Circulation, Eye Health and Heart Disease... and Endothelium

Explaining the important role of endothelium in the body...

Many of the most common and serious eye diseases have a strong commonality with heart disease: endothelial dysfunction.

• macular degeneration (AMD),
• diabetic retinopathy (DR),
• retinal vascular occlusions (RVO)
• and even primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG)(see types of glaucoma).

Coronary artery disease includes hypertension, or high blood pressure (HBP), stroke, heart attacks, erectile dysfunction (ED) and twenty percent of cases of dementia.

CAD is the leading cause of death in the United States. 800,000 people per year die from CAD, half from heart attacks.

50,000 more women than men die each year from CAD.

• Good news: We are better at keeping CAD patients alive.
• Bad news: The rate of increase keeps going up. More and more of us have CAD. Look around the room. One out of every three people has CAD. This means a growing percentage of the population lives with CAD, as well as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.

The Heart of the Matter

Your body is in constant, unending turmoil. Your heart beats at least once a second with a force stronger than the thigh muscle of a trained sprinter. The force is sufficient to move the entire column of your blood around your entire body three times in a minute, 12,000 miles in a day through a system of vessels that vary from the size of a garden hose to one-tenth the size of a human hair.

Your heart beats about 35 million times in a year.

Old Theory of CAD

We used to think the arteries slowly filled up with gunk until it closed off and we got a heart attack. Irreversible.

Wrong. Current research data shows a different story.

New theory of Coronary Artery Disease

I turns out that inflammation is the real culprit. Thanks to continual insults to the endothelium (hypertension, excessive sugar from diabetes (see Causes of Diabetes), lack of plant phytochemicals and antioxidants) these cells start to become less efficient. Sometimes they stop working altogether.

Plaque forms inside the artery wall. Initially it causes no problems. However, if it becomes inflamed it becomes unstable and may rupture into the artery. If it does it instantly forms a clot which has the potential to become a stroke or heart attack.

Oxidative stress is the damage from free radicals (See Nutritional Principles).

Oxidative stress causes inflammation. However, inflammation causes oxidative stress. A snowball effect...

Inflammation arises on its own in response to a lack of necessary plants in the diet. Diets high in animal protein (meat, dairy, chickens/turkey, eggs and seafood) are pro-inflammatory (create and increase inflammation). They must be balanced by consuming a higher portion of plants (whole fruit and vegetables).

What's the Problem?

The National Institute of Health (NIH) stated that 31% of heart attacks and 11% of strokes were due to low intake of fruit and vegetables.

• 60% of Americans eat no fruit.
• 25% of Americans eat no vegetables.
• Only 11% of us eat the recommended 7-9 servings of fruit and vegetables each day.

Cells in your body require the nutrition found only in plants. Without this nutrition your body will operate poorly or break down in illness.

Cell nutritional needs are non-negotiable. Your body won't run well on cheeseburgers just because you like the taste.

"...But it's in My Genes..."

Studies have shown that illness is 70% lifestyle (environmental) and 30% genetic. This reflects the effects of epigenetics.

The Lyon Dietary Study and the HALE Study showed the tremendous impact of the Mediterranean Diet on health.

• 60-70% less mortality
• 64% fewer heart attacks
• 60% less cancer

It's All in the Endothelium

Endothelial cells are a special type of cell that lines the entire vascular system. Anywhere blood flows it is in contact with endothelium. It is also responsible for secreting the fluid that circulates though the eye and is considered to be the largest organ in the body.

Endothelium is responsible for:

• Regulating blood flow and pressure by dilating and contracting.
• Manufacturing chemical messengers such as cytokines to give instructions to support cells in the support matrix.
• Selectively filtering the necessary nutrition from blood and passing it from the blood into tissue where it is needed.
• Selectively filtering the waste products from normal cell metabolism from the cells and passing it into the blood.
• Manufacture aqueous humor, the fluid that fills the front of the eye.
• Balancing the Antioxidant System.
• Balancing the Inflammatory System.
• Balancing the Clotting System.

Endothelial dysfunction is the first step to CAD, and current research indicates it may also be the first step in glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration.

Damage to the endothelium leads to thickening of the cells and subsequent loss of the ability to dilate and contract. These changes degrade the endothelium's ability to regulate blood pressure and blood flow. Changes to the cell membrane interfere with the cell's ability to manufacture the chemicals essential for normal function.

The result is stroke, heart attack, erectile dysfunction, some dementias, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration and glaucoma.

Causes of Endothelial Dysfunction

Endothelial cells are damaged by:

• High blood pressure.
• Chronic inflammation.
• Oxidative stress (free radicals).
• Insulin resistance (high blood sugar).
• Toxins, both from outside the body and from normal metabolism.

Chronic Inflammation; the New Theory of Chronic Disease

Damage to endothelium not only causes the cell breakdown described above, but causes cells to shrink. This allows them to become more permeable, or to "leak" fluids from the blood into the tissues, causing edema (swelling) and more inflammation. Cholesterol is able to work its way into the middle of the vessels, forming plaques in the arteries. Oxidative damage increases due to the increased inflammation. Normal cell functioning grinds to a halt.

Preventing Endothelial Damage

The most effective way to protect your endothelium is with a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, purple grapes and dark berries. Hundreds of studies have shown that vegetables and whole fruit (not juice) increase antioxidants and protect your cells from oxidative damage. Hundreds more studies have shown the remarkable ability of purple grapes and dark berries to protect endothelial cells.

You are only as healthy as your endothelium.

Eat a healthy diet. If you can't or won't, supplement with a quality whole-food supplement that includes berries and grapes. (Click here for whole-food supplements).

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