Kevin’s Corner on Exercise and Nutrition

I have thought about this topic for a long time. Some say I have dwelled on it too much, but when you have had so many members taken out at an early age by High Cholesterol and Heart Disease or are currently suffering from the complications of cardiovascular disease, you tend to think about it a lot. My father died of a heart attack at the tender age of 61 after struggling with strokes and cardiovascular disease for over 10 years. His last stroke was a whopper. It was really hard to watch him struggle to communicate the way he used to. He had such a great sense of humor and a passion for living. My father was not very good about his diet or cigarette smoking, but I believe that if he really truly understood the options that he had to live a much, much longer life, I think he would have chosen differently.

Here is the list of my relatives who have either died or are suffering from the complications of cardiovascular disease. It is a rather long list, not sure how complete it is.

• Dad, strokes through 50 years. quadruple bypass surgery. 61.
• Uncle (Dad’s  side), quadruple bypass surgery. Overweight, Type II Diabetes.
• 2 Half Brothers and Cousins with Type II Diabetes.
• Grandfather (Mother’s side), died at age 63. Heart Attack. Started with hypertension in his 30’s and stroke in early 50’s. Started taking nitro glycerin in his late 50’s. Letter carrier for the USPS, so he was pretty active in his work. Wasn’t overweight and he was not a smoker.
• Grandmother (Mother’s side), died at age 73 heart attack. Heart Attack in her early 60’s after grandfather passed a way. She had two  bypass surgeries.
• Great Grandmother (Mother’s side), Died at age 66. Stroke and Heart Failure.
• Great Grandfather (Mother’s side), died at age 42. Heart Attack
• Uncle (Mother’s side). At the age of 43, had a heart attack. triple bypass surgery saved his life. He has struggled with this disease from this period on. He is now in his late 60’s.
• Uncle (Mother’s side). At the age of 50, suffered angina, had triple bypass surgery.
• Mother had 3 stints put in at 57 years old. She takes cholesterol medication and a blood thinner called Plavix. She also suffers from arthritis.

My doctor would say that because of this rather long list of family members suffering from or dying from cardiovascular disease, that I have a hereditary predisposition to cardiovascular disease.  Well, I can’t disagree that there is a preponderance of evidence stacked against me.  I also don’t disagree that genetics is key link here, but does that answer the burning question?

If Genetics is not the cause of High Cholesterol and Heart Disease, than what is the cause?

If you look at my families lifestyles and more particularly their diets, it isn’t any different that pretty much every person and family I have ever met. We all know that there is a huge epidemic of obesity in this country and we know that the typical American Diet is crap. So, why do only some people suffer from obesity and others get struck with a much more debilitating and life threatening disease like high cholesterol and heart disease? If heredity is such a large factor in this equation for accessing risk, why do a number of my family members not suffer from cardiovascular disease yet they shared the same lifestyles and diets?

Scientifically;

• We know that grains or other sources of Omega 6 are inflammatory.
• We also know that the bodies natural response to inflammation is the production of Cholesterol along with numerous other inflammation responses like CRP and IL-6.
• We also know that High Cholesterol is the leading factor in the beginnings of heart disease.

So, why doesn’t every American who partakes in the ritual of eating unhealthy foods and do not exercise or lead healthy lifestyles not all suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease?

It is my belief that allergies are the cause or at least another major underlying cause of cardiovascular disease particularly High Cholesterol and Heart Disease. Type II Diabetes and High Blood Pressure are different beasts which I will get into later, but they are both diseases or symptoms of an underlying inflammation response. I had suffered from High Blood Pressure, but have since gotten it under control.

We all know someone who suffer from Allergies;

• We know that in some people certain flowers or sources of pollen cause a dramatic histamine response
• Someone who is allergic to nuts can go into anaphylactic shock
• People who are allergic to poison ivy or other types of allergens will immediately get a severe skin rash

So, why shouldn’t we think about these cardiovascular diseases and treat them the same way we treat an allergy.

• Would you visit a rose garden if you were allergic to roses?
• Would you continue to eat nuts if you were allergic to them?
• You get my point.

Numerous books give extensive details on how to do elimination diets to isolate and identify types of food that you are allergic to.

I am following this protocol by being on the Paleo Diet and have been able to now determine that I am allergic to eggs. Whenever I eat a large portion of eggs or  a product that has egg in it, I have extremely sore legs within 24 hours. Whenever I get inflammation, it manifests itself in my leg muscles. Probably because I am a runner and have the most scar tissue in my legs.

I am currently reading two books, “The Inflammation Cure” and “The Inflammation Syndrome”. There is an amazing body of work in this field.

Have you ever heard the Analogy, “It’s like peeling an onion”?

In the tech field where I work, when we troubleshoot an issue a lot of times it is like peeling an onion. When you start to dissect the issue you continue to get to lower or more deeper underlying causes of a problem.

If you were to apply this analogy to heart disease what we are seeing today in the scientific community is  much like peeling an onion.

1. People were starting to die a lot more by what we understood as heart failure.
2. We then discovered that the hearts of the people dying were clogged up with plaque.
3. We then identified Cholesterol as the culprit for the clotting
4. In the technical field when we find something we call a workaround we usually implement if we cannot determine the underlying cause of a problem. So, if we can workaround a symptom that causes a larger problem we do it. This is what medical science is doing today. They are treating high cholesterol and the other factors like blocked arteries that are leading to death.
   1. Statins
   2. Open Heart bypass surgery
   3. Stints
   4. etc…
5. A majority of doctors have stopped there. They stopped peeling the onion.
6. Now we are starting to understand why people are getting high cholesterol and other cardiovascular diseases like Type II Diabetes and High Blood Pressure
7. We are finding that Inflammation is causing or is a major cause in a lot of these diseases.
8. So, we are now getting close to core of the onion or at least we hope we are. We are trying to answer this question now; Where does the inflammation come from and what are the other causes of cardiovascular disease?

If we can answer this question we will be that much closer to a cure for what is killing a majority of our population and our families.

Thanks for reading.

Kevin