The Role of Inflammation in Heart Attacks
It’s typically thought that if you have good cholesterol levels you are safe from a heart attack. Yet, almost half of all cardiac events happen in people with normal cholesterol levels, indicating that something else is at play. Inflammation may be the cause, which is showing to play a significant role in atherosclerosis, the process where fat deposits build up along the inner lining of the artery.
Inflammation, caused by an increase in white blood cells, is the body’s natural immune response to infection, injury, or other harmful stimuli. When there are higher levels of LDL cholesterol in your bloodstream, your body reacts against it with this immune response. As blood flow increases, more LDL cholesterol can be absorbed in the artery walls causing even more inflammation. Thus, inflammation has a snowball effect, compounding the amount of LDL cholesterol absorbed into your cells. The more absorbed cholesterol, the more plaque you have. Eventually the plaque breaks apart and can cause a heart attack or stroke by clotting and blocking blood flow.
Determining your level of inflammation may help to predict your risk of a heart attack or stroke beyond just looking at your cholesterol levels. Inflammation levels can be found by measuring your blood for C-reactive protein (CRP), which is released by your body when inflammation occurs. Research shows that the higher your CRP levels, the higher your chance of experiencing a cardiac event. One study showed that people with higher CRP levels were twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who had lower levels.
Treatment for inflammation turns out to be similar to the treatment of high cholesterol. In addition to lowering cholesterol levels, statins have been shown to reduce CRP levels and inflammation. Still, lifestyle changes are typically recommended as the first line of defense, as statins have potential adverse effects. A healthy diet low in saturated fat, exercise, and quitting smoking and drinking are all things you can do to lower both CRP levels and LDL cholesterol.
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