When I was 13, my grandfather had his first stroke, which left him paralyzed on the right side and unable to speak. My father has atrial-fibrillation (a-fib), which causes an irregular and fast heartbeat, along with chest pain. It can also cause strokes and heart failure (both of which he has also had several times in later years).

My father has also had numerous heart attacks due to narrowing of the arteries. He took medications to reduce cholesterol and avoided foods that increase cholesterol.  It didn’t stop the narrowing of the arteries. 

Lately I hear of so many people, even those in their 30’s, who have high cholesterol.  With my own family history of heart disease and my focus this last year on learning about truly clean eating, I wanted to learn more about why people with high cholesterol have heart attacks. 

To my surprise, I learned that everything I thought I knew was incorrect. Starting with the fact that half of all heart attacks & strokes occur in people with normal cholesterol levels.

The book “Your Body Can Talk” by Susan L. Levy provides an excellent explanation about how the body works and for this discussion, how heart attacks happen.  The information below is largely from this book, but as with everything I research, I validate this information with other sources.  I encourage you to look at multiple sources when making any health decisions.   

Cholesterol

My whole life, I’ve heard cholesterol is that bad thing that causes heart attacks.  It’s one of the key things we look for on our annual blood workup to see if we should be concerned about coronary artery disease. 

But what is cholesterol? 

Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in all our cells.  Our bodies produce 800-1000 mg of cholesterol every day.  Half is used to form bile acids to digest fats and remove cholesterol out of the body, the rest is used to make cell walls, tissues, hormones and vitamin D.  It is also important for organs, and is a critical part of the protective sheath around the brain and nerves. 

The cellular membrane (the outer wall of the cell) is 50% saturated fat (primarily cholesterol) and is responsible for ensuring only the right body fluids and chemicals pass through the cell wall. 

I’ve been working hard to ensure proper cellular health – part of that includes ensuring the cell membrane is functioning properly so good things get in and bad things get out.  Cholesterol is a critical part of that process.   

Cholesterol is carried through your bloodstream via lipoproteins.

Low-density Lipoprotein (LDL) take cholesterol from the liver to the cells around the body. 

High-density Lipoprotein (HDL) picks up excess cholesterol in your bloodstream and transports it to the liver where it is broken down and removed from the body.

Triglycerides are fats in the bloodstream from unused calories (your body stores them in fat cells to provide energy between meals).  Eating more calories than you burn leads to higher triglycerides. 

Heart Attacks & Strokes

Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries or blood vessels) is the primary cause of most heart attacks and strokes. 

Toxins & chemicals in the body trigger an immune response that can cause inflammation, including in arteries and blood vessels.  Chemically altered & processed foods, sugars, refined carbohydrates, tobacco & smoking, pasteurized dairy and chlorinated water are all inflammatory.  

Chemicals and toxins travelling in the blood stream may nick the lining of artery & vessels walls.   The body attempts to patch those nicks with free cholesterol.  This can also result in the creation of atherosclerotic plaque (which is made primarily of macrophage cells containing lipids, calcium and connective tissue).   

Macrophage cells are a type of white blood cell that is triggered by the immune system to collect foreign substances (cancer cells, toxins, etc).  Lipids are important to the proper formation of membranes.  Calcium strengthens bones and teeth.  Connective tissue is primarily collagen fibers (think scar tissue), ground substance (a sort of lubrication) and cells. 

What stuck out to me when I read about plaque is the fact that it contains calcium.  Think about that!  CALCIUM build up in your arteries and blood vessels is clearly a problem. 

Vitamin K₂ helps direct free calcium from the blood to bones and teeth.  When there is not enough K₂ available, the calcium finds its way to the patched arteries & blood vessels. 

So this information has me questioning whether the plaque build up is strictly from cholesterol or if other factors (such as reducing inflammation and ensuring calcium is used properly) are more of a factor. 

While our health industry for the most part focuses on the cholesterol numbers on bloodwork, many doctors, scientists, and health professionals have been learning that other factors are more important than the right lab numbers. 

Why Do Doctors Focus on Cholesterol?

A study published in 1970 (known as the lipid hypothesis) identified a connection between dietary fat and heart disease (since then, other studies have shown conflicting information).

The American Heart Association and the US Government both adopted the lipid hypothesis and continue to use it today.  Medication companies began to produce cholesterol lowering prescriptions and along with those, doctors recommended dietary changes – all to reduce the amount of cholesterol your body produces.

Think about that a minute.  Cholesterol is critical to good health and yet you are working to stop production.  Is there a better way?

Medications

Statin drugs are the primary meds for reducing cholesterol.  They inhibit certain processes in your liver that are necessary for cholesterol creation.  They also cause deficiency in Coenzyme-Q₁₀. 

Co- Q₁₀ helps the body manage inflammation and oxidative stress.  Low levels of Co- Q₁₀ are associated with heart failure, atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease, as well as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Alzheimer, cancer, diabetes, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and migraines.

I can’t say that I’ve ever had my Co-Q₁₀ levels tested, but I can promise you I will be in the future and will be adding Co- Q10 to my dietary protocol.  You can get take Co- Q₁₀ supplements, but it is also found in these foods:

What Can I Do to Improve My Heart and Artery/Blood Vessel Health?

I can’t speak for you but here’s what I do:

• Supplement Vitamin K2 (with D)
• Supplement Co-Q₁₀
• Eliminate chemically altered/processed foods, sugars, refined carbohydrates, tobacco & smoking, pasteurized dairy and chlorinated water.
• Increase Omega-3’s which significantly reduce triglycerides, raise HDL (good cholesterol), prevents blood platelets from clumping together, helps reduce inflammation and can lower LDL (bad cholesterol).   It also helps with depression, eye health, promotes brain growth during pregnancy, improves metabolic syndrome symptoms, treats autoimmune diseases (like lupus), helps with depression, alzheimers, cancer prevention, reduces asthma in children, reduces fat in the liver, improves bone & joint health, alleviates menstrual pain, improves sleep, and improves skin health. 

• If your LDL is high, LEARN about the possible root causes (Functional Medicine Dr. Chris Kresser explains how Metabolic Syndrome, Poor Thyroid Function, Infections, Leaky Gut and certain genetics can be the root cause of high LDL:   https://chriskresser.com/what-causes-elevated-ldl-particle-number/ – get control of these issues and see what happens).