Heart Disease is one of the leading causes of death in the world. The latest statistics show that about 81 million Americans have been diagnosed with some form of cardiovascular disease. In the United States, there are 650,000 deaths attributed to heart disease every year.

At the root of most heart problems is a condition called atherosclerosis, often referred to as "clogging" or "hardening" of the arteries. The common belief is that your arteries get clogged because your cholesterol levels are too high from consuming too many fatty foods. This is the explanation that you hear everywhere you turn. Everyone from medical professional to the man on the street seems to accept this as a scientific fact — except it absolutely is not!

The Pharmaceutical Industry Promotes The Cholesterol Myth

How did the medical and scientific community, and the public, happen to align with such a hypothesis? Because of the power and influence of the pharmaceutical industry, which has spent over thirty years marketing very lucrative statin drugs that promise to lower cholesterol — and therefore, they allege, reduce your risk of heart disease. Statin drugs are the most widely prescribed and profitable drugs on the market.

Statin Drugs are not as Effective as Claimed. A full disclosure of the scientific literature would reveal that the pharmaceutical industry is distorting the statistics about the effectiveness of these drugs. They usually quote reductions in cholesterol levels by rates of twenty to sixty percent, which sounds impressive. However, there is a little-known statistic used in these studies that they don't publicize, known as the NNT, or number needed to treat.

NNT indicates how many subjects would have to take a particular drug to avoid one incidence of a medical issue (such as a heart attack). The NNT on Lipitor, for example, says that one hundred people would have to take this drug for three years to prevent just one heart attack! This rate isn't significantly better than using a placebo.

If you still think that there must be a connection between cholesterol levels and heart disease, a comparison of different western cultures and their rate of heart disease will demonstrate that there really is no correlation whatsoever. Switzerland, where people have higher levels of cholesterol than any other European country, has one of the lowest rates of heart disease of any industrialized nation.

What Causes Heart Disease? Free Radicals Attacks Lead to Atherosclerosis

Although high cholesterol levels have been (incorrectly) associated with heart attacks, it's not the cholesterol itself that's the problem — it's the oxidation of that cholesterol that is caused by free radicals. Free radicals are highly reactive particles that can damage cells and tissue anywhere in your body. When free radicals attack your arteries, it produces the condition called atherosclerosis, a precursor to heart disease and many other cardiovascular problems.

What Causes Heart Disease? How Atherosclerosis Begins

Cardiovascular disease begins when the walls of your arteries and the cholesterol in your blood are damaged by free radicals and oxidative stress. Damaged cholesterol molecules stick to the walls of your arteries, and each other, eventually clogging the artery and causing a heart attack. It doesn't matter how much, or how little, cholesterol there is in your blood.

Once the cholesterol becomes oxidized, your body will send more cholesterol to the damaged area in an attempt to repair the damage, and plaque deposits begin. As these plaque deposits grow, the artery becomes narrower and stiffer, diminishing the flow of blood to the heart. If the artery becomes so clogged that it becomes completely blocked, you have a heart attack. Cholesterol-reducing drugs may lower the amount of cholesterol in your bloodstream, but they will not protect it from oxidation.

What Causes Heart Disease? Atherosclerosis Starts Early in Life

Atherosclerosis probably started to form in your body when you were still young. The entire process is slow and insidious, and often doesn't have symptoms. Some people with blocked coronary arteries develop angina. When they exert themselves, their stiff, narrowed arteries can't expand enough to increase the flow of blood to the heart. The result is severe, sometimes disabling, chest pain.

Atherosclerosis can also affect other parts of your body, as well. If an artery in your brain is blocked, you could have a stroke. If the arteries leading to any of your organs are blocked, that organ could fail. If the blockage is in the arteries in your legs, that could lead to muscle cramps or artery diseases such as phlebitis.

What Causes Heart Disease? Oxidative Stress.

Rather than worry about your cholesterol levels, you really need to work at lowering inflammation and oxidative stress.

Sources of oxidative stress, and the free radical reaction that causes it, fall into the following general categories:

• environmental toxins and pollution

• pesticides and herbicides

• emotional stress

• strenuous exercise

• chronic illnesses

• processed foods and food additives

• chronic inflammation

• smoking

• ultraviolet radiation from the sun

• electromagnetic radiation in your environment

Prevention of Heart Disease

The best way to lower your risk of heart disease is by eating a healthy diet rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants give your body the defense it needs against free radical attacks to your arteries. With an abundant supply of antioxidants, the free radicals are neutralized quickly enough so that your artery walls will remain intact and your cholesterol will not form plaque.