Dr. Malcolm Kendrick concludes his series on the response to injury hypothesis for cardiovascular disease (CVD) by observing that reducing risk relies on doing at least one of three things, and ideally all three: protecting the endothelium from damage, reducing blood coagulability, and improving the body’s healing processes. Kendrick highlights several specific ways to protect the endothelium, from quitting smoking to getting more sun to increasing potassium intake.

“The reaction [to the Annals of Internal Medicine publications debunking the advice to eat less meat] was swift and unsurprising. Proponents of the current guidelines were quick to attack the papers and the authors. The first thing that I noticed in the first media article I read was that the word “controversial” appeared in the first sentence. … A (essentially, if not entirely) non-conflicted panel published four systematic reviews of all the evidence available (which was vast for observational studies, if not RCTs) and concluded that any associations observed were very small and the certainty of evidence was low or very low. They cautioned that observational studies cannot establish causation; they don’t report absolute differences; and they are at high risk of confounding. My conclusion from this would have been to dismiss existing guidelines and advise that they be ignored. The panel’s recommendations to continue current consumption were cautious in this context, not controversial.”