Coronary heart disease (atherosclerosis) sends thousands of Americans to an early grave every year, millions more to emergency rooms and thousands to a cardiac surgery suite every day (at an average cost of over $100,000).1 Though these facts are alarming, they’re not news.
In my view, all coronary arterial blockages have a solitary root cause. High triglycerides or fats in the blood? No. These are only indicators of disease risk since they play an important role in worsening arterial narrowings—but only after the disease has taken hold.
What about high cholesterol or high blood pressure? No. They, too, only worsen rather than initiate blockages. There are over 20 commonly accepted risk factors for this major killer, but none of them, individually or together, initiate coronary heart disease.2
It starts when the innermost protective lining (the intima) of the coronary arteries begins to come unglued. This lining is comprised of a single layer of cells that functions like ceramic tiles on a shower wall. And just like the cement and grout that hold the tiles in place, a gel-like substance (called ground substance) between and under the protective cells holds them on the arterial wall.
As long as the ground substance remains firm and healthy, these cells stay in place and the artery is protected from disease.3
When the ground substance becomes watery, however, open spaces between these lining cells appear, allowing plaque-building substances in the blood to enter The process of plaque formation and subsequent clog in the artery requires this initial change in the ground substance from gel-like to watery
