You’d think with all the guidelines and advice being handed out about heart health, hearts would be getting stronger, healthier and happier. But no, in upside down world, you might have to think again.
Just take a look at some of the existing biological evidence, relating to cardiovascular health and disease in general, and what you’ll probably realize, is that nothing the ‘health experts’ tell you, is what it is, because everything they say, is what it isn’t. It’s more than just curious.
I’ve talked about ways that ‘evil cholesterol’ protects against coronary artery disease, and how so called ‘heart healthy PUFAs’ cause atherosclerosis. But there’s more to heart health than just good arteries, and the ability of the heart to pump properly is also crucial.
You can’t separate the function of individual organs, from overall metabolism performance. And so, if you want to know the truth about what is and isn’t good for heart function, focusing on ‘top down’ official heart recommendations, which often seem to ignore basic physiological or metabolic principles, isn’t always very helpful, to say the least.
What does make sense, however, is to start by looking at how metabolism functions from the bottom up, so that you can get an appreciation of what things support or interfere with the ability of the heart to function optimally.
Whenever there is increased demand placed upon the body (and more oxygen is being consumed), a well functioning heart, will beat faster, but it will also beat harder. This principle, sometimes referred to as the Staircase Effect, allows for more blood to be pumped per contraction.
Alternatively, a weak, failing heart is unable to relax fully between contractions, and in an attempt to pump more blood when required, beats faster and weaker, and often pumps less blood than can be pumped by a strong healthy heart, with less beats.
So what is it that makes a heart strong and healthy, or weak and stressed? Like with metabolic function as a whole, it basically comes down to thyroid function and energy production, and the things that help or interfere.
We could begin a discussion about metabolism and heart health, by talking about the polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs), chronic systemic inflammation, digestive dysfunction, bacterial issues and infection, vitamin and mineral imbalances and nutritional deficiencies in general, or just the substances of stress, like nitric oxide, lactic acid, serotonin, cortisol, and estrogen.
It doesn’t really matter where you start, because all roads lead to Rome. But I’m going to begin by talking about the role sugar has to play, because when it comes to metabolic function, it probably doesn’t get more central than the interplay between energy production and stress.
Sugar is fundamental to energy production, and thyroid energy systems are a basic protection against effects of stress exposure. In order for the heart to function properly under stress, energy needs to be made available, and not all ways are equal. Over time, exposure to less than optimal energy provision methods, can change the structure and function of the heart.
When stress is high and sugar availability is interfered with, thyroid system function can be suppressed, causing the heart to get more easily tired, at a time when it needs to work harder than normal. To help deal with this, defensive stress processes are activated.
One of the first things that happens, is that fat is released out of storage (as free fatty acids) in an attempt to provide alternate energy supply. Today, these fats are often highly polyunsaturated in composition, and the byproducts of the PUFAs powerfully suppress thyroid performance and promote inflammation, damaging the heart.
When heart cells are damaged by a lack of energy and increased exposure to the breakdown products of the PUFAs, sugar is one thing that is required for healthy cellular regeneration, and unfortunately sugar is prevented (by the free fatty acids) from being used by the cells.
Lack of sugar availability also promotes exposure to adrenaline (and other catecholamines) and cortisol, which further interfere with the use of sugar, encouraging exposure to PUFAs, preventing optimal heart function.
As part of this worsening stress scenario, lactic acid is produced in greater quantity, and the high lactic acid stress metabolism is another factor involved in the suppression of thyroid system function, and the promotion of heart failure.
A stressed, hypothyroid, inflamed heart, producing lactic acid (due to excessive exposure to PUFAs and interference with carbon dioxide producing sugar metabolism), causes the heart to become increasingly fibrotic, which then further impedes the heart’s pumping ability.
Increasing thyroid function, thereby lowering lactic acid (and promoting CO2 production), can reverse fibrosis in the heart, allowing the muscle to regenerate, enabling improved function.
Interference with thyroid energy production tends to go together with increasing estrogen exposure (for a variety of reasons), and estrogen also interferes with the ability of the heart to pump optimally.
Any time lack of sugar (and oxygen) availability, prevents the heart from fully relaxing between contractions, the heart can retain excess water and calcium, further promoting estrogen, and encouraging collagen production, which leads to more fibrosis and a worsening of function.
Stress, lack of sugar and greater exposure to the PUFAs, inhibits digestion and promotes bacterial growth and the circulation of endotoxin throughout the system. Endotoxin is directly inflammatory and has also been shown to interfere with proper heart function.
Low thyroid energy production inhibits the intestinal barrier and liver function, allowing more endotoxin and other inflammatory things to interfere with the ability of the heart to pump properly, which then further reduces all functions, including digestion and liver.
Endotoxin impedes thyroid energy production, and apart from promoting estrogen, endotoxin increases exposure to nitric oxide and serotonin, and both of these directly suppress thyroid energy production, and are associated with heart failure and inflammatory metabolic illness in general.
The saturated fats protect against inflammation and limit the release of PUFAs out of storage, enabling sugar metabolism and thyroid energy production, reducing estrogen production.
Estrogen promotes the breakdown of the PUFAs, which then go on to make the effects of estrogen more powerful, creating a potentially heart damaging cocktail.
Sugar helps promote the production of cholesterol, and cholesterol plays a crucial role in protection against inflammation and endotoxin, and against stress in general.
Cholesterol is also a basic building block, in combination with a properly functioning thyroid metabolism, for the production of the anti-estrogen steroid, progesterone, which is known to improve the ability of the heart to pump effectively.
Cholesterol protects the cells, including heart cells, and so the combination of sugar restriction, increased exposure to PUFAs (which are known to interfere with cholesterol production), and cholesterol lowering statin drugs, can attack the heart in a triangulated fashion.
Based on all of this, it makes sense that improving thyroid energy metabolism, in a manner which provides enough sugar and protein and other important nutrients, without placing unnecessary stress on the digestive system and the liver, is a good overall strategy.
I’m not a doctor, but it seems logical to me that, as much as possible, all elements of a heart supportive strategy, should work in the same direction, protecting against excessive stress, inflammation and bacterial overload, avoiding exposure to the energy production damaging polyunsaturated free fatty acids and other thyroid interfering substances. Sugar appears to be a crucial factor required for success.
A diet avoiding the inflammatory PUFAs, and the thyroid suppressive and difficult to digest grains, beans and legumes (and too much under cooked vegetable matter and starches), and with plenty of easy to digest protein and sugar and other nutrients from dairy, gelatin, and sweet fruits, white sugar and honey, is one potentially useful approach.
Raw carrot salad and very well cooked mushrooms, as well as numerous other pro-metabolism, anti-endotoxin, anti-estrogen, and generally anti-inflammatory, thyroid energy supportive things, many mentioned in previous articles, are also likely to be protective.
