The Diet of Sudden Death

Dr. Sal [00:00:00]:

If you're taking vitamins and you're trying to watch your your health, you're not gonna go out and start eating the fast foods, especially French fries or these fried foods that they have. Those are all trans fats. Welcome to the Health Quest podcast, your guide to God's will for your health. Hello. My name is doctor Sal, and I've been a practicing surgeon for well over 30 years. And my goal for each episode is that you'll be able to have your mind transformed to God's designed for good health and change and affect the way you eat and the way you live. If you're new here, We release a new episode every week. And if you enjoy the content, would you please leave us a good review? It really helps our ratings and allows our show to reach more people, and In turn, we could help those people.

Dr. Sal [00:00:59]:

So we'd like to thank you for your support. And on today's podcast, we'll be talking about atherosclerosis. So let's dive right into today's Health Quest podcast. Atherosclerosis, what is it? Well, it's a buildup of plaque in the artery walls, and, this is what's known to cause heart attacks and strokes and an onslaught of a multitude of symptoms such as dizziness, fatigue, weakness. If a plaque breaks off, it may end up resulting in if especially if it travels to the brain and it blocks a small artery up there, it could cause stroke. If it goes into the vessels of the lungs, it could cause a pulmonary emboli, And that, at that point, could be very fatal. Now some of the more milder ones are your transient ischemic attacks, and I've seen that in the emergency 2 rooms. I've seen them all actually.

Dr. Sal [00:01:58]:

But the ones where you might get blindness temporarily in the eye because a small little piece of plaque got released and blocked one of the arteries, to the eyeball where it affects your vision. Now atherosclerosis is, of course, associated with that famous term we call inflammation, and it's usually inflammation of the Thylial lining, those are the cells that line the walls of the vessel. What ends up happening is is when those endothelial cells become inflamed, it allows for the entry and retention of those low density lipoproteins. That's the LDL. That's the bad cholesterol. And now there's 2 types of LDLs. There's the a type, which is the large and buoyant one, and that's the one that's not able to get in between the endothelial cells. They're just too big.

Dr. Sal [00:02:47]:

And then the LDL type b are the smaller ones, and those are able to permeate between those endothelial cells, it ends up causing, the buildup of this plaque. Now this is not due to cholesterol, but oxidized cholesterol. So, we we discussed oxidation in, with the excess of, glucose and fructose metabolism, particularly in the polyol pathway that we discussed in a previous podcast. And so it it not only oxidizes as proteins, but it also oxidizes fat or cholesterol. And we're gonna demonstrate this in this photo that we're presenting to you. We'll see the different Levels of the buildup of plaque, we see the normal arterial wall that has the endothelial lining, and it's only 1 cell layer thick just like the intestines when we talked about leaky gut, it's only 1, cell layer thick. Behind that, we have the intima, which contains the collagen and the elastin, which are proteins, which gives it flexibility and maintains the endothelial cells in place. Behind that is the smooth muscle, So and then the adventitia is the so called outer coating of that.

Dr. Sal [00:04:02]:

And so what ends up happening is is you get a breakdown of The endothelial lining, and then you get the plaque that gets built up in the intima where the collagen and elastin is. And, eventually, what ends up happening is is this starts to thicken. And when it thickens, the smooth muscle then allows the wall to stretch out so as to keep the lumen, diameter of the of the artery normal so that you have normal blood flow. Now As that plaque starts to enlarge and that, the smooth muscle starts to bulge out, the inner lining starts to bulge inward. And what that inner lining will start doing, and that's part of the intima with the endothelial cells, it'll start to contract and stiffen so as to push open the, the lumen or the pipeline so that that blood continues to flow, normally. Now when it does that, as it's doing that to push it outwards, it stiffens. And as it stiffens To maintain that diameter of the artery, it could cause, an increase in blood pressure, and that's where you'll start to lose the compliance to the, to the arterial wall. So what are the causes? Well, we talked about inflammation, generated by abnormal metabolism of sugars.

Dr. Sal [00:05:29]:

And we talked about the ages, which is the advanced glycosylated, end products. And we talked about how that is not only detrimental to surrounding tissues, but It also stimulates the genes, in an inappropriate way. The reactive oxygen species, remember, these free radicals floating around. They're almost like bullets just being shot throughout the air. Whatever it strikes, it destroys, and that's what ends up happening to the tissue. So we as we could see between the free oxygen radicals and the AGEs, you get a breakdown of tissue, and it affects the epigenome producing more inflammation. And the second thing, and this is what we're gonna be talking about a lot in this podcast, is the trans fats. Now what is a trans fat? It's oxidized fats and oxidized cholesterol.

Dr. Sal [00:06:24]:

Think of oxidized tissue just like rust. What rust is is oxidized steel or iron. Okay? And so this knowledge was discovered by doctor Fred Kumarall. He's a PhD. And this is fascinating about this man, and I was really impressed with him. He was born in Team 14 and died in 2017. He was a 102 years old, and he was still doing research up until the age of a 101. He was a biochemist, and he received his, PhD at the University of Wisconsin who studied lipids or fats.

Dr. Sal [00:07:02]:

And he also developed a cure for, pellagra back in the, early 1900 or the 19 twenties thirties by having people put niacin or vitamin b 3 in their grits. And as I said before, he studied fats. But by the 19 fifties, heart disease was being studied considerably. Now I'm just gonna step back here a minute And talk to you about open heart surgery. The 1st open heart surgeries that were done in America were back in the 19 twenties, And there were 3 of them that were done. The first one succeeded. The second, and the third one failed because of postoperative infections. Again, remember, in 19 twenties, we didn't have antibiotics, folks.

Dr. Sal [00:07:45]:

At that time, the Whole community said no more surgeries to the heart. The heart is what holds the soul, and it We will not tolerate any doctor doing any surgery to the heart. But by the 19 fifties, heart Disease was being studied more and more. And back then, physicians believed that saturated fats from animal products, Meat, butter, cheese was the principal culprit in producing harmful cholesterol. Okay? So we're talking about something that was thought of back in the 19 fifties that we still think of today. 1957, doctor Kumar published his first paper on the dangers of trans fats. And these trans fats are created through an industrial process which hydrogenates or adds hydrogen atoms to these vegetable oils, and that's how we come up with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. And these oils, what it does is it makes them more sustainable and they could be stored longer as a result of that without getting without spoiling.

Dr. Sal [00:08:55]:

It also makes the oil or the food product that you're putting it into more solid at room temperature. So if you take and compare natural butters to, nut butters that have hydrogenated oils. And I won't mention any of the products. I can't. But, if you take, like, natural almond butter. Okay? And you open up the the lid, you'll see that there's a separation between the ground up Nuts, which is in a butter form, and the oil that sits up on top. And so what you have to do is you basically when you open one of those up, you have to mix the oil into the actual butter and it usually takes about takes me at least 10 minutes to do that. So to get it all even.

Dr. Sal [00:09:39]:

These hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils were used and still are used in margarine, deep fat frying, and countless forms of processed foods. So doctor Kummererl called these foods The diet of sudden death. Because his diet consisted of eggs cooked in butter for breakfast in the morning. He drank 3 glasses of whole milk a day. He ate red meat, cheese, fruits, vegetables, and nuts, and he avoided processed foods, particularly french fries. Now I wanna tell you something too. In 1968 up until 1968, McDonald's was frying their French fries in lard, which is actually better. Now don't get the lard in the store because now they actually hydrogenated that too as well.

Dr. Sal [00:10:28]:

But back then, using the real lard, from animal fats, and then in 1968, they started using these processed oils. And but in 1968, doctor Kumar, recommended to the American Heart Association and that they urge the food industry to reduce or eliminate trans fats. And at that time, the FDA made no official effort. In 2009, he petitioned to the FDA to ban trans fats in all foods. Now the by federal law, the government is supposed to respond to you in about a 180 days, and they didn't even reply. Now here's the kicker. This is what's amazing about this individual. Actually, this is the way god wants us to live.

Dr. Sal [00:11:15]:

In 2013, at age 98, he sued the FDA. He may the the FDA finally responded, and they made changes only in the labeling. And if you could recall in 2015, 2016, 2017, and you may even see it today, if you look at a cereal box, it'll say 0 trans fats, 0 trans fats, 0 trans fats. Well, folks, that's a joke, and I'll tell you why. It's 0 trans fat when it's sitting on the shelf. The problem is is whatever oils that they used in those foods may be 0 trans fats while they're on the shelf. But once you ingest it and you digest it and then you metabolize it, it turns these, fats into trans fats into your body. Canola oil being 1, and we'll get into that in a minute here.

Dr. Sal [00:12:10]:

Not only that, but in 2013, here's the real kicker. He published An article in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Disease. Can you imagine 98 years old and you're still publishing articles? And what the study did It is to compare the blood levels of different cholesterols with the constituents of the walls of the arteries determined by biopsies on patients who had, open heart surgery or bypass surgery, patients that had stents put in, and people who had arteriograms that were found to be normal, they did the biopsies on the arterial walls. And so I wanna go step back here and just mention that cell membranes are made up of 9 different cholesterol molecules. Nine different cholesterol molecules. And what you want is you want to have more Phosphatidylcholine then sphingomyelin. So phosphatidylcholine over sphingomyelin. The sphingomyelin is the worst type of cholesterol you can have.

Dr. Sal [00:13:08]:

And interestingly enough, phosphatidylcholine is the exact cholesterol that's in eggs and in the vitamin supplement called lecithin. So eating eggs provides you with the good cholesterol to help build those cell membranes. Now you gotta remember something. Remember, you you're made up of a 100 trillion cells. So unique cholesterol in the diet, but you gotta have good cholesterol. And phosphatidylcholine is the one that you want over this, the sphingomyelin. So what was discovered was that the patients with higher concentration of oxysterols. Oxysterols is the term that he used for oxidized LDLs or low, low density lipoproteins or oxidized lipids, the bad cholesterol.

Dr. Sal [00:13:58]:

These patients had higher levels of sphingomyelin in the cell membranes. So people with the bad cholesterol or the oxysterols had more of sphingomyelin in the cell membranes. He also noted that the patients that had the open heart surgery or the bypass surgery had 5 times more sphingomyelin, than the patients that had the normal, arteries. And so The other thing that he discovered is that the endothelial cells from the patients that had the bypass surgeries had a higher influx of calcium. So oxysterols increase the influx of calcium. Now you've heard of people having calcified arteries. This is the reason why because sterols contribute to arterial calcifications. And then they looked at antioxidants.

Dr. Sal [00:14:51]:

Now antioxidants are such things as your vitamin e, your vitamin and see herbs. Right? Your sage, your thyme, your rosemary, your basil. All of these are herbs that we put in to spice our foods. Well, believe it or not, folks, they are high in antioxidants, and they're good to eat. The Article actually noted that patients that had the bypass surgery had lower levels of antioxidants in their blood compared to people who had normal arteries even though the cholesterol low, levels were still the same. So, again, the concentration of oxidized lipids and cholesterol is the underlying cause, not cholesterol. So this correlates with the severity of the, cardiovascular disease. So studies have shown too that Patients that, take antioxidants, and I've and I've mentioned this before in previous podcasts, taking your vitamin c's, your vitamin Ease your b complex.

Dr. Sal [00:15:51]:

Vitamin a and vitamin d are important for the immune system, especially when you have an upper respiratory tract infection. But The studies have shown that patients, who take antioxidants and consume high levels of cholesterol have less oxysterols. Now you gotta remember, if you're taking vitamins and you're trying to watch your your health, you're not gonna go out and start eating the fast foods, especially French fries or these fried foods that they have, those are all trans fats. Let's talk about the endothelial cells, the cells that line the arteries. They produce these chemicals or hormones called prostaglandins. And there's 2 types of prostaglandins. There's thromboxane and there's prostacyclin. Thromboxane is a vasoconstrictor, and it allows for platelets to adhere to the artery.

Dr. Sal [00:16:43]:

Now you would think, like, why why do I need thru unboxing? Well, you know, let's say you're riding a motorcycle, a 4 wheeler, and you across a tree, and all of a sudden, you you know, a branch tears open your, your leg, and so you start bleeding. Well, that thromboxane gets secreted by the endothelial cells to cause the blood vessel to constrict, so you slow down the bleeding it allows the platelets to form a plug so it stops the bleeding. The other prostaglandin is the prostacyclin. And these are vasodilators, and they prevent platelets as well as white blood cells to adhere to the artery wall. And so What he noticed in the article is that people with higher levels of oxidized LDL have an increase in thromboxane and lower prostacyclin. Now remember, prostacyclin also not only vasodilates, but it also lowers your blood pressure. So there were 3 dietary, and lifestyle factors that doctor Kumaral identified that increases oxysterols or oxidizes your low density lipoproteins. Number 1, the consumption of oxysteroids from commercially fried foods like your fried chicken, your fried fish, your french fries.

Dr. Sal [00:18:05]:

Right there. Those should be out. Oxidation of cholesterol in vivo driven by the consumption of excess polyunsaturated fat fatty acids from vegetable oils such as canola oil, corn oil, vegetable oils. And what does this mean? What does in vivo mean? Well, what it means is is that even though there's a label that says that it's 0 trans fat, that's only 0 trans fat on the shelf. But once you consume it in vivo, once it's besides your body, then your body converts it into a trans fat, and then that becomes detrimental to your Health is by oxidizing your low low density lipoproteins. The third thing that he discovered was cigarette smoking, And the reason being is because it's amazing that how much free radicals are generated from each puff of cigarettes that you Smoke. Every puff of cigarette, every puff of a cigarette releases millions of free radicals, and this causes the oxidation of the LDLs, and it inhibits the prostacyclin. Okay? And so with that, you could start Seeing that those 3 lifestyles, staying away from those, fast foods, especially those fried foods, being careful when they say there's 0 trans That's on the label.

Dr. Sal [00:19:31]:

Doesn't mean as I said, you know, hydrogenated oils, canola oil, you may think is healthy for you. It's really not. And so with that, we start to alleviate those in our, the way we live, improving our health, and that's really what god wants. Now I wanna take a little break here, and I wanna talk about how egg yolks got their bad rap. Okay? So in the late 1800, early 1900, we were going through the industrial revolution. So cities were building. It was getting, farms were getting more distant, so milk, egg products, and so forth. It took a while.

Dr. Sal [00:20:11]:

We didn't have refrigeration back then. So what happened in the 19 twenties is they developed a technique to powder eggs. You've heard of powdered eggs. And so, you know, it comes in a box, and what you did is you put it in a bowl, you added water to it, and you cooked it, and there you go. There's your scrambled eggs or there's your meal. But the process of drying those eggs and turning them into a powder resulted in oxidizing the yolks. So by the 19 fifties, You know, 20, 30 years later, these scientists and doctors felt that it was the yolk that was causing the high cholesterol and the heart disease. So you could see how certain things historically creates an idea or a thought, and then it gets carried on.

Dr. Sal [00:20:58]:

Oh, stay away from those, you know, fatty meats and and, you know, eat the eggs. Oh, those are bad for you because it's high In fact, I'm gonna mention his name, doctor Gundry. He just came out with something saying, oh, cholesterol is the worst food you can eat. Your brain is 90% made up of cholesterol. Your 100 trillion cells, as I said, have 9 different cholesterols, falls, but you gotta eat the good cholesterol. It's like everything else, folks. You know? There's good and bad thing. You just gotta eat the good and stay away from the bad.

Dr. Sal [00:21:32]:

So what we could conclude is is that, you know, in the past, we talked about the glycation of proteins and fats in the production of free radical formation, because of the excess sugars. And here, we've discussed how bad fats, especially the trans As fast are those that turn into trans fats when you consume them are the actual cause of heart disease. With that, I'd like to thank you so much If you like to see any of the sources of the of research that we used in this episode, they'll be available for you in the show notes and description. Until next time. I'm doctor Sal. Have a great day, and god bless.