Microwaves (not!), Esselstyn, & Genetics

[Guest guest]

Getting the Digest version of this List, it's sometimes difficult to know who's

responding to whom or what. Presumably, a recent screed was about something I

wrote off-list. If so, it would be inappropriate for me to respond to the List

as what the topic written about, imho, is off-topic for this List. Not a

criticism of anyone else's posts, just trying to play by the rules.

 

What might be useful, though, is the following exchange in my interview with

Esselstyn about genetics (which often comes up when people say you don't add fat

to your diet, " Well, my 110 year old grandfather did, " and other similiar

statements related to what people eat, drink, or inhale):

 

" M: " How do you respond to the typical, " my Uncle drank like a fish, ate meat

five times a day, smoked like a chimney, and lived to be 99 " question? The

issue of genetics? "

 

C: " The wonderful thing there is actually what we call the " bell-shaped curve "

that we see in all biological systems. There are going to be people on every

end of the bell-shaped curve, and obviously this person who lived to his 90s, he

was on one far end of the bell-shaped curve. About genetics... I like to use

the analogy of a village right next to a river. Let's say it's flood time, and

only the very strongest swimmers can get across that river. However, if we wait

until August, and the dry season, when the river is four inches deep, everybody,

even the toddlers, gets across safely. That's the way it is when we eat

plant-based nutrition and your cholesterol is kept under 150 with the use of

small doses of statin drugs, if necessary. This is so profound in terms of

cardiovascular disease, that there really is not a genetic component unless

you're taking lethal doses of a Western diet. There will be some whose genes

protect them from the traditional Western diet more than others. "

 

 

http://www.madcowboy.com/02_MCIview05.002.html

 

FYI, Mark

[Guest guest]

Thank you for posting this link. It was a very informative interview.

 

I noticed that Dr. Esselstyn refers to an adverse impact on the blood

vessels from white flour, also. Does anyone know any more about

this? Is it the grinding up of grain, any grain, that does the harm,

flours that are not whole grain, or particular grains, such as

wheat? I'm gluten-intolerant, so I perk up whenever anyone mentions

grain.

 

His analogy is rather apt. Those Vytorin commercials (you know the

ones about how your cholesterol comes from diet and genetics and you

need Vytorin when diet isn't enough) have always driven me up the

wall. Now it turns out that Vytorin actually makes one's plaques

worse. No wonder they delayed release of the study:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/business/14cnd-drug.html?

_r=1 & oref=slogin

 

Am I too cynical to think we only know about this study now because

of Congressional pressure?

http://heartdisease.about.com/b/2007/12/17/the-vytorin-study-

controversy-now-congress-is-getting-into-the-act.htm

 

One wonders about what the liver effects will prove to be, once their

footdragging on release of THAT study stops:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?

res=9C00E2DC1E3BF932A15751C1A9619C8B63