What Causes Cardiovascular Disease?

Dr. Sal [00:00:00]:
They've shown that working out with weights 40 minutes with 20 minutes of aerobics every day will help reduce cardiovascular disease. The other thing that we have to do is we have to lose fat. Welcome to the Health Quest podcast, your guide to God's will for good health. Hello. My name is doctor Sal, and I've been a practicing doctor and 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 design for good health and with the hopes that you can effectively change 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.

Dr. Sal [00:01:03]:
It really helps our ratings and allows us to reach out to more people with the hopes that we could change their life as well. We like to thank you for your support. And on today's episode, we'll be talking about cardiovascular disease. So let's dive right into today's Healthquest podcast. Let's talk about cardiovascular disease. Well, there's 2 terms that I wanna addressed. One is atherosclerosis, and that's really a pattern of arteriosclerosis. Now atherosclerosis is chronic inflammation or a chronic inflammatory condition that's taking place in the vessels.

Dr. Sal [00:01:50]:
It involves the buildup of plaque, which is made up of cholesterol and fat, and the arteries thicken and become narrow. Now arteriosclerosis is defined as arteries that become hard or stiff. Many people are under the influence that that this is a genetic or a hereditary disorder. But because of individuals that really get this compared to the increase in today's incident. Now what I'm saying is is that there's so many more people now that are developing cardiovascular disease, and we could we we could expand on other disorders like type 2 diabetes. And Everybody says, oh, it's a hereditary thing or it's a hormonal thing, but let's stick with a genetic component of it. And what we're saying and what a lot of scientists are saying is that the genetics behind it is too small for the incident that's occurring because it's occurring at such a much faster rate than it was 50 years ago, that there's no way that the genes could have or the gene pool could have been modified such that it would cause these disorders. My experience has shown that, you know, there are those people that that had a background or family history of cardiovascular disease, and they were conscious of it.

Dr. Sal [00:03:17]:
And so they ate properly. They watched their diet. They exercised, consistently. They were consistent with their diet, particularly, and they did exceptionally well. And those who knew that there was a family history of heart disease ate poorly, smoked, and ended up having open heart surgery. Now there are modifiable risk factors, and one of them is our current Quest diet, going out and eating all the time, especially fast foods. I told you, if everybody in America ate fast foods, we would all be fat. All have type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Sal [00:03:59]:
That kind of food is not appropriate for us to eat. Why? Because there's necessary sugars and particularly high fructose corn syrup, and there is a lot of trans fats in these processed foods which causes inflammation. Insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes is reversible. We had a podcast about that. You can reverse it. It's kind of interesting that, you know, one of my friends was talking to a doctor who has a diabetes clinic in, on the west side of Detroit, and he basically was adamant in saying, nope. You can't you can't reverse it. Well, we've shown and a lot of physicians across America have shown that with a patient that's consistent and persistent in, adhering to a healthy lifestyle the way god wanted you to live, they could reverse that disorder.

Dr. Sal [00:05:00]:
Other things that are modifiable are the abnormal fats that are in your blood, which we call dyslipidemia. You could change these levels of fats by the way you change your diet. Smoking, well, that's pretty straightforward. We've shown how smoking, especially the numerous, toxic particles that are in a cigarette and what it does to the cardiovascular lining. A sedentary lifestyle, folks. We gotta get up. Our bodies were not designed to sit around all day. Our bodies were designed to be active.

Dr. Sal [00:05:39]:
Excessive consumption of alcohol, have a glass of wine with your dinner, not a problem. Have 2 bottles of wine at night, there is a problem with that. Having a beer occasionally, not a problem. Having 6 beers a day becomes a problem. And then the chronic stress of society, which we talked about before with meditation and prayer. So How do we handle this medically? And what's today's conventional therapy? Well, what do we do? We put you on on cholesterol lowering medications known as statins. Draw, but it doesn't address the poor diet, which is high in sugars and carbs, especially the fructose, which cause other disorders. So you may be fixing 1 issue with the drug, but then you're not addressing the other issues.

Dr. Sal [00:06:36]:
The problem with that too is that that drug comes with a lot of side effects, which then cause other problems, which then the doctor puts you on other medications. So what causes cardiovascular disease or atherosclerosis or arteriosclerosis? Well, there are 3 major insults. Number 1, we talked about inflammation. One of the major causes of inflammation is overweight and obesity. Remember, we talked about how when our fat cells get enlarged, they start to carry up to 12 times more of the immune cells, especially the macrophages. And we talked about this before in, one of our previous podcasts. So what ends up happening is is you're increasing the, the amount of storage of immune cells, which then puts us into this low state this chronic state what we call para inflammation. And so we're always on this edge of always having and inflammatory response continuously 24 hours a day.

Dr. Sal [00:07:43]:
And it remember that as a result of that, people who contracted COVID, which was a virulent virus, tipped them over into cytokine storm. In other where their immune system got completely out of balance in equilibrium, and that's you know, the immune system started to attack, the lung tissue, the kidneys, He's another, organs as well, and that's what led to the demise of these patients. Now the lining of the artery, there's 2 important structures. There's the endothelial lining, which is that's, the the layer of cells that lines the arteries. And then on top of those, there's this glycocalyx which, can act as an endocrine organ. In other words, between the 2 of these structures. They synthesize or manufacture chemicals, peptides, local hormones that protect us against, cardiovascular disease or a myocardial infarction, which is a heart attack, and chronic inflammation. Now the layers of the arteries as a result of the poor diet and so forth and cigarette smoking, they begin to leak.

Dr. Sal [00:08:55]:
They begin to break up. And then the immune cells such as the macrophages that we just talked about, the t cells, they start to leak and they get underneath these cells. And as a result, you get this inflammatory reaction and then you get this release of chemicals, which we call cytokines, and that causes more irritation and it starts to attract more of these inflammatory cells, then what ends up happening is as a result of this leakage is that we get these bad cholesterols, the low lipoproteins, the LDLs, and especially the the smaller particle LDLs that get underneath it. And eventually, they get oxidized. Remember we talked about that and what causes the oxidation of these low density lipoproteins? Number 1, trans fats in our diet. Number 2, excessive amount of sugars, which then converts them into what is known as oxysterols. So all this plus high levels of blood sugars, which we'll talk about a little further, we've talked about it before in the past, as well as high levels cause this leakage in the arteries. So how can this inflammation be measured? If you went to the doctor, what would you tell him? Well, you could ask the doctor to do a c reactive protein level, which is done through a blood quest, and c reactive protein is made in the liver.

Dr. Sal [00:10:27]:
And believe it or not, this measuring marker can directly damage arterial lining as well. So, again, you could get a blood test that can do this. There's also a new technology out there by Next Medical Solutions. It's called the NMS one hundred, which can actually test the endothelial lining long before your blood work actually shows any of these markers or any kind of radiographic finding for that matter. There's all these pro inflammatory cytokines. These chemicals that start or initiate this inflammatory reaction such as your tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 6, interleukin one b. Again, these can all be tested by way of the blood. And we've talked about these inflammatory cytokines.

Dr. Sal [00:11:21]:
They start not only affecting other areas of the body, but they also start to affect the lining of the arteries and start breaking down that lining which causes that leakage. Now keep in mind that there are receptors and receptors are like keyholes on the blood vessels that bind to these chemicals and that in and of itself stimulates more of these reactions. The 2nd insult that causes damage to the arteries, which causes atherosclerosis and then arteriosclerosis, is oxidative stress. And what that is is an imbalance of molecules or oxidative stress molecules coupled with a decrease of substances that provide the oxidative defenses. So we've heard of the term antioxidants. So our bodies form these oxidants or abnormal oxygen cells that start to do damage. And these are known as free oxygen radicals or free radicals or reactive oxygen species. And this is produces a part of the normal energy process in all cells that require oxygen.

Dr. Sal [00:12:35]:
Now in the cell, there's a organelle called the mitochondria, and that's the health power plant. And what it does is it takes food substances and it makes ATP. And that is the gasoline for the cells. Now this process is pretty efficient, folks. I mean, it takes 99% of the oxygen and uses it to make this ATP. However, 1% leaks out and forms this highly reactive oxygen molecule or free These free radicals steal electrons from other molecules, and it starts this chain reaction of damage. Antioxidants quench and neutralize these oxidants. So it's good to have a diet high in antioxidants such as your berries and your green leaf vegetables.

Dr. Sal [00:13:29]:
And then, of course, we're gonna supplement them, which I'll talk to about a in a minute, but we've also talked about taking that in the form of supplements. Keep in mind that oxidation, like like inflammation, is a normal biological process. Okay? We've got I've got inflammation going on. I've got sedation, occurring as well, which are forming these free oxygen radicals. But if it goes unchecked and it becomes chronic and we keep feeding it more and more and more and more and more and we're not taking in or doing anything to help reduce its effects, it then leads to damage. So oxidative stress, and what does it do? Well, it causes damage to the DNA, which then eventually leads to mutations and other, disorders such as cancer. Sir, it damages the cell membranes. And when the cell membrane start to break down, the cell doesn't function properly.

Dr. Sal [00:14:31]:
And little by little Remember, we're made up of 70 to a 100 trillion cells. And so if 1 cell gets damaged, you're not gonna feel anything. But over time, as more and more cells become damaged, things start to break down, and that's when we start developing these diseases that are seeing today, particularly in our modern day society. And when you get a breakdown of proteins such as your enzymes, things don't function well in the cell. Again, the cell is not performing the way it should. If you get enough of these cells to start to break down diseases. So causes of oxidative stress? Well, we've talked about this numerous times, poor nutrition, the trans fats that are especially in fast foods and in in restaurant foods. You gotta remember something, folks.

Dr. Sal [00:15:26]:
You may think that you're going to an Italian restaurant, and you may ask for a little extra olive oil. Well, let me tell you something. That is not pure olive oil. 99.9% of your Italian restaurants runs nationwide even if it's privately owned. They take this they say that it's olive oil, but it's it's basically combined or cut with other oils such as canola oil, vegetable or corn oil, which is genetically modified, and also soybean oil, which is high in omega 6 and also genetically modified. So right away, you're not eating, good oils. You could go to these restaurants and ask for butter. Now there's nothing wrong with real butter, but they're using these butter products that are almost like margarine that are made up of these trans fats as well.

Dr. Sal [00:16:24]:
Also, what causes, oxidative stress? Again, we repeat it over and over again, your refined carbs and sugars, smoking and alcohol, and, of course, a sedentary lifestyle or lack of exercise. Now what are some of the anti Oxenants that you could take, vitamin a, vitamin c, vitamin e, taking alpha lipoic acid, n Acetylcysteine, which then gets converted into glutathione. Now glutathione is a very powerful antioxidant, particularly in the liver that helps to eliminate a lot of these free oxygen radicals, and that's how one of the ways that we can detoxify our bodies. You could also take another supplement known as superoxide dismutase, which is another powerful antioxidant. What's the 3rd insult that starts doing damage to the arterial system? The immune system or when the immune system becomes dysfunctional. Now we discussed inflammation and this flare up and these immune cells that are going out and eventually causing damage to normal tissue when it should be causing damage to bacterial infections or viral infections or in in a case of trauma where you may get some, bacteria or some, contagious chemicals in there that need to be destroyed. You know, there's it it it's like a battle. And anytime there's a battle, there's gonna be things that are gonna get broken, and destroyed, but then the immune system comes back and cleans everything up and restores everything to its normal function.

Dr. Sal [00:18:06]:
However, if it continues over and over and over again, it starts to do damage to our normal tissues. So that's what inflammation is. But in this case, the monocytes that traversed into the subendothelium, in other words, it got underneath that, that lining of the artery now differentiates into these macrophages. And then the low density lipoproteins, Also, there is this there the smaller particles eventually penetrate and get into the subendothelial lining, and they damage arterial lining as as well as getting underneath it. But then once they get underneath, they change or they modify into oxidized LDL, which is what we call those oxysterols. These are then taken in up by the macrophages. So the macrophages say, hey. This is a bad thing.

Dr. Sal [00:19:01]:
It gobbles it up, and now the macrophage transforms it to what is known as a foam cell. So these macrophages so we go from monocytes It's the macrophage. They gobble up these bad LDLs or low density lipoproteins. They transform again into foam cells which then accumulate, and that's what forms these fatty streaks or plaques in the arterial walls. The other thing about these macrophages is that they send out messages making the body believe that there is danger and then other chemicals are called to do more damage. So once these plaques get so large and you get a buildup of all this this cholesterol. Now this is oxidized cholesterol, folks. It's not healthy cholesterol, but it's fat.

Dr. Sal [00:19:53]:
It's cholesterol. There's there's changes in the arterial walls, especially in the muscles. And what ends up happening is as it forms this fibrous capsule, but then it gets so large. Now you're not feeling any pain. You may feel some fatigue. You may get some claudication, which means some pain in the leg because you're not getting enough blood supply to it. But then these these these plaques get so thick and big. Eventually, there's a breakthrough in the fibrous capsule, and then get a spew of this clot, which then gets into the bloodstream, and then it eventually results in a stroke.

Dr. Sal [00:20:33]:
If it goes in and blocks an artery to the brain, that's how you get the stroke, it could travel to the arteries, the coronary arteries of the health, and cause you to have a myocardial infarction or a heart attack, or it could travel into one of the arteries that goes into the lungs and causes a pulmonary emboli in which you get short of breath and can actually kill you. So what are the some of the dietary considerations? Well, the new in thing, like everything else, everything comes in the fashion, is intermittent fasting at least 16 hours. Now to do an occasional 24 hour fast is excellent. What happens is is you put your body through autophagy, which means the body starts to eat itself. Now but what is it eating? It's eating the dead cells that are in your body, which also stimulate more inflammation. So get rid of these dead cell. Gotta remember, dead cell is just a bunch of protein, carbohydrate, and fat particles. So it's just it's it's food that's been laying around that your cells consume, clean up, and reduces inflammation.

Dr. Sal [00:21:45]:
Now you could do that, but that doesn't mean that, okay. I went 16 hours, I'm gonna go off now and have a McDonald's hamburger. No. You go on something like the paleo diet. Now I always refer to the paleo diet because that's kind of the diet that I use because it's a balance. You know, you're taking in your proteins, and your vegetables, your fruits, your nuts. And, you know, when we're talking about proteins, make sure they're lean proteins. And the objective here is is by doing that you reduce the calories, you're eating more of the vegetables, the nuts that have your healthy fats, your lean proteins.

Dr. Sal [00:22:26]:
And, folks, in order to do that you gotta cook at home. Now that means meal prepping is very important. You know, using olive oil and, avocado oil and taking this stuff and then packaging it and taking it to work with you. If you get a little hungry, just snack on a few of the nuts that you know, the almonds and the walnuts that you packaged in a little baggy or a little, You know, hard plastic container. Home cooking is really one of the best using your healthy oils. And don't forget to consume a little bit Fish oil periodically, which helps to reduce inflammation as well. So, again, home cooking, using healthy fats, eating high fibrous carbs, and the antioxidants that you could take. We've talked about this before vitamin a, vitamin c, vitamin e.

Dr. Sal [00:23:25]:
What's more is you could take vitamin k, 300 and 60 micrograms, 360 micrograms, not milligrams, micrograms with approximately 10,000 international units of vitamin d per day. Now some of you are gonna say, oh, but that seems like a lot. My doctor said it's a lot. It's not, folks. In fact, even if you take 10,000 international units of vitamin d, especially during the winter months, like here in Michigan right now, we're at about 0 degrees. You're not gonna get enough sunlight. So taking 10,000 international units of vitamin d with your vitamin k at 360 micrograms will help, prevent a lot of these streaks as well as prevent calcium buildup in the arterial walls. Now let's talk about working out.

Dr. Sal [00:24:18]:
They've shown that working out with weights 40 minutes with 20 minutes of aerobics every day will help reduce cardiovascular disease. The other thing that we have to do is we you have to lose fat. Now we don't wanna you know, all these fast fad, weight loss, oh, lose 30 pounds in 1 month, you're gonna lose muscle. You're gonna lose water weight. You're gonna lose your hair. You can only lose about a pound to a pound and a half of fat per week, physiologically and realistically speaking. So with that, taking that into consideration, understanding the causes of this, make those lifestyle changes, put your art in mind in line with God's will, and you'll see miracles happen. With that, I'd like to thank you so much for watching our show.

Dr. Sal [00:25:15]:
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a great review so that we could reach out to more people, and also visit our website Social media accounts to connect with us more. If you have any questions regarding your health, please feel free to, email us, and I'll be happy to answer any of your questions. And if you like to see any of the sources of this research, particularly for this episode, it'll be available to you in the show notes in the description. With that, I'm doctor Sal. I want you to have a blessed day. Thank you so much for joining