How do our coronary arteries get blocked?

Here is my summary of a very interesting article.

This article published in February, 2013.  It came to my attention in the “Melbourne Age” this week because the author, Fred A Kummerow is 98 years old.  He has had a 60-year career in cardiovascular research.  I wonder what I will be doing at 98.

I want to summarize the article, so that it is easier to digest, and in addition, the effort of summarizing will help my own understanding.  I will attach a link to the article. Please feel free to read it for yourself.  I have included the link, below.

One of the new “weapons” against heart attack is a new test.  A friend has just had it.  It is a simple non-invasive test which shows the amount of calcium build up in the branches of the coronary (heart) blood vessels.  This turns out to be a good predictor of trouble, and the calcium is easy to spot on the scan. 

So here is the article, on topic, of the actual chemical pathway of those calcium deposits in the coronary arteries.

Interaction between sphingomyelin and oxysterols contributes to atherosclerosis and sudden death

Am J Cardiovasc Dis. 2013; 3(1): 17–26.

Published online 2013 February 17

I am paraphrasing the article.

Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States and in Australia. It turns out that oxidized lipids contribute to heart disease in two ways 1. by increasing deposition of calcium on the arterial wall, a major hallmark of atherosclerosis, and 2. by interrupting blood flow, a major contributor to heart attack and sudden death.

Oxidized cholesterol (oxysterols) increases the production of a substance called sphingomyelin, a phospholipid found in the cellular membranes of the coronary artery. This increases the sphingomyelin content in the cell membrane switches on double calcium ion receptor.  This means calcium will bind to the cell membranes. In addition sphingomyelin also interrupts the flow of blood.  It is a double whammy.

So what are these oxidized cholesterols (oxysterols)?  Wereally need to stay away from these.

They are found in oxidized fats used in commercially fried foods like fish and chips, fried chicken, in other words, fast food. No surprise there, but I never want to eat another chip as long as I live. 

Here is the big surprise. Other sources include:-

 “oxidation of cholesterol in vivo driven by consumption of excess polyunsaturated fatty acids from vegetable oils”  (article sited above).  This means your own body oxidizes the excess of polyunsaturated vegetable oils into oxysterols.  Yikes.

Smoking also leads to the increase production of sphingomyelin. As well, transfats found in some commercially produced, prepared  and pre-packaged foods  are another source of oxysterols.  Unfortunately, In Australia, there is no requirement to list transfats on food labels.

The decrease in smoking – down 43% - is not matched by the equivalent decrease in fatal heart disease  So, the downturn in smoking rates does not go far enough to explain why heart disease is still the leading cause of death in the western world. This article shows there are other factors, which we can control, which reduce our risk of heart attack  and sudden death from heart disease .

Here is a link to the article: - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3584645/