Welcome to Straight Talk on Health. I’m your host Dr. Chet Zelasko. Straight Talk on Health is a joint production with WGVU in Grand Rapids MI. I examine the practical application of health information. Nutrition. Exercise. Diet. Supplementation. I look at the science behind them, and let you know whether it’s something to consider or not. You can check out other things that I do on my website Drchet.com and sign up for my free emails.
I just had a endoscopy/colonoscopy last week. The most difficult part? It wasn’t the prep like most people. It was the potential results that stressed me out. I had three polyps last time and diagnosed with Barrett’s esophagus. Were things better or had they progressed. Turned out fine with a couple of polyps they removed. But that didn’t reduce the anxiety of waiting.
We live in stressful times. The price of food. Heck, the price of everything. Proposed healthcare cuts. You find out that your healthcare plan just increased your annual contribution before insurance kicks in. A new roof. Getting the car repaired. And then the whole issue of politics and most likely hundreds of other scenarios in our lives. You can just feel your heart rate and blood pressure rise. Who knows what else is going on that may be damaging your body, from your brain to your kidney’s.
A recent study tested a theory of how to deal with this stress and anxiety. As I was lying there, waiting for the drugs that put you in la-la land during the procedures to kick in, I used a form of the technique used in this study of dealing with stress: rhythmic breathing. First, the paper.
Researchers recruited 27 graduate students to participate in a clinical trial to test two types of deep breathing in stressful situations. The only issue they cite was that they had no male volunteers so the results may only apply to women. They tested heart rate via EKG, electroencephalogram (EEG), as well as verbal responses. The EEG gave the researchers the chance to see the responses in specific areas of the brain. While complex in interpretation, they were able to identify areas associated with stress and relaxation.
They used two different breathing techniques. The fast response was a quick 1 second in and 1 second out. The slow technique was 3 seconds in and 3 seconds out done in a rhythmic pattern. The key to both was belly breathing where, as you breath in, you expand your belly. The slow technique reduced heart rate more than the quick breath technique.
Why would slow belly breathing impact HR and brain activity? It may be the impact on the Vagus nerve which impacts both breathing and heart rate to slow them down. No matter how, slow rhythmic breathing in stressful situations works.
The specific technique I use is 4 seconds in, 4 second hold, 4 seconds out, and another 4 second hold. There are many permutations taught in everything from yoga classes to mental coaching programs. When you’re not in a critical stress situation, it can help you focus your thoughts. That’s the latest on the science of rhythmic belly breathing.
Let’s turn to another topic that I’ve thought about: what else does HMG CoA Reductase do in the body? I’ll bet you’re wondering—exactly what is HMG CoA Reductase? Do you have high cholesterol? Does your physician want you to take a statin medication? HMG CoA Reductase, AKA 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase, is the rate limiting enzyme in the production of cholesterol. What does rate limiting mean? It controls how much cholesterol can be made by the body, primarily in the liver. What is not apparent is what slows it down or speeds it up naturally with the exception of the initial chemical in the chain acetyl-CoA. Too much could speed it up while too little could definitely slow it down. Another chemical that appears to have a role to play is iron. The not apparent thing I mentioned? There is a feedback mechanism that can inhibit the action of the enzyme if too much end product is being made like cholesterol. Which begs the question: why would cholesterol levels increase with a feedback mechanism in place?
Statins are medications that are designed to block the action of the HMG CoA Reductase. Not everywhere in the body nor reduce it’s action to zero. That would kill you because the body needs cholesterol for a variety of reasons to support life. But if levels are too high, it can reduce cholesterol levels thereby decreasing the risk of the build-up of plaque in the arteries.
The production of cholesterol is an elegant biochemical process. Acetyl CoA is a two carbon molecule. Cholesterol is made by chemically building a 30 carbon structure that looks like three hexagons connected to a pentagon. It loses three carbons and becomes a back bone for the manufacture of steroid hormones, bile acids, and vitamin D.
Going back to my original question, what else does HMG CoA Reductase do, it helps manufacture coenzyme Q10 and Heme A. Coenzyme Q10 is critical to the production of energy in the mitochondria while Heme A is critical to the oxygen carrying ability of heme. Those other chemicals could also be blocked when a person uses a statin. That may be why people feel fatigued and have muscle pain when they take a statin. Fortunately, for most people, they adapt as the body adapts to the medication. And now, we both know what else HMG CoA Reductase does in the body.
I’ll finish with a personal story with a point. My first real job after high school was working in a foundry. Hot molten steel. Cores to make the forms. Black sand mixed with something like molasses. I was a general laborer which meant that I could do anything that needed to be done. Mostly, it was pushing steel rods through a grated hole in the floor so they could be cleaned and re-used in making more cores. What did we make in this foundry? Couplers for train cars. The female junction, the male joiner, and the locking coupler.
The male piece was made 5 to a tree. Think of a model car where you have to break off the parts before assembling them. The parts had to broken from this cast iron tree and placed on a large palate for heat treatment. I had a 20 pound sledge hammer and a motor lift to move the pieces around as they weighed hundreds of pounds each. I swung that hammer for 10-20 strokes before I could separate the first one. Move it on a palate, repeat. At the rate I was progressing, I wouldn’t have filled a single palate during my shift.
At one point, an African-American man, who had worked there for years took the sledge hammer from me and motioned for me to step back. Did I mention that there was a constant roar in the foundry that made talking almost impossible? He lifted one of the trees with the motor, pointed to a spot on one of the knuckles, struck it once, and the coupler fell off. He repeated it 4 more times with a single blow and knocked each coupler off the tree. Then he handed me back the hammer and walked away. I couldn’t always get the couplers to break off with a single blow but it wasn’t 10 for sure.
Two morals to this story. While I was a 17 year old kid who was really shy. If you have something you can’t do well, you have to ask for help. Doesn’t matter whether it’s related to work, business, play, or your health habits, you have to get past trying to figure out things for yourself. Second, when you find the solution from a mentor, coach or whoever, you have to practice until you get it right. Not everything is as simple as trying to break cast-iron couplers off a mold.
That’s it for this episode. If you like this podcast, please hit the like button and tell your friends and colleagues about it. Until next time, this is Dr. Chet Zelasko saying health is a choice. Choose wisely today and every day.
