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Cardiovascular disease — which includes heart attacks and stroke — remains the leading cause of mortality in the developed world. However some countries fare far worse than others. Britain has one of the highest rates of heart disease in the European Union, and the rate is higher than in the United States or Australia. According to a recent World Health Organization report, Irishmen and Scotsmen are three times more likely to die of coronary artery disease than their French counterparts. Their partners are even worst off; women in Belfast or Glasgow are nine times more likely to die of a heart attack than their French sisters.

The fact that Aberdonians are so much more at risk than the citizens of Toulouse is known as the French Paradox. French cuisine, in some areas at least, is at least as rich as Scottish fare. A diet replete with full fat (not to mention unpasteurized) cheese, cream and pate de fois gras is not really what the doctor ordered — and yet the French, most unfairly, and even despite those appalling French cigarettes, seem to be able to get away with it.

However, a more detailed look at the French statistics reveals a more complex picture. In the north, where the diet is not so very different from the British way of eating, death rates from vascular disease are higher than in the south where the diet is (obviously) Mediterranean. From epidemiological evidence such as this, together with animal studies, cell culture work and a sprinkling of clinical trials, a detailed understanding is emerging of the complex relationships between the food we eat and the diseases we die of, and how these diseases can be stabilized, and forced into reverse.

But to get to this point, we need to re-evaluate the established models of coronary artery disease which have held sway for so long, and which have proved to be such a waste of time and resources.

The Cholesterol Factor
In heart attack sufferers we often see fatty deposits blocking the coronary arteries. The disease process begins with a fatty streak in the lining of the artery, which expands over time until it impedes blood flow in the vessel (causing symptoms such as angina), and then blocks it, causing the heart attack. The fatty material contains cholesterol compounds, which, according to the theory, were derived from excessive levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream, which were in turn derived from excessive amounts of cholesterol in the diet. A diet too high in meat and dairy foods, therefore, would increase the risk of heart attack.

This theory was reinforced by animal models such as the infamous cholesterol-fed rabbits, which also developed atheroma-like lesions in their arteries. The fact that rabbits do not normally eat cholesterol (unless they are the rare carnivorous sort) was ignored. The fact that a diet too high in meat and dairy products was necessarily depleted in fruits and vegetables also went un-noticed. Ministries and departments of health went into overdrive, warning everyone to cut down on cholesterol and fatty foods in general. The pharmaceutical industry followed, rejoicing, and sold vast amounts of cholesterol-lowering drugs.

But the warnings and the drugs were not as helpful as had been predicted. Belatedly, it transpired that at least half of all heart attack victims have normal blood cholesterol levels. In other words, high cholesterol levels are not a good indicator of risk, and by focusing so exclusively on lowering them, doctors and indeed everyone else were overlooking the real question: why was cholesterol migrating into the blood vessel walls?

Tags: Angina, blood cholesterol, blood cholesterol levels, Cardio, cholesterol, Cholesterol Level, cholesterol levels, diet, Doctors, Ear, Fat, food, foods, health, Heart, heart disease, high cholesterol, high cholesterol levels, stroke, Tan, the diet, Work

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Tags: Angina, blood cholesterol, blood cholesterol levels, Cardio, cholesterol, Cholesterol Level, cholesterol levels, diet, Doctors, Ear, Fat, food, foods, health, Heart, heart disease, high cholesterol, high cholesterol levels, stroke, Tan, the diet, Work

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