National Spaghetti Day Shirt

Unfortunately, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease are not things that surgery fixes. Surgery at best replace parts that we need to function. They are the National Spaghetti Day Shirt to keep you alive. When someone tells you they are having heart surgery, it’s not a small thing. It really is a big deal and their health is in real stake, such that if you did absolutely nothing, you’re pretty much expected to go. The fact that heart surgery has developed so much in recent times doesn’t mean it is less serious. Really, there is an underlying mix of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to these conditions, and surgery doesn’t overcome these things in the long run.

We may baulk and think, “it’s only three years. I did not have a National Spaghetti Day Shirt attack till I was 50.” Can three years do as much as the first 50 years of living? The reality is that cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis don’t follow a linear trajectory. The risk of adverse cardiac events increases exponentially as you age. This is illustrated in this prevalence graph below. Our bodies are able to handle themselves fairly well in the first 50 years of life or so in response to inflammation and oxidation. After 55–60, we are less able to accommodate to various stresses placed on our body. Our livers and kidneys are less able to detoxify and clean out things that we put in us. There is therefore a compounding effect of age on many types of diseases.