shijing
The Living Force
I'm starting a thread on endothelial dysfunction, because I've recently been diagnosed with a moderate case of it and am trying to learn more about it. I'm hoping this might help others who are or will eventually also deal with it.
The background is that last summer I experienced a period of intermittent angina along with some shooting pains and tingling in my chest and left arm and fingers. I had my iron levels tested, and besides having slightly high ferritin levels, the only other thing that seemed out of the ordinary was a low sedimentation rate (blood serum). At that time, various members recommended that I increase my fish oil, vitamin E, and use an Earthing pad, and I also started giving regular bimonthly blood donations. This seemed to take care of my symptoms for the rest of the year, and I didn't think much about it until they started to recur again a couple months ago.
After an incident several weeks ago where I passed out after a blood donation (most likely from not eating enough beforehand), I looked up the information that my former rolfer had given me on a holistic cardiologist and made an appointment. I had an initial intake where we talked about my lifestyle and dietary habits and she asked me to log my food intake and bowel movements for a week, and then I went back the next week for something called an EndoPAT test, which tests endothelial function. A healthy score is above 2.0, and my score was 1.53, placing me in the category of moderate endothelial dysfunction (endothelial dysfunction can precede atherosclerosis, which in turn is a precursor to stroke, heart attack and other cardiac events). I also did a blood draw (I'm unclear for what, but I think it's partly to test micronutrients and something called an HS-CRP), and we'll look at the results at a follow-up appointment this coming Friday.
Since my weight, blood pressure, and other indicators were all generally healthy, the doctor said she thought that the main problem was probably genetic predisposition, which is entirely possible since both my father and paternal grandfather have suffered strokes and my dad has undergone bypass surgery and had other vascular complications. She gave me a cardio health supplement, advised me not to smoke, drink, or eat trans- or saturated fat, to increase my vegetable intake, and sent me home with homework to do: watch Forks Over Knives and Food Inc. She also said that she's worried that my cholesterol levels may be high based on some bloodwork I showed her from 2012.
Needless to say I'm going to have to be strategic about how I interact during my next appointment, because there are certain things that I think she can help with as a holistic doctor, but at the same time it looks like what she has in mind is for me to go on (or at least steer toward) a whole-foods, plant-based diet which will keep my system more alkaline and less acidic (for more on that, see this post by dugdeep).
In the meantime, I've started doing some reading on endothelial dysfunction myself. I found a book recently which discusses it in some detail, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Heart Disease by Mark Houston, and plan to order Reverse Heart Disease Now and The Great Cholesterol Myth.
What I've learned so far is that endothelial dysfunction is correlated with one or more of the following:
Several of these are intertwined, but it doesn't seem that I have problems with at least the bottom three. The one which I do seem to fit the profile of most closely is oxidative stress, which is tied closely to inflammation. In light of this, I've put together the following protocol over the past week which I've begun taking every day:
Other things that cause or are correlated with oxidative stress include:
Smoking is, naturally, always listed as well. One of the biggest things that I'm looking into is controlling stress, since I don't always do a good job of that. In the past couple of month I've also become lax about exercise. Houston promotes a combination of high impact (resistance training) and aerobic exercise -- resistance training has been discussed rather extensively here in conjunction with the ketogenic diet.
I hope this is helpful to other people, and if anyone has additional information or feedback it's of course welcome.
The background is that last summer I experienced a period of intermittent angina along with some shooting pains and tingling in my chest and left arm and fingers. I had my iron levels tested, and besides having slightly high ferritin levels, the only other thing that seemed out of the ordinary was a low sedimentation rate (blood serum). At that time, various members recommended that I increase my fish oil, vitamin E, and use an Earthing pad, and I also started giving regular bimonthly blood donations. This seemed to take care of my symptoms for the rest of the year, and I didn't think much about it until they started to recur again a couple months ago.
After an incident several weeks ago where I passed out after a blood donation (most likely from not eating enough beforehand), I looked up the information that my former rolfer had given me on a holistic cardiologist and made an appointment. I had an initial intake where we talked about my lifestyle and dietary habits and she asked me to log my food intake and bowel movements for a week, and then I went back the next week for something called an EndoPAT test, which tests endothelial function. A healthy score is above 2.0, and my score was 1.53, placing me in the category of moderate endothelial dysfunction (endothelial dysfunction can precede atherosclerosis, which in turn is a precursor to stroke, heart attack and other cardiac events). I also did a blood draw (I'm unclear for what, but I think it's partly to test micronutrients and something called an HS-CRP), and we'll look at the results at a follow-up appointment this coming Friday.
Since my weight, blood pressure, and other indicators were all generally healthy, the doctor said she thought that the main problem was probably genetic predisposition, which is entirely possible since both my father and paternal grandfather have suffered strokes and my dad has undergone bypass surgery and had other vascular complications. She gave me a cardio health supplement, advised me not to smoke, drink, or eat trans- or saturated fat, to increase my vegetable intake, and sent me home with homework to do: watch Forks Over Knives and Food Inc. She also said that she's worried that my cholesterol levels may be high based on some bloodwork I showed her from 2012.
Needless to say I'm going to have to be strategic about how I interact during my next appointment, because there are certain things that I think she can help with as a holistic doctor, but at the same time it looks like what she has in mind is for me to go on (or at least steer toward) a whole-foods, plant-based diet which will keep my system more alkaline and less acidic (for more on that, see this post by dugdeep).
In the meantime, I've started doing some reading on endothelial dysfunction myself. I found a book recently which discusses it in some detail, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Heart Disease by Mark Houston, and plan to order Reverse Heart Disease Now and The Great Cholesterol Myth.
What I've learned so far is that endothelial dysfunction is correlated with one or more of the following:
- inflammation
- oxidative stress
- vascular autoimmunity
- dyslipidemia (an abnormal amount of lipids (e.g. cholesterol and/or fat) in the blood)
- blood pressure
- blood sugar
- obesity and increased body fat
Several of these are intertwined, but it doesn't seem that I have problems with at least the bottom three. The one which I do seem to fit the profile of most closely is oxidative stress, which is tied closely to inflammation. In light of this, I've put together the following protocol over the past week which I've begun taking every day:
- ascorbic acid
- magnesium
- potassium
- cod liver oil
- boswellia
- L-arginine
- vitamin E
- CoQ10
- zinc
- selenium
- NAC
- ALA
Other things that cause or are correlated with oxidative stress include:
- elevated levels of iron/ferritin
- increased levels of heavy metal in the blood and tissue
- excessive stress
- obesity
- sunlight
- radiation and chemotherapy
Smoking is, naturally, always listed as well. One of the biggest things that I'm looking into is controlling stress, since I don't always do a good job of that. In the past couple of month I've also become lax about exercise. Houston promotes a combination of high impact (resistance training) and aerobic exercise -- resistance training has been discussed rather extensively here in conjunction with the ketogenic diet.
I hope this is helpful to other people, and if anyone has additional information or feedback it's of course welcome.