Protein Is Factor in Heart Disease, Researchers Say

NY Times ^ | January 6, 2005 | GINA KOLATA

[spunkets]

This link from the AF illustrates the connection with strep I'm trying to convey. Here the link with infectious cause and immune system is clearer. They use the statement, "It sets off a disease process". The same happens in RA. It's just more complicated and subtle, with more unknowns and less understanding.

The article headlining this thread is about the recent hoopla over C reactive protein and atherosclerosis. Historically, all the clear evidence presenting itself to folks looking at atherosclerosis, was that of an immune reponse to the inner walls of arteries. That is what is observed at the beginning of and throughout the progression of the disease. Atherosclerotic plaques are not caused by junk food deposits. Their cause is unknown and the mechanism is immune attack. The initial disease starts with monocyte infiltration into the vessel walls. That is the beginning and bulk of the initial plaque.

[spunkets]

" Could Lyme Disease cause this inflamation?"

If the B. burgdorfi(sp) aren't killed right away during the initial primary stage of the disease, the joint attack is quite severe. The bug's a spirochete and like syphilis, the disease has 3 stages.

[blam]

" the disease has 3 stages."

I worry that I have it. What are the three stages?

[spunkets]

You could probably google up a site that has pics of the initial bite infection. It's a large bulleye lession. Clearing in the center and red cellulitis in a ring around the bite. You get very sick and after about a week to 2 weeks get severe joint pain also. It's crippling. Penicillin kills it fast. If you go through the first stage w/o the pen to kill the bugs, the damage is long lasting-on the order of years.

There's a blood test for ~$75, that can pick up bug antibodies. Pen. can then be given to kill the bugs to prevent further injury. I never noted that AL was in the disease range though. It's up here, so I have a bunch of pill bottles on the shelf, each containing one deer tick in case I ever got the bullseye, or sick.

[spunkets]

2nd stage is a kind of remission. In the 3rd, the bugs do some quick and severe destruction. THe range maps showing disease occurence stats are common on the better google links. CDC, NIH ect...

[spunkets]

You may have already found it...CDC link

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Dr. Linus Pauling had the answer for heart disease YEARS ago.

Daily Pauling Therapy - The Natural Cure for Heart Disease as Described by Linus Pauling on Video
VITAMIN C, NATURE'S MIRACULOUS HEALING MISSILE
Linus Pauling—Scientist for the Ages
Linus Pauling, PhD: The Last Interview
Linus Pauling on Heart Disease
The Famous Pauling/Rath Heart Disease Therapy
Vitamin C and Vascular Disease

[B.Bumbleberry]

Ping

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Please check out the links on my post #47.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Exactly. But you and your husband might want to also check into the Dr. Pauling recommendations. (See post #47 above with the links.)

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Did research, found CRP was indication of chronic inflamation.

Pauling was instrumental in coming up with the concept of Vitamin C being PIVOTAL in helping to heal chronic inflammation. The research that he and others did essentially indicate that heart disease is a form of "scurvy" and that Vitamin C helps to heal the inflammation.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

See Post #47 above for links.

[Nataku X]

Is it the protein that's bad, or is it the protein-producing inflammation that's bad?

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

That and the Vitamin C/proline/lysine therapy ought to do it. See post #47 above for links about this treatment for heart disease.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

You might also benefit from the Vitamin C/lysine/proline therapy that Dr. Pauling and others have come up with years ago (but other docs scoffed at for years until they realized it had merit).

[blam]

Thanks. I have the information now.

[goodnesswins]

Thanks......I've done HOURS and HOURS of research on RA....believe me.....mine fits only PART of the Reiters Syndrome......and fits other RA symptoms better.....it's a squishy disease, that's for sure. And, infection is, I believe, the cause. That said, it could be strep, as you say, or it could be other infections, also......I do NOT go to the Arthritis Foundation for all of my info, that's for sure. In fact, I don't go to a Rheumatologist any longer, either.

[goodnesswins]

Thanks.....I already take more Vit C than the average person (and eat more veggies than the average person).....the lysine and proline, though could be an issue.

[fish hawk]

Hell with all those "theories", drink lots of RED WINE.

[Veto!]

What do you recommend to get inflammation down? It's an ongoing situation for me, which I fight with diet that includes high protein, few carbs, none of which are bread, pasta, sugar or other high-glycemics, and a fair amount of fish oil. It usually works but not always.

Barry Sears has a new book out, publication date TODAY, "The Anti-Inflammation Zone." He's the Zone Diet author, whose diet I try to follow. Buying his new book at amazon today to see how he's fine-tuning for inflammation and also to see what he has to say about CRP.