As mentioned in the previous
weeks on my homepage, the functional medicine conference provided those of us
who attended with more inspiration, science, and supportive tools for
addressing the root cause of disease specific for the individual. After attending
the conference, I’m still in awe of how Functional Medicine never ceases to
explain or leave behind any individuals labeled “medical mysteries”. (Please visit my homepage for this week’s
discussion on functional medicine and how it addresses biochemical
individualized medicine).
Dr. Houston, as well as all our other
mentors and presenters at the conference, spoke of these medical outliers who feel
like they are “oversensitive” to the world. These individuals may experience
annoying, unexplained, and negative reactions to medicines, strange responses to
environmental stimuli, and seemingly disconnected symptoms. We learned from
these geniuses that these people are just annoying patients who like to be
sick, but those who need the holistic mind-body-biochemical approach that functional
medicine offers.
As far as the cardiovascular
topic, Dr. Houston awestruck his audience when he was able to provide
scientific evidence and biochemical explanations between the gaps in treatment
outcomes based on serum cholesterol, lipid, and inflammatory markers. One example left me with my mouth, “catching
flies!”
Dr. Houston gave us the evidence
on why those with low LDL and lipids may still experience heart disease and why
those with high lipid panels may actually be at a lower risk! This had more to do than just the amount of
cholesterol in the blood, or in lipid particle size (with smaller sizes more
likely to clog the vessels). Heart dysfunction was created by “infinite
insults” with three finite results (inflammation, oxidative damage, and immune
dysfunction). Our job as Functional medicine doctors was to find what infinite
insult created these three finite results that caused cholesterol in one’s body
to be a risk factor for disease! We have to ask how the biological
environment is interacting with an active infection, blood sugar imbalance,
environmental toxins, or other triggers that are causing these negative changes on the
vasculature.
Below is an article highlighted
by Dr. Mercola on one factor in heart disease, getting the right kind of fat in
your diet.
Less Saturated Fat in
Your Diet = Higher Risk of Heart Disease (Dr.
Mercola)
Since the
introduction of low-fat foods, heart disease rates have progressively climbed,
even as studies kept debunking Keys research–repeatedly finding that saturated
fats in fact support heart health. For example:
·A meta-analysis
published two years agoii,
which pooled data from 21 studies and included nearly 348,000 adults, found no
difference in the risks of heart disease and stroke between people with the
lowest and highest intakes of saturated fat.
·In a 1992 editorial
published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Dr. William Castelli, a
former director of the Framingham Heart study, stated iii:
“In Framingham,
Mass., the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more
calories one ate, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol. The opposite of
what… Keys et al would predict…We found that the people who ate the most
cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the
least and were the most physically active.”
·Another 2010 study
published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a
reduction in saturated fat intake must be evaluated in the context of
replacement by other macronutrients, such as carbohydrates iv.
When you replace saturated fat with a higher carbohydrate intake, particularly
refined carbohydrate, you exacerbate insulin resistance and obesity, increase
triglycerides and small LDL particles, and reduce beneficial HDL cholesterol.
The authors state that dietary efforts to improve your cardiovascular disease
risk should primarily emphasize the limitation of refined carbohydrate
intake, and weight reduction. -Mercola, J. Why I believe Over Half of Your
Diet Should Consist of This. May 31, 2012.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/31/coconut-oil-for-healthy-heart.aspx?e_cid=20120531_DNL_art_1
Interestingly, Dr. Houston provided evidence that high saturated fat diets were
linked to lower stroke risk, but higher cardiovascular disease. He
explained how even with food, we can’t look at things in isolation from our
cellular biology. It is the combination of saturated fats with highly processed
foods and sugar or in too high of a ratio that can and does create inflammation
in the vessels of the body. However, I have good news— if these fats were taken with antioxidants
and other substances, the effect could be mediated–good news for those who
like sweet potato fries. J
References:
MARK HOUSTON, MD, MS. Coronary
Heart Disease Risk Factors, Noninvasive Cardiovascular Testing, and Metabolic
Cardiology. June 2, 2012. IFM Phoenix, AZ. A New Era in Preventing,
Managing, and Reversing Cardiovascular and Metabolic Dysfunction
JEFFREY BLAND, PHD. The Impact of a Toxic Environment and Unhealthy
Lifestyle Factors on Cardiometabolic Disease. June 1, 2012.. IFM Phoenix, AZ. A New Era in Preventing,
Managing, and Reversing Cardiovascular and Metabolic Dysfunction.
MARK HOUSTON, MD, MS . Release the
Pressure: Effective Interventions for the Treatment of Hypertension. June 2,
2012. IFM Phoenix, AZ. A New Era in Preventing, Managing, and
Reversing Cardiovascular and Metabolic Dysfunction.
Eldon Taylor. May 29, 2012: Biology
of Belief and Spontaneous Evolution. HayHouse Radio. http://www.hayhouseradio.com/episode_preview.php?author_id=432.
