There are studies on low fat diets and reversal of cardiovascular plaques - with little to no benefit found of actual plaque reversal except with the Mediterranean diet.
Does anyone know of actual science or studies on a ketogenic diet or low carb diet actually reversing plaques? I have seen a radiographic reversal of blood flow blockage, but the physician opined that the opening of the artery was due to loss of fat in the artery wall. I guess that is possible, but I have never heard of fat getting deposited in the artery walls other than through atherosclerosis. Maybe he is just of the old school that arterial plaque cannot be reversed… when it was? Anyone?
I’m blueskying here, I have no science. My thought is that there’s a pretty clear reversal of visceral fat from eating a ketogenic diet; if there is fat in the artery or the plaque itself, it seems reasonable that keto might somehow target it. The only plaque reduction I’m sure I’ve heard of is a vitamin therapy - D and K, IIR.
Hey. Thanks for your reply. Yes, I feel I reversed some probable plaque when I first did keto - I started keto to lose fat after lowering my blood pressure after about 6 mo of vitamin K2, but I did lower my blood pressure more. You are saying it seems reasonable that keto would target fat in the artery… In fact this is what this Dr was opining in this case. He had prescribed a low carb/ketoish diet for this patient that had radiographic evidence of artery blockage in his lower brain area, and after a year it seemed to have miraculously cleared. It wasn’t in a place where people normally think fat could pressure the closure of arteries… However, I suppose there was no irrefutable proof of plaque reversal. Either way, it seems his low carb diet was extremely beneficial as it obtained the desired result.
Sorry, not piping in here with any studies either, but in “The Clot Thickens” by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, he posits that plague in the arteries is a result of damage that occurs in the arteries due to inflammation. The plagues are the bandaids. It make sense that getting rid of the inflammation removes the need for the bandaids. The body is pretty good at clearing out things it no longer needs or things that are damaged. Think bruise healing for example or autophagy. Why wouldn’t the body get rid of plagues it no longer needs?
I’ve always thought that Malcolm Kendrick’s ideas regarding heart disease were the best. It’s worthwhile going to his blog and reading his 50+ posts on heart disease.
I thought Ivor Cummins was doing a study of football/soccer players who had a lot of atherosclerosis (yes, many of them have atherosclerosis). I think they were implementing a low carb/keto diet, but they were also using things like vitamin k2.
The only other studies I know of are with LMHRs (lean mass hyper-reponders), which are people who go on keto and get very high levels of LDL. But they are thin and healthy.
There are plenty of studies where markers are much better for folks on keto, but LDL might go up. It’s the whole patient: “I’ve lost 100 pounds, reversed my diabetes, lowered my HS-CRP, liver enzymes, many other markers of health”; doctor: “But your LDL went up! You’re going to die!”
Yeah I’m one of those. Over 16 different things healed in my body including the apparent reversal of my AFib but because my cholesterol is high I’m gonna die if I don’t go on a statin. Had a nuclear stress test and MRI with radioactive imaging on my arteries after my first severe AFib attack almost 6 years ago and it showed then that I was clean as a whistle.
Some doctors just can’t see the forest with the trees.
It’s not just inflammation. It’s oxidation causing the inflammation - and I believe you can have a fair amount of oxidation going on doing keto. I believe a lot depends on what you eat, how you store and cook it. If you follow me on the forum, you know I believe the athlerosclerotic process starts with oxidized LDL which gets embedded in the epithelium. This is the beginning of the inflammatory process.
Thanks for this point. I will follow it. Don’t care too much about K2 - I would use that too. I just want actual proof of reversal. I think that would be a very worthwhile study.
Yep, there are lots of studies showing reversal of basically all the usual “markers” of risk of developing atherosclerosis. However, it is hard to explain away actual reversal of plaques… That is the key to shutting down the “high LDL phobia.”
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#8
Arterial plaque develops as part of the process of healing artierial tears. Think of it as a late-stage form of a scab over the tear. The artery eventually grows new epithelium over the scab, to keep it from breaking loose and causing trouble. Over time, certain enzymes shave off the plaque from the outside of the artery, but it is a slow process, because the fibrin of the plaque is tough and not easily dissolved.
Studies have shown that arterial blockage may not be quite as serious as was once thought, because vascularisation develops to bypass the blockage and continue to nourish the heart. Ketones also help the heart, because they require less oxygen to metabolise.
Ravnskov and Diamond posit that our arteries are developing small tears all the time, but the body can keep up with the repair process, so long as diet is correct. However, in the case of people eating the government-recommended diet, the rate of arterial damage exceeds the normal rate of repair, and that is when plaques start to form, as a later stage of the repair process.
So a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet feeds the heart and keeps the rate of arterial damage low enough for the body’s repair mechanisms to keep up with it, without needing to keep forming new plaques. And as I mentioned, the plaques are slowly removed, so the artery can eventually open up again.
