What should we eat—and not eat—to lower the CVD risk factor lipoprotein(a)?
Lipoprotein A, also known as Lp(a), it is an independent, genetic and causative factor for cardiovascular disease and heart attacks. At any level of LDL cholesterol, the risk of heart attack and stroke is two to three times higher when our Lp(a) is elevated. With a high enough Lp(a) level, atherosclerosis continues to progress even if we lower our LDL cholesterol, which may explain why so many people continue have heart attacks and strokes even while being treated for high cholesterol. It has been suggested that “it would be worthwhile to check Lp(a) levels in a patient who has had an event but has no traditional risk factors to explain it”. What’s the point of checking it, though, if we don’t have much box do for this? “To date, no medicine for restrict Circulating Lp(a) levels are approved for clinical use.’
Some researchers responsibility Our lack of knowledge about the fact that Lp(a) is not found in standard laboratory animals such as rats and mice. It is only found in two places in nature: primates and hedgehogs. Hedgehogs? How weird is that? No wonder Lp(a) it is “An enigmatic protein that has baffled medical scientists ever since” was first discovered more than half a century ago. But who needs mice when you have men? The level in our bloodstream is “primarily determined» from genetics. For the longest time, Lp(a) was not thought to be significantly affected by factors such as diet. Given its similarity to LDL, however, one could assume lifestyle changes, “such as increased physical activity or adopting a healthy diet,” would help. “However, the effects of these interventions on Lp(a) concentrations are so far either marginal or lacking in evidence,” but this may be because they have not tested a plant based diet yet?
As I discuss in my video How to lower Lp(a) with dietwhen it comes to raising LDL cholesterol, we’ve known for years that trans fats I establish in meat and dairy are just as harmful as the industrially produced trans fats found in partially hydrogenated oil and junk food. But, when it comes to Lp(a), as you can see below and at 2:05 in mine videotrans fats from meat and dairy appear to be even worse.
Just section out of meat and following a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet didn’t seem to help, but as you can see below and at 2:19 in videowhen the study participants were put on a whole-foods, plant-based diet filled with twelve servings of fruits and vegetables a day, Lp(a) levels dropped by 16 percent within four weeks.
Of course, in those 30 days, the study subjects also lost about 15 pounds, as you can see below and at 2:28, but the weight loss doesn’t seem to influence Lp(a) levels, so you understand it must be due to diet.
If you already eat a healthy plant-based diet and your Lp(a) levels are still too high, are there any specific foods that can help? As with cholesterol, even if their average total cholesterol eating strictly plant-based can be right on target at less than 150, with LDL below 70, there is a curve with plus or minus 30 points falling on either side as you can see below and at 2:45 in my video.
Enter the “Portfolio Diet,” which isn’t just plant-based, but adds specific cholesterol-lowering foods—so think nuts, beans, oatmeal, and berries to lower cholesterol even more. The infographic is below and at 3:11 in mine video.
What about Lp(a)? Nuts are done put in the test. Two and a half ounces of almonds each day dropped the levels, but only by about 8 percent. This is better than another nut study, though, this one I establish no results as you can see below and at 3:29 on mine video. An additional study I establish “no significant change” and the researchers reported that the subjects in their study “did not experience a change in Lp(a).’ Ah, nuts.
There is a plant that seems to fall Lp(a) levels by 20 percent, which is enough to bring people over the US limit to a more optimal level. And this plant is a fruit: Emblica officinalisotherwise known as amla or Indian gooseberry. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study asked smokers before and after the test about their “oral hygiene, cough with sputum, dyspnea on exertion, loss of appetite, feelings of impending doom, palpitations, sleep deprivation, irritability , heartburn and fatigue’, as well as objective measurements such as blood count, cholesterol, DNA damage, their antioxidant status and lung function. The amla extract used “showed significant improvement compared to the placebo group in all subjective and objective parameters tested with no reports of adverse effects.” No side effects at all. This is incredible! No, it’s incredible. And indeed, it is not entirely true.
Yes, subjective complaints got better in the amla group, but they also got better in the placebo group, with arbitrary scoring systems and without any statistical analysis. And, of the two dozen objective measures, only half could be said to reach any kind of statistical significance before and after, and only three were significant enough to account for the fact that if you measure two dozen things, some might show up as positive even by chance. Anytime you see this kind of spin in the abstract, which is sometimes the only part of a study people read, you should suspect some kind of conflict of interest. However, no conflicts of interest were declared by the researchers, but that’s silly since the study was funded by the very company that sells these amla supplements! Sigh.
Anyway, one of those three important findings was Lp(a), so it might be worth trying in the context of a plant-based diet, which, in addition to aid with weight loss, it can dramatically improve blood pressure (even after lowering blood pressure medications) and help lower LDL cholesterol by 25 points. Also, it can contribute to a 30 percent drop in C-reactive protein and significant reductions in other inflammatory markers for “systemic, cardioprotective action”—all thanks to this unified nutritional approach.
You may be interested in my video at Trans fats in meat and dairy. Did you know that animal products are exempt from the ban? See Ban trans fats in processed foods but not animal fats.
For more on amla and what else it can do, see the related posts below.
If you missed my previous Lp(a) video, check it out Treatment of high Lp(a)—A risk factor for atherosclerosis.
