Causes of Heart Disease

U.S. Senate-Nevada
This web site paid for by Jeffrey C. Reeves

Possible Causes of Heart Disease

If you ask 10 people what causes clogged arteries, you will get 10 different answers. Personally, I am a HUGE fan of Linus Pauling. I believe that Pauling is the most under-rated & under-appreciated scientist of the last century. He won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering the helical nature of protein. He also won the Nobel Peace Prize for his relentless campaign against nuclear proliferation.

In my opinion, Pauling discovered the underlying cause of clogged arteries.

Clogging in the heart is called heart disease. Clogging in the arms or legs is called Peripheral Artery Disease. Clogging in the brain can lead to alzheimer’s and stroke. The problem that Western Medicine fails to address is what causes the clogging in the first place? If dumping sand down your kitchen sink clogs it up, then the solution is to not dump sand in your sink. You can clean out or replace the drain pipe as much as you like. But if you don’t stop dumping sand down the sink, your clogging problems will never go away.

Likewise, you can use bypass surgery, angioplasty, stents, and blood thinners to tackle the consequences of clogged arteries all you like. But NONE of these treatments address how to stop the arteries from clogging in the first place. Pauling tackled this daunting question and came up with a highly plausible theory.

According to Pauling, arterial plaques are nothing more than the body’s natural response to a lack of Vitamin C. In other words, it is due to a case of low-grade scurvy. The sailors of old used to contract scurvy, a Vitamin C deficiency due to the fact that fresh fruits and vegetables were not available on long sea voyages. The British Royal Navy would have sailors drink lime juice to ward off scurvy. Limes had a longer shelf life than most fruits or vegetables. Hence, the slang term limey referring to an Englishman was born.

I will try to summarize his theory and then provide you with some links if you choose to look into the subject further.

PAULING’S THEORY:

Every animal on Earth produces its own Vitamin C. The only exceptions are primates, some fruit-eating bats and birds from India, and guinea pigs. Humans do not produce their own Vitamin C. There are evolutionary theories as to why this is so. Namely, a high fruit tropical diet is naturally high in Vitamin C. There is no need for animals on such a diet to produce their own Vitamin C. Hence, primates, guinea pigs, and fruit bats do not require their bodies to produce Vitamin C. But after migrating from the tropics of Africa to more temperate regions, there were not adequate sources of dietary Vitamin C for our human ancestors. The start of coronary artery disease in humans had begun.

Vitamin C is required to produce collagen. Collagen is the connecting protein found throughout the body. It is found in skin, bones, teeth, eyes, and of particular importance, in the heart and blood vessels. Vitamin C is used in the synthesis of the amino acids glycine and proline into the precursor of collagen called procollagen. Vitamin C then aids in catalyzing the conversion of procollagen into collagen. In this process, the Vitamin C is destroyed and must therefore be replaced daily by the diet.

If an insufficient amount of Vitamin C is occurring, then the associated collagen production is reduced. But collagen production is vital for the manufacture of new tissue and the repair of damaged tissue.

Without collagen production, the blood vessels and heart tissue cannot repair. At areas of high stress, such as at junctions of arteries that are constantly flexing as the heart beats, small leaks in the arteries develop. Nature came up with a strategy to deal with these leaks in a Vitamin C deficient environment. This is where cholesterol works.

Arterial plaques do contain cholesterol. But it is a very specific cholesterol known as Lipoprotein A or Lp(a) for short. Lipoprotein A is ONLY found in species that do not produce their own Vitamin C.

Lipoprotein A is Nature’s response to an injury or leak in a blood vessel. It is a sticky, oxidized, very unique version of LDL cholesterol. It patches the leak like a rubber patch on an inner tube. It is the body’s Stop-Leak for blood vessels. In other words, don’t buy into the hype of Western Medicine’s cholesterol nonsense. Lowering LDL cholesterol will NOT stop the formation of Lipoprotein A plaques. Every study ever done, even by Big Pharma, shows NO REDUCTION in future heart attacks by taking cholesterol lowering drugs. The only things cholesterol drugs do are blow out your liver and drain your bank account.

Pauling found that the amino acid L-lysine bound to Lp(a) receptors. Supplementing with lysine helps deny the Lp(a) a receptor site, meaning less clogging of the arteries due to the sticky plaque. Similar experiments by Pauling showed that another amino acid, L-proline had similar effects. By plugging up the receptor sites with lysine and proline, Pauling was able to show that Lp(a) cholesterol has nowhere to bind, turning it from sticky to nonsticky. In the presence of sufficient Vitamin C along with lysine and proline, Pauling was able to show that Lp(a) plaque patches could be ripped away from the blood vessel walls! In other words, Pauling was able to REVERSE clogged arteries!

Western Medicine’s Lipid Theory of clogged arteries relies on lowering cholesterol through expensive drugs. The problem is, however, that none of the current drugs on the market lower Lp(a) cholesterol. And this is the ONLY form of cholesterol found in arterial plaques. Pauling’s Therapy of Vitamin C, lysine, and proline supplementation DOES lower Lp(a) cholesterol levels. Don’t buy the hype of the Big Pharma cholesterol arguments. They are wrong. The other major approach taken by Western Medicine is to thin the blood. Thinner blood moves through the blockages easier. Well, yes it does. And thinner motor oil will move through a clogged oil filter better. But is thinning the motor oil the answer to a clogged filter? Of course not. The clog in the filter needs to be fixed.

So Western Medicine’s approach of lowering LDL cholesterol and thinning the blood DO NOT consider the root cause of the problem. Pauling’s Theory does.

Simplified, using an automobile tire analogy:

Cholesterol is like Stop-Leak that you spray into your tire. Under normal conditions the sticky Stop-Leak gook just circulates around doing little to nothing. But if you run over a nail and puncture the tire, the Stop-Leak immediately jumps into action and seals the leak.

In the human body, both LDL and HDL cholesterol are circulating. If the blood vessels and coronary arteries become weakened, due to decreased collagen production because of lack of Vitamin C, they can develop leaks. Cholesterol comes to the rescue by applying a sticky patch of Lipoprotein A cholesterol on the leak. So the solution to stop these sticky patches of cholesterol is to 1-boost collagen production to minimize the chance of a leak to begin with & 2-use up the chemical receptor sites for the sticky cholesterol, leaving the sticky cholesterol nowhere to stick! Taking adequate dietary supplements of Vitamin C, L-lysine, & L-proline does just that. It boosts collagen production and denies Lipoprotein A binding sites. The result is reduced clogging of arteries or even reversal in clogged arteries.

I’m sorry, but I’ll take the word of a two-time Nobel Prize winner above the experts of Big Pharma and Big Medicine. For more information on Pauling’s Theory and recommendations for supplements visit some of the following links:

http://www.ourhealthcoop.com/pauling.htm

http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/collagen.html

http://internetwks.com/owen/gorilla3.htm

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/08/prweb545315.htm

Above I have just talked about Vitamin C’s crucial role in heart disease and atherosclerosis. But the benefits of Vitamin C go FAR BEYOND this. Vitamin C boosts the immune system, fights cancer, aids functioning of the adrenal gland, detoxifies metals and toxic chemicals, and fights free radical damage throughout the body.

Like anything in life, you get what you pay for. High quality vitamins are more expensive than cheap, discount store multivitamins. My suggestion to you is that if you don’t plan on buying GOOD vitamins, then don’t bother taking any at all.

Difference between a Hyundai and an Accura = $$$

Difference between a Chuck Steak and a Porterhouse = $$$

Difference between an Alpine and a Kraco stereo = $$$

If you are going to supplement daily to avoid heart disease and cancer, then do it properly. Otherwise don’t bother. Buy high quality vitamins from reputable companies. Don’t count the number of pills. The number of pills is not important. The total weight of fifteen or twenty pills is probably about the same as three or four french fries. How much food do you consume each day? Two double cheeseburgers, a large fry, and a chocolate shake have to weigh in at several pounds. Those ten or fifteen vitamin pills weigh in at a fraction of an ounce, yet give you more nutrition and benefit than the three pounds of cheeseburgers and fries. The nutritional necessities of a 200+ pound human body will not come from one single multivitamin. Avoid those at all costs. Many do more harm than good.

My daily suggestions are roughly the following. But please do your own research or consult a naturopath or herbalist for better guidance. The values I list are only approximate and should be tailored for the size, age, and condition of the person taking it. I do not claim to be an expert on supplements. I will simply tell you what I gave Colette to help her recovery from heart disease.

Vitamin C - 3000 mg = 3 grams per day, minimum, more if actively clearing arteries. Buffered or Ester are easier on the stomach. It is water soluble & virtually impossible to overdose. Worst case, above 10g a day, you might get diarrhea...just reduce the amount

Vitamin B complex - any good multi-B complex. Another school of heart disease (which I didn’t get into) is that heart disease is caused by Vitamin B deficiencies. Methyl B 12 shows promise for heart patients and autistic children. Vitamin B is water soluble & overdosing is rare.

Vitamin E - 400 IU a day. Buy good quality Vit E, there is a lot of toxic junk out there. Or you could go 100% natural and use Red Palm Oil or Rice Bran Oil. You want a Vit. E that contains all the alpha, beta, delta, and gamma forms of both tocotrienol and tocopherol. Avoid synthetic Vitamin E’s that have di- as a prefix on the label. Vitamin E is fat soluble, so overdosing should be avoided. Certain prescription drug interactions should be checked.

Multimineral - a good asporotate (aspartate) multi-mineral, one capsule

L-lysine, amino acid, 2000-3000 mg/day = 2-3g. I believe capsules are better than tablets because of less stomach irritation.

L-proline, amino acid, 1000-2000 mg/day = 1-2g. Capsules.

Flax oil or similar Omega 3-6-9 oil, per directions. Keep it refrigerated.

Vitamin D: 1200+ units/day, helps prevent colon cancer

Lecithin 1000mg/day, helps loosen fatty deposits in arteries, helps brain function.

For congestive heart failure I would add:

Taurine, amino acid, it strengthens the heartbeat 500-1000mg/day

L-Carnitine, amino acid, it also strengthens the heartbeat, smooths out heart electrical system 1000mg/day

Acetyl-L-Carnitine, variant of carnitine with similar heart benefits that also helps mental cognition, also good for depression & concentration problems. 1000mg/day

Alpha Lipoic Acid, helps deliver energy to heart cells, 400mg/day

CoQ10 if you can afford it, 150 mg/day, strengthens heart, collagen production, skin health, works with E and C

Herbal substances that are good for everyone & especially heart patients:

Garlic, deodorized if garlic breath/sweat are a problem

Ginko Biloba, I prefer liquid form such as Gaia herbs liquid tinctures. $$$

Bromelain, i.e. pineapple enzyme, breaks up clots & scars.

Gugulipid, similar to bromelain, used in India for thousands of years.

Evening Primrose Oil

Grape Seed Extract

Pine Bark Extract

Cayenne Pepper

Serrapeptase, silk-worm digestive enzyme, loosens artery clogs & scars

Nattokinase, Soy tofu digestive enzyme, loosens clogs & scars.

+ many more.

I’ve listed the ones with which I have had personal experience. The point is, EDTA chelation combined with even a handful of the above supplements will work wonders compared to Western Medicine’s blow-out-the-liver cholesterol and blood thinning drugs.

Ultimately, it’s your choice. I just want you to be aware there are alternatives to Big Pharma and Big Med.

EDTA CHELATION THERAPY DESERVES ITS OWN PAGE. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT EDTA CLICK HERE.