Tackling Atherosclerosis With Good Nutrition (Part 1)

The first thing to do in this article is to make sure that we all understand the same thing by the word ‘atherosclerosis’. atherosclerosis means ‘in the Greek’ athero=’gruel’ and sclerosis=’hardening’; individuals call it ‘furring’ or hardening’ of the arteries, which gives it its other appellation: arteriosclerosis.

What this all comes to mean is that the arteries become clogged up, impeding the flow of blood around your body. These blockages put pressure on the heart and can, or almost always will, lead to strokes or / and heart attacks.

So, what brings about arteriosclerosis? The main reason given by most, but not all, medical professionals is the build up on the arterial walls of fat and other materials. This gunge forms a plaque, similar to the manner the food on your teeth makes plaque, if you do not brush them frequently enough. The plaque builds up over time, layer upon layer until it has a significant impact on blood flow.

However, your body is still saying to your brain that, say, your legs require more energy, because you are running for a bus. Your brain tells your heart to get some more blood to your legs immediately, so your heart pumps more quickly, but the blood is not going through in sufficient quantities because of the arteriosclerosis, so the heart has to work even harder.

This means that the heart of a sufferer from atherosclerosis has to pump a great deal more quickly than that of those who do not have atherosclerosis. This additional stress on the heart can lead to a heart attack. Not just that, but bits of plaque break off under this higher pressure and they zoom around the blood stream. If they get lodged in the brain and cause a blockage to a vital process, you might suffer a stroke.

The three reasons that exacerbate the condition the most are smoking, diabetes and a family history of arteriosclerosis. Men are more at danger than women and those with a sedentary lifestyle and career are more at danger than active people or those who have a physically demanding job.

Diet and exercise are the main agents in combatting arteriosclerosis without the use of drugs. However, it is not that simple. Everybody agrees that exercise is useful, and everybody agrees that diet is important, but the diet argument is contended by two groups.

Conventional wisdom says that the difficulty is LDL cholesterol derived from saturated fat, hydrogenated and trans fats. However another faction says that the over consumption of omega 6 is to blame; or rather that the ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 in our bodies is to blame. They say that we get too much omega 6 (which is responsible for inflammation) in polyunsaturated vegetable oils.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a number of topics, and is now concerned with omega 3 arthritis. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Omega 6 9