When Kilmer § MeOully, M.D., first proposed a link between levels of an amino acid nd heart disease in 1969, the medical community largely ignored him. But four decades and hundreds of studies later, that corununity is int linking high levels reased nsk of heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular Homocysteine is formed when the body breaks down dietary protein, especially protein from animal sources. Then B vitarnins, particularly folate, Bs, and B,9, break down homocysteine so your cells can use it for energy. But if this breakdown phase fails to ocecur—say, if you don’t get enough B vitamins— homocysteine builds up to an unhealthy level, It then damages endothelial cells, preventing the production of nitric oxide. It may also make blood cells stickier, encouraging clotting, which can eventually trigger a stroke or heart attack. In a study of 386 women at the University of Washington in Seattle, those with the most homocysteine in their blood had double the heart attack...
Since bacteria, VITUses, and other germs are a common cause of inflammation mn general (think about the white blood cells the body dispatches to fight an infection), researchers have begun investigating a possible link between germs and heart disease. Same of the bugs that have been implicated are the culprits behind chronic, low grace infections, They include helicobacter pylori, the bacterium that causes most uicers: chlamydia pneumoniae, a bacterial organism that causes mild pneumonia in young adults; and even streptococcus mutans, the bacteria that cause cavities in your teeth (see “One More Reason to Brush,” below.) Also on this list is herpes simplex virus type I (HSV-1), the virus that causes cold sores. A study published in the journal Circulation in 2000 found that older people who had been infected with HSV-1 had twice the risk of having a heart attack or dying from heart disease as those never infected by the virus. Another study looked at 572 heart disease patients who had...
Remember the last time you scraped your knee? As it healed, it grew red and warm, sometimes leaking pus. That was inflammation at work. Whenever there’s an injury to any part of your body, the flow of blood increases as white blood cells rush to the area like rescue workers responding to a train wreck. Ironically, this verv process can also damage tissue. What does inflammation have to do with heart cisease? As it turns out, plenty, When the lining of the artery is damaged—say, when LDL particles burrow into the artery wall—white blood cells flock to the site, resulting in inflammation, Thus, more LDL equals more inflammation. Inflammation not only further damages the artery walls, leaving them stiffer and more prone to plaque buildup, but it also makes any plaque that’s already there more fragile and more likely to burst. Other factors that damage the artery wall and trigger inflammation include smoking, high blood pressure, and even germs (more on those in a minute). How do you...
The same chemical responsible for men’s erections (and, indirectly, for the success of Viagra) also plays a vital role in the health of your arteries, and thus your heart. The chemical is nitric oxide (NO), which is primarily produced in the blood vessels’ endothelium, or lining. There it increases blood flow, prevents fatty deposits from sticking to blood vessel walls, keeps walls from getting too thick and stiff, and prevents the arteries from narrowing. “The lining of the vessel is very important for cardiac health,” says John P. Cooke, M.D., Ph.D., head of Stanford University’s vascular unit and one of the first researchers If your artery walls don’t make enough nitric oxide, they become like Velcro, attracting borne gunk like flies to flypaper. to pinpoint the role of NO in cardiovascular health.“When the endothelium is healthy it’s like Teflon, and things don’t stick.” When it’s unhealthy, it becomes more like Velcro, attracting blood like Velcro, attracting...
The Plan will help you attack most of the risk factors discussed in this chapter. But some, like the ones listed below, you’re stuck with. Even so, keep in mind that your power to reduce your overall CHD risk is still monumental. Leg length. A British study of 2,512 men ages 45 to 59 found those with the shortest legs had more heart attacks and new incidents of angina than men with longer legs. Researchers in Wales monitored the men for 15 years to gauge their risks of developing heart disease and found men with shorter legs—even those who weren’t short overall—had higher levels of fibrinogen and cholesterol and were more likely to be insulin resistant. Researchers suspect that nutritional and environmental circumstances during childhood, which affected growth rates and leg length, also play a role in cardiac health. Baldness. When researchers at Harvard Medical Schoo! compared patterns of baldness with incidence of CHD in 22,071 male physicians, they found that the balder...
The following are sings of depression. If you’re experiencing one or more of them, see your doctor or a mental health care provider. Despair: persistent feelings of sadness, emptiness, worthlessness; excessive crying; inappropriate guilt; recurring thoughts of suicide or death, Apathy: loss of interest in activities, including sex. Trouble concentrating: difficulty making decisions, restlessness. Fatigue: loss of energy, constantly feeling tired. Low self-esteem: poor self-image, misdirected guilt. Sleep or eating problems: changes in weight or appetite, changes in sleep patterns or early-morning waking. Poor hygiene: often manifested in sloppy appearance. Persistent physical ailments: headaches or digestive problems, for example...
For most people coffee contributes little to overall heart disease risk. But if you’re a java junkie, keep reading. A 2001 study published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that drinking four or more cups of coffee a day affects cholesterol and homocysteine levels. Researchers broke 191 healthy, nonsmoking, coffee-drinking volunteers aged 24 to 69 into three groups: no coffee, one to three cups a day, or more than four cups a day. Those who cut out the brew altogether saw their homocysteine and cholesterol levels drop, Another study, published in the same journal, found that in adults who drank strong filtered coffee, homocysteine levels rose 18 percent. Researchers concluded that if you’re used to drinking four or more cups of coffee a day, abstaining might reduce by 10 percent the risk of heart disease attributed to high homocysteine levels >...
The discovery of the link between homocysteine and heart disease owes much to an obscure case published in (he November 23, 1933, New England Journal of Medicine. described an 8-year-old boy admitted to Massachu setts General Hospital after four days of headache, drowsiness, and vomiting. He died three days later. An autopsy revealed the cause of death: hardening of the arteries resulting in stroke. It was hardly a disease doctors expected to find in a child. Thirty-two years later, a 9-year-old girl admitted to the same hospital had signs of homocystinuria, a genetic defect identified just a few years previously in which the liver can’t dispose of homocysteine, resulting in abnormally high levels of the amino acid. It turned out the little boy who had died in 1933 was her uncle. The cases intrigued Kilmer S. McCully, M.D., then a pathologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He began investigating the disease and found that in these children (and a 2-month-old baby) the...
Think about this the next time you rush through brushing your teeth or decided to skip flossing: You’re more likely to have elevated C-reactive protein(CRP) levels—and a higher risk of heart disease—if you have gum disease. Gum diseases are bacterial infections that destroy the gum and bone that hold your teeth in your mouth, When this happens your gums separate from the teeth, forming pockets that fill with plaque and even more bacteria. About 15 percent of adults between ages 21 and 50, and 30 percent over 50, have gum disease. And overall, studies find that people with gum disease are almost twice as likely to suffer from CHD as those who don’t have it.’Researchers speculate that gum disease may allow oral bacteria to enter the blood stream, triggering the liver to make inflammatory proteins like CRP.The bacteria may also play a direct role in injuring the arteries. >...
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