Cellular and Cardiovascular Health

10 Steps to Improve Endothelial Cells and Lower the Risks of Cardiovascular Disorders

Endothelial cells regulate blood flow, prevent clotting, maintain vessel integrity, form new vessels, balance fluids, and modulate immune responses.

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This article introduces and explains the role of endothelial cells, touches on atherosclerosis as the primary root cause of cardiovascular diseases, and provides ten steps to proactively lower risks.

As I touched on endothelial cells in numerous metabolic health articles, some readers wanted to learn about their functions and how to care for these special cells to improve cardiovascular health.

I aim to give essential information in simple language without going into scientific and technical details. I link the relevant articles and credible sources for those interested in details.

First, I’d like to highlight the impact of cardiovascular diseases so that the importance of making endothelial cells healthier and preventing the formation of atherosclerosis can make sense.

Impact of Cardiovascular Diseases

There are multiple conditions within the cardiovascular disease category. Heart attack, heart failure, coronary artery disease, arrhythmia, and stroke are the most common. The main culprit has been clogged arteries (atherosclerosis).

Unfortunately, cardiovascular diseases cause death and suffering to millions of people globally. 17.9 million die from cardiovascular diseases, according to the World Health Organization. Around 659,000 people in the US die from heart disease each year.

CDC (Centers for Disease Control) ranked heart disease as #1. They affect both men and women. One person dies every 36 seconds in the US from cardiovascular disease. “The total economic loss due to cardiovascular diseases amounted to $3.7 trillion between 2011 and 2015.” [Source]

What are endothelial cells, and why are they important?

Endothelial cells exist on the interior surface of blood vessels. These cells form a single layer as a barrier between the circulating blood and the surrounding tissues. They are vital for maintaining cardiovascular health.

Endothelial cells have distinctive structural and molecular features. For example, they have tight junctions and specialized receptors and interact with enzymes in blood clotting and inflammation.

Endothelial cells are involved in several functions, such as regulating blood flow, preventing blood clotting, maintaining the integrity of the vessels and tissue barriers, forming new blood vessels, regulating fluid balance, and regulating immune responses.

When endothelial cells get damaged and lose their functions, they can lead to cardiovascular diseases. Various factors can cause endothelial cell injury, leading to endothelium dysfunction. Dysfunction can manifest as decreased production of nitric oxide and increased expression of sticky molecules.

Controlling oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, blood sugar, blood pressure, triglycerides, homocysteine, and LDL cholesterol is essential for the health of endothelial cells to prevent plague formation. In addition, providing essential nutrients for their formation and maintenance is vital.

I cover the critical aspects of these points in the following sections. First, I’d like to create an awareness of atherosclerosis affecting the health of endothelial cells, as this condition is the primary root cause of cardiovascular diseases.

What is atherosclerosis?

Atherosclerosis refers to the process of plaque building up in the walls of the arteries. Increased plaque narrows the arteries. As a result, it makes blood flow harder, causing stroke or heart attack.

As informed by this paper, “Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease; unstable atherosclerotic plaque rupture, vascular stenosis, or occlusion caused by platelet aggregation and thrombosis lead to acute cardiovascular disease.”

Atherosclerosis might be initiated by injury to the endothelial cells that line the blood vessels, leading to inflammatory responses. These responses attract immune cells to the affected areas and might cause further vessel complications.

Atherosclerosis is the root cause of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, we need to find efficient ways to improve endothelial cells and prevent the formation of plaques in the artery's walls.

Lifestyle Modifications to Improve Endothelial Cells and Prevent Atherosclerosis

Even though medication is available to slow — or even reverse — the effects of atherosclerosis, my focus in this story is improving endothelial cells via lifestyle modifications.

One of the viable solutions to decrease the risk of cardiovascular diseases is to strengthen the heart by undertaking moderate exercise, eating optimal nutrition, getting restorative sleep, reducing stress, refraining from toxins, and addressing chronic inflammation and infections.

Lifestyle choices might improve the health of endothelial cells and prevent or slow the formation of atherosclerosis.

1 — Lower Oxidative Stress

While acute stress is necessary for survival and growth, it is crucial to manage it appropriately. Accumulated oxidative stress is a primary factor behind various physical and psychological ailments.

Unresolved micro stressors can accumulate and lead to a chronic state, causing genetic alterations in our DNA and RNA. However, we can influence our genes through lifestyle choices, mainly mental processes. Expressing our emotions is one effective way of coping with stress.

The body uses hormones like cortisol, adrenalin, and norepinephrine to manage stress, leading to increased productivity and good feelings. However, elevated levels of stress hormones can increase glucose in the bloodstream, negatively affect other metabolic hormones, such as insulin, and cause visceral fat gain.

Healthy lifestyle habits like restorative sleep, nutritious food, regular exercise, timely recovery, adequate rest, and enjoyable activities can prevent stress accumulation and reduce oxidative stress. Addressing micro-stressors on time is also crucial.

It is essential to monitor stress hormones and seek the guidance of healthcare professionals like endocrinologists or psychiatrists who can diagnose and treat hormonal and stress-related conditions timely.

2 — Prevent or Address Chronic Inflammation.

Oxidative stress and chronic inflammation are interrelated. For example, reducing stress can decrease inflammation. Likewise, reducing inflammation can lower oxidative stress.

Like stress, the body also needs inflammation in an adequate amount to heal from infections and injuries. This essential process is called acute inflammation. However, the problem arises when acute inflammation accumulates and becomes chronic.

An excessive amount of inflammation might promote the growth of plagues in arteries. In addition, it can loosen plaque in the arteries and trigger blood clots, as documented in this source.

From endothelial cells and atherosclerosis perspectives, patients might have a heart attack when a blood clot blocks an artery to the heart. However, if the blood clot clogs an artery to the brain, they have a stroke.

Healthy lifestyle habits can contribute to decreasing chronic inflammation. The critical points are controlling blood sugar, making the body more insulin sensitive, reducing visceral fat, regular exercise, customized nutrition, cutting inflammatory food, and getting enough restorative sleep.

Despite these good habits, some people might need anti-inflammatory medication or treatment. Thus getting inflammation markers checked, diagnosed timely, and obtaining a corrective plan from qualified healthcare professionals is essential.

3 — Solve insulin resistance and make the body insulin sensitive.

Metabolic disorders, mainly from insulin resistance, can lead to obesity, type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and neurodegenerative disorders. Therefore understanding the sugar paradox and fixing insulin resistance is vital to prevent these disorders.

As I provided practical tips on fixing insulin resistance, I will not delve into those details in this story. You might check out this story titled Three Tips to Eliminate Insulin Resistance and Shrink Waistline.

I also shared my personal experience of insulin resistance in a recent article titled Here’s Why I Got Insulin Resistance in My Early 20s and How I Fixed It in 7 Steps. The critical point was to make body fat adapted.

Giving an alternative fuel source via ketosis to the body can significantly impact getting rid of insulin resistance, improving energy utilization, and making the body insulin sensitive.

4 — Lower elevated homocysteine levels.

Homocysteine is a sulfur amino acid existing in the bloodstream. It is a metabolite of methionine which is another amino acid. Elevated blood homocysteine is called hyperhomocysteinemia.

This amino acid is processed by folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 to create other biochemicals in the bloodstream. In addition, energy production in mitochondria seems to cause the effects.

The genetic factor known as homocystinuria is a rare condition. People having this condition cannot process the amino acid methionine properly.

The risks of elevated homocysteine levels are blood clots, heart disease, heart attack, stroke, osteoporosis, and dementia. I documented my research on homocysteine in an article titled Why High Homocysteine Levels Matter and How to Optimize Them.

As TMG is a well-documented supplement to optimize homocysteine, I introduced it in an article titled Here’s How TMG Supplementation Might Improve Four Health Conditions.

Literature indicates between five to fifteen micromoles per liter of homocysteine is normal for healthy people. However, if it gets higher than 50 mcmol/L for a prolonged time, it can damage the lining of arteries, cause blood clots or blood vessel blockages, and impact the oxygenation of the cells in the body.

5— Manage triglycerides.

As soon as the body digests foods from macronutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, triglycerides from the calories of these foods circulate in the bloodstream. Then they are used as energy by our cells.

Triglycerides are fat molecules. They are energy sources for the body, like sugar. The body needs both triglycerides and sugar to energize cells. Even though the body can immediately use them when energy is needed by cells, especially muscles, they are also stored as fat molecules when we have excessive calories.

Elevated triglycerides in the bloodstream for a prolonged time can create a condition called hypertriglyceridemia. It is a cardiovascular health risk. High cholesterol (LDL) and elevated triglycerides are known as high hyperlipidemia.

People often confuse triglycerides with cholesterol. They are two different lipids and play different roles in our metabolism. One fuels the body, and the other serves as a building block.

For example, the body uses triglycerides as an energy source. However, the body uses cholesterol to build/maintain cells and hormones. I cover it in section #6.

As mentioned in this credible source, “triglycerides are mainly caused by eating high amounts of refined carbs in this video. Dr. Berry asserts that healthy fats do not cause an elevation of triglycerides.

I documented my research and perspectives on this important risk factor in an article titled Why High Triglyceride Levels Matter and How to Optimize Them.

6 — Manage LDL cholesterol.

Cholesterol is a complex issue and is misunderstood even by healthcare professionals due to misinformation in the past. According to new-generation scientists, cholesterol appears to be not the root cause of cardiovascular diseases, but it can be a risk factor for those who already have the condition.

Cholesterol is essential for the body. Every cell needs it for various purposes. However, there has been a misconception that dietary fat and cholesterol cause heart disease. Fortunately, this hypothesis, misinforming the public, was debunked thanks to diligent scientists.

For example, Dr. Zoe Harcombe mentions, “There’s no connection between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in the blood. None. And we’ve known that all along. Cholesterol in the diet doesn’t matter unless you are a chicken or a rabbit.”

Scientific documents such as this paper inform that “the French Paradox refers to the very low incidence of mortality rates from ischaemic heart disease in France even though saturated fat intakes, serum cholesterol, blood pressure, and smoking prevalence are no lower there than elsewhere.”

In ten minutes, this medical doctor clarifies the cholesterol paradox in a YouTube video titled “Cholesterol is NOT the cause of heart disease. I’ll prove it.”

While investigating the topic, cholesterol seemed to be only one of many risk factors for heart disease. Other factors include smoking, chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, physical inactivity, diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome.

It did not make sense why some scientists ignored all those risk factors and only focussed on saturated fats and cholesterol. I summarized my research, experience, and perspectives on cholesterol in an article titled Here’s the Cholesterol Paradox and How It Impacted My Health Positively.

I also documented the sugar paradox that has an impact on cardiovascular health. Both paradoxes have hormonal implications.

We shouldn’t undermine LDL cholesterol’s effects on people with cardiovascular disorders. It is a real risk for those with the condition, and we must be careful and obtain professional support.

7 — Manage Blood Pressure.

High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, can cause the increased force of blood flow to the inner lining of blood vessels, causing them to become narrower and less adjustable.

Therefore, monitoring blood pressure at home and getting advice when you notice consistent high blood pressure readings will be helpful.

Healthy lifestyle factors might lower blood pressure. However, some people might need medication prescribed by qualified healthcare professionals.

For some people, too low blood pressure can also be a problem. Therefore, we need to monitor blood pressure regularly and seek help from professionals when needed.

8 — Increase nitric oxide production.

The role of nitric oxide in cardiovascular diseases is specific and robust. This simple gas can keep the circulatory system healthy and lower the risks of cardiovascular diseases.

Nitric oxide is a functional molecule to address plaque building in arteries. Its main contribution is maintaining healthy blood flow and providing needed oxygen to body parts, including the heart and brain.

Furthermore, nitric oxide can regulate blood pressure, communicate in brain cells, and support the defense system to combat pathogens.

I documented my research in an article titled Three Tips to Boost Nitric Oxide and Lower Heart Disease/Stroke Risks.

I provided information on a natural supplement to contribute to nitric oxide production titled L-Citrulline Malate: Six Health Benefits Based on Science and Two Decades of Experience.

Recommended by a cardiologist friend, I started using CoQ10 after 55 years of age as a preventative measure for cardiovascular diseases.

9 — Improve Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

Heart rate variability is biofeedback indicating the amount of time and variation between heartbeats. The time between the beats constantly changes depending on biological and psychological reactions in the body and mind.

I create awareness of HRV because it can indicate issues with endothelial cells and might inform about atherosclerosis earlier than clinically detected issues and risks. Heart rate variability can decrease as we get older. Nevertheless, we can improve it with various approaches.

Low HRV scores indicate the formation of disorders in the body and mind. Therefore, HRV biofeedback enables us to adjust our physiology to improve our cardiovascular and cognitive functioning.

Since the fluctuations between heartbeats are in milliseconds, it is impossible to detect them with our senses. However, technology made this capability available to us.

I documented my experience with HRV in an article titled How to Improve Heart Rate Variability in 3 Easy Steps.

10 — Get genetic defects checked.

Literature indicates genetic defects damage endothelial cells and cause atherosclerosis. One of the suspected genes is APOE4. This 2016 meta-analysis informs that the APOE4 gene may be a risk factor for clinical atherosclerosis.”

This study in European Heart Journal demonstrates that “the GWAS-identified CAD risk gene JCAD promotes endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis, thus highlighting the possibility of new therapeutic strategies for CAD by targeting JCAD.”

DNA testing is a relatively new technology that shows the potential to revolutionize our understanding of genetics and improve healthcare with the emergence of personalized medicine and proactive healthcare.

I provided practical tips on DNA tests and What You Need to Know Before Committing.

Conclusions and Takeaways

These ten items covered in the article are related to our lifestyle choices. Even though genetics plays a role, our lifestyle habits can make a real difference in improving the health of endothelial cells, lowering the formation of atherosclerosis, and reducing the risks of cardiovascular diseases.

While blocked arteries of the heart cause heart diseases blocked arteries of the brain cause stroke. So heart and brain health are closely related. In addition to genetics and lifestyle choices, heart disease and stroke also are related to our age and sex.

By focusing on fundamentals, protecting from toxins, and managing oxidative stress and inflammation, we can significantly improve endothelial cells' health, lower atherosclerosis formation, and reduce the risks of cardiovascular diseases.

Some cardiologists recommend time-restricted eating to reduce the risks of cardiovascular diseases. The reason behind this approach is fasting can make the body more insulin sensitive and initiate autophagy. Insulin sensitivity and autophagy were the main reasons for me to implement a one-meal-a-day eating regimen.

Using some supplements might improve cardiovascular health. I specifically mentioned nitric oxide-producing amino acids like arginine and citrulline malate. I also use CoQ10. There may be other supplements too. You may discuss supplementation requirements with your family doctor or cardiologist.

Improving our heart health can also enhance brain health. Furthermore, our brain health can contribute to mental health by preventing neurodegenerative diseases. Cellular and metabolic health can lead to better mental health.

The key takeaway of this article is to pay attention to our lifestyle choices and choose them wisely to lower the risks of cardiovascular diseases. In addition, it is vital to regularly check our blood sugar, blood pressure, lipids, and hormones with support from family physicians and specialists.

Understanding HRV and improving it can be a preventative measure. As a practical tip, asking these four powerful questions daily and acting mindfully might improve our health and overall well-being.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.

I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. My focus is on cellular, mitochondrial, metabolic, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.

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