Heart Disease
The Above Diagram is a Cross Section of an Artery
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick has figured out the causes of heart disease:
The first step in the development of atherosclerosis is damage to the endothelium (layer of cells that lines all arteries). No damage to the endothelium = no atherosclerosis.
After the endothelium has been damaged a blood clot forms over the area
The blood clot is mainly broken down and removed – on site
Any remaining blood clot is covered over by new endothelial cells, effectively drawing the clot into the artery wall.
Further repair systems, such as macrophages, then break up and remove any blood clot remnants, so nothing remains ... unless clots form more rapidly than they can be got rid of, at which point a plaque starts to develop, and grow. When it reaches a critical point, the final deadly blood clot occurs.
Essentially, therefore, we are looking at a dynamic process whereby, if the rate of damage is greater than the rate of repair, problems occur. However, if the rate of repair is greater than the rate of damage, all is well. Several things can cause epithelial damage and several things can effect the clotting and repair system.
In my opinion, Malcolm Kendrick's theory of heart disease is the best there is. It is multifactorial and LDL cholesterol is not the cause. Things that cause endothelial damage cause heart disease if the rate of damage is greater than the rate at which the body can repair this damage via various inflammatory pathways.
David Diamond is a neuroscientist who upon finding out that he was at risk for heart disease decided to look into the science. It turns out that LDL (the supposedly bad cholesterol) is not so bad and that statins do not help much and in fact statins likely cause more harm than good.
Dr. Aseem Malhotra talks about stents, statins, bad incentives and bad research. The fact that the European parliament is listening to this is hopefully a sign of progress.
This video is an excerpt from the "Widowmaker" documentary that can be found below. It could be that your CAC (Coronary Artery Calcification) score is the best way to determine your risk of having a heart attack.
This is the full "Widowmaker" documentary. It has the tag line "watch this film ... it could save your life". Highly recommended.
Vitamin C deficiency could contribute to heart disease. In an effort to keep the cholesterol theory of heart disease alive the medical establishment has gone from blaming LDL to small LDL and now LPa (LP little a). This could be a case of blaming the fire truck for the fire because every time you see a fire there is a fire truck there. It could be that LDL (in the form of LPa) is there to fix the problem and does not cause it.
This video goes into more detail on the mouse that was developed in order to test the Vitamin C / LPa theory of heart disease.
The paper below refutes the theory that Cholesterol causes heart disease
Atherosclerosis and the Cholesterol Theory.pdf
This paper also refutes the cholesterol theory of heart disease.
LDL C does not cause cardiovascular disease a .pdf