Friday, May 14, 2010

HDL, LDL Transporters (and Clive Owen)

Hypnotic... Lancome loves Clive Owen
Lancome isn't the only one...

[Directed by Wong Kar Wai]







The HAAAWT Transporter

Clive Owen was featured in a series of vignettes as a BMW driver transporting goods -- of unknown origin to known destinations.

BMW 'The Hire' Film Series
--Starring Clive Owens
--One vignette directed by Wong Kar Wai 'The Follow'
--Other vignettes directed by: John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu






LDL and HDL are Transporters (like Clive Owen)

Our energy and immunological systems use LDL and HDL to transport things... Cholesterol (mandatory for all hormone and steroid synthesis, cell membranes, BRAIN, etc), phospholipids (cell 'walls' of every cell), triglycerides (converted carb and lipid energy) and antioxidants (coenzyme Q10, tocopherols, tocotrienols, carotenoids -- beta-carotene, lutein, lycopene, astaxanthin, etc.)

How? From the gut to the liver to our circulatory system to the ultimate destination of the cells where nutrients are required, food is transformed to more easily transportable entities. Complex carbs are broken down to glucose. Complex carbs are also re-transformed to carbon chains which are then transformed to fatty acids known as triglycerides. Dietary fats are also transported as Trigs but dietary carbs generate more and for longer durations.





Build a Bionic HDL3 Particle for LONGEVITY

Recently researchers built a bionic HDL3 (denser HDL) made of 3 components (1) Apo A1, (2) CHOLESTEROL, and (3) Phospholipids (Small, dense HDL3 particles attenuates apoptosis in endothelial cells: Pivotal role of apolipoprotein A-I. de Souza et al. J Cell Mol Med (2009)). These particles in a petri dish blasted away oxLDL and 'displayed twofold superior intrinsic cytoprotective activity'. Impressive.

HDL are triglyceride containing lipoprotein particles. It is very interesting to me these reconstituted HDL particles contained no triglyercerides. Triglycerides are formed post-prandially (after meals) to circulate food -- fats and carb energy. In the morning after a 12-hour fast, we have the least amount of triglycerides circulating. This is why your doctor orders a 'fasting' lipid panel. When is it the highest?



In vivo data for 'bionic HDL'?

YES it exists as well. Centenarian subpopulations not only exhibit what conventional cardiologists would think of as 'harmful' atherogenic profiles of high Lp(a) but also high HDL3. It turns out perhaps this only makes sense in the context of an anti-inflammatory state. Centenarians tend to display high HDL, high HDL2 (large fluffy) and high HDL3 (smaller denser). See prior animal pharm Ashkenazi long-living Jewish probands -- benefits of high saturated fat diets part II.

Thanxxx Mr. Jack C for your contributions and pointing out the MARS (Krauss et al 1996) which showed that only baseline HDL3 made any difference in the outcomes for reduction in progression of heart disease -- lovastatin made no difference, LDL-reduction made no difference. Only HDL3 at baseline. Thank you kind Sir. Lipoprotein subclasses in the Monitored Atherosclerosis Regression Study (MARS). Treatment effects and relation to coronary angiographic progression.

How do we prevent excessive Triglycerides from cluttering our HDL3?
--avoid excessive carbohydrates
--start an evo/paleo diet plan -- no grains, no legumes, limited fruit and n-6, plenty of fiber/greens, plenty of OMEGA-3
--meat meat meat
--fat fat fat
--eliminate hyperinsulinemia (sleep, relax, exercise, balance hormones -- cortisol thyroid sex, avoid minimeral/vitamin deficiencies, avoid xenobiotics, avoid pesticides, avoid PHARMACEUTICAL POISONS)
--exercise, lift some weights, move around, yoga



In vivo and ex vivo data:

o Prior animal pharm: Despite Genotype apoE 2/3/4 -- the SFA diet produced higher ApoA1 and higher HDLs
o Prior animal pharm: 6 eggs daily (~12oo mg cholesterol daily) with the highest SFA:PUFA ratio (4:1) produced the highest HDL (10% greater), highest HDL2 (~4X), HDL3 lightest wt% (fluffier) and highest ApoA1 in lipoprotein particles (PDF HERE)
0 Lipoproteins, vascular-related genetic factors, and human longevity
o Plasma LDL and HDL characteristics and carotenoid content are positively influenced by egg consumption in an elderly population.
o Plasma LDL and HDL subspecies are heterogenous in particle content of tocopherols and oxygenated and hydrocarbon carotenoids. Relevance to oxidative resistance and atherogenesis.
o Effect of particle size and lipid composition of bovine blood high density lipoprotein on its function as a carrier of beta-carotene.
0 In vitro and in vivo LIPOLYSIS of plasma triglycerides increases the resistance to oxidative modification of low-density lipoproteins.
0 Susceptibility of LDL to oxidation in vitro and antioxidant capacity in familial combined hyperlipidemia: comparison of patients with different lipid phenotypes.
o 17beta-estradiol affects in vivo the low density lipoprotein composition, particle size, and oxidizability.
0 Vitamin E, LDL, and endothelium. Brief oral vitamin supplementation prevents oxidized LDL-mediated vascular injury in vitro.
o Variations in oxidative susceptibility among six low density lipoprotein subfractions of differing density and particle size. [Krauss et al, the higher the CHOLESTEROL CONTENT, the more resistance to oxidative stress]






Can You Build a Bionic HDL3?

How do we add Cholesterol, Apo A1 and Phosphopids to our HDL3?
--eat cholesterol (A2 dairy, ghee, egg yolks, animal/fish, krill oil, etc)
--eat saturated fats (ditto above + virgin coconut/palm oil)
--avoid statins and other poisons/pollution which knock off cholesterol, testosterone and other steroidal hormones and their precursors and the optimal balance
--eat phospholipids (A2 dairy, ghee, egg yolks, animal/fish PHATS, krill oil, etc)
--minimize excessive carbohydrates






Simple? Bionic is easy.

Ok a quickie aside...

Pemmican Fans (yes -- Danny Roddy this is you BABE)

Steve Phinney on Pemmican and Indigenous Diets (Interview at Me and My Diabetes)

o Discusses the Masai warriors -- meat, milk, B-L-O-O-D to make warrior MUSCLES (A2 goat milk)
o Pemmican is good stuff
o I like my asian style Pemmican on high carb days with rice (glutinous rice is even better *Hhhmmmm!). PORK SUNG (courtesy of wiki).

12 comments:

Kathy Hall said...

I just got my husband's VAP test back and of course the doctor wants him on a statin. We have been low carb for over a year and his HDL3 was 57. HDL2 is 23. Trigs are 50.

But his LDL is 227. Apo B100 is 143. His LDL density pattern is A which is good.

Total cholesterol was 322. Should he be on a statin? He's 6 ft and 175 lbs and 65 yrs old. We're eating exactly as you said in this post.

epistemocrat said...

Hi Dr. BG,

I just bought some pastured beef brisket at the local farmer's market here in Sacramento (on the corner of Sunrise and Folsom), so that should be one good recipe for operationlazing these health concepts.

Best,

Brent

Byron said...

Dear Dr. B.G.,
thanks a lot for that very interesting article. Guess I worked on my bionic HDL 3 the last 2 weeks by eating only tons of eggs especially yolks. Just by instinct ended up with an average of 12-20 eggs/d. Now I´m pleased and eat "normal" again.
Think this excursion does not impaired my values; HDL 199, triglyceride 35, D3 140 although we have still not anykind of sunshine here.
Clive Owen was great in Greenfingers and Children of Men. Greetings. And keep on ROCKING.

Anonymous said...

Hi Grace,

Pat, my wife of almost 52 years, recently went to a new GP who ordered a number of tests in an effort to determine the cause of Pat's continuing weight loss. The VAP test results showed her LDL density pattern was strong Pattern A. Her HDL was 86 (HDL2 27, HDL3 60).

Pat's previous GP had "run out of ideas" in his search for the cause of Pat's weight loss. Pat's weight had dropped to 100 from 120 in about a year in spite of a good home cooked diet very low in omega-6 vegetable oi, high in good fats and moderate in carbs. We had quit eating out because most often Pat would get an upset stomach from restaurant food. She has now gained back up to about 107 but it is slow.

We picked the new GP because he advertised himself as a geriatric guy. All the numbers came out good on the new tests except for vitamin D, which we already knew was low. No thyroid problems, no gluten sensitivity, no Crohn's disease, good glucose level (70). We now know that low vitamin D can cause gut problems, but apparently the doctor did not, for he declared that while she did need more vitamin D, her stomach problems and weight loss were due to depression so she needed anti-depressants. That is really silly.

In one of your post comments you spoke highly of functional medicine practitioners. We need to find one of those to help solve Pat's problem.

Pat is now taking 4000 IU per day of vitamin D in Carlson's D drops.

I believe Pat's gut problems are the result of being on HRT for 15 years (1985 to 2000) and getting all the drugs (which did more harm than good) prescribed for the stomach problems caused by HRT. Pat switched to natural hormones after finding Dr. John R. Lee's website with info about the problems with synthetic progestins. Pat quit all hormones about five years ago.

Your thoughts would be appreciated. Jack C.

Anonymous said...

Crickets...

Dr. B G said...

Kathy,

CVD: New Assessments, New Recommendations (M. Houston, Functional Medicine MDs)

This reference has wonderful resources on how to address the possible FHC (high LDL). Does he have high BP? Diabetes? Family history of premature disease? If no, then don't worry.

Evo/paleo eating is awesome -- low carb and mod-high saturated fats shift the HDL2 higher and build better HDLs. The apoB100 is slightly on the higher side -- < 70-100 is associated with less heart disease outcomes. Labs are meaningless without the full context... I know. I am not so into labs, scans or other diagnostics anymore. They are just surrogates for the bigger picture which may or not be relevant.

Recently Dr. T wrote about statin adverse effects as they constantly emerge in the medical literature:
nephropal.com

Personally I don't believe anyone should be on a statin because the are mitochondrial toxins and highly associated with cancer.

Hope that helps!
G

Dr. B G said...

Hi Brent,

YUM!

Pastured beef is so full of goodies! Plant sterols, carotenoids (the yellow color of the beef tallow), CLA, omega-3s!!

I'll have ck out that market...

-G

Dr. B G said...

Byron!

Is that serious? HDL 199 mg/dl?? WOWO. That takes the cake!

The vitamin D I presume they used nmol/L for the units in Europe? Otherwise that is mildly toxic...

I LOVE everyone one of his movies except Closer which was just too creepy.

-G

Dr. B G said...

Anonymous...

*haa* No Clive enjoys soccer...

Dr. B G said...

Hi Jack C,

Thank you for your comments. I am so sorry to hear about your wife's unexplained weight loss. Our gut is 90% of our immune system so it is not uncommon for cachexia and wt loss and lack of lean mass to occur from gut dysbiosis and nutritional deficiencies which impact the intestinal epithelia.

Though most people would be envious of wt loss, I think it goes both ways depending on the individuals hormone status.

All synthetic hormones cause B12 and other B-vitamin deficiences. Minerals? I would not be surprised these are depleted in the oxidation consequences from these toxifying drugs. B12 is important for the integrity of our brain and peripheral nervous system, as well as the gut plexus.

I'd focus energy on the gut as you mentioned... obviously gluten-free still is a good approach as most gut dysbiosis responds to gluten free elimination diets, I've read (and that's why I'm a big proponent of paleo).

Casein-free? I hate to bring this up. Food allergies do actually go away after the gut heals (but not for gluten generally, must mildly I believe).

Read this:
Dr.Fratkin Gut Dysbiosis

Email me (see 'complete profile' home page) -- I have references and resources for you and your wife.

-grace

lightcan said...

Can I call you Grace too?

I know it's not the main point of the post but I have to mention the fact that I find Clive Owen spellbinding, I'm not alone I see. Every time I pass by a Lancome counter I go and look into his eyes. A bit of aesthetic pleasure is allowed, isn't it? ;)

Dr. B G said...

lightcan,

Uber cool grrrrl after my own heart... you may call me anything you like! ;)

I miss Dr. A... Like you, she would've have 'gotten' it too. *sigh*

-G