Are You Slowly Roasting Your Heart and Blood Vessels?

There may be a fire inside you.

But it’s not the inspirational kind. It’s a damaging fire sparked by swollen and inflamed tissues inside your heart and your blood vessels.

Even worse, this “silent killer” doesn’t give you any clues or symptoms. It just burns. It can smolder inside your body for decades, causing irreversible damage and making you more vulnerable to heart attack and stroke.

In The Doctor’s Heart Cure, I pointed out that this kind of silent inflammation is the root cause of heart disease. Now it’s been directly linked to cancer, asthma, Alzheimer’s, kidney failure, stroke, obesity, and more.

Today I’ll explain where this silent killer comes from and the simple steps you can take to get it under control.

New Study Shows the Destructive Power of Inflammation

A group of researchers studied people and followed their habits for 16 years. Their goal: To find the number one risk factor for dying in both men and women.

Many risk factors were considered. These included:
Age
Gender
Weight
Smoking history
Physical activity level
Heart disease history
Lung function
And a whole lot more…

The results? The biggest contributor to death was inflammation.1

At first glance, inflammation seems harmless. It’s your body’s immediate response whenever you get a cut, burn, or infection.

The REAL Cause of Heart Disease

The biggest myth fueled by mainstream medicine is the cholesterol myth – that cholesterol is the major cause of heart disease.

This simply isn’t so. I’ve been saying it for years. And I’ve proven it in my own practice with heart patients who were “undiagnosable,” despite being on cholesterol-lowering and a slew of other unnecessary drugs.

The good news is many doctors are starting to wise up. The main culprit behind heart disease is inflammation.

Dr. Paul Ridker of Harvard University puts it this way: “We have to think of heart disease as an inflammatory disease, just as we think of rheumatoid arthritis as an inflammatory disease.”
If you’d like to get a good idea of your heart health, ask your doctor to do a blood screen of C-reactive protein (CRP).

CRP is released by the liver when your body experiences inflammation.

Normally, your blood contains no CRP. Elevated levels indicate a problem.

The British Journal of Urology published a study that examined the levels of almost 400 people. They found that once the CRP levels reached twice the normal level, the participants were 150 percent more likely to suffer heart attack!2

Another study found that risk of heart attack increased by 6- to 7-fold in patients with elevated CRP.3

Here’s the bottom line…
Maintaining healthy levels of good and bad cholesterol is important. But even more important is keeping inflammation and your CRP levels at bay.

Immune system cells collect at the site of the problem in order to guard against infection and speed recovery.

This is perfectly normal and harmless. The problem starts when you experience a chronic state of inflammation. And it’s more common than you may imagine. There are triggers in your environment that get into your body and irritate your blood vessels to the point of injury.

Cigarette smoke, vegetable oils, and the poor nutrient quality of the food we eat all contribute to small tears and injuries to your heart and blood vessels – injuries that cause a tidal wave of inflammation.

When a Good Thing Goes Bad

If your blood vessels are always inflamed, you’re in trouble.

In response to the inflammation, your body uses oxidized LDL, the so-called “bad” cholesterol, to “patch” the crack or tear in your blood vessel wall.

Over time, chronic inflammation causes small lesions in the arterial walls leading to the heart and brain. These lesions, or bumps, are formed when plaque and other deposits “stick” to the walls of your blood vessels instead of simply flowing through as is normally the case with smooth, healthy arteries.

This buildup leads to clogging and hardening of the arteries. And that spells big trouble for your health.

Arteries are the main food source for your vital organs. This includes your heart, your brain, your eyes, and kidneys. As the arteries harden, blood can’t get to the organs as easily. The end result is life-threatening disease.

But that’s not all…
Because inflammation affects your entire system, it’s also directly linked to asthma, obesity, and even depression. That’s why it’s become such a hot topic these days.

Successfully reducing inflammation in your body means preventing and, in some cases, even reversing a wide array of diseases.

Should You Be Worried?

The tricky thing about inflammation is there are many things that can trigger it. A big factor is the environment we live in.

For example, the foods we eat, chemicals we expose ourselves to, and environmental considerations all contribute to chronic inflammation.

Here are some common triggers:
Processed foods
Foods containing dyes or chemicals
Foods that have been sprayed with pesticides
Food additives like glutamate and aspartic acid
Heavy metals like aluminum and mercury
Excess of omega-6 fatty acids (commonly found in vegetable oils)
Cooking food at high-heat temperatures
Aside from that, infections, bacteria, and even constant cuts or bruises can all contribute to chronic inflammation.

So what can you do?

For starters, get your C-reactive protein (CRP) levels checked. CRP is produced in the liver in response to inflammation. Under normal circumstances, your blood has zero CRP. Elevated levels mean trouble somewhere in your body.

If your levels do come back high, the first thing you can do is exercise. This is one of the best ways to lower CRP. Studies clearly show that people who went from couch slouching to exercising lowered their CRP as much as 30%.4

But make sure you exercise efficiently, as I describe in my PACE program. Your body was not designed for long duration type exercises such as aerobics or long-distance running. In fact, this type of exercise has been shown time and time again to increase inflammation.5

Eating right should also be a priority.

The best diet to follow is one similar to our ancestors’ diet. Eat small meals that start with a moderate portion of high-quality protein such as grass-fed beef, poultry, or fish, balanced with copious amounts of pesticide-free vegetables and fruit.

Include monounsaturated fats such as those found in nuts, avocados, olive oil, and grapeseed oil. Eat grains and sweets only in very small quantities.

Fight This “Silent Killer” With These 3 Natural All Stars

Our ancestors never really had to worry about chronic inflammation. Much less all the modern disease we have today as a result. They had access to nature’s three most powerful inflammation fighters. The same ones you can use today to take control:

Omega-3s – Fish oil is best. Numerous studies prove the omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil are incredibly effective at reducing inflammation and levels of C-reactive protein. Choose wild-caught Alaskan salmon. If not, get a good supplement. Take at least 1,000 mg per day for maximum benefit.

Vitamin D – It’s not well-known, but vitamin D is one of nature’s most potent anti-inflammatories. You can get it free, simply by spending some time in the sun. Fifteen to 20 minutes a day should do the trick. If that’s not possible, take a supplement. You’ll see it at your grocery store or health-food store labeled as vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). Aim for 1,000 to 2,000 IU per day.

Flavonoids – Flavonoids are powerful antioxidants that have a remarkable ability to suppress inflammation. They’re found abundantly in fruits and vegetables. Good sources include plums, blueberries, and pomegranates. Dark-green leafy veggies such as spinach and dark lettuces are great too.

Resveratrol is also a flavonoid that suppresses inflammation. You’ll find it in red wine. Southern French and Italian wines are best, as they have the highest resveratrol content.

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1. Newman AB, Sachs MC, Arnold AM, Fried LP, et al. “Total and cause-specific mortality in the cardiovascular health study.” J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2009 Dec;64(12):1251-61. Epub 2009 Sep 1.

2. Mendall M, et al. C-reactive protein and its relation to cardiovascular risk factor. British Journal of Urology. 1996; 312:1061-1065.

3. St-Pierre AC, Bergeron J, Pirro M et al. Effect of plasma C-reactive protein levels in modulating the risk of coronary heart disease associated with small, dense, low-density lipoproteins in men (The Quebec Cardiovascular Study). Am J Cardiol 2003 Mar 1;91(5):555-58.

4. Church T, Barlow CE, Earnest CP, et.al. Association between cardiorespiratory fitness and C-reactive protein in men. Arteriosclerosis and Thrombosis: Journal of Vascular Biology.2002 Nov 1;22(11):1869-1879.

5. Siegel A, Stec JJ, Lipinska, I, et al. “Effect of Marathon Running on Inflammatory and Hemostatic Markers.” Amer Jour Card. 2001;88( 8):918-920.