5 Things That Happen With Hardening of Arteries!

Interviewer: You talk about inflammation. Can you explain what that is and why we need to keep it in check?

Dr. Roizen: Inflammation is your body's response to something foreign. So when you get, if you will, a pimple here, that's inflammation. That redness, that soreness, that swelling, and what that does it that is your white cells grabbing onto that bacteria and creating that puss, which is garbage if you will, that's there. It looks horrible. Well, when the white cell's, fell there is cholesterol in the middle of your arteries, that collection of cholesterol doesn't belong there. So they grab it and start to, if you will, eat it up. That eating it up makes it harder and that's part of hardening of the arteries. You replace the middle part of your arteries, with an inflammatory process, that hardens the arteries.  Your actually got an interesting name, foam cells, because they get bigger and harder. That bigness, pushes the initial plaque into the artery, so that gives that plaque some going into the artery and disturbing blood flow. It also makes that artery less stable. It's like puss being here, it doesn't stay there, it wants to get out. Well it is the same thing in fact, and that's what causes rupture of the arteries, which leads to heart attack, and strokes and memory loss, even impediments and wrinkles of the skin. So what you want to do, is not only decrease, I've given you five things that happens with hardening the arteries. You get the initial injury which is caused by high sugar, and high blood pressure. You then get a repair which is the LDL cholesterol. You then get inflammation behind it, that is the chronic inflammation from the white cells. You then also get if you will, an acute rupture. Well, what does, if you will, an omega-7 do? It decreases the blood sugar, it decreases the LDL cholesterol, I cant do this well enough with my fingers. It decreases acute and chronic inflammation. So it is a major roll in decreasing many more than anything I know of, many of the processes that form hardened arteries