The FastDay Forum

While visiting my brother this weekend, we looked over a family tree being developed by a cousin. There was an interesting notation concerning one great great grandmother,born and died in Ireland(very early 1800's) on my fathers side and an escalating issue with athlerosclerosis and dementia. How excessive and what foods do you figure someone from that time period and country would have consumed?

I know a great grandmother on mothers side also had the same problem. She was born in Ireland and died here in the US.

My Mom died at 60yo from massive heart attack and had high blood pressure and skyrocket cholesterol.

I changed my diet away from fats and red meat, 25-30 years ago, to mostly carbohydrates. Ten years ago I had my first surgical intervention for a blood clot and was diagnosed with athlerosclerosis. My second surgery was 5 years ago. My ldl/hdl were textbook perfect but very high triglycerides and low blood pressure. Ongoing treatment:drugs. Never did a doctor tell me that a diet of refined carbs elevates triglycerides potentiating atherosclerosis. But that is exactly what happens. In an effort to prolong my life by cutting fats and meats I was killing myself.

I know I am rambling on here but it is clear to me that there is a genetic predisposition to 'hardening of the arteries' and it can be controlled by diet. All this time I thought I had my mothers problem but it turns out it goes back further into history.

I am a carb lover but since I started 52 I have cut out all the white bad boys. And yes I am challenged by them all the time.

So if this helps anyone out there remember that carbs trigger a reaction in the body to convert to glucose and fatty acid resulting in a build up of triglycerides which is just as damaging as an elevated ldl.

[carieoates]

A very interesting read, not ramblie at all. Hopefully this will help someone out. Thanks for sharing.

That was very interesting. If I am correct then your Irish antecedents would have had a diet consisting of a large amount of potatoes. Looks like they were there prior to the potato famine so perhaps a diet heavy in white carbs had something to do with her subsequent ill health. I am no expert, just a personal opinion.

Ballerina x

Not rambling at all @clairemarie A very good informative post indeed and I always say if I help one person with the rubbish I write it's been worthwhile.
I learned very quickly from this very forum that carbs can do more harm than good and have extracted most from my daily diet, I haven't stopped them completely just reduced, in the beginning of my "research" my reduction
was primarily for water retention which has worked so very well for me.
No doctor/nurse/hospital has ever pointed this out to me at all, this has really annoyed me as I've suffered all my adult life, what a different life it would have been for many of us
You and me included.

how interesting @ClaireMarie! Families, huh? Another reason to love them!!

I also have a big family history of vascular disease, but practically no cancer at all. When my mother had a big stroke, of which she finally died, the investigations showed she was clogged with cholesterol from her heart right up continuously through her aorta, carotids and vertebral arteries, right up and including her brain arteries. Because of that, my older brother (age 65) had some heart tests and carotid duplex scan, and wasn't allowed to leave the hospital because he had a life-threatening blockage in his left main coronary artery, which they subsequently grafted successfully, thank goodness. He had been almost completely asymptomatic. And he has had an ostensibly healthy lifestyle, with plenty of exercise, and a reasonable diet, so go figure! I had all the same tests done a few years back, fortunately mine came back as "pristine" even though I have mild type 2 diabetes. Very strange!

I guess we can only act with the information we have at the time - unfortunately I think there are no ultimate truths about diet, the science keeps evolving. Carorees posted a great talk by Peter Attia on the history of how cholesterol and fat in the diet came to be demonised, I'll see if I can track it down. It seems the physicians and politicians felt obliged to act on very incomplete evidence, and were forced to ignore the studies that didn't fit. An interesting history of ideas and how they're propagated!

Good luck with your atherosclerosis!!

[Debs]

Hi there, that was a very interesting post thank you. I guess it may be similar in mine, or it could be if the males actually looked after their health and got themselves tested!

Thanks all for your replies. It is ironic that in an effort to be healthy I gained more and more weight. I also feel the Food Pyramid advocating lots of grains has led people the wrong way. Hopefully it will be recalculated.

The body is an amazing thing capable of destroying itself as well as repairing and healing. I wish MD's paid more attention to nutrition than pharmaceuticals.

Heart disease young often is an indicator of undiagnosed diabetes or, at times, prediabetes. These are genetic in origin when they run in families.

The tests used for diagnosis until very recently missed high blood sugars until they had years to do damage. People without the underlying genetic problems can eat carbs and thrive, which is why it took so long for science to realize how toxic carbs are to those with genetic problems that limit their ability to burn carbs.

Testing your blood sugar after meals with a meter after eating carbs is a simple way to determine if you have undiagnosed diabetes. Readings that stay well over 180 mg/dl (7.7 mmol/l) after meals is a sign you have sugars high enough to damage your arteries.