Near 50, Clean Arteries, and they should not be!

I have had high Cholesterol, High BP, High Triglycerides, and been obese sense my early 20's.
I eat real eggs, milk mayonnaise, bacon, burgers, steak, you name a bad food and I eat it.
I do watch my weight somewhat. Never let my waste go beyond 40 inches for long.
I have taken a statin since I was 21.
I had a Cardio Cauterization, Eco, X-ray etc... recently and my arteries are clear completely clean, free flow of blood. This is a definitive test as they literally put a tube in your heart and inject stuff so they can see how it flows through your heart. Mine was CLEAN 100%.
Even with a Statin and BP meds my numbers remained very high, yet my arteries are clear.
My moms side of Family even has high incidence of heart disease!

So what the hell is going on? How can I have clean arteries at near 50 yes still have high cholesterol etc...?

Stuff I have done ALL my life since 21 :
Tea (when sweet I use sweet and low)
Coffee
Almost daily Alka Seltzer after dinner
Meds: Simcor, Lozartan
I have exercised a good bit of my life but have also gone years without any...
I also don't eat sweets much. I have avoided sugar most of my life mainly because I don't like it that much except occasional Chocolates.

My Doctor is now going to tweak my meds to find a way to get my BP down but arteries are clear...I do eat more salt than recommended. I guess that and weight is only way to lower by BP.

I don't think food is causing heart disease at all cause if it does I should have had some narrowing in my arteries by now.

Maybe High Fructose corn syrup and other sugar is the real culprit for narrowing arteries? Only thing I can say I have done healthy is not eat sweet stuff and only then because I never really liked it.

I don't think science has a clue really. I really have ate horrendous amounts of fat, saturated fat and cholesterol for the entire 50 years.

a reply to: Xeven

www.cbsnews.com...

a reply to: Xeven

Even with a Statin and BP meds my numbers remained very high, yet my arteries are clear.

If my experience with my mom and memory serves…

cholesterol numbers don't reflect on arterial blockage, but how high the cholesterol is in your blood stream. Thats two different things. Plaque build up is from poor diet and not enough exercise. You are clear, be happy.

Some cholesterol is generated only at night, the statin drug combats that, but also supposed has side effects.

BP medicine keeps blood pressure down, also nothing to do with plaque in the arteries, apparently in your case. More like too stressed? Thats an emotional 'thing', if I may.

a reply to: Xeven

Perhaps you have some sort of natural immunity or your body/heart adapts better then most? Our bodies and minds are quite incredible, who knows what's truly possible.

Didn't the longest living woman (120 I believe) smoke and eat a kilo of chocolate a week?

Sugar causes inflammation which damges arteries but you don't eat much of it..that's one good thing that could account for clear arteries. But salt causes water retention which increases blood volume and so that raises blood pressure, that's the bad thing. Lower your salt significantly and see what happens. Also, what about the possibilityof a clot somewhere?

a reply to: intrptr

No stress now. Have had some in my life but not recently

a reply to: Xeven

Well, for nearly 60 years scientists insisted that high cholesterol was from eating to much saturated fat, so they started making people eat more grains and gluten products, and the food industry started switching to things like corn oil and what not in place of lard and butter.
Then heart disease started to rise ever since then really ...

I think you have some good genetics at play here, or maybe you just somehow were able to live a perfectly balanced life style, not gorging on the same foods day in and out.
Take for example alcohol, have 2 beers on say monday, your body can easily work it's way back to health by next monday, have two beers a day, you can start leading into some issues.

My suggestion, just keep doing what you're doing I guess, maybe add in a little more exercise, and take caution to what ever drugs your doctor is gonna give you.

originally posted by: Xeven
a reply to: intrptr

No stress now. Have had some in my life but not recently

Then what is the diagnosis of the cause of your hi blood pressure? If you feel like sharing…

a reply to: Xeven

Be thankful that you have good genetics....for others they may not be so lucky...some people get addicted to drugs and others don't,,,,why do some people become alcoholics and others are not...

originally posted by: intrptr

originally posted by: Xeven
a reply to: intrptr

No stress now. Have had some in my life but not recently

Then what is the diagnosis of the cause of your hi blood pressure? If you feel like sharing…

Don't know yet. More test scheduled. Possibly hereditary, weight, salt. Will come back and let you know if they figure it out.

originally posted by: chrismarco
a reply to: Xeven

Be thankful that you have good genetics....for others they may not be so lucky...some people get addicted to drugs and others don't,,,,why do some people become alcoholics and others are not...

It is odd. Two people I work with who have kept fit, eat very correctly (heart wise) just recently had heart attacks and got stents. It is what prompted me to get a stress test that was slighting abnormal and resulted in all these other tests.

BP remains a concern. Going to try and lose 20 and reduce salt significantly in next 60 days and see what happens.

a reply to: Xeven

Got confused about same stuff.. I have high cholesterol and have eaten a vegeterain diet for years.. Recently found some papers that came out of Japan. Some off there oldest members had high cholesterol. The food you only accounts for an amount of Cholesterol in the body.. Your body makes it and needs it to keep alive.

Read some stuff recently from a heart doctor who thinks the best way to deal with heart disease is fasting. Does not have to be hard core fasting some you can eat all you want for 8 hour of day and nothing for rest of time.

:-)

It's sugar & tea... I followed along a similar track.

Quit all candies/snacks/soda at age 18, all processed foods age 21 and added in unsweet tea.

33 right now, super healthy, rarely sick more than half a day, and as a prior thread shows... can live rather slobbish (in some people's eyes ;P ) and not have it affect me.

Paps had to get on statin & beta blocker before 40, I have excellent BP and no signs of issues.

Oh and yea your liver creates most of the cholesterol, I see it not as a marker for anything save nutrition for the brain. I've noticed IRL high IQ associates report high cholesterol in their checkups. go figure, we get crap advice yet again.

Everyone is different. There are people who eat bacon every day and have clear arteries while others stroke out in their fifties. There are people who eat very carefully and have many health problems and others who live a long and active life with good eating.

We are not machines. We are highly individualistic.

Congratulations on having such a clean bill of health.

a reply to: Xeven

There are very few tests that can accurately assess your arterial health.

Ask for a coronary calcium scan using computed tomography (CT). This is a simple test that gives pretty accurate results when it comes to finding early stage CAD.

Another good one is angiography with acetylcholine injection, but that's invasive and expensive, but it gives the most accurate reading. It sounds like this is what you had done, but I'm not sure.

Next is Flow Mediated Dilation (FMD) as measured by Brachial Artery Ultrasound Imaging (BAUI).

If you think you are at risk of having CAD, then you are right to be concerned. Most heart attacks don't happen from blocked arteries. Most heart attacks are caused by a "pimple" of cholesterol popping, causing a clot to form that blocks blood flow to the heart. You can easily have a heart attack even if you show no signs of blocked arteries.

Another warning sign is erectile dysfunction. If you have any trouble getting or maintaining an erection, then you have some artierial damage going on. ED and CAD are caused by the same process.

a reply to: Xeven

the heart surgeon who operated on my father told us both that high cholesterol is a factor but not a cause of blockage, that blockage occurs due to pitting in the arterial walls which is caused by a lack of certain nutrients. without that pitting cholesterol levels dont matter since it would have no pits to cling to in order to create blockage.

a reply to: Xeven

Probably, your low sucrose diet have helped a lot. And especially low fructose (sucrose have it at 50%).

Fructose is a real POISON ! It is very efficient at creating AGE (Advanced glycation end-product)

I've only had good results maintaining weight low carb, eating tons of eggs, oils and fat.
Oprah is a great weight loss inspiraton, but bread everyday increases appetite unless you are on drugs.
Checked my BP at a pharmacy and it was only 96/66 so I thought everything must be fine.
Now you have me wondering if I could still have plaque?

a reply to: Xeven

Good, sounds like they are checking, you'll find out. Systolic consistently approaching 150 is concerning, means the heart is working too hard, can be caused by a variety of things alone or in combination…

The exact causes of high blood pressure are not known, but several factors and conditions may play a role in its development, including:
Smoking.
Being overweight or obese.
Lack of physical activity.
Too much salt in the diet.
Too much alcohol consumption (more than 1 to 2 drinks per day)
Stress.
Older age.
Genetics.

a reply to: Xeven

My husband's mother is 83 and she have one of the best numbers ever, her arteries are clean because her good cholesterol is the highest doctors have ever seen, genetics they call it.

She is obese, eats everything and she is not active at all.

People have a misconception about what causes clogged arteries, high cholesterol, linked to hart attacks and hart diseases, actually is all concocted by big pharma to sell drugs for decades.

A skinny, healthy person with no history of hart disease can die from a hart attack regardless.