the
other
flavor of inflammation,
chronic
inflammation, well, that’s a whole different ball game.
Acute inflammation hurts, but chronic inflammation kills.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT CHRONIC INFLAMMATION, NOT CHOLESTEROL
Chronic inflammation flies beneath the pain radar. Much like high blood pressure, it has no obvious symptoms. Yet chronic inflammation is a significant component of virtually every single degenerative condition, including Alzheimer’s, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, chronic lower respiratory disease, influenza and pneumonia, chronic liver and kidney diseases, and, most especially, heart disease.
A BETTER WAY TO PREDICT HEART DISEASE
Want a much better way to tell whether you’re at risk? Look at these two line items on your blood test: triglycerides and HDL (the so-called “good” cholesterol).
Now if you’re not too freaked out about doing a bit of math, calculate the ratio of your triglycerides to your HDL. If, for example, your triglycerides are 150 mg/dL and your HDL is 50 mg/dL, you have a ratio of 3 (150:50). If your triglycerides are 100 mg/dL and your HDL is 50 mg/dL, you have a ratio of 2 (100:50).
This ratio is a far better predictor of heart disease than cholesterol ever was. In one study out of Harvard published in
Circulation
, a journal published by the American Heart Association, those who had the highest triglyceride-to-HDL ratios had a whopping sixteen times the risk of developing heart disease as those with the lowest ratios. 1 If you have a ratio of around 2, you should be happy, indeed, regardless of your cholesterol levels. (A ratio of 5, however, is problematic.)
When chronic inflammation exists unchecked in the cardiovascular system, it usually spells big trouble for the heart.
And inflammation is rarely a local phenomenon. For instance, women with rheumatoid arthritis, a highly inflammatory condition that primarily affects the joints, wind up having double the risk of a heart attack when compared to women without it. Microbes that cause problems in one part of the body can easily migrate to other areas and cause inflammatory damage there. An infection that starts in the gums, for example, can easily leak bacteria into the bloodstream, bacteria that may then find fertile ground in a weakened arterial wall and fan the fires of inflammation there.
So how exactly does inflammation happen, and, more importantly, what can we do about it?
OXIDATION: THE INITIATOR OF INFLAMMATION
In
The Most Effective Ways to Live Longer
, Dr. Jonny introduced the concept of the “Four Horsemen of Aging.” These Four Horsemen all contribute mightily to heart disease, and we’ll go over all of them in the pages that follow. For those of you who just have to know
right now
what they are, here’s the list: oxidation, inflammation, sugar, and stress. In this chapter, we’ll concentrate on the first two.
One of the prime initiators of inflammation is
oxidation
. If you’ve ever seen rust on metal, you’re familiar with oxidation (also known as
oxidative damage
), even if you didn’t know the technical name for it. You’re also familiar with oxidation if you’ve ever left apple slices out on a picnic table where they were exposed to the air. They turned brown, didn’t they?
That’s
oxidative damage.
For those of you who don’t remember high school chemistry (or would understandably prefer to forget it), electrons travel in pairs and orbit around atoms. Every so often one of those electrons gets “loose,” and pandemonium ensues. The unpaired electron—known as a
free radical
—starts running around like a headless chicken trying to find its head. Free radicals are like college sophomores on spring break—temporarily free from the constraints of dormitory living, they basically go nuts and will “mate” with anyone! Free radicals “hit” on existing, stable pairs of electrons thousands of times a day, trying to find an electron they can
other
flavor of inflammation,
chronic
inflammation, well, that’s a whole different ball game.
Acute inflammation hurts, but chronic inflammation kills.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT CHRONIC INFLAMMATION, NOT CHOLESTEROL
Chronic inflammation flies beneath the pain radar. Much like high blood pressure, it has no obvious symptoms. Yet chronic inflammation is a significant component of virtually every single degenerative condition, including Alzheimer’s, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, chronic lower respiratory disease, influenza and pneumonia, chronic liver and kidney diseases, and, most especially, heart disease.
A BETTER WAY TO PREDICT HEART DISEASE
Want a much better way to tell whether you’re at risk? Look at these two line items on your blood test: triglycerides and HDL (the so-called “good” cholesterol).
Now if you’re not too freaked out about doing a bit of math, calculate the ratio of your triglycerides to your HDL. If, for example, your triglycerides are 150 mg/dL and your HDL is 50 mg/dL, you have a ratio of 3 (150:50). If your triglycerides are 100 mg/dL and your HDL is 50 mg/dL, you have a ratio of 2 (100:50).
This ratio is a far better predictor of heart disease than cholesterol ever was. In one study out of Harvard published in
Circulation
, a journal published by the American Heart Association, those who had the highest triglyceride-to-HDL ratios had a whopping sixteen times the risk of developing heart disease as those with the lowest ratios. 1 If you have a ratio of around 2, you should be happy, indeed, regardless of your cholesterol levels. (A ratio of 5, however, is problematic.)
When chronic inflammation exists unchecked in the cardiovascular system, it usually spells big trouble for the heart.
And inflammation is rarely a local phenomenon. For instance, women with rheumatoid arthritis, a highly inflammatory condition that primarily affects the joints, wind up having double the risk of a heart attack when compared to women without it. Microbes that cause problems in one part of the body can easily migrate to other areas and cause inflammatory damage there. An infection that starts in the gums, for example, can easily leak bacteria into the bloodstream, bacteria that may then find fertile ground in a weakened arterial wall and fan the fires of inflammation there.
So how exactly does inflammation happen, and, more importantly, what can we do about it?
OXIDATION: THE INITIATOR OF INFLAMMATION
In
The Most Effective Ways to Live Longer
, Dr. Jonny introduced the concept of the “Four Horsemen of Aging.” These Four Horsemen all contribute mightily to heart disease, and we’ll go over all of them in the pages that follow. For those of you who just have to know
right now
what they are, here’s the list: oxidation, inflammation, sugar, and stress. In this chapter, we’ll concentrate on the first two.
One of the prime initiators of inflammation is
oxidation
. If you’ve ever seen rust on metal, you’re familiar with oxidation (also known as
oxidative damage
), even if you didn’t know the technical name for it. You’re also familiar with oxidation if you’ve ever left apple slices out on a picnic table where they were exposed to the air. They turned brown, didn’t they?
That’s
oxidative damage.
For those of you who don’t remember high school chemistry (or would understandably prefer to forget it), electrons travel in pairs and orbit around atoms. Every so often one of those electrons gets “loose,” and pandemonium ensues. The unpaired electron—known as a
free radical
—starts running around like a headless chicken trying to find its head. Free radicals are like college sophomores on spring break—temporarily free from the constraints of dormitory living, they basically go nuts and will “mate” with anyone! Free radicals “hit” on existing, stable pairs of electrons thousands of times a day, trying to find an electron they can
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