A Look at What’s Inside a Heart Attack Victim without Looking at the Corpses (The Cholesterol ‘Secret’)

This is a long blog entry! Please bookmark this or print. Better yet, tweet it and favourite it via Twitter so you can come back here anytime to continue reading. I hope to make it a lil easier for you…if you are in a rush, skip to the part where it matters most to you although I highly suggest you read this blog post in full to get a better understanding of your heart and health.

To make clearer points, cooking of meat is mentioned in this blog entry although I am a vegan (I don’t eat meat, nor dairy or honey products). “”Vegetarian since Feb 2009, Vegan since Sept 2009″

After reading this blog entry in its full entity (I am hoping you do!), it’s you (not me) who decide which is the healthiest oil for you, and whether there are better ways to deal with and prevent heart problems.

Happy Reading!

1. Unsaturated Oil intake affects Diabetes Sufferers
2. The Biggest Myth about Vegetable Oil
3. Contradictions in Info on Olive Oil and Margarine are Unsaturated Oils + 1 Other Common Factor
4. 2 Questions about Olive Oil
5. Differences between Canola and Olive Oil
6. What beats Olive Oil and Virgin Olive Oil
7. The Caveman Diet
8. What are the Signs of Heart-Related Problems?
9. Are Official Associations Clueless?
10. Statins and Memory Loss
11. The Bad Cholesterol “Secret”
12. A few More Tips for a Healthier Heart – Sodium (Salt)
13. 14 Foods and 1 Vitamin that are More Effective than Cholesterol-reducing Statins and Heart Drugs
14. Other Information related to Heart Health and Cholesterol

Recently, I was looking through my neglected memory cards and found some interesting images. In early 2009, I had the “benefit” of cleaning a Cookerhood that’s NOT been cleaned for 2 years. The part where it catches oil looked like this:

“YIKES” is right! Imagine this kind of stuff lining the walls of your arteries (you have 3 of these, also known as “aortas”), and that they’re getting as high as the “Great Wall of China”! lol

Back to Index

Our body is an amazing machine, 1 blocked aorta, we have 2 more to “rely on”. lol But would you risk placing extra stress on your remaining aortas?

Back to the stuff lining walls of our arteries…. Those are the hardened (and blackened) oil you’ve just seen in the picture above – from ground nut oil and peanut oil. Your plaque (not unlike teeth plaque but it hardens with a plug inside your aorta). Although vegetable oil is healthier than lard (pigs’ oil), many do not realise that any vegetable oil that is heated long enough and remains in cooked food, is trans-fat. Trans-fat is the sticky stuff hardening in your aorta, blocking or interfering with blood circulation and oxygen intake. [Sorry folks - trans-fat includes cooked olive oil. I only use olive oil as a salad dressing (no cooking of it). Read more below!]

The Biggest Myth about Vegetable Oil (including Olive Oil, Canola Oil and Corn Oil)
“No vegetable oils contain cholesterol – cholesterol is only found in animal products.” Wikipedia says “Trans fats may be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated but never saturated.” (Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat ) Vegetable oils may have either, or a combination of both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

I tried to differentiate “good oil” and “bad oil” based on whether they are polyunsaturated or monosaturated, but found that it does not really help me to choose the healthiest oil. Why? Because we still need monounsaturated and polyunsaturated oils! Here’s what my research turned up from Corn oil to Margarine (definitely not an extensive list but I think you’d agree with me that the numbers do not help to differentiate the good oil from the bad):

• CORN: 59% polyunsaturated 24% monounsaturated 13% saturated
• OLIVE: 9% polyunsaturated 72% monounsaturated 14% saturated
• CANOLA: 31% polyunsaturated 65% monounsaturated 4% saturated
• COCONUT: 1% polyunsaturated 6% monounsaturated 93% saturated
• *VEGETABLE SHORTENING: 27% polyunsaturated 46% monounsaturated 27% saturated (Note: “Vegetable Shortening” are fully hydrogenated cottonseed oil and some soybean oil. As they are made in a way so as not to melt easily in room temperature, they exist in semis-solid state and easilt clogs up arteries. That is why shortening including “bread shortening”, is unhealthy transfat.)
• *MARGARINE:34% polyunsaturated 47% monounsaturated 19% saturated (Note: non-hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated and fully hydrogenated margarine are all unhealthy.)

*Definitely transfat!

So, what do we go by now, to differentiate good oils from bad ones? This is what I am attempting to do (please continue reading!)

Back to Index

Contradictions in info on Olive Oil & Margarine

A PDF document by the Heart & Stroke Foundation says,”All soft , spreadable margarines must meet the 2% trans fat restrictions.”

Wikipedia says “Trans fats may be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated but never saturated.” (Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat ) And olive oil is, ladies and gentlemen, 75% monunsaturated oil (while your healthy butter and coconut oil are saturated oil). And it gets even worser when olive oil is heated to cook our food. There is no controversy that trans-fat is bad for us if we ingest it.

In fact, butter and coconut oil – villified for more than 50 years – decrease chances of insulin sensitivity for those who are on insulin therapy (ie. Type 2 Diabetes patients). [ When diabetic sufferers become resistant to insulin therapy (insulin sensitivity is increased), this means that insulin has stopped being accepted by the body, and the patient's condition escalates from Type 2 to Type 1 Diabetes (dialysis machine) - reason why diabetic patients' health do not turn for the better. It's unfortunate we continually have websites that encourage diabetic sufferers to eat unsaturated fats and oils in polyunsaturated fats (like http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/healthandfitness/p/trnasfats.htm ). ]

Do not be mistaken by this statement because this 2% transfat restriction is what the law allows, NOT what YOUR body allows. Much like toxic lead, there is no safe level of trans fat! Center of Science in the Public Interest quoted the Institute of Medicine’s,”The only level of trans-fat that’s safe is ZERO.”

A Little Comparison between Canola Oil and Olive Oil

If Canola Oil is so harmful, why do the Japanese have the lowest incidence heart and cancer problems?
The diets of elderly Japanese in Okinawa (the Okinawans), aged between 90 to 112, were once studied. According to the authors of “the Okinawan Way”, their diet consists of low-calorie, plant-based, high complex-carbohydrate diets (this kind of diet is very similiar to the Raw Vegan way of eating.)

While genetics may account in part for Okinawans’ longevity, studies have revealed that when they move away from the archipelago and abandon their traditional ways, they lose their health advantage, proving that lifestyle is, at the very least, a highly influential factor. Traditionally, the Okinawans do not have Canola Oil in their diet – Canola Oil only burst into the scene in the 1990s.

The Okinawans’ program of diet, exercise and spiritual health – which includes eating a lot of green tea and mushrooms – owers their risk for heart disease, osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s, as well as cancer of the breast, ovarian, prostate and other organs.

Besides, Canola Oil is a genetically-modified oil, it has no contribution to Okinawans’ longevity whatsoever.

Back to Index

Do you know…the defrillibrator that shocks a dying heart back to its normal rhythm, works 1% of the time to save lives? By contrast, people who change for a healthier lifestyle would avert 8 times as many deaths. - American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

How does Canola Oil measure up with Olive Oil? Which oil is healthier to use?

1. Olive Oil may or may not have added omega-3 fatty acids, if if it does, it basically has way lesser omega-3 fatty acids, compared to Canola Oil.
   
2. A study by Dr. Robert Vogel in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that olive oil significantly reduces blood flow to different parts of your body, whereas Canola Oil do not.
3. Olive oil impaired vascular function just like a Big Mac or fries or Sara Lee cheesecake.
4. Canola Oil has long chain fatty acids which turns it into transfat after cooking.
5. Canola Oil has MORE Omega-6 oil than Omega-3 oil (the human body requires more omega-3 oil than omega-6).

My verdict? Don’t buy into the media, just because Canola oil doesn’t have news reports and isn’t heavily researched, doesn’t make olive oil the better of the two. Both are not healthy oils.
Back to the topic of olive oil! Like the canola oil, olive oil was touted as ‘health’, way before any tests were conducted on it. By the time the results were out, it manufacturers hid them from public (nowhere does mainstream media say that cooked olive oil in trans-fat!)

2 Commonly Asked Questions about Olive Oil

1. “Olive oil cannot be trans-fat. It’s not even hydrogenated.” True or False?
Not totally true, but yet not totally false. Not all olive oil are hydrogenated, some are cis-unsaturated olive oil. However, even partially hydrogenated olive oil – which appears as SOLID – is trans- fat in the form of OLIVE BUTTER that’s made with hydrogenated vegetable or Canola oil. More info

2. “Olive Oil is not trans-fat when cooked or heated.” True or False?
Dr. A. Kiritsakis, a world renowned oil chemist in Athens, and author of “OLIVE OIL FROM THE TREE TO THE TABLE” (Second edition 1998) said, “All oils will oxidize and hydrogenate to a tiny degree if repeatedly heated to very high temperatures such as is done in commercial frying operations.” Of course, never use cooking oil repeatedly as the will turn rancid.

Anyway, let’s take a look at 3 facts:

1. Although phenols (antioxidant like oleocanthal in found in Olive Oil), “keeps” oil from becoming rancid, its function is quite restrictive if oil reaches its smoking point. All vegetable oil turns into trans-fat at their “smoke-point”.
2. Pure virgin olive oil smokes at 160°C (320°F), while normal olive oil smokes between 210°C to 238°C (410 to 609°F).
3. Stir-frying seldom hit temperatures above 82°C (180° F) – that is to say, you should NEVER stir-fry with pure virgin olive oil
4. Roasting beef tenderlion never exceeds 220°C (425°F) – that is also to say, you should never roast or bake with olive o

#3. and #4. clearly shows when WHICH Olive Oil turns trans-fat with WHAT sort of olive oil. So the advise NOT to use virgin olive oil for cooking stays TRUE.

Back to Index

What’s better than Olive Oil (if you must stick to it)?
Organic Virgin Olive Oil helps reduce asthma and arthritis inflammation, and also aids in reducing blood pressure. Taking organic virgin olive oil with primrose evening oil, helps regulation of ovaries and breast.

But what’s even better than virgin olive oil? Oxygenated olive oil!

In fairness, some of the wonders of Olive Oil may be overhyped by the cooking oil industry, considering that the Mediterranean diet consists of not only olive oil but also plenty of fish, fruits and vegetables. So again, it is important not to treat just one single health food or oil as a panacea!

Talking about Mediterranean diet, I personally view the ‘Caveman diet’ as more effective. The “Caveman die” cosnists of:

• foods that are rich in live cells (phyto-nutrients) that work inside our body
• foods that have nothing artificial or harmful added to it, nor anything taken away from it due to heat/cooking
• foods that will go bad if not eaten immediately or within a day.

In other words, real naturally uncontaminated unmodified foods that raw vegans dig! If you don’t eat meat, there’s no need to really worry about “cooking” to kill parasites. Meat is cholesterol, bad ones!

Are ‘Official’ Associations clueless?

Recognise that many official associations ar NOT doing their jobs of giving the RIGHT info! Take for instance what this website is saying:

The American Heart Association is saying that trans-fat will not raise LDL (bad cholesterol)! This is a total contradiction to Wikipedia’s (which I will repeat):“Trans fats may be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated but never saturated.”

I searched more online to find out if anyone else caught the deception. Apparently, one did many years back. Karl Loren wrote at his site that,”The AHA proposed a diet that causes heart diseases.” He received a threatening letter by AHA’s lawyers but refused to remove his statement. Do visit Karl’s site – a lot of good health info to explore and learn from!

Back to Index

I refrain from visiting websites like the AMA. Because in year 2000 published the following in its Journal of the American Medical Association (December 6, 2000. Vol. 284. No. 21.2740-2747 ), “Margarine is healthier because it has no cholesterol, and because it is made from natural vegetable oils.” via http://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/health_food/healthy_eating/margarine_or_butter_we_give_you_the_facts.html and http://www.choosemargarine.com/latestSpread_fda_publication.html (Of course, would you say your meat is sick n unhealthy if you are selling meat?)

It’s gets even more ironic….the AMA’s own Journal of the American Medical Association admits that nearly 50% of all heart bypass patients shouldn’t have had this deadly surgery!

I also refrain from visiting websites like AskDrSears’ (Canola Oil viewed as healthy by Dr. Sears!) ,
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fat/NU00262 ,
http://www.healthcastle.com/goodfats-badfats.shtml
http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/culinaryreference/a/fattable.htm
and http://www.scandpg.org/mapsearch.php (most dieticians I know promote Canola oil or Olive oil…or both!)

I find sites such as Jigsawhealth.com is more accurate and well-balanced when it comes to fat and oil info,”The truth of the matter is that living the “low-fat” or “fat-free” lifestyle is actually very damaging for your health. Understanding dietary fats and making good, natural choices are the only real ways to preserve your waistline, and protect yourself against chronic conditions.” Another website I rely on for great information is the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine PCRM.org

Many who are healthy take over-the-counter cholesterol-lowering drugs; and many who have a history of heart problems, including shortness of breath and inability to return to normal heart rate within a reasonable amount of time after exercise, take heart drugs. Both kind of drugs may actually do more harm than good. [ The next paragraph may be the most important thing one can ever learn.... ]

What these drugs do are – erode the plug of your plaque. Much like an unhealed scar on your knee, when this plug is removed, blood rushes out. Blood rushes to the area where attention is needed, indirectly causing the rest of the heart to be deprived of blood.

Guess what happens next? Your heart goes into a heart attack.

‘During the past 10 years, prescriptions for cholesterol-lowering medication have increased 10-fold.’ – Thomas B. Newman and Stephen B. Hulley of the University of California.

There’s also another danger is leaving hardened plaques alone – they may get “washed up” and end up as blood clots elsewhere. If one ends up in the brain, a stroke occurs. If one ends up in the lungs, you’ve got a case of pulmonary embolism. Ignoring bad cholesterol, is definitely not a good idea, because by the time you FEEL it, you’ve suffered quite “a bit”!

“Lack of signs and symptoms is not a sign of good health.”

Back to Index

What are the Signs of Heart-Related Problems if they can be Spotted?
You may already have a sign if you are living in an area of polluted air. So…what to look out for? Signs may include one or more of these:

• arrhythmia (an irregular heartbeat)
• swollen or tender, and red or discoloured skin on the affected legs (for DVT)
• rapid breathing or difficulty breathing
• profuse perspiration
• increased heart rate
• unexplained shortness of breath
• chest pain
• coughing up blood
• feelings of anxiety or dread leading to fainting

Statin Drugs & Memory Loss

“Duane Graveline, MD, MPH, a retired family doctor and former NASA scientist/astronaut, recounted his own hair-raising experience taking the popular statin drug Lipitor for only six weeks. Soon after he went for a walk, Dr. Graveline was found wandering, confused, and reluctant to enter his own home because he didn’t recognize it or remember his wife’s name. Six hours later–after being examined by a neurologist and undergoing an MRI–he came to his senses.

Transient Global Amnesia (TGA) was diagnosed…. Duane Graveline continued taking Lipitor. Again, at six weeks, the TGA returned. This time, he regressed to his teen-age years with no memory for his time in college, medical school, or the recent past. “Many decades of my life were obliterated,” he said. “The diagnosis was TGA: cause unknown.

Cholesterol-lowering statins not only kills enough brain cells to cause memory loss, they deplete the body of an important anti-oxidant (CQ10) with muscle wasting and heart failure as a result.”

Yep, you read that right, statin drugs reduce CoQ10 levels in the body. TheCoQ10 Study: Hodges S, et al., CoQ10: Could it have a role in cancer management? Biofactors 1999; 9 (2-4): 365-370.

Dr. Andrew Weil,“Cholesterol levels are important, but they’re not the whole story when it comes to heart disease. Indeed, more than half of all first heart attacks occur in people with normal cholesterol levels. “

What’s the Bad Cholesterol “Secret”?

You may have heard that the bad cholesterol (LDL) is the baddie that gives you heart problems but do you know…there’s no such thing as bad cholesterol?

Because when good cholesterol is attacked by free radicals, it becomes bad cholesterol.

Good cholesterol interacts with oxidised iron (freckles) and calcium (plaque) and becomes bad cholesterol. The effect is similar to the browning of a freshly-cut apple – that’s what free radicals in the air does. While free radicals cannot be avoided, you can avoid the attacks. More information on vitamins’ and anti-oxidants’ role with free radicals (one extra way to prevent or “beat cancer”!)

Back to Index

WHAT’s better than cholesterol-reducing drugs and Heart Drugs? 14 Foods and 1 Vitamin (This is only a partial list. It’s not possible to list all foods that encourages good heart health.)

1. A much better alternative is to eat vegetables as Vegetal Fibre helps eliminate excess cholesterol from the body. (You can think of vegetable nutrients as the ‘roadside sweeper’, sweeping away the sticky bad cholesterol from our heart arteries! Vegetable fibre from broccoli and green leafy vegetables wraps around toxins before they are eliminated from our body! This is the easiest and perhaps the “cheapest” alternative to a healthier heart….I can almost see NO EXCUSES for you not to have a healthy (or healthier) heart!
2. Flaxseeds (aka Linseeds) are excellent colon-friendly source for fibre (lessens constipation). Flaxseeds can be grinded to powder before adding to your favourite vegetable or wheat grass shake.
3. I and my mum have happily switched to using organic coconut oil (not all coconut oil are the same!) Benefits of Coconut Oil
4. There’s a tree bark mentioned on this site that is also said to be beneficial for preventing heart and heart-related problems. They don’t say the name without you having to buy the ebook but I’ll let you in on this BIG SECRET! It’s Pycnogenol! Pycnogenol was tested on more than 5,000 people, and has been mentioned in 56 Clinical Studies and 168 scientific and medical journals. Patented by Horphaq Research (info and videos), pycnogenol is widely used even for support of Joint Health, Diabetes Care and Sports Nutrition. (In Singapore, pycnogenol was mostly promoted to support our body’s immune system, and was first marketed by Nature’s Farm more than 14 years ago! I know I am giving you a lot of information here but I highly encourage you to get the ebook for fantastic heart health information you’ll never find on the web!)
5. Resveratrol from Red (unskinned) Grapes also acts as a great support to heart health! Despite the French’s unhealthy lifestyle (eg. smoking a lot), they have the fewest heart attacks in the world. Their stronger cradiovascular systems may be attributed to their habit of drinking red wine with food. Inside your body, resveratrol converted to an anti-cancer agent which selectively targets and destroy cancer cells, without any harm to healthy cells (chemotherapy kills all cancer cells and healthy cells). – reported by researchers from the School of Pharmacy at De Montfort University in Leicester and published in the British Journal of Cancer. However, experts advise no more than 2 glasses of red wine per day, for it to be effective.
6. Garlic reduces heart diseases by as much as 76%. – Framingham Heart Study. Unless you are already taking blood-thinning drugs, there’s no reason why one could not take copous amount of garlic. Simply allow crushed garlic to stand for 10 minutes before cooking it. Even the Garlic Peel is rich in Quercetin, and is suitable for cooking in soup – just make sure you sieve them out before serving.
7. Cranberries are full of phyto-chemicals (these phyto-chemicals help plants/fruits to fend off their diseases!) that are considered good “heart food”.
8. Foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids like Spirulina, Brazil Nuts, Pumpkin Seeds, Chia Seeds, Wheat Germ Oil (NOT supposed to be used for cooking because it turns rancid and can cause cancer; choose wheat germ oil with care), Hemp Seed Oil and Walnuts are also heart-healthy.
9. Vitamin B (Niacin) is highly recommended by Dr. Andrew Weil. Vitamin B greatly reduces the chances of Stroke, heart pains, heart problems, Pulmonary Embolism (”stroke” in the lungs), and even Deep Vein Thrombosis (removing the veins via surgery only remove the symptoms but not the root of the problem).

Back to Index Having good cholesterol is not just all about the heart, HDL, the “good” cholesterol travels away from the arteries, and back to the liver for eventual elimination. So it makes sense to also eat foods that protect your liver from damage.

Altmedicine.about.com has excellent information on using herbs and supplements in place of statin and cholesterol-lowering drugs.

A few More Tips for a Healthier Heart – Sodium (Salt)

A recent study found that reducing salty food will decrease your chances of heart diseases. – American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2010, Volume 91, Pages 456-464 Here are several tips that can help you improve heart (and overall) health:
# If you eat processed foods, pick those that have no more than 120mcg of salt per 100 grams of food.
# Your salt to potassium level needs to be 1:9. Many cancer sufferers’ salt levels in body are not int his normal ratio.
# Also, do avoid cancer-causing artificial salt, Sodium Nitrate (also common in processed foods).
# For healthier uncontaminated salt, consider using Himalayaan salt which is not only organic, but also contains 84 minerals essential to humans.
# The good news is, most naturally occuring foods – and I am not referring to processed or canned foods – are low in salt (sodium).

[ Deep vein Thrombosis (DVT)... I know of a lady who had her veins removed, only to be suffer from severe heart pain several years later. Had she known about this safer alternative option, she could have avoided a heart attack. She is now doing alright, after consulting a holistic doctor.

Another obese 9-year-old Malay boy was hospitalised for MONTHS because of DVT. He is now still in Kandang Kerbau Hospital. The kid is talented but because of his DVT, he lost a lot of school! He often screams in pain whenever the nurses gives him injections near his butt. Is such suffering and expensive hospitalization needed for treatment of DVT? Again, I refer to the ten better, safer and more affordable alternatives to stains and cholesterol-lowering drugs - there are better ways to avoid, stroke, heart attacks, DVT, etc! ]

The American Medical Association stated,”More tests need to be done to see if these drugs causes cancer.” What?? I thought it’s already proven….no?

FDA-required trials (trials that pharmaceutical companies need to conduct and submit to FDA) do not report memory loss in people taking statins. The companies who manufacture or market these drugs hope that sales of the drugs are continued. These drugs continue to be sold and people continue to suffer. What a life!

“Old age is no longer about being sick nor remaining sick. It’s about having a good quality of health…if you only know how.” – unknown What life do you wanna make for yourself?

CREDITS
Chris Gupta (Dr. Graveline’s experience)
N_Fan (for tweeting and sharing great health links!)

Related Info
The UK Campaign to Ban Trans-Fat
Trans-Fat, Not Saturated Fats, increases Diabetes
Why-Butter-Is-Better by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD
Margarine has up to 24 ingredients, milk has 3; and yet margarine is not healthier
By the time FDA removes a harmful Heart Drugs, may be thousands were harmed or dead
What You Need to Know About Trans Fats or Trans Fatty Acids by Fiona Haynes
The TRUTH about Canola Oil (gmo food)
The TRUTH about Coconut Oil and Canola Oil
Hemp Oil is rather novel so here’s some info on it
A natural therapy that could boost fight against virtually all diseases
Dangers of Non-Stick Cookware supercedes inconvenience of “stuck-to-the-pan” food, and how to tell What Supermarket foods may be Irradiated
Microwaved milk damages babies’ brain
Truths about Microwaved Foods and Safety (how to avoid Microwaving Accidents)
More Scientific Evidence of Microwaving Danger (2 Best Uses of Microwaving)
Protect your family (and customers for those in the food industry) by choosing SAFER Cookware
Irradiation can spawn mutant forms of E. coli, Salmonella and other harmful bacteria, making them more difficult to kill
Nutrition Bars’ labels often Misleading
Hazards of Eating Wheat Bread
Chelation Therapy for Bypassing Heart Surgeries? What’s chelation and does it work?

Disclaimer: This blog entry is NOT a source of medical advice and is not liable for any accidental omissions. Any and all suggestions stem from personal opinion and experience. Any and all information you deem important should be presented to your TRUSTED medical practitioner/vet for evaluation and incorporation into YOUR personal situation.

Share