← The Dr. Josh Axe Show
The Dr. Josh Axe Show
The Truth About LDL & Heart Disease
00:50:34
What if cholesterol isn’t the real villain behind heart disease? In this episode, Dr. Josh Axe reveals why inflammation, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress—not just LDL—may be the true drivers of cardiovascular risk.
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Two years ago, my father in law unexpectedly died of a heart attack. And again, this was such a surprise for us because my father in law was going in getting normal blood work and labs done and everything showed normal. It was okay. Even his labs. In a very similar instance, one of my closest friends, a doctor friend of mine, his dad had a cardiovascular event three years ago in a very similar fashion. And I've known hundreds of people who have had heart issues even after getting normal lab work on a regular basis. There's a myth out there today that if your labs are okay and your cholesterol is normal, your risk of heart disease is zero. That's not true. And today what I want to do is dive in and share what the true cause of heart disease is, what really causes heart attacks, and then talk about how to prevent it. Here's what most people don't realize. Over 50% of people who have heart attacks have normal or only mildly elevated cholesterol levels. Imagine doing everything right. You've cut out red meat, you've cut out salt, you're even taking a statin drug and your cholesterol looks absolutely fine. And yet millions of people do this every day. And heart disease is still the Number one cause of death worldwide. So the real question is, what are we missing? By the end of this episode, you're going to understand what actually causes heart disease at the cellular level. Know which fats heal the heart and which ones hurt the heart, which is going to surprise you. And learn why LDL cholesterol isn't always the enemy it's cracked up to be. And then I'll walk you through the top vitamins, supplements, the top foods that can prevent heart issues for good. Welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. I want to open us up by really stating when we look back through history, the past 100 years or so, what we know about heart disease and then where we're at now. For most of human history, people ate real food, used natural fats, consumed mineral rich salt, and moved daily. And heart disease was not common at all. Rates of cardiovascular disease took off after the 1920s, and this didn't happen because humans suddenly couldn't handle f. It exploded because our food supply changed and became more inflammatory and our metabolism started breaking down due to daily lifestyle and stress became chronic. Now, for decades, heart disease has been framed basically as a math problem. Okay, most people think high cholesterol comes from high saturated fat, high salt intake, and then boom, that equals your risk for a heart attack. But the heart doesn't fail because of a single number, such as high LDL cholesterol or total cholesterol or even your total body weight or blood pressure. It fails because of chronic damage over time, usually coming from multiple sources. And here's one thing I want you to remember. Heart disease is not a cholesterol storage disease. It's an inflammatory, oxidative injury disease. Now, in the mid-1900s, researchers noticed correlations between cholesterol and heart disease. And the problem is that that correlation became dogma. All fat in people's diets was blamed. Salt was demonized. I remember my grandfather on my dad's side growing up. And when he got to be in his 80s, I remember the doctor put him on a low salt, low fat diet. And I can remember sitting at the dinner table with my grandparents and my grandfather complaining because my grandmother was forcing him. She took a butter away from him, made him start doing margari, and then he started doing low fat, low salt. And he was constantly complaining because he liked to salt his food. And he said, this doesn't have any flavor, this doesn't have any taste. By the way, my grandpa had a lot of other bad habits. I remember one time. This has nothing to do with this episode. But he used to take, my grandmother would make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and he would always take the knife or spoon and lick it after. So I started doing it when I saw it there. And so my grandmother scolded me for doing it. And I'm like, well, you know, grandpa does it. Anyways, he had some bad habits. But I remember my grandfather being what seemed really healthy in his 70s. He biked everywhere, walked everywhere. And then his health started to decline when he went on this. He went to the doctor one day, they said, hey, your cholesterol is at 200, it's too high. And then they put him on this low fat, low salt diet. And I just remember seeing him decline steadily after that and dying at 86 years old. I'll actually say he died sooner than any of my other grandparents. I had two grandparents lived in 96, another 94, 95. And then he lived to be 86. And he's the only one that got on this type of low fat, low salt diet. So again, what I saw with him is fat and salt were to blame. And around this time as well. Let's talk about, you know, the 1990s. Processed foods were labeled as heart healthy simply because they were low fat or even non fat, like no fat, even if they were full of sugar and processed ingredients. Now heart disease is still the number one cause of death worldwide in both men and women. And someone dies every 34 seconds from heart disease. In the U.S. according to the CDC, ultra processed food intake has skyrocketed and accounts for nearly 70% of of all caloric intake among Americans. Think about that. 70%. Around 2/3 of all of the food people eat today are from ultra processed foods. Now the American Heart association says that some degree of metabolic disease, including cardiovascular and kidney disease problems, now affects 90% of adults. And the real culprit behind heart disease wasn't butter or traditional fats like tallow. It was and still is chronic inflammation and damaged blood vessels. Now I want to share with you, I'm going to have kind of a hot take later on and it's this. We have kind of two groups of people battling this out. You'll see them on social media, by the way. You'll see them even in governmental agencies and, and, and, and health organizations where there's a group of people saying that it's seed oils and ultra processed foods that are causing heart disease. And you have another group of people saying it's saturated fat like butter and tallow and animal fats. Okay, I actually have a little Bit of a different take of. I do believe seed oils are contributing. I also do believe that if you're consuming too much saturated fat, even from animal products with too many calories, in addition to that, that also can cause heart disease. So both sides actually have an element of being right. But I'm gonna kind of cut through it all and tell you exactly what you should do in order to prevent and reverse heart disease here in a little bit. Again, the real culprit here is inflammation and damaged blood vessels. So let's talk about what causes those. Number one, chronic inflammation. Inflammation damages the lining of the arteries, right? We have these arteries and veins. You have these blood vessels that run through your entire body. And when those get damaged, your liver produces cholesterol, sends it through the bloodstream to the arteries to actually patch and repair. So remember what cholesterol is. Cholesterol is like the filler. So imagine, you know, Chelsea and I actually recently bought a home. We remodeled a home. And so, you know, there were certain areas where there's holes in the wall, and so they went in and they patched and repaired those holes in the wall. That's what cholesterol is. It's that patch and repair. It's for. It's used for repair and healing in the body. So that's an important thing to know. People with high crp, that C reactive protein, that's the main marker we use for inflammation today, have a two to four times higher risk of a cardiovascular event like a heart attack or stroke, even when their cholesterol levels are normal. So if you want to know, hey, what blood markers should I be looking at for high cholesterol? We'll get into this in a minute. But CRP is one of them, and. And it's even more important than your overall cholesterol levels. And ldl, number two thing that is going to contribute to actually having heart disease, Oxidative stress, oxidized ldl. Remember what oxidation is? It's like if I take a bite of an apple and it starts to turn brown. That's oxidation, okay? That can happen to the cholesterol when it's patching and repairing the arteries over time. What should happen is it should actually help become the artery over time, and it should actually help heal that area. Well, if it becomes oxidized now, it becomes inflamed, and what it'll do is it'll actually cause scarring, and other things can happen, too. It can calcify, it can harden and scar, and basically that starts to narrow your arteries, okay? And so things can get stuck in there and increases your risk of heart attack and stroke. But it's oxidized ldl, not LDL itself, that's actually contributing to the plaque formation and oxidized LDL cholesterol that's been damaged by inflammation and free radicals. It makes it sticky, hard and unstable and more likely to lodge in your arterial walls. It's as if it's been chemically rusted by oxidative stress, turning it from a repair molecule into something that irritates and damages your blood vessels. Think of LDL like a delivery truck carrying building materials. When the truck is clean and running properly, it delivers the supplies your body needs to repair cells and make hormones. So again, get this. LDL and all cholesterol is critical for your brain, for your neurological tissue and for your hormones, okay? It's building blocks for your hormones you need. Only becomes dangerous when it's damaged, oxidized and leaking its cargo into the wrong places. Like a rush to truck spilling debris all along a highway. Heart disease isn't just about cholesterol. It's driven by chronic inflammation, oxidative stress and damage to blood vessels over time. And when you reduce that burden, the heart can actually repair and function better. Now, we covered several strategies in today's episode, but one powerful tool that supports circulation, detox pathways and cardiovascular resilience is a sunlight and infrared sauna. Now, targeted infrared light in heat are absorbed at the cellular level, helping improve blood flow, reducing inflammation and supporting the body's natural stress response. That's why I trust sunlighten. They've led infrared technology for over 25 years with patented systems designed to deliver high quality infrared. Their impulse sauna, which is the one I personally have at home, lets you customize wavelengths to maximize your goals. If supporting heart health and long term resilience is a priority for you, learn more@sunlighten.com Axe and use the code AXE to save up to $1400 with additional savings throughout the year. Now, here's another big fat myth I want to expose. All fats are bad. One of the most damaging health messages of the last century or in more recent years. Basically, all fats except olive oil are portrayed as being unhealthy. And so here's what people have done instead. Because of this message surrounding fats are bad, fats are bad, fats are bad. We've started replacing fat with refined carbohydrates like refined grains and even sugar. And that alone, according to the British Medical Journal. Here's their quote about this they said this was a failed experiment with serious health consequences. Here's the truth. Fats are tools, not toxins. Well, some fats are toxins, but some, many fats are tools. They're used by your body for hormone production, for energy, for, for, for healing. And when fats are whole, unprocessed, and part of a balanced diet with the other correct foods, right. They're, they're healthy and they can even decrease inflammation. Now, when we look back at the history of this, coronary heart disease was rare before 1920. Autopsy studies from World War I soldiers showed that very low rates of atherosclerosis compared to decades later. In 1909, Americans consumed about 32% of their calories from fat, including butter, tallow, eggs and whole fat dairy. Heart disease related death was far lower than it is today, especially in younger and middle aged adults. Okay, so here's a key contrast. From 1900 to 1960, refined sugar intake tripled and heart disease became the leading cause of death. From 1950 to 2000, vegetable oil, such as industrial seed oil consumption increased by over 400%. And also saturated fat intake declined during this period. But heart disease rates rose sharply. The reason I bring this up is to say this for anyone out there saying, listen, the biggest reason today why heart disease is at all time highs and 1 in 2 people are impacted or die from heart disease. Think about that. That many, I mean, again, listen, so many people today are concerned about cancer and diabetes and autoimmune disease and other issues. Heart disease is still the top killer. And again, I see a lot of people today and influencers online and even a lot of doctors saying, well, listen, the number one thing we have to fix is stop eating saturated fat. That's not the number one thing. Now listen, it probably is on the list of 5 things you need to be conscious of and concerned with, but it's not number one. By the way, there's a great study on this that I looked up as I was doing the research for this episode. And here's what they found. Studies show that if you consume saturated fat with a diet lower in calories, it won't have the same negative impact. More activity and lower inflammation also help offset the side effects. And so, you know, I think probably what's happening is when we're comparing to people in the early 1900s and they're eating one third of their entire diet is fat. I think also they weren't eating all of these other things that cause inflammation, right? So they were getting some saturated fat from butter and Animal fats. But they were also working outside all day. Okay, they were spending a lot of time working. They were also eating just more whole foods. They didn't have all of these ultra processed foods. And again, to hit on a few of the facts here, we've seen more heart disease in recent years and some of the other things we've seen. Again, saturated fat consumption has not gone up. Okay? But industrial food processing has increased. Sugar and refined flour intake has skyrocketed. Ultra processed seed oil consumption is tripled and sedentary behavior is more common. Now, in a few minutes, I'm going to hit on more about saturated fat and some things you do need to know. Because by the way, I do think if you're eating a diet that is moderate to high in calories and doing a lot of saturated fat, and if you're not eating perfectly with that, I do think it is a contributing factor when you're comparing it to actually seed oils. And I'll talk about why that is in a minute. And again, this is sort of a take. When I see a lot of people that are part of the Maha movement, which I'm a part of, I love. I think it's Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is doing wonderful things. I still think you need to keep your saturated fat intake in check and do more of other types of fat along with high fiber, high nutrient diet. But you can get some and it can be healthy. Okay, so. So we'll jump into that in a minute. But the way that I've always operated with patients and with myself and my own family is I really don't spend a lot of time focusing on what not to eat. I focus on what I should be eating and eat as much of those types of things as possible. And that's why when I'm coaching patients, I'm not saying don't eat this, don't eat this, don't eat this as much as I am saying eat mostly these things. And when it comes to the best fat for heart health, you already know this. It's talked about in the Bible, it's touted in the Mediterranean diet. But the best fat you can be consuming in oil form is extra virgin olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil is rich in polyphenols. These are antioxidants that actually reduce inflammation. It's been shown to lower cardiovascular events by more than 3, 30% according to the predimed trial done at Harvard School of Public Health. And so it is hands down the best oil to be using on a regular basis. And I would Say that if you are doing low temperature cooking, like you're cooking eggs quickly and that takes five minutes, use olive oil. If for salads, use olive oil. Use olive oil. If you're not doing a stir fry, or even if you are, it probably actually might still be the best oil. But overall, extra virgin olive oil is the best oil to use for almost everything. Listen, deep frying isn't healthy for anything, okay? So I just want to come out and say that. But doing some sauteing and doing some scrambled eggs, use olive oil then too. Olive oil. Olive oil. Olive oil. Okay. Probably the next best fat after that is avocado oil. Both avocado oil and extra virgin olive oil, they're not high in polyunsaturated or saturated fats. They're high in monounsaturated fats. These support healthy HDL cholesterol and helps reduce oxidative stress. So again, avocado oil is probably the next best oil. Now, I do want to say, if you're going to consume saturated fat, the best type of saturated fat for heart health is like, likely comes from coconut oil. Now still, even that you want to do in moderation, but it's stable at high heat. It contains medium chain triglycerides that support energy metabolism and weight loss. And these fats protect blood vessels rather than irritating them. So overall, coconut oil as a saturated fat. And one thing I just want you to note here is people talk about don't eat animal. You know, there's an animal fat versus a seed oil debate, okay? One thing that's in common about all these oils I talked about, they're all fruits. Olives are technically a fruit. We may not think of them as that, but olives are fruits. Avocados are fruit, coconut oil is fruit, or one seeded dru. But they're all kind of technically live in that category. And those are the best oils typically to use, especially olive oil. Now, I want to dive in here and get into this because some of you that really want to know the truth about saturated fat versus seed oils, I want to get into a little bit of nuance here. Here's where the conversation gets confusing for some people, seed oils, including olive oil, because a lot of times they throw in olive oil with vegetable oils in seed oils, okay? But seed oils, including olive oil and vegetable oil are often grouped together in studies. But they're not all the same in terms of their health impact. All right? So it's important thing to know. A lot of times in these studies they're saying vegetable oils and including olive oil versus animal based fats like, like butter and tallow. And they're comparing those and of course olive oil is causing everything to kind of, you know, is supporting the seed oils moving in one direction. But still when you compare, there are some large studies when you're comparing, and this is going to get confusing and hard for some people if you're comparing to just heart disease and you're comparing certain things that we consider seed oils like canola oil and soybean oil and you're comparing that to eating a lot of animal fat and butter, oftentimes there's still a lower incidence of heart disease with consuming some of these seed oils. Now I do want to also say this. In these studies, they're typically not clarifying whether that butter or that animal fat was 100% grass fed. And by the way, that's a really important distinction. Really important. The Omega 3 versus Omega 6 content becomes really different in grass fed animals. Now I also want to say this, grass fed animals tend to be leaner and have less saturated fat on their body as well. So if you're eating a filet mignon or even a ribeye steak from a grass fed animal, it's going to be leaner if it's 100% grass fed versus grain fed. So that's really important determining factor as well. So I do want to say that I understand the point of a lot of the ancestral diet group group, you know, and the carnivore diet people saying, listen, this is unfair when you're comparing seed oils to animal fats because again, you guys are taking olive oil. That's not fair. And what's happening here is you're not talking about 100% grass fed animals. And so I think both groups have points. But I do want to say, even as macronutrient goes, even if something is healthy, you can have too much of something that is generally healthy. I'll give you an example of this. If I have a patient has candida and a lot of people have H. Pylori and candida and microbial overgrowth, I don't think I want them eating seven bananas a day, okay? It's too much sugar for them. So that's a healthy food. But that might be too much. The very same thing can happen with animal fats. Yes, you can have too much animal fats and yes, it can increase your risk of heart issues. It's not to say you can't have, you know, one serving of butter a day, especially if you're eating pomegranates and doing olive oil the rest of the time. And, and not to say you can't have a grass fed ribeye a day a week and still have a absolutely healthy heart, you absolutely can. But if you're one of those people thinking, you know what, I'm going to eat butter and fatty meat every meal and that's not going to increase my risk of heart disease because I'm staying away from seed oils, you're wrong. And again, my best piece of advice is this. Olive oil. Olive oil. Olive oil. Many studies show that improved heart outcomes happen with when olive oil replaces any other fat, including animal fats and vegetable and seed oils. For example, there is a large Mediterranean diet trial and it consistently found that higher extra virgin olive oil intake is linked to lower rates of heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death. And that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. And just remember, olive oil is not like other vegetable oils. Olive oil is mostly monounsaturated fat and is also rich in polyphenols which protect it from oxidation and actively reduce inflammation. Remember we talked about that earlier? What really causes that plaquing and that damage to the arteries which then increases the risk of a heart attack? It's inflammation and it's oxidation. And then seed oils, they're not monounsaturated fat, or at least not the same level. They tend to be higher in omega 6 polyunsaturated fats which are chemically unstable and they oxidize very easily when processed. Okay, so that's the problem with a lot of these other fats. And what oxidated fats do is they damage ldl. So they damage the LDL cholesterol, making it more likely to contribute to plaque. It increases oxidative stress and inflammation and disrupts mitochondrial and metabolic function. Cancer, dementia, heart disease. They're coming for so many people. And it's not just because of what most people think, which is that it's bad luck or bad genetics. The truth is your daily choice are either creating health or setting the stage for disease. And your doctor is probably reading your blood work all wrong. They're missing the cellular issues behind the symptoms. I'm currently offering a simple at home blood test that actually tests for the right things. And just as importantly, it comes with proper interpretation of the results. This new test flips the script. The future of interpreting test results is here. Are you tired of being dismissed when you know something isn't right? Get at home. Testing of targeted biomarkers including hormones, thyroid and metabolism, plus a full hour with one of my senior health advisors to help you understand the results. The truth is your doctor is probably reading your blood work all wrong. They're missing the cellular issues behind the symptoms. This new test flips the script. The future of interpreting tests is here. I'm currently offering a simple at home blood tests that actually test for the right things. And just as importantly, it comes with proper interpretation of your results. If you want to check it out and grab one before they're gone, just go to mybloodwork.com now. And I want to walk you through sort of the Chinese medicine viewpoint because we've talked a lot about the Western viewpoint, right? You've got these Western groups like the American Heart Association. You have more of the holistic natural groups like RFK Jr today and, and what his group is doing in the Maha movement. And these two groups are saying eat animal fats and another one saying no, industrial seed oils are. Okay, okay, listen, you can have too much of good things. And I want to share with you the view in Chinese medicine of how these different types of fats or oils impact the body energetically. Okay? Completely different view. Okay. Saturated fats, which, remember saturated, they tend to be hard at room temperature, right? So if you're using butter or animal fat, if it's, or, or coconut oil even, right. If it's at room temperature or below, you know, 70 degrees, it's hard, it's hardened, okay? And those types of fats, saturated fats, they're thicker and they're more moistening, okay? So even if you want to really hydrate your skin, beef tallow is going to be more hydrating to your skin and body, more moistening than soybean oil, okay? It's just, it's more like our own human tissue. It's thicker, it's more moistening, okay. Which in Chinese medicine they'll say can create more dampness and phlegm. You're going to move, it causes things to move more slowly in your body when you do saturated fat, which over time can obstruct circulation and stress the liver and keep your blood moving throughout the body as much as you want it to. Okay? So saturated fats, coconut oil, less so. Okay. But can slow down things moving through your body. That's the problem. There is. Saturated fats overwhelm the liver and create dampness and phlegm in the body. If you have too much of it, if your body's working really hard and you're really active and fit and you're doing a lot of other things to move your blood like you're eating beets and pomegranates and extra virgin olive oil. That's gonna help offset that quite a bit, the saturated fat. But overall, it does slow things in the body. Even if it's a healthy, real food. Seed oils, when they're ultra processed, they create something more in the body we call heat toxin forming. Okay. When they're ultra processed, and that's going to overwhelm the liver in a different way. It's not gonna slow it down. Okay. But it's gonna act like a toxin. So now it's gonna have to deal with more of a toxin. So it operates differently. But when it comes to strictly heart disease, those saturated fats, because they slow the body and the liver and the blood down, can be more damaging than certain seed oils even when they're processed. Now here's where olive oil is radically different. You see this in Chinese medicine, olive oil is lighter, it's more flow friendly, it lubricates without causing that congealing, and so it supports circulation. And it's less likely to create that phlegm, that dampness, or that stasis where things don't move within the body and how it impacts the liver. Also, just think about olive oil, what it is and how it compares to other oils. If you are sitting there with olive oil, one, it's green, which typically means in Chinese medicine, it's very liver friendly. It also has a spiciness and herbaceousness to it. That spiciness. What does spiciness do? Think about cayenne pepper. Increases circulation, increases movement. So when you're tasting an animal fat like tallow, it's almost tasteless. Okay? There's very little taste there. You almost taste the oil, the oiliness and the dampness of it. Seed oils like canola oil, there's no smell, there's nothing to it. Versus olive oil. If you get the real good stuff, the extra virgin olive oil, it's green, it's spicy, it's flavorful. So even energetically and even the way you taste in and experience it is different. And it allows you to know, again, Chinese medicine, it's going to move your liver, it's going to move your blood. Your body is going to respond in a much better way to olive oil than any other oil you could use. And so the next question might be, well, if olive oil is so great, how much should I have? Well, I have a study on this going back to the predimed trial. They found that having approximately four tablespoons of olive oil daily, possibly even more, has been shown to significantly boost heart benefits. So again, I'll just share with you. If you want to be safe and you want to reverse heart disease, listen to the Bible, the greatest health book ever written that prizes olive oil above every oil and constantly talks about it, consume the oil, talked about it in the Mediterranean diet, where we have all of this clinical research, the Bible, all of today's urban research, all of Chinese medicine, all of it points to one oil above all, extra virgin olive oil. Now, when I go back to the LDL cholesterol conversation and that LDL cholesterol is said to be bad, it's not bad. It's essential because it repairs tissue, transports fat soluble vitamins, and supports hormone production. Okay? What matters is the particle size, the oxidation and the inflammation, not just the LDL quantity. Here's how to think of it. Many people with low LDL still develop heart disease and many people with higher LDL never do. Oxidized LDL is far more predictive of plaque formation than total ldl. And I do want to also mention HDL is very important. You want to have higher hdl. If your HDL is low, it essentially means you're not healing well. Okay? If you want to regenerate and heal and have high testosterone for men and women, if you've got a condition like autoimmune disease, you want to reverse it. You do want to look at your HDL number and you do want that to be higher typically. And so oftentimes you do want to look at that ratio of, hey, where is LDL to hdl? And if the ratio is pretty good, and according to one study, if you have higher LDL and higher HDL but low inflammation, you typically also have low atherosclerosis. In the Cantos trial, reducing inflammation without lowering cholesterol significantly reduced heart attacks and strokes. So inflammation was more important than total cholesterol and LDL when it came to preventing heart attacks and strokes. And cholesterol and blood pressure alone do not paint the full picture though. Listen, if your blood pressure is high, you do want to do everything you can to get it down. Because over time, that really starts to impact negatively and damage your overall heart health. And instead of obsessing over numbers like total cholesterol, look at the real drivers of heart disease. And here's what they are. If you're looking at blood work, here's what you want to look at. Something called hscrp. That's high sensitivity. C reactive protein. This measures inflammation that is One you want to lock your eyes on. And look at. Here's another big 1. Triglyceride HDL ratio. This indicates more of your metabolic health. And then here is probably the most important. Along with crp, apob, this tells you how many cholesterol carrying particles are moving through your bloodstream, not just how much cholesterol they contain. So, apobiology. So if you want to know where you're at, look at high sensitive crp, triglyceride, HDL, and apob. That will tell you your overall heart health. The more particles you have, the more chances they have to penetrate and irritate arterial walls. Now, there's also another test I want to mention. This is a genetic marker and it's called lpa. And LPA is a genetically inherited form of LDL that tends to be stickier, more inflammatory, and harder for the body to clear. This is why knowing your genetics can matter. It's actually good to do some genetic testing. You know, for instance, I did genetic testing and I have mthfr, right. One of those genes. And I have some others that allow me to know what supplements I need to be doing more of. And so if you have lpa, it doesn't mean you should be on a statin. In fact, you probably shouldn't. But it does mean that there are some supplements and some foods and things you want to do to support LDL inflammation and overall cholesterol levels, like omega 3 fatty acids and more antioxidants, and a number of things like that that will help reduce your risk. By the way, one other test I want to mention, I think is critically important when we're looking at your risk of heart disease is your fasting insulin and your A1C levels. Okay. These are often ignored, but critically important. Your blood sugar, I mean, one of the biggest things that's causing inflammation to go up is if insulin is high. Okay. Cortisol is the other one. Typically, if you can fix insulin, you can fix cortisol. Inflammation goes down dramatically, so that's important as well. Now, I do want to take a moment to talk about statin drugs. Statins can lower cholesterol, but they don't address the root cause of heart disease, and they damage your body in other ways as well. I can remember the first patient I ever had in my practice. His name was Ron. Actually, no, this was in student clinic. And Ron came into me and. And he was losing his hair. I mean, it was so thin. He had muscle waste. And you showed me a picture of him a year before he was Like a buff guy in his mid-60s and lost all his muscle. Testosterone was down to so, so low. And I said, hey Ron, what have you been doing? And he shared with me, he said, my doctor put me on a no fat diet, get this, not low fat, no fat and a statin drug he was having. Also he was having major liver issues. And so I got him on a really healthy diet, just put him on an anti inflammatory diet. He was able to get off his statin drug and about six months later he was back to his youthful healthy self. But literally following a low fat diet and getting on a statin drug nearly killed him. He was wasting away to nothing and he was miserable. So again, statin drugs, they really damage your body in numerous ways. One of the biggest side effects of statin drugs, by the way, is it depletes your body of coenzyme Q10. Statins block something called the myelinate pathway, which the body uses to make Both cholesterol and COQ10. And COQ10 is a molecule essential for mitochondrial energy in your heart and in your muscle cells. So in CoQ10, it's incredibly important for longevity. And, and if you don't have it, by the way, your risk of a heart attack and heart disease goes up. So isn't it ironic to think that you're taking something that's supposed to be reducing your risk of heart disease, but actually it's increasing it in other ways. This is why statin drugs are something that are incredibly dangerous. And there are so many things that are better options than statin drugs that actually get to the root of the problem. Another major side effect of statin drugs is it increases your risk of diabetes. Statins can impair insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake in muscle cells. This raises blood sugar levels in most people. Another side effect of statins are causes muscle pain and fatigue. Because you're lowering COQ10 and you're damaging mitochondrial function and you're damaging your hormones like testosterone. Well, now you have less muscular energy. This leads to issues like weakness, soreness, muscle loss, exercise intolerance. You just can't recover. That's another problem. So if you want to reverse heart disease, you've got to reduce inflammation via an anti inflammatory diet and healthy lifestyle support. Your liver detox pathways, increase your intake of antioxidants and omega 3s and improve insulin sensitivity. One more thing, salt isn't your enemy either. Okay? Processed food is with a lot of this iodized processed salt. But natural mineral salts can support hydration, blood volume, nerve signaling, Adrenal health. Traditional cultures often consume 3 to 6 grams of sodium daily, but had lower rates of hypertension and heart disease, according to the journal Nutrients. Now, this is higher than the modern guidelines, and I'm not saying you should eat as much salt as you can, but sprinkling a mineral rich pink Himalayan salt or good quality sea salt on your food has benefits and you should consider it. And doing that, especially with certain fruits that are high in potassium, creates a really healthy exchange in the body that is great for your overall heart health. There's another study here, and this was a controlled trial of healthy adults and researchers found that a low salt diet activated the sympathetic nervous system and key regulators of stress hormones and was associated with higher insulin resistance compared with a higher salt diet after one week of sodium restriction. Okay, so even studies are showing that it's not ideal in most cases to go low salt. Now, again, I don't think you want to go crazy, but you do want to sprinkle some salt, Celtic salt, Himalayan salt, quality sea salt on your food on a regular basis. You know, another factor that can contribute to heart disease is high blood pressure. Though there are many people with completely normal blood pressure that still suffer heart attacks. But blood pressure often raises the risk due to metabolic and inflammatory damage. For example, insulin resistance can raise blood pressure by increasing sodium retention, activating the sympathetic nervous system and raising vascular inflammation. So, so again, blood pressure, high blood pressure is, is something you do want to take action with, and it typically has to do with Reducing stress is the single biggest factor. There's also a connection between heart disease and being overweight or obese. And so that's something else you do want to focus on. Losing the unwanted weight, especially the visceral fat around your organs and the weight that you carry in your midsection. And it has nothing to do with your overall weight, has everything to do with excess body fat. And the good news is though, when you follow a diet like I've shared, high in protein, high in fiber, high in nutrients, high in omegas, you'll just naturally lose weight. The weight will just fall off naturally. Are you interested in functional nutrition tips to burn fat, reduce inflammation, improve your brain and energy levels, and heal naturally. Then I want to encourage you to listen to my friend Dr. Dave Jocker's podcast, the Functional Nutrition Podcast. This podcast is designed to help you with ease, easy, actionable steps to improve your nutrition and lifestyle, understand your lab work, and address the root cause factors that may be driving up inflammation in your body. Now, I've been friends with Dr. David Jockers for 20 years, and he's truly a world expert in functional nutrition, cellular healing, and so much more. If you want to learn the best nutrition and natural healing tips, tune in to the Dr. Jockers Functional Nutrition Podcast on Apple, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you can listen to podcasts worldwide. So now I want to walk you through the diet that can help heal and reverse heart disease. And I want to mention at the root of it is you do want to reduce insulin. Okay. If you can reduce insulin, inflammation drops as well. Okay. So you want to consume a diet high in protein, high in fiber, moderate in healthy fat and high in nutrients. Okay. So here are the best foods. Number one, wild caught fatty fish like salmon, omega 3s in study after study reduce heart disease and inflammation. So wild caught salmon, fatty fish like sardines and mackerel, Anchovies. Perfect. Next, extra virgin olive oil. Number three, pomegranates. Okay. Pomegranates have been shown in studies to reduce heart disease. Amazing benefits for longevity as well. Number four, berries like blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, mulberries, raspberries, berries have all of these antioxidants that also reduce oxidative stress. That's the big thing. They protect you against that oxidative stress. Piece five, green leafy vegetables, like especially steamed or sauteed lightly in olive oil. Spinach and kale are great options. Or doing a salad with arugula. But green leafy vegetables. Number six, beans and lentils. Great forms of fiber, right? Help clean out the arteries. Nuts, walnuts especially would be at the very, very top of the list. And even seeds, certain types of seeds as well, like flax and chia. Number eight, avocados. That good monounsaturated fats, oats. I would also throw apples in the mix there. Oats and apples, great forms of fiber for the body. And garlic and onions, similar. They actually contain compounds that help clean out your arteries because of some of that sulfur content in there. So those are the foods you most want to consume to reverse and prevent heart disease. Now I want to walk you through the supplements that can help you reverse heart disease the most in ranking order. Number one, again, an Omega 3 supplement high in Epadha, a fish oil supplement. Number two, magnesium. It could be magnesium glycinate. It could also be a food based magnesium. Great for reducing blood pressure, vascular relaxation and also helping with nutrient absorption. Number three, coenzyme Q10 or ubiquinol. This helps power your mitochondrial energy. And by the way, this is absolutely critical. You take CoQ10 if you've ever taken a statin drug. Number four, berberine. The reason why berberine works is it improves insulin resistance and metabolic markers that drive heart disease and inflammation like high blood sugar. So berberine is great. Number five is aged garlic extract. This supports healthy blood pressure and endothelial function, and it acts as an antioxidant. Number six, fiber. It could be acacia fiber, could be psyllium husk, could be apple pomace. But doing a fiber supplement helps lower LDL cholesterol by increasing bile and cholesterol extraction by the body. Kind of binds to it, gets it rid of out of the body. So getting more fiber even as a supplement can be great. Number seven, curcumarin or turmeric. I actually recommend a lot of patients do turmeric and ginger tea or a turmeric holy basil tea and just drinking that throughout the day. But again, a curcumin or turmeric supplement is great. Vitamin K is great, especially with vitamin D combined. So vitamin D plus vitamin K would be number eight. Number nine would be consuming herbs like hawthorn, also olive leaf. So not only olives themselves have heart health benefits. Olive leaf also does these help clear out the arteries. There's another herb in Chinese medicine called dan shen, which is red sage, which is great. But overall, hawthorn is a really great berry extract. And then red yeast rice, that's almost like a natural statin that significantly can lower LDL cholesterol levels. So those are the foods and supplements you should be consuming to reverse and heal your heart. The last point I want to make here. We've talked a lot about diet, but one other crucial aspect to heart health isn't tied as much to insulin or a lot of these heart markers. It's tied more to cortisol, and it's tied more to your actual spiritual heart. And in the Bible, in scripture, the heart is more than an organ or a pump. It's considered the center of life, intention, and even your character. In fact, The Proverbs, Proverbs 4, 23 says this. Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Your spiritual heart tends to be very connected to your overall stress levels. Okay, Think about if you're dealing with bitterness and negativity, unforgiveness, anxiety, anger, those things directly impact the liver and the heart, which are going to then impact your nervous system, which then is going to cause inflammation, can cause digestive issues, higher blood pressure. These things are impacted. So one of the best things you can do for heart health is also work on lowering Cortisol through taking time, spending time in prayer, spending time in meditation, spending time just walking in nature and connecting with God in nature. These things also lowering that cortisol and especially the benefit of doing like a prayer walk. You're outside and you're walking and you're connecting with God. What happens there is tremendous for the health of your heart and there are many studies proving this, that reducing stress is also critical for heart health. And it's just as important to diet in many cases. So taking care of both your physical heart and your spiritual heart will help you reverse and heal heart disease. So remember these tips. Number one, eat an anti inflammatory diet, stay out of the oil debate and just do more extra virgin olive oil. Get more Omega 3s from things like wild caught fish, but follow that anti inflammatory diet and food list I talked about. Stabilize your blood sugar again. Protein and fiber are going to help you do that. Reduce ultra processed foods and oils and excess sugar, support antioxidant status with things like coenzyme Q10 and getting more polyphenols, manage stress in sleep and move daily. Right. There are also benefits I didn't get into here of walking and exercising regularly that actually help reduce heart disease. In fact, exercise is one of the single greatest things you can do to prevent a heart attack, prevent a stroke and overall support cardiovascular health. So as you can see, heart disease isn't caused by one single factor. It's caused by chronic damage and damage that's actually preventable. And your challenge this week is this. Swap one inflammatory habit for a heart healing one, such as adding more olive oil to your meals or getting enough sleep or managing stress better. If you do this, your heart is going to be healthy for years to come. I want to say thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. Remember, each and every week I'm diving deep into the science and the principles of how you can heal physically, mentally, spiritually and take your health and your life to the next level. Remember, almost everybody themselves or knows somebody that is impacted by heart disease. So I want to encourage you to share this episode with somebody because there are so many people that just don't know know the truth about fats, the truth about cholesterol, the truth about heart disease and what they can do to start to heal your heart and really think about do you know somebody with high blood pressure or is on a statin drug? Share this episode with them because it might just save or transform their life. So I'm so grateful for all of you sharing this also thank you to all you subscribers out there. It's the number one thing you could do to support the show. And by the way, the reviews on the show are out of this world. I'm so grateful for all of the feedback you've been leaving, whether it's positive or negative. I'm grateful for your feedback and suggestions here with the show. So thanks so much. I want to say thanks so much for tuning in. I'll see you on the next episode.
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New Year, New Me. Cute, but how about New Year New Money? With Experian, you can actually take control of your finances. Check your FICO score, find ways to to save and get matched with credit card offers, giving you time to power through those New Year's goals you know you're going to crush. Start the year off right. Download the Experian app based on FICO scoring model offers an approval not guaranteed. Eligibility requirements and terms apply subject to credit check which may impact your credit scores. Offers not available in all states. See experian.com for details.
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Experian.