By

Dr. Renae Norton

Coronary artery disease is a common heart condition that affects the major blood vessels that supply the heart muscle. A buildup of fats, cholesterol and other substances in and on the artery walls is what usually causes coronary artery disease. This buildup is called plaque. The buildup of plaque in the arteries is called atherosclerosis (ath-ur-o-skluh-ROE-sis). Atherosclerosis reduces blood flow to the heart and other parts of the body. It can lead to a heart attack, chest pain or a stroke.

But what causes this buildup of plaque? Many people believe it is the result of eating foods with high cholesterol. That is not true. Cholesterol doesn’t cause plaque buildup. Every cell in the body needs cholesterol. What causes plaque buildup is damaged cholesterol.

How does it get damaged? This is something that we are really good at in the US. We damage cholesterol by eating what I refer to as “polluted” foods. These are damaged fats, produce that is sprayed with herbicides like glyphosate and conventionally grown beef or poultry along with farm raised fish. It is also the result of way too much added sugar, which is in every package or processed food on the US market. So unless you are eating all organic, pastured cows, wild venison, or wild caught fish and minimally processed foods you are damaging your cholesterol all the time.

People are misdirected when it comes to understanding cholesterol. What matters is the “health” of the cholesterol, not the level of cholesterol. You can’t have too much cholesterol, but you can have damaged cholesterol. Healthy cholesterol has large buoyant molecules that just float through the arteries and veins. “Unhealthy” cholesterol has tiny sticky molecules that have been damaged. They are the ones that get stuck and clog our arteries and veins.

Why does the size of the molecule matter? Big fat fluffy cholesterol molecules just bounce through the arteries, veins and capillaries. The ones that get stuck are the small sticky ones. They are the ones that clog the arteries and cause vascular disease. Again, the way they get damaged is if we eat too much sugar primarily, but also if we eat food that has been sprayed with insecticides or herbicides…. in other words almost all of the food that isn’t organic in the US marketplace. Then we have HDL cholesterol, which is the “good” cholesterol. The higher your HDL cholesterol the healthier you are. The same things that damage the LDL cholesterol cause the HDL cholesterol to go down. My theory is there’s no room for it. I doubt that that’s accurate.

If you were worried that you may have coronary artery disease, be aware that the most common symptoms of coronary artery disease include:

• Chest pain, chest tightness, chest pressure and chest discomfort, called angina.
• Shortness of breath.
• Pain in the neck, jaw, throat, upper belly or back.
• Pain, numbness, weakness or coldness in the legs or arms if the blood vessels in those body areas are narrowed.

Since you may not be diagnosed with coronary artery disease until you actually have a heart attack, angina, a stroke or heart failure it is very important to prevent these conditions. In general prevention is easy:  Eat all organic, grass fed, wild caught, minimally processed foods. But most importantly, eliminate sugar from your diet. Rely on the natural sugars in fruit. But watch that too lol as there is such a thing as eating too many grapes. I found that out the hard way.

See my follow up article on why I recommend eating keto