I’m back from my Diabetes, Cholesterol, and Thyroid Seminar, oh my gosh was it fantastic!  Our speaker was a Dr. Kleber from Colorado, and not only was he smart as a whip, but he had a serious gift for public speaking.  He wowed us!

I’ve got a lot of information I want to pass on to you all, and some of it I’ll do in my blog posts.  However, I want to do a couple talks in the next 2 weeks so that if you live local, I can really help you understand why what you eat and how you live affects your blood sugar regulation, which affects not only your Weight, but your risk of Diabetes, Heart Disease, Thyroid issues and more. I’ll be posting those dates by tomorrow.

The more I learn, the more it’s drilled into me that it’s All About The Food.  We’re NOT deficient in pharmacuticals or over the counter medications like anti-inflammatories or antacids;  food breaks down to nutrients that build our body and our mind; it matters what we eat.  Let me rephrase that:  food has nutrients that build and repair us.  Repair, as in, fixing the damage from Heart Disease and Diabetes, and even auto-immune issues; repair as in switching your body from primairly burning sugar/glucose, to primarily burning fatty acids.

Here’s a few facts on Cholesterol and Heart Disease:

*75% of people who have Myocardial Infarctions/heart attacks, have NORMAL levels of LDL

*80% of people in the Framingham study (on-going since 1948, tens of thousands of men and women are participating) who have an “event” had cholesterol levels identical to the population that was/is event free.

* Cholesterol is a REALLY REALLY bad predictor of Heart Disease, but if it’s a certain number, your doctor will put you on a statin anyway.

There’s a test now, called the VAP test, I’ve had it, that measures the Particle Size and Density of your cholesterol.  This is important to know, and easy to get.  Cholesterol is mainly made in the liver, and the liver directs it to areas of damage or need (remember, it’s a Repair molecule, a building block, and an Antioxidant).   But EVERY SINGLE CELL IN OUR BODY can and does make cholesterol.  Is this some giant mistake God made??  Is He sitting up there lamenting this design flaw?? NO.   If we didn’t have cholesterol plugging up our arteries after all the crap we put in our bodies to damage them, we’d have an arterial breakthru and die.  Instead, we have this NUTRIENT that the liver sends out time after time for years to plug and patch the trauma sites.  This adds years to our life. The bad side is these plaque patches get bigger and bigger, depriving the heart and brain of oxygen.

So why the VAP test?  What is this about particle size and density?  Isn’t it just about “good” cholesterol and “bad” cholesterol?  No.  It turns out there’s BAD HDL (yep), and non-damaging LDL.  The picture has changed in the past few years, but if your doctor is pushing a statin for a  total cholesterol value of 200, he’s still living in the past.  The VAP test is easy, and cheap, and most insurance companies are doing it.  ASK FOR IT, and if your doctor doesn’t know how to read it, find a doctor who does.

There are 5 types of HDL (that they know of now, one is a pretty recent discovery),  only 1 of them – HDL 2b, is highly Cardio Protective.  HDL 3b may actually be associated with an INcreased risk of heart disease.

What about LDL, the “bad” stuff?  If it’s high on your lipid profile, above 100, your doctor will want to put you on a statin to lower it, except….. Statins Don’t Lower LDL – statins lower TOTAL cholesterol.   (Some LDL cholesterol is actually a repair molecule anyway – why would we want to lower that?)   LDL size and density matters, a lot.  Big, fluffy LDLs do NO damage, small, dense LDL DOES.  The doctor said to think of the LDLs as beach balls or bowling balls going thru your arteries, banging into the arterial wall.  Which ones do you think would be a problem?

Here’s something super scary:  Beta Blockers(for heart disease), Thiazide and Loop Diuretics (for high blood pressure and edema), and Insulin (for diabetics who’s number one cause of death is heart disease)  all CAUSE A SHIFT IN LDL TO A SMALLER, DENSER FORM.  Hmmmm.  Aren’t people on those meds to make them “well”, but instead one of the side effects is potential arterial damage?

The worst LDL identified so far?  Lp (a), which is 10x more atherogenic than LDL-C.  Why would our body make Lp(a)?  Because it’s a REPAIR molecule for arteries; here’s the kicker:  if you have the NUTRIENTS available to fix the damage – Lp(a) WOULDN’T BE CALLED IN.   There’s also the whole “don’t cause any damage in the first place” argument too.

What damages arteries?  Sugar/flours/Glucose (toxic),  Insulin, Chemicals from: cigarettes, drugs, cleaning products, body care products, “food products”/i.e. fake foods; bad oils/hydrogenated oils, free radicals, cortisol from emotional stress, and homocysteine.

Can arterial damage be reversed or prevented?  Absolutely!! Again, it’s Food,( and supplements, and stress management, and exercise).  The choices we make everyday add up.  They matter.  A little Diet Soda here, a little pasta there, fried food at the fair, school lunches, weekly stops at the convenience store, Starbucks chemical coffees, too much beer, constant snacking,  etc etc.  It all adds up.  Everything we do matters.

Tomorrow I’ll have those dates for you, plus some interesting info on diabetes.  Eat Real Whole Foods!