Cholesterol and Inflammation by Dr. Jaromir Bertlik: Part 2

What does all this have to do with inflammation?

Blood sugar is controlled in a very narrow range.  Extra sugar molecules attach to a variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel walls.  This is what I refer to as repeated injury to the blood vessel wall and this is what leads to inflammation.  When you “spike” your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper and sanding down the walls of your delicate blood vessels.

But for now, let’s go back to the sweet roll: That innocent looking goody not only contains sugars, it is also baked in one of many omega-6 oils such as soybean.

Chips and fries are also soaked in soybean oil; processed foods are manufactured with omega-6 oils for longer shelf life. While omega-6s are essential to the human body as they are part of every cell membrane, controlling what goes in and out of the cell — they must be present in direct correlation and balance to the omega-3s.

If this balance shifts due to excess consumption of omega-6s, the cell membrane produces chemicals called cytokines that directly cause inflammation. Today’s mainstream western diet has produced an extreme imbalance of these two fats.  The ratio of imbalance ranges from 15:1 to as high as 30:1 in favor of the omega-6s.  That’s a tremendous amount of cytokines causing inflammation.  In today’s food environment, a 3:1 ratio would be optimal and healthy.

To make matters worse, the excess weight you acquire from eating these foods creates an overload of fat cells that in turn produce large quantities of pro-inflammatory chemicals adding to the injury which your body is already enduring.  The process that began with what seemed as an innocent sweet roll turns into a vicious cycle which over time creates heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and finally, as the inflammatory process continues unabated – Alzheimer disease.

Who would willfully expose him/herself repeatedly to harmful foods and other substances that are known to cause injury to our bodies?   Only smokers perhaps, but they made their choice willfully.  The rest of us are simply following the mainstream dietary recommendations and consuming foods that are low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, completely oblivious to the fact that we are indeed causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. 

It is this repeated injury that creates the chronic inflammation leading to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity. 

Let me repeat that: the injury, and subsequently, the inflammation in our blood vessels are caused by the low fat diet that has been recommended for years by mainstream medicine.

My recommendations:

• Choose complex carbohydrates such as colorful fruits and vegetables.
• Eliminate or at least cut down on the inflammation-causing omega-6 fats like corn and soybean oil and the processed foods that are made from them. Animal fats contain less than 20% omega-6s and are much less likely to cause inflammation than the supposedly “healthy polyunsaturated oils”.  The belief that saturated fat alone causes heart disease is just that: a belief and not a fact.  Actually the belief that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol at all is fairly weak itself.  Today, we now know that cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, and therefore any concern about saturated fats simply sounds absurd.  As absurd as the fact that the whole cholesterol theory led to the no-fat/low-fat recommendations that in turn created the very foods which are currently causing the epidemic of inflammation.  We are now facing an epidemic of arterial inflammation leading to heart disease and other silent killers.
• Choose the wholesome foods your grandmother served and not those of your mother which came from grocery shelves filled with manufactured and processed foods.  By eliminating inflammatory foods and adding essential nutrients from fresh unprocessed food to your diet, you can reverse the damage caused to your arteries and your body.
• Choose AKUNA products to help eliminate and prevent inflammation and future disease and use them daily.  The ingredients in all Akuna products are natural; this means that our bodies can digest them in the correct physiological forms and many of the ingredients are also well known for their ability to eliminate toxins from the body.  In my naturopathic practice I have had unparalleled results with the Akuna products therefore I recommend regular use of Alveo and Take Plaster at the least.  However, if you have access to other Akuna products such as Onyx Plus, MasterVit, Pinky or Cleanse Plus, I also recommend the regular use of those.
• Improve the quality of life for your children as well by improving their diets.

There is no escaping the fact that as we continue consuming prepared and processed foods, the more we expose ourselves to the risk and dangers of inflammation.  The human body cannot process, nor was it ever designed to process foods packed with sugars and soaked in omega-6 oils.  There is but one answer to quieting inflammation, and that is to return to consuming food close to its natural state.

With great health – Dr. Jaromir Bertlik