@Gman86 Atherosclerosis is
thickening or hardening of the arteries caused by a buildup of plaque in the inner lining of an artery. Risk factors may include high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, obesity, physical activity, and eating saturated fats.
I don't eat red meats since 20 years ago just eat fish and chicken. I am puzzled about your position on LDL/HDL although, I like your motivational posting I don't smoke I weigh about 178-180lbs. I do not eat sweets yet my A1c is high. What is your personal lipid panel? Do you have any family history of Cardiac issues?
I know it’s confusing as all hell, trust me, I COMPLETELY get it lol. It’s very very difficult to believe that cholesterol isn’t the cause of cardiovascular diseases, like atherosclerosis, when cholesterol is partially what arterial plaque is made up.
Arterial plaque
“This plaque is made up of cholesterol, fatty substances, calcium, cellular waste products, and fibrin, a clotting material in the blood. It builds up in the inner lining of arteries, causing them to thicken and stiffen. This process is called atherosclerosis, which is a type of arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. As plaque builds up, it narrows the artery, reducing blood flow and the amount of oxygen and nutrients that reach the body. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes are risk factors for arterial plaque”
There’s no debating that plaque build in the arteries causes arterial narrowing, and can eventually get so bad that they occlude blood vessels completely, causing heart attacks and strokes. These plaques can also break off and form clots that can also cause heart attacks and strokes.
Plaque rupture
“When plaque becomes brittle or inflamed, it can break open or rupture. This can cause a blood clot to form inside the artery, which can narrow or completely block blood flow. A ruptured plaque can also break off and travel to smaller arteries, such as in the brain, where it can get stuck and cut off blood supply. This can lead to a stroke”
So I can absolutely see why people could think that cholesterol is the cause of cardiovascular disease. However, cholesterol is not the cause of these issues. The root cause of atherosclerosis, for example, is what is causing ur arteries to be stiff and crack in the first place, thus needing plaque to plug up the cracks. So yes, in a person that’s very metabolically unhealthy, and is going to have very unhealthy arteries/ blood vessel lining, there is an argument to keep cholesterol very low. But this is like women taking extremely high dosages of AI’s, in order to get their estrogen to basically zero, in order to prevent/ put breast cancer in remission. Or a man being on testosterone deprivation therapy, in order to prevent/ put prostate cancer into remission. Optimal levels of cholesterol, are not the cause of cardiovascular diseases, like atherosclerosis, just like optimal levels of estrogen isn’t the cause of breast cancer, and optimal levels of testosterone/ dht aren’t the cause of prostate cancer. And just like Estrogen and testosterone deprivation therapies comes with a HOST of negative consequences, cholesterol deprivation therapy is in the exact same boat. If there’s one thing in the body u don’t want to purposely lower, it’s cholesterol. Ur brain is mostly made up of cholesterol, and cholesterol is needed for so many extremely important processes within the body. That includes both HDL and LDL
So short story long, what u want to do, if avoiding all cardiovascular disease is the goal, is look at the root causes of it. Other than someone using steroids and increasing the size of their heart, causing it to not be able pump properly, most cardiovascular disease is caused by the same things. Basically poor circulation/ damaged blood vessels/ chronic inflammation. So now let’s go over what causes these things. Let’s start with blood vessels. U basically just want to keep them as healthy and pliable as possible. How do u go about this? Simple answer, stay as metabolically healthy as possible. Aka be as insulin sensitive as possible. People think they need to avoid carbs to achieve this. This simply isn’t the case. Being metabolically unhealthy comes mostly from consuming processed foods with crap oils in them. Bad oils negatively affect the body way more than something like high fructose corn syrup does. This is because HFCS is in and out of ur body, doing damage while in there, but again, it’s only in there for a brief time, each time. Crap oils, on the other hand, become part of ur cell membranes, when consumed, and negatively affect the body for MUCH longer periods of time. We’re talking months and months. I’ve heard they can negatively affect the body up to even 1-3 years. There’s plenty of vids I can send u on how these crap oils negatively affect the body, if u want to learn more. So without going into a ton of detail, when it comes to diet, just try to avoid processed foods, as much as u can, avoid crap oils/ crap fats, and avoid added sugars in foods. Obv I can go into much more detail than that, but that’s the basics. And just try to eat as much ruminant animal meat as possible/ animal products in general. These are going to be the foods that pack the most nutrition/ micronutrients, per calorie, that ur body requires to function properly/ be as metabolically healthy as possible, without coming with aspects of the food that mess with the body, once consumed. And then just do all the things that we all are aware of, in regards to getting our bodies to function as optimally as possible. Lift weights/ do HIT cardio at least 3 times per week, try to stay away from long distance/ long duration cardio (too much of a stressor to the body), optimize sleep the best that u can and decrease stress the best that u can, to name the main ones.
So those are some of the main ways to increase insulin sensitivity. Reason insulin sensitivity is so important is due to the fact that chronically elevated glucose levels in our blood wreak havoc on our circulatory system. Instead of going into great detail about why being insulin resistant is so bad for us/ bad for our circulatory/ cardiovascular system, I’ll paste something I wrote to someone, that relates, about how to optimize BP
“but speaking of vitamin K, K2 is an extremely important vitamin in regards to cardiovascular health and keeping the blood vessels nice and relaxed. K2 helps guide calcium to the parts of the body that it should go to. Like nails, bones and teeth, for a few examples, opposed to going to arteries where it can increase a persons risk of atherosclerosis (build up plaque in arteries that can cause narrowing of blood vessels) which can result in blood pressure increasing, since the same amount of blood has less space to fit through
-the other main thing is to keep ur fasting insulin levels as low as possible. Aka be as insulin sensitive as possible. Being insulin resistant will make ur blood vessels stiff and brittle, and have a huge impact on BP, obv in a negative way. Anytime cells are insulin resistant, insulin has less of an effect, and blood sugars stay elevated longer in the blood than they should. This does two main things. Sugar in the blood makes the blood thick and sticky. Think of things high in sugar. Honey, syrup, high fructose corn syrup, etc. U want ur blood thin and viscous. The other thing elevated sugar in the blood does is turn ur blood vessels hard and brittle. Consequently the blood vessels don’t flex as much, and cause blood pressure to increase. And on a side note, when elevated blood sugar levels cause the blood vessels to become brittle and stiff, they’re subject to cracking. Think of an old rubber band. When it’s new, it’s super flexible and stays in one piece. When it’s old and brittle it doesn’t stretch as much, and when u try to stretch it, it causes it to have a bunch of cracks. When this happens in the blood vessels, cholesterol then comes to fill in these cracks, which then cause plaque buildup, which then can cause narrowing of the blood vessels and blockages overtime
-Then u want to decrease inflammation as much as possible. The main offenders are usually pasteurized/ grain fed dairy (basically 99% of dairy people consume/ have access to), gluten and unhealthy fats/ oils.
-there’s obv other things u can do, like optimize sleep, and minimize stress. These will also have huge positive effects on BP when optimized”
Then as far as optimizing circulation goes, u just want to keep ur heart as healthy as possible, so it can pump blood as effectively/ efficiently as possible, and u want to obv keep ur blood vessels as clear as possible, and u want to keep ur blood the optimal consistency, as much as possible. To achieve these things, u basically do all the same things that I mentioned above, that u would do in order to prevent all cardiovascular disease
So hopefully all that helps u understand a bit more why cholesterol is not the enemy, and if u want to decrease ur risk of having any cardiovascular disease/ cardiovascular events, there’s many many things that will be much more beneficial, to focus on/ improve upon. Again, there’s an endless list of benefits that come from having optimal HDL, and LDL levels. Imo, based on all my research, an LDL level of around 200 is a good number to shoot for. I can send u a bunch of great vids where cardiologists explain all of LDL’s benefits, and why actively trying to lower it is a horrible idea
