Is Heart Disease From Modern Diet & Food?

This is Dr. Tom Biernacki Heart disease... Is this recent? Did this just develop over the last 50 or 100 years, or have people always had this and we're starting now. So peripheral arterial disease, heart disease is shooting up like a rocket. And there's no doubt that the modern diet, which is high in blood sugar, high and processed foods, high in added fat, high fructose corn sirup. There is no doubt that this has all contributed to peripheral arterial disease. And now the more and more we learn natural foods like eggs, like cholesterol, they're probably not the culprit that we thought they were about 50 years ago. So these foods that people have always eaten, they're not necessarily shown that they shoot arterial disease sky high. So what are the historical trends like? There's actually a lot written throughout history about heart disease and peripheral arterial disease beginning in the 1800s in the United Kingdom in 1850 through 1870. It was suggested that there was cases of heart attacks, arterial disease and even into the 19th century, as health care got better, plague's infections started to decrease and people actually start to notice arterial disease and heart disease. As the lifespan gradually went up over time, the earliest scientific descriptions of heart disease actually dated back to the early 1700s. Italian and British scientists described artery wall lesions and heart disease in the 1760s in the first reported journal articles. There were actually mummy studies ancient evidence of the disease. Studies of ancient mummies, including those from Peru, Egypt and the flatulent islands. They revealed calcified plaque in the arteries the presence of arteriosclerosis in pre-modern humans. This challenges the idea that heart disease is solely a modern condition. But let's look at Paleo anthropology and the Iceman. The iceman naturally preserved from 5000 years ago, had calcified plaques in his arteries, making it the earliest recorded case of coronary heart disease. Scientific findings from mummies and the Iceman indicate that heart disease predates the modern food diet and industry. What were the possible causes of heart disease in ancient times? Because they didn't have high fructose corn sirup back then. But they did eat grains. They did eat potentially animal fats. And there is the hyper responder theory that if you're eating, some people just respond well due to genetic variations to higher amounts of saturated fat or cholesterol. And they also inhaled a lot of smoke from campfires that might have contributed to heart disease. Modern studies with living humans are more reliable for understanding specific factors causing heart disease. So let's look at the data in modern times, because there's no doubt artery disease and heart disease is shooting up like a rocket. And in fact, it's said that almost 50% of people over the age of 18 will develop arterial disease and heart disease at some point in their life. Heart disease and artery disease is considered one of the four horsemen with diabetes, dementia, heart disease and cancer. At the beginning of the 20th century, heart disease began to increase. And in the 1950s, it almost doubled. So heart disease became very prominent in the 1950s. In the early 1900s, infectious disease was the leading cause of death and environmental climate disease since the early 1900s. Climate related disasters and death has actually decreased over 99%. And surprisingly, I didn't hear this before. But the percentage of the world is covered by more green today than the early 1900s as well. Heart disease was recognized, but not as prevalent or well understood as it is today. The primary focus of medicine during this period was on infectious diseases, with less emphasis of chronic diseases like vascular and heart disease. But in the middle of this century, heart disease became the leading cause of death in industrial countries. The rise was attributed to several factors, including diet. Smoking especially, was really big in the 1950s still, and people weren't moving around as much as they were. But during this time, the first open heart surgery was performed. So in 1953 and coronary artery care was established in 1961. In the 1950s, they actually started keeping track of the numbers. For example, in the United States, the death rate was approximately 307 people per 100,000 who would pass away from a heart attack in the 1950s. In the late 20th century, heart disease began to peak in death. So in about 1990 it began to peak. But since that time, heart disease actually started getting better because we started to understand high blood pressure, high cholesterol with smoking, physical inactivity. And we had medical advancements, such as the coronary artery bypass graft and percutaneous coronary interventions. These are huge changes. So I see patients with arterial disease in their feet, in their legs almost every day. In the vascular surgeons I work with, they essentially poke people in the thigh and they can go in there with a small little wire and under imaging in real time. And it takes like 20 minutes. They could go and balloon, open the vessels, drop off a stent. Cardiology can do this in the heart. I don't really work with the heart very much. I work with the arteries down to the feet. But these procedures are unbelievable. And if they can't balloon open that vessel, they actually open it surgically, cut a hole in the artery and put another synthetic tube or a harvested vein that bypasses that blocked area. There is also medications. I won't get into all the statins because people attack me in the comments quite a bit. But now vitamin K2 is more popular. Vitamin D with magnesium. I have a lot of guides on all the best foods for arterial disease and also blood pressure. Blood pressure as well under study check. All my blood pressure and my arterial disease guides below as well. In the United States, the peak of heart disease was in about the 1960s and seventies, and it peaked at about 560 per 100,000 in the population. In the nineties, it actually started to decrease considerably down to 134 people out of 100,000. This is when antismoking campaigns lifestyle changes. Dietary guidelines began to change. Smoking was a major risk factor and still is for heart attacks. So as smoking drops now we do have a lot less heart attacks for sure. But now in modern times, heart disease still is a leading cause of death around the world. There's also growing concern about the increase in heart disease in low and middle income countries attributed to more urbanization. But they still smoke. They still eat high processed foods, high carb foods, high fructose corn sirup. These are the inflammatory foods. And not just that, but obesity rates are starting to skyrocket around the world. Fast food is going everywhere around the world. In 2018, the death rate is 161 per 100,000 from a heart attack. So it's about one fourth, one fifth of what it was at its peak in the sixties and seventies. However, the rate of decline has slowed in recent years and it still remains one of the Four Horsemen of death. The current challenges now are obesity. Almost 50% of the country is now officially obese. Diabetes. Diabetes is shooting up like a rocket not just in America, but in Europe, in China, in India. It's going up this is leading to vascular disease, artery disease, heart disease risk. So the good news is, while heart disease is decreasing, it's probably because our health care system has gotten better. Percutaneous interventions that can open up balloon and place stents, these are unbelievable. There's medications that can lower blood pressures and keep us going. But that doesn't mean we're in great health. Our obesity is higher than ever. Our artery disease is higher than ever. Our diabetes is higher than ever. So you have to address these things. So heart disease and artery disease is still high. But we do have advances in medical treatments that have helped prevent heart disease and related heart deaths. So you could see from about 1960 to about 2000, and that was the peak of heart disease. And it started to drop until about 2020. Do you guys know anything that might have happened in 2020? There's a lot of health changes, but it seems we might be headed to new heights in a disease and artery disease or risks. But here's the big secret. The single number one thing you can do for your mortality. Now, there's no magic bullet, but number one is strength training and resistance training. They did a study in the British Journal of Medicine, and they essentially found that people who strength training, whether it's air squats, wall push ups, push ups on the ground, sit ups, lifting a book in front of you. These makes such a big difference, 20% lower chance of dying from all these illnesses. And then another study, if you added cardio to your resistance training, that rate went up to 40%. So that means you have a 40% less chance of getting any of these diseases by staying in great shape. And then number three, you need to get great sleep. Sleep is so important. So blood sugar levels, diabetes are related to better sleep. If you sleep better, your blood sugar is naturally lower the next day. And then number four, diet. I have a lot of great videos for your arteries or for your diabetes. And then number five, that's where things like supplements come in. But then there's also genetic testing, lab testing, because genetics really play into it. If that helped, check out all my guides on diabetes and artery disease guides.