this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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Low Carb High Fat - Ketogenic

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Summary


Detailed summary — "The Real Cause of Clogged Arteries and how fasting can help"

  • Core claim: Atherosclerosis (clogged arteries) is primarily driven by chronic inflammation, not merely passive cholesterol deposition, and plaque is a metabolically active, inflammatory process that can rupture and cause heart attacks.

  • Primary triggers that cause vascular inflammation:

    • Metabolic dysfunction (insulin resistance, prediabetes) which promotes harmful lipid profiles including small, dense LDL.
    • Dietary factors (processed foods, high omega‑6 intake, advanced glycation end products) that drive inflammation and oxidative stress.
    • Toxins and impaired detoxification, which increase systemic inflammatory burden.
    • Gut problems (e.g., leaky gut / dysbiosis) that seed inflammation systemically.
    • Lifestyle stressors (poor sleep, chronic stress) that amplify inflammatory cascades.
  • Nature and consequence of plaque: Plaque is described as an inflammatory, metabolically active lesion; when plaque becomes unstable and ruptures the ensuing clot formation leads to heart attacks — so reducing inflammation and stabilizing plaque is central to preventing acute events.

  • How fasting counteracts the causes (mechanisms):

    • Lowers insulin levels, improving insulin sensitivity and reducing production of small, dense LDL, thereby decreasing a major driver of inflammation and atherogenesis.
    • Stimulates autophagy and mitophagy, promoting cellular and mitochondrial cleanup which reduces oxidative stress and inflammatory signaling.
    • Supports detoxification by enhancing liver processing and elimination of toxins that contribute to vascular inflammation.
    • Resets gut health, helping reduce inflammation originating from a leaky or dysbiotic gut.
    • Promotes ketogenesis and fat mobilization during extended fasting, which is framed as anti‑inflammatory and metabolically beneficial.
    • Overall effect: fasting lowers measurable inflammatory markers, improves metabolic health, and creates conditions that can halt or reverse drivers of plaque progression.
  • Practical fasting approaches recommended:

    • Time‑restricted feeding as a daily lifestyle (example: 18:6, eat within 6 hours, fast 18 hours).
    • Periodic prolonged fasts (example: a 3‑day water fast done periodically — cited as helpful for metabolic reset, stem cell mobilization and deeper detoxification; suggested timing varies by individual needs).
    • Use of fasting to achieve ketosis for added anti‑inflammatory and fat‑mobilizing effects.
  • Overall strategy and expectations: Adopt an anti‑inflammatory lifestyle (fasting, improved diet, sleep, stress management, and addressing toxins/gut health) to manage plaque — the goal is usually to prevent progression and rupture rather than promise complete elimination of existing plaque; with these measures individuals can often live with plaque without experiencing fatal events.

  • Takeaway (concise): Targeting systemic inflammation and metabolic dysfunction — with fasting as a central tool among dietary and lifestyle interventions — is presented as the most effective approach to preventing plaque progression and reducing risk of heart attacks.

Dr Jamnadas shares his experience holistically treating patients with heart disease. There is a lot of content, and it's hard to do a write-up when all of it is interesting, so I'd recommend watching the video to anyone who's even at all interested in managing heart disease and staying healthy, since there is a lot of actionable advice.

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[–] xep@discuss.online 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Atherosclerosis, or plaque, is not a focal disease. It’s a systemic disease. If you’ve got it in one artery, guess what? You’ve got it in every artery—and you may think you don’t.

A bit terrifying.

Why am I stressing this? Because if you don’t want to develop plaque, don’t want plaque progression, and don’t want the consequences of plaque formation and rupture, you need to know the cause. It’s inflammatory. It’s not linear. It’s not just a scar that keeps growing. It cracks, repairs, cracks, repairs. It’s all related to inflammation. What is your inflammatory status? We are becoming increasingly inflammatory as humans. That’s why this happens. The body reacts, and you get inflammation.

Plaques are both caused by inflammation and inflammatory.

There are two parts to this whole problem. One is plaque formation and plaque rupture—that’s all about the plaque. The next is your blood. If your blood is clotty and your platelets are very jittery, you’re going to get a big blood clot. It’s as much a hematological event as it is an inflammatory process. There are two parts to this equation. That’s why we started paying more attention to the condition of your blood. Do you have clotty blood? Because if you rupture a minor plaque, you can get a big blood clot.

I wonder if grounding, which can decrease the viscosity of blood, can help? Blood donation also helps.

With aggressive lifestyle, dietary, and environmental changes—reducing toxicity, improving your food, and everything else—you can regress it. But the extent—probably the percentage stenosis—is likely very low. That means you can reduce it by maybe 10%.

Unfortunately it seems that lifestyle changes cannot reverse plaque entirely, and it also has to be managed by reducing inflammation as much as possible.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 2 points 2 days ago

Atherosclerosis, or plaque, is not a focal disease. It’s a systemic disease. If you’ve got it in one artery, guess what? You’ve got it in every artery—and you may think you don’t.

A bit terrifying.

The upside is that means we know the best interventions have systemic impact, lifestyle, diet, exercise, sleep, fasting, etc

Plaques are both caused by inflammation and inflammatory.

Bart Kay has a more compelling theory, but it boils down to the same treatment, so same same.

There are two parts to this whole problem. One is plaque formation and plaque rupture—that’s all about the plaque. The next is your blood. If your blood is clotty and your platelets are very jittery, you’re going to get a big blood clot. It’s as much a hematological event as it is an inflammatory process. There are two parts to this equation. That’s why we started paying more attention to the condition of your blood. Do you have clotty blood? Because if you rupture a minor plaque, you can get a big blood clot.

I wonder if grounding, which can decrease the viscosity of blood, can help? Blood donation also helps.

The eddie goeke? guy promotes grounding, and I've not seen any hard studies on it, but its one of those things that couldn't hurt. So I've grounded by desk, because there is no downside.

Unfortunately it seems that lifestyle changes cannot reverse plaque entirely, and it also has to be managed by reducing inflammation as much as possible.

The science isn't written, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible Dr. Pradip isn't carnivore, so he hasn't been following the carnivore case studies (maybe he has), but I get why he wouldn't want to give false hope. That doesn't mean we can't improve. Also, progression is the risk, stable plaque isn't a ongoing risk.