Two spices to protect your heart two ways....

Today's Post: Thursday, 9-29-2011

Background: I was taking 300 mg a day of niacin every day right after breakfast. I was exercising almost every day. And, I was drinking red wine almost every day.

In addition to that, I was eating in a heart healthy way. I was eating beans and oatmeal and applesauce which each have soluble fiber. I was drinking lowfat milk and not eating any kind of meat at all often.

To be sure, my family history is such that my LDL cholesterol would have been over 160 if I was doing none of those things. But I was still startled to have my LDL tested to be 130. That’s still moderately high risk.

(To protect your heart, it IS more important in many was to have high HDL, very low triglycerides, and low chronic inflammation as measured by the HSCRP test.

But having low LDL cholesterol IS also protective. Here’s why:

The small particle kind creates blockages by sticking into the spaces in your artery walls it’s so small. Oxidized LDL causes inflammation and can harm your artery walls. And even the usually harmless large kind will harm your artery walls and even destroy your capillaries if excess sugars build up on it. It’s as if your LDL was coated with sticky, coarse sandpaper.)

I decided to do more to lower my LDL cholesterol from that moderate risk level. So, I began taking a second 300 mg tablet of niacin each day after my lunch.

I found out that 300 mg capsules of inositol hexaniacinate, sometimes called “no flush niacin” provide about 250 mg of niacin as the niacin is gradually released from the inositol. So I also added one of those a day at breakfast and one at dinner.

Niacin does the heart protecting triple! It increases your HDL and lowers both your LDL and your triglycerides. (Foods that contain hydrogenated oils and tobacco smoke are so dangerous because they each do the reverse!)

And, I began taking beta sitosterol 3 times a day. (Sterols lower LDL cholesterol safely. Margarines with sterols had lowered LDL cholesterol. But I was delighted to find I did NOT have to eat the bad for me margarines to get the sterols! (The beta sitosterol, sterol supplement I’ve been taking by Natrol is called Cholesterol Balance. Even with tax, that’s just been about $8 for a 20 day supply. That’s just $12 a month!)

I retested in a few months and my LDL was down to 96. A few months after that, it was 106. Those were low risk readings. I was quite pleased. I had made a special effort to lower my LDL with these supplements and it worked!

Of course, I’ve continued to take the supplements since.

Then I added three things.

I found out that taking the supplement curcumin, which is in the spice turmeric looks promising to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. I began taking a curcumin supplement once a day.

Then I found out that eating foods spiced with curry which have turmeric and other spices, particularly black pepper, makes the curcumin more available to your body. I saw research that begins to explain how curcumin prevents Alzheimer’s disease. I saw that the inflammation reduction from curcumin or turmeric also helps prevent many cancers! So I also eat curry and turmeric and black pepper on my dinner three or four times a week as spices.

I also like the mellow heat after you eat ginger or drink a good bit of powdered ginger mixed into water. So as a tonic when I get up each day, I began to drink a small glass of water with about a tablespoon of ginger stirred into it. (I knew that doing this makes motion sickness less likely. But I did it for the tonic feeling in my mouth from the ginger.)

(Some people get the same effect by using the actual ginger root, peeled and diced to make ginger tea.)

And, I’ve read that, botanically, ginger and turmeric are related and are similar in some ways.

So, I realized these 3 things were likely keeping my chronic inflammation low.

And, we now know that low chronic inflammation helps prevent heart disease as well as many cancers.

So far that has seemed promising. I like the ginger tonics each morning. And, by adding extra virgin olive oil and pasta sauce to the curry and turmeric, I like the dinners I eat that has them all.

THEN, I had occasion to get my blood lipids tested.

My LDL had dropped ANOTHER 30 points to the mid 70’s range!

That’s extremely low risk for heart disease!

I wondered if the curcumin, turmeric, curry, and the related ginger might have done this. But I wasn’t sure.

Then I read a bit in Dr Dean Ornish’s new book, The Spectrum. I found a reference there that studies HAVE found that turmeric DOES lower LDL cholesterol.

Aha!

Does that mean that if you want to lower your LDL or total cholesterol and protect your heart, you might want to do as I did with these spices and supplements?

It very well might. Except for some people who have liver problems that the niacin might make worse, each of these steps is safe, have virtually no bad side effects, and clearly lower LDL and protect your heart. (Since the niacin tablet I take is only 300 mg; and I only take it after eating my breakfast for the first one and after my lunch for the second, I rarely get much of a flush reaction from it.)

You can get blood tests for your liver to check though the amount of niacin I take is usually OK. I get the tests and take milk thistle for extra protection for my liver.

The reason I did this post is to add the information on curcumin and the turmeric and curries it’s in and the information on ginger.

Many doctors know about niacin. Some doctors know about sterols. But few people or doctors yet know that turmeric and ginger lower LDL cholesterol and chronic inflammation. So far, I think Dr Ornish is one of the few doctors who know this.

That definitely means that turmeric and ginger are each superfoods for your heart!

Now you know about them too!