Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => Other Health Discussion => Topic started by: Sparrow on November 10, 2019, 11:26:11 AM
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Hi,
This is from one of my favourite doctors which I thought some of you may find useful. I have cut & pasted the beginning of article and given the link, so you can read the rest.
What causes heart disease – part 67 – The Blood Brain Barrier
by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
10th November 2019
The Blood Brain Barrier
Here I am going backwards in time and space to try and explain, from a different angle, a fundamental problem with the LDL/cholesterol hypothesis. In doing so I hope to again make clear why I am certain the entire process of cardiovascular disease (CVD) requires a complete re-think.
In a medical school long, long ago, on a planet far, far, away, I was part of a small group teaching session on cardiology… Aberdeen 1980, actually. I have mentioned this event before, a critical moment in my life. The tutor was Dr Elspeth Smith, who was researching heart disease at the time. Research that, to my chagrin, I knew little about until several years later, when I began more detailed research into cardiovascular disease.
At one point in the tutorial, Dr Smith stated that LDL (low density lipoprotein) cannot get past, or through, the endothelium. At that time, I hadn't much of a clue what LDL was, and very little idea about the endothelium. However, something about the intensity of her comment created an itch, one that I have spent very nearly forty years scratching.
I say this because, if LDL cannot get past the endothelium, then the widely accepted, and supposedly primary causal mechanism of heart disease, must be wrong!
Just to remind you that the central mechanism underpinning the ‘cholesterol hypothesis' has always been that LDL leaks out of the blood past, or through, the endothelium, and into the arterial wall behind.
This then stimulates a whole series of downstream processes whereby you end up with thickenings in the artery wall narrowing the artery – known as atherosclerotic plaques. The higher the LDL level, the faster the leakage? I put a question mark there, because I don't think I have ever seen this stated explicitly – I suppose it is implied as self-evident.
Clearly, however, if LDL cannot pass through the endothelium – the single layer of cells that lines all artery walls – then the ‘cholesterol hypothesis' is a busted flush. Which is sort of interesting in a ‘hold the front page' sort of fashion. ‘LDL hypothesis completely wrong – shock horror.' Dr Elspeth Smith explains that LDL cannot get through the endothelium. Experts around the world, agree, and look for other explanations for heart disease.
This is a headline that I must have missed.
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2019/11/10/what-causes-heart-disease-part-67-the-blood-brain-barrier/#comments