Fatty Meals Cause Inflammation of Your Arteries / Ray D. Strand, M.D.

Studies have shown that when you eat a meal including an Egg McMuffin, potato cakes, and a side of sausage, your arteries literally go into spasm for about 4 to 5 hours. A meal that contains a lot of saturated and trans fats causes a significant inflammation of the fine lining of your arteries. This inflammation literally leads to spasm of your arteries. These studies were done with the use of ultrasound checking the radial artery or the artery in the wrist.

How does a fatty meal like this actually cause inflammation of your arteries? When you eat a meal loaded with what I refer to as "bad" fat, the amount of fat in your blood stream goes up significantly and this causes an excessive release of free radicals. The free radicals irritate the fine lining of your arteries and cause an inflammatory response and spasm. Researchers realized this when they would give their participants vitamin C and vitamin E in supplementation and then have them eat a fatty meal. Their arteries would only go into spasm for 4 to 5 minutes. The antioxidants (vitamin C and vitamin E) were able to quench the free radicals before they could cause any irritation to the lining of your arteries.

RAY D. STRAND, M.D.

Specialist in Nutritional Medicine