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Michael Jackson died of heart failure, you don't have to
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Michael Jackson in healthier days
The recent sudden and surprising death or Michael Jackson has brought to light many questions about the cause of his death, cardiac arrest, and also about the prevention of heart disease in general. Let's discuss some basic facts from a Natural Health perspective.
“Of all the nutritional myths perpetuated today, I can think of no greater fiction than the cholesterol scare.” writes Kurt W. Donspach, D.C., N.D., Ph.D. in his book Nutrition in Action. Cholesterol, including LDL cholesterol which has been demonized by the medical community, is actually necessary for the body to build healthy cells, create some hormones, bile and Vitamin D. Believe it or not, your cholesterol can actually be too low, if you are not ingesting enough LDL cholesterol, your body will manufacturer it. Cholesterol is also an anti-oxident, a substance the body needs to prevent free radical damage and disease. It is highly likely that high cholesterol is a symptom of disease and general poor health, rather than the cause and yet cholesterol lowering drugs were a $26 billion industry in 2005. Why? Because it is easier and more lucrative to blame the problem on something for which doctors can prescribe expensive drugs than to except patients to make the necessary changes in diet and lifestyle.
High cholesterol is a factor, and never the only factor, in less than 50% of all heart related incidents. Problems arise only when LDL cholesterol becomes damaged or oxidized by free radicals. The real problem behind heart disease is inflammation of the blood vessels. The lining of the blood vessels is a very thin, sensitive tissue called the endothelium, under the endothelium is the subendothelium and under that is a muscular layer. When the endothelium is injured by free radicals, homocysteine or oxidized LDL cholesterol the LDL cholesterol can pass into the subendothelium where it becomes oxidized and begins to irritate the lining of the artery. The body then releases a certain type of white blood cell called a monocyte which, under ideal circumstances, gobbles up the nasty oxidized cholesterol and the damaged is repaired, the problem over. Unfortunately, for many of us, there are just too many oxidized LDL cholesterol particles running around. Our monocytes gets stuffed full and become foam cells. Not only do foam cells not repair our endothelium but they can become stuck on fibrin, a substance the body uses, among other things, to repair tears in the artery walls. While all of this gunk is building up in your artery walls, they are narrowing and hardening creating high blood pressure and setting the stage for the development of plaque. It doesn't matter then how high your cholesterol is, only how much of the LDL cholesterol is oxidized. Preventing oxidation is easy, eat healthy with lots colorful fruits and vegetables, and make sure you are getting plenty of vitamin E & C as well as the nutrients your body needs to make the anti-oxident gluthione: selenium, B2, niacin, and N-acetyl-L-cysteine.
In addition to oxidized cholesterol, there are two other primary concerns when preventing inflammation of the blood vessels. Homocysteine is an intermediate byproduct that we produce when our bodies metabolize an essential amino acid called methionine which is found in meats, eggs, milk, cheese, canned food and highly processed foods. Under ideal conditions, homocysteine is simply converted back into methionine or cysteine, another benign product, but in a poorly nourished body, the vitamins B12, B6 and folic acid are not available in the amounts necessary make this conversion and homocysteine levels begin to rise. In addition to the oxidative stress damage homocysteine causes, “it is estimated that by itself, an elevated homocysteine level in the blood is responsible for aproximately 15 percent of all heart attacks and strokes in the world today.” Ray Strand M.D. writes in his book What Your Doctor Doesn't Know About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You. There is no safe levels of homocysteine in the body, you should ask to be tested for it and take the necessary dietary cautions.
The third concern is free radical damage. Free radicals are cells in which the molecules have been damaged leaving an unpaired electron which bounces around trying to steal an electron from the nearest available stable molecules. When this happens, it begins a chain reaction in which a molecule that has lost an electron, now known as a free radical, steals an electron from another molecule and so on resulting in a disruption of the whole cell creating a process referred to as oxidative stress. Along with causing cancer, autoimmune diseases, neurogenerative diseases and accelerating the aging process, free radicals can damage the endothelium of the artery opening it up for the build up of oxidized cholesterol and foam cells. Caused by stress, processed foods, exercise, the sun, just about every thing we do, free radicals are a fact of life, unavoidable but we can minimize their damage by eating a diet rich in clean, colorful healthy foods and considering vitamin and mineral supplementation.
Next week: Your pH balance and disease, including heart disease.
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