HEART AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

  
 

Heart and cardiovascular disease is a general term used to describe arteriosclerosis or hardening of the blood vessels due to a build up of calcium plaque or calcium deposits, caused by the fatty substances in cholesterol and other residues. Cancer and heart and cardiovascular disease are the main killers in today’s Western civilisation. The causes of heart and cardiovascular disease can usually be found in an unhealthy lifestyle; not enough exercise, an unhealthy diet and negative stress. People with a healthy and varied diet, and no negative stress, run much less risk of a heart attack than people who do not watch what they eat, take little exercise and are subject to excessive amounts of negative stress.

THESE ARE THE SIX FACTORS THAT DETERMINE AN INCREASED RISK OF A HEART ATTACK:

• genetic predisposition
• high lipoprotein level (a)
• high blood pressure
• high serum homocysteine level
• smoking
• excessive serum cholesterol level

   I would urgently advise anyone belonging to one (or more) of these highrisk groups to get themselves tested for:

• calcium plaque in the coronary artery
• oxycholesterol
• homocysteine level in blood serum
• lipoprotein-a or Lp-(a)
• low HDL content (beneficial cholesterol)
• triglyceride level too high.

IT IS NOT CHOLEStEROL BUT OXYCHOLESTEROL THAT IS DANGEROUS

It is not the total amount of cholesterol that is important, but the amount of bad (LDL) cholesterol, the ratio between LDL and HDL and the extent to which the cholesterol is oxidised. This is referred to as the oxycholesterol level. Oxycholesterol is harmful to the arterial walls.