Listen to your Heart.

Before… you tell him goodbye.

 

First. A shout-out to the hubby for the reminder of that AHH-MAZING song. And for the following Roxette-powered walk around the neighborhood.

 

Anyway. Valentine’s Day is this Sunday and I am taking the time to explore my heart. I think I’ve got the basics. It pumps blood. I need it to live. But what can I do to take care of it? Perhaps keep it around a bit longer.

Heart disease is America’s #1 killer. Fatty deposits build up in our arteries–particularly those around the heart. Ya know–the ones that give your heart muscles blood so it can keep pump, pump, pumping away.

According to Dr. Michael Greger in How Not To Die (grim, i know), the first symptom of heart disease is often also your last. You feel fine, and then, whoops, you die from fat-filled arteries. So–pretty important to not let your arteries get fat-filled to begin with.

And it’s not genes, it’s diet. When people move from a low-risk area (like central Africa) to a high-risk area (like the US) “the disease rates skyrocket” (Greger,19). People move, they eat more crappy American food, they get sick.

So if it’s diet, it’s a choice. Put fatty food in your body, clog up your arteries. Eat plants and fiber, save your heart.

Now this book is awesome. I’ve just read this chapter on How Not to Die From Heart Disease, but it’s great. Very readable. Enjoyable, yet terrifying. And chock-full of great research like the following:

300 autopsies on American soldiers who died in the Korean War showed that 77% of these twenty-ish aged lads already had “visible evidence of coronary atherosclerosis. Some even had arteries that were blocked off 90 percent or more.” (21)

So keep in mind, this is BEFORE the crazy amount of fast food we have today. Keep in mind these are soldiers–who I feel must have had to pass some sort of basic level of fitness to be able to fight. Keep in mind these soldiers probably had blood work that must have shown them as healthy enough to fight. Keep in mind this is the 50’s when there was way less obesity in our country.

I’m just going to say EEK. ‘Cuz i’m pretty sure no one would clear me for battle.

I mean, if there’s this much fat hanging out on my muscles and tummy, how much is sitting in my arteries?

So as Dr. Gregor points out, I’m not just looking to prevent heart disease, I’m looking to reverse the damage I have clearly already done. I think we can all agree without the use of x-rays or other imaging tools that I must have some issues in this department.

Dr. Gregor cites William C. Roberts, the editor in chief of the American Journal of Cardiology as naming elevated LDL cholesterol in your blood as “the only critical risk factor” (21) for plaque build-up. He says apparently you can be “an obese, diabetic, smoking couch potato and still not develop atherosclerosis…as long as the cholesterol level in your blood is low enough.” (22)

So. Stop eating so much:

• trans fat (processed food, meat, dairy)
• saturated fat (animal products and junk food)

Animal products= cholesterol= heart disease= death.

According to my book, this process starts even before birth. Babies (who died shortly after birth) were more likely to have arterial lesions if their mothers had high LDL. One study of older children discovered that fatty streaks “were found in nearly all American children by the age ten.” (21)

So what the hell did I do to my kiddo in the womb? I ate a SHIT-TON of burgers while I was pregnant. And steak. And milk. It’s all I craved. How are my poor son’s arteries doing?

A Look at My Cholesterol

LDL is how the cholesterol gets dumped in your arteries. Ya know, it’s the bad cholesterol. Studies show a clear correlation between cholesterol levels and atherosclerosis. If a low LDL is the saving-grace for your heart, then…

How low, is low enough?

My book says 50-70 mg/dL for your LDL. And the lower the better. “That’s the level seen at birth, that’s the level seen in populations largely free of heart disease.”

My latest LDL is 62.

The chart shows under 100 is what is recommended.

I feel so… healthy? My LDL is within range. That’s some good news.

The book also says an LDL of 70 corresponds to a total cholesterol of about 150. This is the level below “which no deaths from coronary heart disease were reported in the famous Framingham Heart Study.”

I don’t know this study, but it sounds like we should aim to have a total cholesterol level below 150.

Mine is 162.

The current goal for Americans is to have it under 200 according to my lab report.

So… my LDL is ok, but my total cholesterol sounds high.

I am not a doctor and I don’t know what this means.

But here is my best guess/google result.

HDL Cholesterol: “The Good Cholesterol” – WebMD

Your total cholesterol is High, but your level of “bad” LDL cholesterol is optimal. This could mean you have a high level of high-density lipoprotein, or “good” HDLcholesterol, which protects against heart disease.

Oh happy days. I feel… healthy. Again.

BUT.

This website (credible?) says there are TWO kinds of HDL. One is good, one actually helps contribute to heart disease. You have to get an expanded lipid profile to figure that one out.

Always something new to worry about. I’ll have to get back to you on that.

BUT the good news–heart disease is reversible. A study of folks with advanced heart disease that got put on a plant-based diet showed that “as soon as they stopped eating an artery-clogging diet, their bodies were able to start dissolving away some of the plaque that had built up.” (24).

Biggest take-away: “Your body wants to regain its health if you let it.”

Dr. Greger illustrates this with the idea of whacking you shin on a table. If you step back, it’ll heal. But if you keep whacking it (eating badly) it’ll keep hurting. You could even go to the doctor to get meds for the pain, all the while continuing to whack your leg. You’ve fixed the pain, but haven’t done shit about the underlying cause of the pain.

I’m just going to pause, smack my forehead, and say duh. But holy crap! Do many of us actually LET our bodies heal and be healthy the way they want to? It sounds so simple. But we, as a society, are clearly just fucking this up.

And it’s not just that we are clogging up our arteries with these yummy/unhealthy choices. There’s actually more bad news.

Eating crappy food also affects the functioning of your arteries. A study showed that just one Sausage and Egg McMuffin “can stiffen your arteries within hours, cutting in half their ability to relax normally. And just as this inflammatory state starts to calm down five or six hours later–lunchtime!” (25)

So, not sure exactly why inflamed arteries are bad. But it doesn’t sound good. I mean, inflammation usually hurts.

Like chest pain kind of hurt. Another study found that putting people suffering from angina on a plant-based diet lowered their occurrence of chest pain within weeks- much faster than “their bodies could have cleared the plaque from their arteries.” (25)

This book is making a pretty good argument for eating lots of plants and not so much meat. Another example:

Brazil nuts. Four nuts a month lowered cholesterol levels. This study was only done on 10 people–so completely not scientific evidence. But it can’t hurt right? 4 nuts in a month. The good doctor does warn against eating too many–they contain high levels of selenium, so eating too many good put you over the “tolerable daily limit.”

So NOW What?

Eating plant-based meals is not foreign to me. I’ve got several vegetarian cookbooks I love and often cook out of them. Well, let me rephrase. When I cook, it is often out of them. And it’s tasty and yummy.

But so is steak. And cheese.

And we are back to the balance question again.

But the thing that is really sticking with me from this day of researching heart disease is the inflammation issue. Why keep putting your body through that kind of strain? I mean, I’m plenty stressed as a person anyway. I don’t need my arteries all inflamed and tense as well.

And the fact that I apparently rarely cut my body a fucking break. If a plant-based meal gives the body a chance to rest and start to heal, don’t I want to do that as much as possible? I mean–I quit my job in order to heal. The least I can do now is eat a fucking salad.

So, though Valentine’s Day often refers to matters of the heart in terms of love, I am forcing, inviting my family to partake in a day of heart-healthy meals and activities. A time to treat our heart and arteries to some rest.

I mean. You gotta take care of it… before you tell it goodbye.