Lane,
To follow up on the previous post, on lipid theory vs. inflammation, the lipid, or cholesterol theory is most likely a secondary marker, not a primary reason.
The problem, however is that it is easy, and ha been easy for years to get the reading of these secondary markers for heart desease - to get ones cholesterol checked - but it is much harder to get the measure of inflammation. One test that can tell you about your level of inflammation is C-Reactive Protein test (or CRP). This will give you a reading of inflammation in the body at the current moment. But since inflammation in the body varies widely - throughout the day, and from day to day, it is not a short term, unreliable indicator, not a reliable long term indicator.
Cholesterol test, OTOH, is a fairly reliable long term indicator. It doesn't swing up and down that much. Given that this is the only thing we can test for (or used to be able to test for), and the only thing the medical profession was able to grasp, the medical profession has gone on a mission to kill cholesterol - as cause of heart disease.
Back to CRP, the reason it varries so much is because it can't distinguish between long term unnecessary (and very harmful) inflammation and necessary short term inflammation. You may have had a big meal (with lots of carbs) and CRP will jump. You may be fighting a cold, and your CRP will go up and stay higher for days. You may have exercised vigorously, and your inflammation (and CRP) will go up.
When I got my CRP tested, I made sure I was healthy, did the test early morning, and I didn't eat anything. So I am pretty sure I got my baseline. I got a reading of 0.65. Anything below 1 is good.
Dr. Sears gets a lot more involved in everything that has to do with inflammation, much more than Dr. Eades did in the one post I linked in. If you are interested, I can post you an overview of what causes inflammation and hence heart disease.
Joe |
