You threw out everything. Canned soups, deli meat, soy sauce, the chips, the pretzels. You read every label. You lost the weight. You did not cheat, not once, not at the party, not at the restaurant, not on your anniversary.
And your numbers came down. Your doctor called you a model patient.
But the oxidative stress attacking your endothelial cells did not stop because you changed what you eat. Lifestyle changes reduce the metabolic load generating free radicals.
They do not neutralize the radicals already destroying the vessel lining. They do not repair the cells that have already been lost.
"I'm on medication, I've lost weight, I exercise regularly. My blood pressure is still the problem."
Doing everything right is not the same as treating the right thing.