How Do You Stay Heart Healthy?

[user 16827]

@Paleowoman

Yes i understand that Anne, I've been eating keto for the last 3.5 years now

My numbers always freak out my GP, i did my last test 36hr fasted which increases the ldl numbers

my Tri & HDL are great , however my curiosity is currently with my LDL numbers as i carry 2 copies of the
APOE-ε4 allele .

best wishes.....

 

[Paleowoman]

Yes i understand that Anne, I've been eating keto for the last 3.5 years now

Wow, I didn't know there was another keto eater here You know where I'm coming from then

My numbers always freak out my GP, i did my last test 36hr fasted which increases the ldl numbers

I never knew that it increases LDL to fast longer, but that makes sense in view of that article in that bulletproof blog when he wrote that the liver produces LDL to send energy out to the cells (I know the liver also produces glucose via gluconeogenisis) so if you're fasting it's your liver particularly doing all the work.

my Tri & HDL are great , however my curiosity is currently with my LDL numbers as i carry 2 copies of the APOE-ε4 allele .

No wonder you're curious. Do let us know !

all the best,
Anne

 

[Protimenow]

I take daily a 25/45 mcg pill of D3/K2 as I read it may help put the calcium in your bones rather than your heart, as my mitral valve has/is recalcified since it was decalcified when I had AVR.
I also take 100mcg K1 daily with no effect on warfarin dose, and I use the K1 tablets to adjust my INR if above range rather than changing my dose which works well.

I've been hesitant to take K2 -- although it's not supposed to affect INR, I've been a bit hesitant (because I wasn't sure that when they 'manufacture' K2, some K1 activity doesn't also sneak in.
Warrick - have your K2 pills done anything to affect your INR?

 

[Keithl]

Heart healthy is relative. Also your genetics have a great deal of impact. I will be honest my genetics helped me a bit as until I was 48 years old I ate like crap and never exercised. I had my bicuspid diagnosed years ago and then in 2007 I was told my aorta had an aneurysm. At that time it was 4.2 ish. In 2009 I thought I was having a heart attack only to find out my gall bladder was filled with gallstones (years of fatty eating) and that I had a fatty liver. That was a wake up call. I dropped over 30+ lbs started exercising and eating better. I used to eat upwards of 1lb. of salami in a week, now I rarely touch processed meats. My fatty liver cleared up and I and went for annual CT then MRIs and echos. Years ago Gary Null had some videos on heart health with some interesting suggestions at that time.

I had been taking a baby aspirin a day since my 30's. I also start taking CoQ10 and Fish oil. Keep in mind that not all fish oil is the same. The important thing about fish oil is not how many mg of fish oil the pill is, but how many mg of EPA and DHA the pill has. Many fish oil pills around 1000mg have only about 300mg of omega-3. Costco had one of the best pills on the market with around 800+mg of omega-3 in a I believe was 1200mg pill. They discontinued that, but now carry a specific Nature's Bounty pill that has 980mg of omega-3 in each 1400mg pill. I take 2 pills in AM then 2 more PM. I also take Costco 300mg CoQ10. Also for years I have been taking garlic supplements, but again not all are equal. I take Oregon's Wild Harvest Garlic as it is pure garlic and organic, I take 2 pills a day which is about 2/3 a clove of garlic.

Tomato's are excellent heart food and I was eating about 3-4 tomatoes a week and then had 11oz Low Sodium V8 every day. The beauty of that is you get Lycopene (excellent for heart) and Potassium (very good for the heart and helps offset sodium intake). I found Lakewood Organic low-sodium vegetable juice which is far better than V-8 in taste and quality, it is a bit expensive, but worth it.

I also drink a bottle of Evolution Fresh Green Devotion (organic veg juice) every day as it is packed with greens (and more potassium) as I hate eating many of the healthy greens, but drinking works for me.

For salads I try to stick with dressing based on olive oil (not a fan of the taste) or avocado oil (both heart healthy oils, avoid soybean oil which most store dressings have). And lately my wife is making our our creamy balsamic vinaigrette (Think CPK like) based on avocado oil that has no additives (like sugar or sodium) and is great. I tend to eat salad for dinner 3-4 times a week.

I also am not a big red meat eater. I do cardio 35-40 minutes 4x a week.

I still treat myself to unhealthy foods, but it is more a treat on occasion now than a regular part of my diet. I also know Fish Oil is now a controversy (prostate cancer,etc.), but it helps keep my triglycerides low as I hate fish.

Has this helped, beats me. I will say this I was headed in a bad direction health-wise, but when they did my heart cath 2 days before surgery they told me my arteries were squeaky clean and would not likely ever need stents, or bypass surgery. My blood work is very good (advanced lipids have improved over the years) and while I can't prove what of the above helped I am sure most of it contributed in a positive way. I am sure if I have not changed direction I would have had my surgery fare sooner than 58 and likely would have been needing bypass or stents by now.

And while my surgery was 13 weeks ago I am back to my normal routine and diet and all supplements are back in play other than the fish oil, hopefully will ease that back in next week. I phased garlic in and next fish oil as there are some reports that can impact INR, particularly the fish oil as there are studies that over 3mg of fish oil a day can impact INR.


As with anything YMMV.

 

[Agian]

I've been hesitant to take K2 -- although it's not supposed to affect INR, I've been a bit hesitant (because I wasn't sure that when they 'manufacture' K2, some K1 activity doesn't also sneak in.
Warrick - have your K2 pills done anything to affect your INR?

I take two K2 tablets. I didn't notice any effect on INR. If there was a change, I would have adjusted. K1 and 2 are both called K vitamins, but their actions are very different.

 

[Protimenow]

Thanks. Yes, I know that K1 and K2 are different - but was slightly concerned about an 'overlap' of some sort in processing - or mislabeling the 'K2' product and sneaking some K1 into the mix. I'm now taking K2, and I'll recheck my INR just to confirm that there's no change. (If there is, I'll work out the correct dosing of warfarin to accommodate for any changes resulting from the K2 (which I know has nothing to do with clotting)).

 

[user 16827]

K2 600mcg mk7 Daily for over 12 months with no noticeable affect on my INR

 

[Warrick]

I have not seen any INR changes that I can contribute to taking K1 or K2 , unless I take a larger amount of K1 like it needs to be around 400mcg in one dose to see an effect, 1000mcg as a one off dose will drop it 1 INR point but it takes about 3 days to do so.
Some things I have read say your gut converts small amounts of K1 into K2 and K2 does have an effect on prothrombin.

 

[Protimenow]

Thanks for the feedback on your experiences with K1 and K2. I noticed that the few times I loaded up on greens (usually Romaine lettuce), my INR dropped within 12-24 hours. I don't think the effects of K1 take very long to show up. When I was in the hospital last November, the lab (possibly erroneously) showed an INR of 6.1...they gave me K1 (I have no idea what dose) one night, and the next morning my INR was back in range (if it was actually out of range to begin with).

In the past, I've taken daily vitamins that had a low amount of K1, and if I had any effect (I'm not sure that it did), I adjusted my warfarin dosage to compensate.

I'll be doing my weekly INR test in a few days, and see if there was any impact (although from what I've read, and your comments, I don't expect one).

 

[tigerlily]

Almost 4 years ago I was diagnosed with mild aortic stenosis. Doctor didn't make any recommendations and I didn't realize what a serious disease I had. I didn't change anything.

A year later I was diagnosed with moderate aortic stenosis. Again, different doctor but no recommendations. The biggest changes I made were to go on a mostly vegetarian diet and start taking vitamin K.

At 3 years I was diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis. Different doctor, still no recommendations or medications. Two more echoes over the last year, and for the most part stenosis seems to have stabilized, but still severe and will require valve replacement. Had heart cath and found some blockage, primarily in OM2. Doctor prescribed aspirin and Crestor. I asked about diet, exercise, supplements, but no recommendation was made.

I only take 5 mg of Crestor every other day because cholesterol is fine without it. I just take it to help with inflammation. I also take 2 81 mg aspirin and a BP med every day.

Here's what else I take: Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Magnesium, Hawthorn Berry (for blood pressure), Methyl B12 and Folate, fish oil, Niacin (for lipids/cholesterol), l-arginine (for nitric oxide production), berberine (glucose control), and MSM.

MSM made a huge difference. I was having discomfort in my heart area. The cardiologist said it was muscular and not angina. Based on something I read, I thought sulfur might help, so I started taking MSM. Almost immediately the pain went away and hasn't returned.

On the exercise side, I decided to follow the advice they give to people after having a heart attack. I walk and walk and walk. I even bought an electric lawnmower to replace my riding lawn mower to make sure I get out and walk. I have a huge lawn, so just following the lawnmower around is 15-20 miles of walking a week. I recently added a 1 mile walk in the morning and another 1 mile in the evening. The stronger your heart is going into surgery, the stronger it is coming out.

I think much of my problem was a result of a leaky gut. With my doctor's help, I was able to fix that last year. My level of inflammation as measured in the Cleveland Heart Lab's Inflammation panel is now in the low category.

One area that was a big problem for me and I bet for a lot of others was I was afraid of having a heart attack. Every pain anywhere near my heart made me afraid to live my life. I finally looked up exactly what the symptoms of a heart attack were and decided that if I had a pain and it wasn't on the list, it wasn't a heart attack and not to be afraid to live. It is amazing how much that simple decision has improved my life.

I realize this post is a few months old but I'm wondering how you had your body tested for inflammation. What kind of test was it and what kind of doctor helped you with the leaky gut issue? Thanks.

 

[rich01]

I took what was known as the Cleveland Heartlab Inflammation panel at Quest Diagnostics. I don't know if it is still available by that name. Here's a link to the actual labs. Scroll down the page until you see them. http://www.knowyourrisk.com/

For leaky gut, you want to test for Zonulin. It controls tight junctions between cells that make up your small intestine wall. When it is too high, the tight junctions are opened and bacteria, undigested food, toxins, etc can move from the small intestine into the liver and blood stream.

My doctor is a DO and practices integrative medicine. There are also some good web sites that explain what you should do. The biggest thing is avoiding grains, especially any containing gluten.

 

[Superbob]

Sex

Details, Duffey, we want details. And pix.

 

[Duffey]

Details, Duffey, we want details. And pix.

Pix ceased with the arrival of middle age!

 

[tom in MO]

It's clinically proven...sex is great for your prostate health Anecdotally, it's also the only way to stop arthritis pain w/o drugs, however it only lasts for about 15 seconds

 

[Gordo60]

It's clinically proven...sex is great for your prostate health Anecdotally, it's also the only way to stop arthritis pain w/o drugs, however it only lasts for about 15 seconds

Do you mean during or after sex?

 

[Agian]

I can't unsee this, can I?

 

[tom in MO]

Do you mean during or after sex?

It's just the few seconds at the end "during"...after sex the arthritis kicks back with a vengeance

Kind of like, if you are old and arthritic you shower before sex and drink after...

 

[ScribeWithALancet]

Thanks. Yes, I know that K1 and K2 are different - but was slightly concerned about an 'overlap' of some sort in processing - or mislabeling the 'K2' product and sneaking some K1 into the mix. I'm now taking K2, and I'll recheck my INR just to confirm that there's no change. (If there is, I'll work out the correct dosing of warfarin to accommodate for any changes resulting from the K2 (which I know has nothing to do with clotting)).

I goofed and misread the dosage on my wife's K2 pill (a combo mk4 and mk7). My INR dropped from 3.0+- to 2.0. This really "messed with" the mind of my anti-coagulation clinic pharmacist and I had to switch pharmacists to get back on track. So, K2 in large doses can affect the INR. At least mine. I am now working back up at a rate of 25 ug a day every couple weeks and tracking my INR with the meter and laboratory testing. No major effect so far. I am currently at 50 ug a day, seven days a week. Since there are highly variable amounts of K2 (mk4 version) in grass fed organic meats, dairy, poultry and eggs I want to put this variance on top of a couple hundred ug denominator so that what effect does occur is minimized. My theoretical K2 consumption ranges from 25 ug to 75 ug per day but due to the definition of organic food could drop as low as zero per day in the winter months. So I try to track my INR closely.

Walk in His Peace,
ScribeWithALancet

 

[pellicle]

Spe

Pix ceased with the arrival of middle age!

Speaking for noone here...

 

[Agian]

So this is their new anthem? We have warned this man about his anti British propaganda.