The new hypothesis about heart disease (that no one talks about)
Heart disease is skyrocketing. For the last 50 years or so, we were dogmatically told that the consumption of saturated fat and cholesterol were THE cause of cardiovascular problems and by minimizing their intake, cardiovascular disease can be prevented!
Turns out that's not the case by the way.
Scientific evidence about that has already been available more than 50 years ago, it was just burried and locked up and ignored by major health institutions. It still upsets me, but well, at least after half a century, the public got to know that saturated fat and cholsterol are not as problematic as we thought... Yay.
By the way, there's a really great book out there called The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz in which the author describes how the demonisation of fat and cholesterol in particular came to be. (Yes, there was some lobbing behind it, but also very ignorant and persuasive scientists... Fascinating, but somewhat scary because not even the "objective science" is really independent.)
While many research papers have described in detail the processes that take place in the coronary artery wall in association with the accumulation of fat and cholesterol, few have attempted to explain why these processes are happening.
The new theory I'm going to explain is a bit complicated and very complex.
(NOTE: What I will present here is a broad overview and things may be simplified. If you wanna read the publication yourself, click here.)
The main thesis is that a deficiency in cholesterol sulfate can best explain artheriosclerosis.
Wait what?! A LACK of cholesterol? Like, too little? But that's exactly the opposite of what we have been told over the last decades!!!!!
Correct.
Time to start our scientific journey :D
The plaque in the arteries that is demonised exhibits a very essential function. It is there for a reason. The plaques replenish the supply of cholesterol and sulfate to the microvasculature (smallest systems of blood vessels in a body). And especially sulfurylated cholesterol is key here.
Sulfate anions attached to the glycosaminoglycans (structure containing polysaccharides) in the glycocalyx (the carb/polysaccharide part bound on lipid or protein structures on the outside of a cell) are essential in maintaining a structured water composition.
Structured water? What is this?
I have to explain to you a really crazy sounding concept about water. Water occurs in the three forms of ice, "water", and vapor.
But not many people know that there's a fourth form of water! This form is called structured water. It can be found in human cells for example. This unique form of water is crucial for correctly folding our proteins.
Furthermore, structured water is vital for vascular endothelial (cells on the outside of blood vessels) health and erythrocyte (red blood cell) mobility through capillaries.
We cannot just be ok without structured water in our system, thus the structured water needs to be maintained somehow. But to maintain it, we need sulfate/sulfurylated cholesterol!
Ok, now there's already a link to the cardiovascular system. But now we are getting to the crucial point: sulfate deficiency.
Sulfate depletion leads to cholesterol accumulation in atheromas (wikipedia explains: "accumulation of degenerative material in the inner layer of an artery wall").
The transport of cholesterol through water-based media (cholesterol belongs to the family of lipids and is not well water soluble and thus needs to be modified a bit) depends on sulfurization (sticking a sulfo group onto another molecule). Otherwise it cannot move through the blood. By the way: This sticking results in something called sulfurylated cholesterol.
Conclusion 1: Not enough sulfate > no structured water! > bad endothelial health
Conclusion 2: No sulfate > no modifying of cholesterol > cholesterol struggling and not moving well > accumulating on artery wall > plaque buildup!
As it is quite bad not supplying enough sulfate, the body has an emergency route.
The technically inflammatory (and thus looked at as bad) agent superoxide is used to derive sulfate from homocysteine (an amino acid) and other sulfur sources in the body. (But this is only an emergency route, when not enough sulfate is available. It also has damaging side effects, but we fucking need sulfate!)
Streaming potential (yes there really is electric current in our bodies! See further down for more infos) induces nitric oxide (NO) release, and NO derivatives break down the extracellular matrix (space between cells), redistributing essential sulfate to the microvasculature.
Ok, so the NO somehow gets the desperately needed sulfate derived by superoxide into to the microvasculature.
Low (less negative) zeta potential (scientific term for electrokinetic potential of a moving particle in a suspension, like all the stuff in our blood) due to insufficient sulfate anions leads to high blood pressure (HBP) and thrombosis (formation of a blood clot), because these responses can increase streaming potential (aka current) and induce nitric-oxide (NO) mediated vascular relaxation, promoting oxygen delivery.
What the fuck did I just read and not understand?
Sorry ;P
Let's reformulate this:
When there are not enough sulfate particles, the "current" decreases. This leads to HBP and blood clotting. But this has a reason. (Like everything the body does, it just tries to maintain status quo! Our fault if we mess it up...)
Although HBP and blood clotting
are signs of bad cardiovascular health, the body needs these measures, because firstly, they increase the "current" again, and secondly, result in relaxing/chilling of the blood vessels, so prevents constricting and thus blood flow restriction.
Very short version: Sulfates are important in maintaining structured water and streaming potential to enable healthy blood flow.
Ok, let's summarize everything:
Lack of sulfate and cholesterol in the form of sulfurylated cholesterol and glycosaminoglycans in the cardiovascular system leads to:
- decrease in the ability of structuring water
- bad endothelial health
- cholesterol getting stuck on the arteries (plaque)
- High blood pressure
- Thrombosis
Aren't these all signs of bad cardiovascular health?
Correct. Thus:
Conclucion 3: Sulfate does play a crucial role in cardiovascular health
Conclusion 4: Having enough sulfate is actually quite nice ;)
Overall conclusion from these findings, what to do now, how to apply this knowledge:
"If this interpretation is correct, then it would have a significant impact on how atherosclerosis is treated. For preventing cardiovascular disease, a high intake of sulfur-containing foods as well as an avoidance of exposure to toxicants that may impair sulfate synthesis is recommended."
I just wanted to present you the scientific background regarding this new hypothesis.
But think about it what you want ;)
Streaming potential: electrokinetic phenomena studied in the areas of surface chemistry and electrochemistry. They are an electric current or potential which originates when an electrolyte (i. e, blood) is driven by a pressure (blood pressure) gradient through a channel (artery) or porous plug (capillary) with charged walls.