On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 10:35 AM, Charles Geilfuss <
charles.geilfuss@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> The dietary issue is equally problematic. It is extremely difficult to
> do long term diet studies as it relates to a disease condition. Short of
> locking subjects in a prison and strictly controlling what and how much
> they eat, the only way to track diet is by survey which is notoriously
> inaccurate. If you look carefully at studies of diet and HD there is really
> very little correlation between the two; and the little difference found in
> some studies is often made to look larger by the clever application of
> statistics. If you really press the cardiologists, and I have done this
> with a number on our staff, they will sheepishly tell you they see little
> correlation between serum cholesterol and heart disease in their patient
> population. They see plenty of patients with absolutely beautiful blood
> lipid profiles as they present with massive myocardial infarction. They
> also see patients referred to them for "wretched" lipid profiles who show
> zero signs of atherosclerosis. Anecdotally, I have seen this myself: I
> have a good friend, 60 yo, who is Hindu and a lifelong vegan. He recently
> underwent four vessel bypass surgery after experiencing chest pain. His
> total serum cholesterol (mind you, no statins) is 110mg/dl (thats about 2.6
> if you're used to SI Units). Then there is my Dad. We recently had a
> discussion about his internist wanting to put him on Lipitor. My Dad is 85,
> active, sharp as a tack mentally and has no overt signs of any
> cardiovascular disease. For the last few years his blood lipids have been
> creeping up and his last round of tests showed a TC of 280 (about 6.7 SI).
> My advice was to forget about it and keep on enjoying life. They are only
> treating a number that obviously does not hurt you.
> My personal dietary philosophy (and I don't claim to be an expert) is
> simple. After reading one of Jane Goodall's books about chimps, I noted
> that their diet consisted of fruit, leaves, nuts, seeds, insects and meat.
> Conspicuously absent from their diet is starch. Now chimps live about 50
> years in the wild if left alone, and they die of a lot of things, but not
> heart disease. I have followed their evolutionary lead and eliminated most
> of the starch (bread, rice, potatoes, pasta) from my diet. I do eat some
> but limit to whole grain. I do pass on the bugs though; hope that's not the
> key ingredient to long life.
Thanks for sharing this, Charlie. I have gravitated towards a lower starch
diet, mainly eschewing bread and wheat products. I do eat brown rice and
some potatoes as my wife is Asian and she does the cooking around the
notion of having the rice there, mainly. Cookies, cake, refined wheat
startch and sugar -- I don't miss them, but they are also very hard to
avoid completely. I just try to avoid them for the most part. Hard to eat
a hamburger without the bun, etc.
I can't see the harm in trying an argenine supplement, as it may work as
Brian hopes, and it may have some other benefits if one is physically
active, and so forth. I just don't see how it is ever likely to be proven
that it does work as Brian hopes.
Joel W.
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