Randolph's World

Inflammation. Yes inflammation is the real cause of heart disease. Specifically, inflammation in your artery walls is the real cause of heart disease.

What exactly is inflammation?

Simply put, inflammation is a mechanism your body has for self protection. The purpose of which is to remove harmful stimuli. This includes pathogens, irritants and damaged cells. There after, your body’s healing process can begin.

Inflammation kicks in when you get some sort of trauma (i.e. fall, punch, kick, etc), infection by pathogens (bacterial, viral), sunburn, etc. Pain, redness, swelling and radiating heat are all tell-tale signs of inflammation.

So far, it sounds like inflammation is a vital part of our health.. So how does it cause heart disease?

Yes, inflammation is indeed an important part of your body’s immune response. One which is very necessary for its proper functioning.

What I’ve described above is actually ACUTE inflammation. Inflammation is supposed to be fast and short lasting. If you’ve ever twisted your ankle, you’d notice how fast it swells up and becomes inflamed. Your body’s inflammation response is not meant to be on all the time!

However that’s exactly the case when your body’s inflammation is chronic or systemic. Chronic inflammation is prolonged over time; lasting weeks, months, and perhaps even years. This chronic, smouldering inflammation is what’s slowly destroying your organs and your body’s ability to function optimally.

So what causes systemic or chronic inflammation?

So what’s causing your body to have chronic inflammation? The biggest culprits would be the recommended mainstream diet. This overloads your body with simple, highly processed carbs (i.e. sugar, flour, high fructose corn syrup, etc), coupled with excessive consumption of vegetable oils (like soybean, corn, sunflower) which are loaded with omega-6 oils. Omega-3 oils on the other hand are anti-inflammatory.

Another highly inflammatory food is trans fat (AKA hydrogenated fat). They are usually found in packaged foods, fast food, margarine, shortening and most peanut butter.

How does this translate to heart disease?

Ok, let’s start with refined carbs or sugar. The blood sugar in our body is regulated within a very narrow range. Extra molecules of sugar in your blood stream would attach itself to different proteins. This in turn causes minor injuries to your blood vessel wall.

If this happens once in a while, your body healing mechanism would be able to cope with it. However when you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, this repeated injury sets off a systemic/ chronic inflammation in your body.

How about trans fat and omega-6 oils?

Omega-6’s are actually essential for your body – they form part of our cell membrane controlling what goes in and out of the cell. However, they must be in the correct balance with your omega-3 consumption (optimal ratio of 3:1).

If your diet consists of excessive omega-6 oils, your cell membrane starts to produce cytokines. Cytokines directly causes inflammation in your body. So if you have too much cytokines floating around in your body, this causes your body to have systemic inflammation.

Wait a minute, what about cholesterol, how does that come into play?

So here’s the question, why do you find a buildup of cholesterol in your blood vessels? It might help to consider the role cholesterol plays in your body. Cholesterol is actually sent by your body’s healing mechanism to protect sites that are damaged by inflammation.

This means that if you have too much cholesterol built up in your arteries, the root cause is actually chronic inflammation.

An analogy for this would be to blame the firemen for causing the fires, because they are always to be found at the sites of fire. But this is our health at risk, we can’t afford to be treating the symptom while ignoring the root cause.

So what can you do?

> Cut out or at least reduce your intake of inflammatory foods (this includes refined carbs, sugar, trans fat, high omega-6 vegetable oils)
> Avoid foods you’re allergic to. Common ones that people are intolerant towards are gluten and dairy.
> Move around more. So maybe take the stairs or walk up the escalator. Regular exercise helps your body reduce inflammation. It also improves your immune function, corrects & prevents insulin resistance, strengthens your heart health and much more.
> Supplement with omega-3 oil and vitamin D. They’re both anti-inflammatory for your body.