Healthy Bytes

347 words, about 2 minutes

We talked about cholesterol yesterday. Today we’re going to talk about inflammation.

Some 30 years ago, Dr. Kilmer McCully of Harvard Medical School discovered that a high blood level of homocysteine was a strong marker of heart attack risk.

Homocysteine is a toxic amino acid that irritates the blood vessel lining and causes inflammation. Too much homocysteine and your blood vessels can’t dilate adequately… not enough blood flow to heart… heart attack. (Also, not enough blood to the brain… stroke).

Dr. McCully wasn’t given much attention and credibility.

Fast forward to 2003, Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Boston published a massive longitudinal study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

This study showed the C-reactive protein (CRP) was the best predictor of heart attack and stroke risk.

C-reactive protein is a protein manufactured by the liver and released in response to inflammation.

So – homocysteine creates inflammation.
C-reactive protein responds to inflammation.

Why should we care about inflammation?
Inflammation weakens blood vessels causing them to rupture. CHOLESTEROL (remember that) patches the holes. The body needs cholesterol, that’s why it naturally manufactures it.

Ok, let’s take it a step further.
The common perception is that your artery is like a pipe and cholesterol builds up making the diameter of that “pipe” thinner and thinner until nothing can get through.
Not true.

There’s injury to the artery wall which develops a little pimple in response. That pimple fills with cholesterol. If that pimple ruptures, the body responds by releasing a blood clot. If the clot is big enough, it can block the artery. That can result in a heart attack.

What to do?

Work with your doctor and get your CRP measured.
To lower your homocysteine: B6, B12, Folic Acid.
To lower your CRP – exercise. Even a small bit of exercise 5 times a week can lower your CRP 30%.
Brush your teeth. People with gum disease have more heart attacks. Bacteria from your mouth makes its way into the blood stream, causes inflammation and you now know the rest. Brush your teeth, floss, get regular check ups and cleanings.

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Tags: Health, heart-disease

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 8:40 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.