| After cholesterol the most important cause of heart attacks is the killer that Paul Ridker identified. Time Magazine August 20, 2001� The Researchers and Doctors who are Changing Our World by Alice Park. Dr. Paul Ridker is a cardiologist at Boston�s Brigham and Women�s Hospital and of the world�s leading experts on arterial inflammation, an immune-system reaction that is a powerful contributor to heart attacks. Inflammation in the arteries turns out to be as dangerous for the heart as high cholesterol levels in the blood. �Inflammation has really changed our whole outlook on heart disease,� says Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. The idea that heart attacks are caused by arteries gummed up with cholesterol was clearly inadequate; half of all heart attacks occurred in people with normal cholesterol levels. �Dr. Ridker�s team found that those with low cholesterol but high levels of the inflammatory marker CRP were just as likely to have a heart attack as those with high cholesterol and low levels of CRP.� These findings have given doctors a new and very different model of heart disease. Inflammation and cholesterol combine, they now believe, to create a particularly unstable type of plaque that builds within blood-vessel walls. It�s the rupture of these plaques, spewing debris into heart arteries, that causes clots to form and leads to heart attacks. ��������������������������������� �For those of you who are not aware�Proanthocyanidins found in grapeskins and grapeseeds one of many powerful natural anti-inflammatories that are also called phytonutrients that are found in certain fruits. If you are not getting enough from your diet supplementing is critical.� |
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