Pico de Orizaba

Pico de Orizaba
Taken from Huatusco, Veracruz, the closest town to Margarita's family's ranch.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

The 4 causes of Atherosclerosis... and cancer... and...

1) Stress

2) glycation of LDL cholesterol (sugar coating), 

while glycation is most prevalently caused by too much glucose in the bloodstream (see cataracts and brittle corneas), glycation also called AGEs (Advanced Glycation End-Product) is caused by smoking, smoke, smoked food, grilling your food and slightly burning what you fry or bake...  The toasted crust of bread causes AGEs and the browning of meat... You could worry about caramelizing onions.  However, the sulfur in onions and garlic helps gather the oxidized or glycated molecules and transport them to the liver or kidneys for processing...  So, it is very important that you eat lots of onions and garlic (that includes leeks, shallots, chives) if you are concerned that your protein or oil may have been ever so slightly burned...  (smoke factor in oil)

3) Oxidation of LDL Cholesterol

4) chronic inflamation

The issue isn't with cholesterol.  It is with what it is you are doing that causes the cholesterol to change...  and that causes your body to not transport the damaged cells or the damaged molecules (the altered cholesterol) out of the body or that causes your body to cease being able to reconstitute the oxidated LDL cholesterol... that's where anti-oxidants come into play.  You didn't know that oxidized cholesterol can be de-oxidized?

In the U.S. you can test your blood for amount of oxidized LDL cholesterol and for sizes of LDL and HDL cholesterol; what causes damage to the endothelial cells of the arteries (atherosclerosis) are small LDL and HDL particals...  

In Mexico, we can't test for oxidized cholesterol, nor can we test for their sizes.  And bring me a cardiologist that understands this and/or cares a diddle...  

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