Does Sugar = Acne?

Does Sugar = Acne?

A frequent Question.  To over simplify. Yes sugar equals acne. It also equals bad health. 

Glucose floating through the bloodstream is very damaging and the true cause of heart disease, not cholesterol.  So the body produces insulin to get it out of the bloodstream and into the cells.  When you consume more glucose than your cells can take in, it keeps trying with the insulin but if the cells are full they aren't going to take in more.   If we hadn't invented added sugar and refined grain junk and sedentary work, this would rarely happen.  

Eventually your cells will become resistant and your pancreas exhausted and you will get diabetes, like about half our population these days.  

In the meantime, both the sugar and the insulin are inflamatory (and acne is an inflammatory condition as are many other health conditions). And the insulin stimulates other hormones such as  IGF-1 and the sex hormones involved in acne. 

Statin Drugs Will Harm Your Skin and Accelerate Aging

Statin Drugs Inhibit Enzymes Needed for Healthy Skin

 

Quote

The regulation of epidermal lipid synthesis by permeability barrier requirements.

Feingold KR.

Source Metabolism Section (111F), VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA 94121.

Abstract

A major function of the skin is to prevent the loss of fluids. The barrier to fluid loss resides in the intercellular lipids (primarily sterols, fatty acids, and sphingolipids) of the stratum corneum. The epidermis is a very active site of lipid synthesis and when the permeability barrier is disrupted by topical solvents or detergents a marked stimulation of sterol, fatty acid, and sphingolipid synthesis occurs. Essential fatty acid deficient mice, with a chronic disturbance in barrier function, also have an increase in epidermal lipid synthesis. When the defect in barrier function is artificially corrected by occlusion with a water vapor impermeable membrane the increase in epidermal lipid synthesis is prevented, suggesting that water flux may be a regulatory factor. The activity of the key rate limiting enzyme in cholesterol synthesis, HMG CoA reductase is increased following barrier disruption due to both an increased quantity of enzyme and an increase in activation state. Similarly, the activity of serine palmitoyl transferase, the rate limiting enzyme in sphingolipid synthesis is also increased following barrier disruption. Occlusion prevents the increase in HMG CoA reductase and serine palmitoyl transferase activity. When the increase in epidermal lipid synthesis is inhibited by occlusion the characteristic rapid return of stratum corneum lipids and recovery of barrier function is prevented. Moreover, when epidermal cholesterol synthesis is inhibited by lovastatin, an inhibitor of HMG CoA reductase, the rate of recovery of barrier structure and function is delayed. Similarly, B chloroalanine, an inhibitor of serine palmitoyl transferase and sphingolipid synthesis, also impairs barrier recovery. Thus, disruption of the barrier stimulates epidermal lipid synthesis which provides the lipids necessary for the repair of the barrier. The signals that initiate and coordinate this response are yet to be defined, but the understanding of this process may allow for pharmacological interventions that will specifically disrupt the barrier and allow for the transcutaneous delivery of drugs.

Note the bolded line. An example of how the statin drugs they want everyone to take will harm your skin and accelerate aging.  And your epidermis isn't the only tissue it does this to. Tissues inside and out.

Also, this study is about how the necessary lipids are stimulated after the your skin is harmed.  Which would of course be a part of healing. But is this an example of how are medical and pharmaceutical researchers think?  What we need is to damage ourselves in order stimulate healing? 

Homemade Coconut Milk

Make Homemade Coconut milk from Dried Coconut  

This recipe comes fom a vendor of coconut products that doesn't sell a canned coconut milk because they say there isn't a good one.  There's a video demonstration on their site here:http://www.freecocon...de-coconut-milk

Homemade Coconut Milk Recipe

 Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 7/8 cup dry unsweetened shredded coconut

• In a medium-size kettle, heat the water, but do not bring it to a boil.
• Place the coconut in a blender and add 1 cup of the hot water.
• Blend for 2-3 minutes.
• Place a colander in a bowl and line the colander with 4 thicknesses of cheesecloth.
• Pour the blended coconut mixture into the cheesecloth and twist to extract the milk, letting the milk go into the bowl.
• Return the coconut pulp to the blender and add the remaining 1/2 cup of hot water.
• Blend for 1-2 minutes, strain and press through the cheesecloth into the bowl.

Makes about 1 cup

Save  the leftover coconut pulp for pancakes & cookies!   

Mix the coconut with a couple mashed ripe bananas, a little salt and whatever else you'd like such as spices, a little cocoa powder, low sugar dark chocolate pieces, a spoonful of nut butter, etc.  Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet & bake.  Also do with other things besides banana such as baked winter squash or sweet potatoes.  Mix with a little egg for pancakes or even better, with mashed sweet potato and egg.

What you really need to Build Strong Bones & Have Clear Skin is Vitamin D!

Do you want the expensive, temporary treatments vs. long term health promoting solutions and prevention?

Vitamin D for Acne

Acne is a skin condition characterized by hyperproliferation of skin cells. The cell turnover rate in acne prone skin is just right to encourage plugs that don't have enough momentum to be cleared out before new skin cells are building up. Which leads us to treatments.

Accutane works by actually slowing the rate of skin cell turn over.  Vitamin D also inhibits hyperproliferation, and as such, has implications for the treatment of acne in the same way that accutane does. Fortunately, Vitamin D doesn't have the side effects accutane has, and is in fact rather necessary for health, which cannot be said for accutane.

Retinoids help acne (and signs of aging) by increasing cell turnover allowing the pore to clear itself faster, and not giving the pore enough time to form a plug. However, the problem with this is that it can be irritating and makes you more sensitive to sun.

Many medications that speed skin cell turnover rates are also keratiolytic, meaning they break down keratin which keeps dead skin cells attached to one another rather than exfoliate freely. So they break up the plugs and allow dead skin cells to be released from the skin surface. Sulfur and Salicylic Acid are examples of  topical keratiolytic agents. And you can get sulfur via DIY recipes from foods in our kitchen such as a Turmeric & yogurt mask. A probiotic in yogurt also boosts ceramide production.

Now, if you slow the skin cell turnover rate, it will take longer for existing plugs to clear, but as they do, the cell turnover rate is not prolific enough to form a new plug. This is why accutane takes a long time to see results.. But the results are often not permanent. 

Vitamin D for Bones

If you eat a good diet, it's highly unlikely you are deficient in calcium even if you don't drink milk. There is plenty of calcium in many other foods such as sardines with bones, broccoli, greens & almonds. 1 cup of steamed collards and 1 cup of cow's milk are nearly identical in terms of calcium (with collards providing 266 milligrams and cow's milk providing 276 milligrams). And 100 calories worth of spinach provides you with twice as much calcium as 100 calories worth of yogurt.

In fact, too much calcium builds brittle bones so supplementation is not beneficial.  It's far more likely you are deficient in the other nutrients needed to use calcium and to make strong bones such as Vitamin D, Vitamin K and Magnesium. And those seeds & greens mentioned above are great sources of Magnesium while the greens also supply Vitamin K1. The sardines provide some vitamin D.

Also, your body uses Calcium to maintain the acid/alkaline balance (called pH) in the blood. When blood pH starts getting low, it takes the calcium out of your bones to bring the PH back up.  The Phosphoric acid in Soft Drinks and high salt are two things diet habits that will cause this to happen.

Get Your Vitamin D

Supplement at least 1-3,000 IU per day. But try to get it for free from the sun when you can! So get outside. Your skin manufactures vitamin D in response to ultraviolet (UVB) light.  It only takes about 15 minutes for the body to make vitamin D,  but you need to do it when the sun is high in the sky and you need more than arms & face exposed.  They say you make most vitamin D in your torso, but I've not found an explanation for that. Is it simply because the torso is bigger?  Once you've made some vitamin D, cover up. Cover up with a hat & sleeves.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=45

Better Sunscreens

The Environmental Working Group's report on the sunscreens of 2014 found that nearly 2/3 of reviewed products are either ineffective or contain harmful ingredients. 

 Summary article with links to EWG's report and other sources

Your skin has numerous defenses to protect itself. They come from nutrients that you must consume regularly and from the lipids you need to quit washing out of your skin with soap.

Make a habit of consuming the many foods high in nutrients that protect you from sun damage Drink some green tea  and apply topically.  Use a good, fresh high linoleic acid containing oil such as safflower oil regularly as a moisturizer. Make some tomato sauces & soups.

Nutrients that protect you from sun damage:
Lycopene from cooked tomatoes, watermelon, pink guava
Proanthocyanids found in purple/black berries, fruits, tea, cocoa, purple onions and cabbage.  

Some things are good for applying after sun exposure to prevent free radical damage include aloe vera,  vitamin C and green tea.

So, get some sun exposure to make the oh so important Vitamin D, then put on a hat & shirt. 

My Skin Healthy Lunch & Active agents, the effective skin care - vitamins, oils & more

My Skin Healthy Superfood Lunch 

Sweet Potatoes with Wilted Spinach, Olive Oil & a little Cotija Cheese. And of course, my favorite spice blend for sweet potatoes, cinnamon, Cayenne & salt. I've started adding turmeric to the blend to get more into my diet.  The Beta Carotene in the sweet potatoes & greens is converted to retinoids in your skin. 

			The excerpt below is from a German skin care product manufacturer's website.  At times, the translations are a bit funny, but it seems to be a valuable resource for information on skin function and skin care ingredients.Some of which, you should have in your kitchen to make fresh products with no need for preservatives & emulsifyers that dry skin. Active agents, the effective skin care - vitamins, oils & more From A like allantoin to Z like zinc. There is a multitude of active agents on the market either as substances to be used for cosmetics or substances contained in cosmetics. Effects as well as efficacy depend on various factors which will be described in detail in the following article. Before the active agent can become effective a number of prerequisites have to be met as for instance its concentration in the product should be adequate, its release out of the cream base has to be ensured as well as the transport to its destination to start its activity. All these prerequisites also demand for an appropriate packaging. Thus, vitamins are most effective if they are not free but encapsulated as esters in liposomes or nanoparticles in order to be released by enzymatic hydrolysis after penetrating into the deeper skin layers. Vitamin C for example can be encapsulated in nanoparticles as a fat-soluble palmitic acid ester and in liposomes as a water-soluble phosphate ester. In both cases, after their hydrolysis there will be only substances released which are also natural components of the skin. Continue

No Grain, Little Sweetener Nut Butter Cookie Recipe

Gluten Free, Low Sweetener Nut Butter Cookie Recipe

I spotted this recipe in the Houston Chronicle. A picture will have to wait until I make them.  And as the instructions call for a food processor and I only have mini one, I haven't gotten around to it yet. 

You've probably heard of bumping up the fiber, protein & other nutrient quality in brownies & cookies by adding mashed beans.  In fact, I've heard you can just add a can of mashed black beans to brownie mix.  But why even include the high glycemic gluten filled empty calorie white flour if it's not needed?

I doubt there's any reason these measurements need to be precise.  In fact, I make so many variations of this with spices, dried fruit, cocoa, etc. Just like I do with the banana cookies. And if that's enough sweetener for the average person, I will cut it by a third to a half.

Ingredients:

1/14 cup Cooked Garbonzo Beans (is that how much is in a can?)
2 Teaspoons Vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Nut Butter
1/4 cup Honey
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips (get a low sugar, dark. Like Ghiradelli Bittersweet)

Preheat oven to 350. Pulse the beans in a food processor until well ground. Drain first if using canned. Add remaining ingredients (except choclate if still using processor.) Mix thouroughly. Then stir in chocolate.

The instruction I have call for shaping into 1 1/2 inch balls with wet hands, then placing on the cookie sheet. I don't know why you couldn't just treat them like drop cookies. I wonder how well the balls will spread when the Bake 10 minutes.  The recipe I have states not to over bake.

French Women Don't Get Facelifts

Mireille Guiliano,  author of "French Women Don't Get Fat" is has published her fourth book titled "French Women Don't Get Facelifts: The Secret of Aging With Style & Attitude."

In it, instead of facelifts and high priced moisturizers she recommends you drink lots of water, get the right nutrients, get quality sleep, find a form of exercise that you will enjoy, and laugh.

I would add not to strip away your skin's natural moisturizers with soap or cleansers. Your skin makes most of those moisturizing substances in those expensive creams such as ceramides & lipids. Or it would if you would just stop interfering with it's ability to function.  Oil cleansing is becoming more and more common. Today I saw that drugstore brand Garnier had a cleansing oil.  But it had a ridiculously long list of ingredients for something that should just be a mix of a few oils. I recommend you go to the food section of a quality food store such as Whole Foods & buy a bottle of food grade quality safflower oil. And find a small dark bottle to pour a small amount into while you store the rest in the refrigerator.  To this you can add essential oils

http://frenchwomendontgetfat.com/

Benefits of Buckwheat

So, Buckwheat is not actually wheat or even a grain, but a gluten-free seed of a plant related to rhubarb and sorrel.

My breakfast concoction has gradually become mostly buckwheat with a little whole oats just because I like the texture (Untoasted buckwheat is kind of mushy when cooked), and coconut and of course spices (ginger and cinnamon), topped with fruit, sprouted sunflower seeds, flax, etc. I knew that oats were a pretty good protein but there was so little in my concoction I was wondering about the protein content. So I looked it up on nutritiondata.com and it turns out both buckwheat and coconut are even better than oats!

Nutritiondata gives buckwheat an Amino Acid score of 99. The omega 6 EFAs seem to be almost entirely linoleic acid which is a good for we acne prone people.  One cup of buckwheat has a low glycemic load. It is very high in minerals with 1 cup providing 98% of the RDA of magnesium. 20 something % of zinc and selenium.

Coconut also has an amino acid rating of 99, low glycemic load and high in minerals similar to buckwheat (98% magnesium RDA, 20 something percent zinc and such) It's very high in healthy medium chain saturated fat and much of the omega 6 content is linoleic acid. 

All three, like most seeds, are rated as strongly inflamamtory,  so you need to counter that with the anti-inflammatory spices and fruit. I use a lot of cinnamon and ginger. Plus have it with my morning cup of white tea with ginger and lemon. Also, I've always soaked my buckwheat which would reduce antinutrients and perhaps the inflammatory effect. And I have begun sprouting it. Nutrition data doesn't have data on sprouted buckwheat, but sprouting generally reduces protein & antinutrient content while boosting the various antioxidant vitamins veggies tend to have such as C, E, etc. So sprouted buckwheat should be less inflammatory.

Buckwheat is beneficial for we acne prone people, people with diabetes or insulin resistance, and PCOS sufferers.

Benefits of Buckwheat.
-Good protein source.
-The buckwheat prolamine inhibits the oxidation of linoleic acid a major component of sebum that works and is defficient in acne & other problem prone skin.
- Buckwheat contains a glucosiderutin , a phytochemical that strengthens capillary walls
-Buckwheat is high in d-chiro-inositol (DCI) which is a component of "the secondary messenger pathway for insulinsignal transduction found to be deficient in Type II diabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome sufferers." It may also lower testosterone and Blood Pressure as well, likely side effects of improved glucose metabolism. There's a form called Buckwheat Farinetta that is extra high in DCI. Carob is another good source of DCI.

In double-blind studies, women with PCOS who received DCI experienced the following statistically significant benefits when compared with a control group: lowered free and total testosterone, lowered blood pressure, increased insulin sensitivity and a corresponding improvement in glucose disposal, and increased frequency of ovulation.^[4][5]

-Easy to sprout. 
-The amount of antinutrients is pretty low compared to grains, even the more benign grains. and the antinutrients it contains are pretty harmless. It contains no gluten.

Sprouting Buckwheat

The trick to sprouting buckwheat is to soak the grains briefly. 20 minutes or so. Too long and they won't sprout. Then drain and rinse, let sit at room temp for about a day. Rinse and drain a couple more times because buckwheat is starchy, then put in the fridge when tiny tails are just visible. They don't taste so good when you let the tails get longer. Then you can cook as usual, or leave raw.

A tea is often made from toasted buckwheat groats. I've seen buckwheat leaf tea mentioned as well but have found very little info on that.

A Little Ginger Improves 8 Markers of Diabetes Type 2 Including Fasting Glucose, Insulin Sensitivity & Chronic Inflammation

A Little Ginger Improves 8 Markers of Diabetes Type 2 Including Fasting Glucose, Insulin Sensitivity & Chronic Inflammation

And remember, as you read in prior posts, all these things affect your hormones, acne, aging & health in general.  I add the spice to my cooked oats & buckwheat cereal, my 2 ingredient Banana & Oat Cookies and more.  I add sliced or grated fresh ginger to my tea and stir fried cabbage & other brassica veggies that are a big part of my diet.  I put a slice in my green tea each morning then nibble on the slice later.


Read More:
 http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/modest-dose-ginger-improves-8-markers-diabetes-type-2?utm_source=Master+List&utm_campaign=047ef612dc-Greenmedinfo&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_af50e1f25a-047ef612dc-87476601

You Need Your Vitamin K: Dangerous Side Effects of Vitamin K-Blocking Blood Thinners

I'm a volunteer at an organic community farm and an organic food co-op.  I work for food. But I'm always being told by people that they can't eat greens because they are on blood thinners. Greens are a superfood for skin and health. They are chock full of nutrients that affect all kinds of factors that lead to acne such as magnesium, beta carotene & sulfur phytochemicals and sulfur containing amino acids. I hate to see these people avoid healthy food and essential nutrients while taking harmful drugs.  Especially when they take them as a 'preventative.' And especially when these drugs can actually cause the end result they are trying to prevent: Plaque buildup, hardened arteries, coronary heart disease & stroke! Consider carefully whether you need these prevention drugs or if you can manage your health via diet and lifestyle.

Vitamin K Deficiency, Calcium, Hardened Arteries & Stroke

There are many forms of vitamin K.  K1 comes from greens and is responsible primarily for the coagulation of the blood while K2 is responsible for calcium metabolism within the body and cardiovascular health. Deficiency in vitamin k leads to misuse of calcium & thus osteoporosis and calcification of soft tissues such as arteries & pineal gland. Vitamin k along with vitamin D regulates the recycling of old bone tissue into new. A deficiency of vitamin K means too much old tissue is broken down and the calcium is sent into the blood stream where it binds to soft tissue like your arteries and pineal gland which affects your ability to sleep.

Coumadin (warfarin) blocks all forms of vitamin K causing a deficiency. In fact, these drugs are used to induce arterial calcification in lab rats!

Vitamin k2 can undue the calcification of the arteries & other soft tissues. This form is made by E. coli bacteria in our small intestines (so stop killing it) or obtained via the diet, from animal products like full fat dairy, egg yolks, liver, etc

Other ways to Thin Blood

All kinds of plant foods & healthy lifestyle habits help regulate blood coagulation.  Ginger, chamomile tea, omega 3 foods, quercetin (onions, garlic, apples), ginkgo billoba, curcumin (turmeric), cayenne, high salicylic foods (cranberries, prunes), anti-inflammatory diet habits, exercise, nitric oxide which is formed and spread throughout your body whenever you inhale deeply through your nostrils.  And other pharmaceuticals that might have other side effects.

Monitoring Blood Coagulation

The issue is, you can't monitor your blood coagulation yourself as easily as you can your blood pressure or sugar.  Home monitors are available, but expensive at $700 - $1000. You might consider this money well spent as compared to the cost of the drugs and the cost if they cause the heart disease rather than prevent it.  Perhaps all the new drugstore clinics offer this service at an affordable price.  Prothrombin time (PT) and international normalized ratio (INR) tests are used to monitor blood coagulation.


Other preventions:
Manage blood pressure, diabetes, weight, stress. Avoid cigarette smoke. And be active.


Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_K
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2009/jan2009_Vitamin-K-Protection-Against-Arterial-Calcification-Bone-Loss-Cancer-Aging_01.htm

http://people.ku.edu/~jbrown/ecoli.html

.http://www.shapesociety.org/images/pdf/Coronary-Calcium-Scan-Can-Help-Predict-Prevent-Heart-Attack-HarveyHecht.pdf


Dietary Intake of Menaquinone Is Associated with a Reduced Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: The Rotterdam Study  Dutch Study: http://jn.nutrition.org/content/134/11/3100.full describes not only their study on humans & K2 rich diet, but also studies on lab rats on/after warfarin treated with the varying forms of K2 to repair the damage.

http://www.wellsphere.com/heart-health-article/food-sources-of-vitamin-k2/218694 - describes the varying forms of K2 & research.

http://www.stoptheclot.org/medical-messages/article286.htm - Home monitoring

Over the Counter Topical Niacinimide Products for Acne, Aging Skin

So I've been mixing a niacinamide capsule with aloe vera for years. Niacinamide is Vitamin B3.  It's a cell communicating ingredient that improves skin barrier function in a number of ways including reducing inflammation,  increasing ceramide production,  preventing water loss in skin, and improving skin elasticity. This makes it effective for acne, hyperpigmentation, wrinkles and more. And the best topical for aging, acne prone skin.

Per the Cosmetic Cop Ingredient Dictionary:

Topically applied niacinamide has been shown to increase ceramide and free fatty acid levels in skin, prevent skin from losing water content, and stimulate microcirculation in the dermis. It also has a growing reputation for being able to treat an uneven skin tone and to mitigate acne and the red marks it leaves behind (known as post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation). It is an excellent ingredient for those struggling with wrinkles and breakouts. Niacinamide is stable in the presence of heat and light.

And in clinical studies:

Topical niacinamide reduces yellowing, wrinkling, red blotchiness, and hyperpigmented spots in aging facial skin. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18492135

I will still  mix my own to save money and avoid unnecessary chemicals. (Studies show a 5% solution works.)  Below are some options all with good reviews. Probably because Niacinimide works.  I'd show a picture of my mixture in my pretty vintage cut glass bottle, but I add turmeric and I accidentally added a ton. It's a scary yellow. Termuric is also beneficial for acne or other irritation prone skin, but it can stain. It hasn't stained my skin yet though. And I think a bit of a 'golden glow' would be a good thing on my white skin.

Wet N Wild Free of the Most Toxic, Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Found in most Nail Polishes.

This article says that cheap drugstore brand Wet N Wild nail polish is free of the 3 worst chemicals that make nail polish one of the most toxic things you can do to yourself.

http://www.care2.com...ternatives.html

Resolve to Take Charge of Your Health This Year

Chronic inflammation ages you inside and out

The same anti-inflammatory diet habits that clear your skin & prevent wrinkles will also prevent, reduce and even reverse diabetes, cardiovascular disease.  Monitor what you can yourself and for the rest, see your doctor. But ask for copies of test results, review them yourself, and keep them to compare with the next tests.  And let food be your medicine. Along with sleep, exercise and other healthy lifestyle habits.

I began making this list of things to monitor for Vascular Disease after my mother has had 3 strokes in a little over a year despite not having any of the usual risk factors and seeming to be perfectly healthy and planning to live a long and active life. And while you younger people might not be concerned, be aware that these things are occurring in younger and younger people. Look at all the teenagers with type 2 diabetes now. That should be an old person's disease. 

Blood Pressure

Check blood pressure frequently. Get your own machine or do it at the drugstore.  Hypertension damages arteries. Test in both arms. A difference in the systolic of @15 or more points can be an indicator of increased risk for vascular disease. http://www.webmd.com...taken-both-arms

Blood Sugar/Insulin Metabolism 

Sugar floating around in the bloodstream pro-inflammatory, pro-oxidant and along with high blood pressure  causes the damage to arteries that are repaired by cholesterol. And when you consume more sugar than your cells can take in, your body will keep releasing more insulin desperate to get that sugar out of your bloodstream. Insulin

A1C hemoglobin test  looks for signs of frequently elevated blood sugar/insulin (which promotes chronic inflammation)

Serum Uric Acid
-Elevated serum uric acid is a consistent feature of the insulin resistance syndromes,
-Elevated levels associated with increased cardiovascular events/disease risk, increases LDL.
-Elevated by excessive fructose intake.

Markers of Chronic Inflammation

Inflammation and oxidation are the causes of heart disease, not cholesterol. It's also a major factor in aging and most non-infectious disease.

-C-reactive Protein
-Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase Lp-PLA₂ - an inflammatory enzyme implicated in the formation of rupture-prone plaque associated with stroke. elevated levels associated with stroke risk.
-Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)
-interleukin (IL)-6 - an inflammatory cykoteine
-serum amyloid A protein
-total homocysteine
-fibrinogen

Clogged Arteries

Plaque forms where arteries are damaged by high blood pressure and elevated blood sugar and is caused by LDL oxidized due to chronic inflammation.

Ultrasound scan of carotid arteries to look for plaque, one of the main causes of stroke. There's also an artery coming out of the heart that's a common culprit, but it has to be scanned with one of the various machines involving radiation so much more invasive. Plaque forms where arteries are damaged by high blood pressure and elevated blood sugar and is caused by LDL oxidized due to chronic inflammation.

-ApoB levels - Apolipoprotein B is a protein which can lead to plaques that cause vascular disease.  This keeps LDL circulating rather than binding to receptors. The longer it circulates the more likely it is to oxidize and form plaques in your arteries.

ApoB levels, along with it's ratio to apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) which is protective, is probably a much better indicator for cardivascular disease than the lipoproteins/cholesterol.

Diets high in fructose lead to elevated apoB levels.   Just 2 weeks of consuming 25% of calories from drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup dangerously elevates levels.

flow-mediated dilation - FMD is the gold-standard technique to measure endothelial function.  The endothelium is the lining of the blood vessels.  FMD is considered a good predictor of cardiovascular disease risk.

Coagulation of the blood
PTT - partial thromboplastin time - Tests the time it takes blood to clot
Patients with a normal PTT test result will take 25 to 35 seconds for their blood to clot.
Platelet Count AKA: Thrombocyte count; PLT http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/aptt/tab/test


About Cholesterol

A total cholesterol test is of little value unless it tells you your levels are over 300. In which case, you need more tests. Regardless, you really need to know your HDL, LDL & Triglyceride levels because its a ratio of those that provide useful information.  And you need to test regularly as they fluctuate.

These are the the useful things the tests can tell you:

• Trends – Are your triglycerides going down over time? That’s great. Is your HDL trending up? Also good.
• Normal fluctuations – Your numbers can jump around 20-30 points in either direction between readings without it necessarily meaning anything.
• TC:HDL-C ratio – Lower is better and indicates fewer LDL particles.
• Triglyceride:HDL-C ratio – Lower is better and indicates larger LDL (and, usually, fewer) particles. Ideally, this will be close to 1 or lower; one study (PDF) found that 1.33 was the cut off.

Prevention

Chronic inflammation is caused by stress, environmental toxins (pollution), lack of sleep, lack of exercise, prolonged intensive activity like body building, running 10 miles,etc.  And by Diet i.e. spiking insulin/blood sugar and too many inflammatory foods (hydrogenated/trans fats, Omega 6 fats (grain/grain oils) and foods to which you are intolerant/can't digest) in relation to anti-inflammatory foods (omega 3 fats, anti-oxidant rich plant foods, herbs, spices, teas).

Manage stress with yoga, meditation, walking or other relaxing activity; move around a lot every day; consume an anti-inflammatory diet high in fresh whole fruits, vegetables, spices & teas; sleep well at night and keep as natural as possible circadian cycle of exposure to bright outdoor light in the daytime and darkness at night.