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Germs and the big lie: unmasking the root cause of heart disease- MD Mason [Lecture]
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Dr Paul Mason obtained his medical degree with honours from the University of Sydney, and also holds degrees in Physiotherapy and Occupational Health. He is a Specialist Sports Medicine and Exercise Physician.
Dr Mason developed an interest in low carbohydrate diets in 2011. Since then he has spent hundreds of hours reading and analysing the scientific literature. For a number of years Dr. Mason has been applying this knowledge in treating metabolic and arthritis patients who have achieved dramatic and sustained weight loss and reductions in joint pain.
Dr. Mason is also the Chief Medical Officer of Defeat Diabetes, Australia's first evidence-based and doctor-led program that focuses on the wide range of health benefits of a low carb lifestyle, particularly for those wanting to send into remission pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and other metabolic illnesses.
summerizer
Core thesis
- Atherosclerosis: arterial wall injury + inflammation + oxidative stress + microbial burden.
- Oxidation of lipoproteins: a required step for foam-cell formation and plaque growth.
- Dental plaque and coronary plaque: biofilm similarity with different locations.
LDL and diet–heart hypothesis
- High LDL levels: no compelling evidence for causal heart-disease linkage.
- Older cohorts: highest LDL strata with longest survival in 16/19 prospective cohorts (systematic review; >68,000 participants).
- INTERHEART: 72.1% of myocardial infarction cases with LDL <130 mg/dL.
Randomized diet trials with omega-6 linoleic-acid substitution
- Corn-oil supplement after myocardial infarction (1965): higher mortality and recurrent heart attacks in the corn-oil arm versus controls.
- Sydney Diet Heart Study: omega-6 linoleic acid substitution; higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.
- Minnesota Coronary Experiment: cholesterol reduction without mortality benefit; higher mortality signal in subgroup analyses.
Infection and biofilm biology
- Transient bacteremia: toothbrushing and eating.
- Periodontal pathogens: bloodstream access with vascular seeding and endothelial dysfunction.
- Porphyromonas gingivalis bacteremia model (pigs): recurrent IV challenge; coronary and aortic atherosclerosis lesions versus saline controls.
Thrombosis and microbial DNA
- Arterial thrombus: bacterial DNA present in 58% of samples.
- Streptococcus viridans: 42% of 121 thrombus specimens after sudden cardiac death.
- Von Willebrand factor: lowest 20% levels with 41% lower sudden cardiovascular presentation risk.
Oxidative stress triggers
- Hyperglycemia spikes: oxidative products persistence ~3 days; ~9× longer than spike duration.
- Tobacco smoke: large acute cardiovascular risk amplification.
Oxygen exposure in myocardial infarction
- Supplemental oxygen above ~94% saturation in non-hypoxic myocardial infarction: larger infarct size (~35%) and increased recurrent infarction signal in-hospital.
Coronary stenting versus medical therapy
- Stable coronary disease: coronary stenting strategy without outcome advantage over medical therapy in large randomized trials (2,287- and 5,179-patient trials).
Mitigation themes
- Insulin resistance reduction: dietary sugar and fructose reduction as a primary lever.
- Aged garlic extract + statin therapy: coronary calcium score progression 22.2% (placebo) versus 7.5% (garlic) over 12 months.
- Oral hygiene focus: hydroxyapatite toothpaste as a plaque-control option.
- Environmental oxidants: “forever chemicals” (PFAS) and chronic exposures as additive oxidative load.
References
Papers/Reports Named
- 00:04 — Yusuf S, et al. INTERHEART study (Lancet, 2004). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17018-9
- 00:05 — Ramsden CE, et al. Sydney Diet Heart Study recovered data (BMJ, 2013). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e8707
- 00:06 — Ramsden CE, et al. Minnesota Coronary Experiment recovered data (BMJ, 2016). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i1246
- 00:05 — Rose GA, et al. Corn Oil in Treatment of Ischaemic Heart Disease (BMJ, 1965). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.5449.1531
- 00:12 — Brodala N, et al. Porphyromonas gingivalis bacteremia induces coronary and aortic atherosclerosis in pigs (ATVB, 2005). https://doi.org/10.1161/01.ATV.0000167525.69400.9c
- 00:22 — Stub D, et al. AVOID trial: oxygen in STEMI without hypoxia (Circulation, 2015). https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.014494
- 00:41 — Boden WE, et al. COURAGE trial (NEJM, 2007). https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa070829
- 00:48 — Budoff M. Aged garlic extract retards progression of coronary artery calcification (J Nutr, 2006). https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/136.3.741S
- 00:50 — Lustig RH, et al. Isocaloric fructose restriction and metabolic improvement in children (Obesity, 2016). https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.21371
- 00:43 — Pessi T, et al. Bacterial signatures in coronary thrombus aspirates (Circulation, 2013). https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.112.001254
