed towards carbs at the moment (but I try not to eat foods with refined sugar - not totally successful here).

So, if I cut down on carbs, potatoes/ bread etc, the fat intake has to go up. Really, I think I can only do this by eating more of things that I currently try to avoid.

My reading will continue - I envy your level of access to the medical world. At the moment, many I see (although not all), seem very dogmatic.

Cheers and thanks

Henry

As a PS Many thanks for the references. I'll start on them this evening as the day is fully booked! Thanks for your time and trouble, I really do appreciate it.