Lysine And The Pauling Therapy - for Curing Heart Disease

Lysine And The Pauling Therapy
STOP HEART ATTACKS NOW!

Lysine and The Pauling Therapy Advanced Heart Technology

Vitamin C, Lysine and "Lysine Analogs" are Supported by U. S. Patent to Reverse Atherosclerotic Plaque Build-ups in Organs and Arteries caused by Lipoprotein-(a). (U. S. Patents # 5,230,996 and # 5,278,189)



* Read about a famous Nobel Prize-winning scientist’s little known invention to fight heart disease.
* Discover a non-invasive heart disease therapy that is based upon essential vitamins and amino acids; i.e., "body safe" natural substances that are required for life in smaller amounts and do not require a prescription from your doctor.
* Learn why vitamins A, C, and E anti-oxidants and important amino acids are required for collagen production and healthy cardiovascular function.
* Realize that there are now more than 1100 mainstream scientific and medical journal articles that document the risk of heart disease caused by Lipoprotein(a) cholesterol.

"Now I've got to the point where I think we can get almost complete control of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and strokes by the proper use of vitamin C and lysine. It can prevent cardiovascular disease and even cure it."

Linus Pauling, British Journal of Optimum Nutrition (JON), Aug. 1994

CONGRATULATIONS! You are about to become more informed and take charge of your health and well being. This booklet contains controversial information. You will learn about lipoprotein-(a) (small -- "a") cholesterol, or Lp(a) for short. While you may not have heard of Lp(a) yet, vitamin C and the amino acids lysine and proline are the building blocks of collagen; the protein that literally holds your body together. All these substances promote healing. They may have other totally unexpected benefits as well. The only scientist to win two unshared Nobel prizes said:

"You need lysine to be alive, it is essential, but you can take lysine, pure lysine, a perfectly non toxic substance in food [as supplements], and that puts extra lysine molecules in the blood. They enter into competition with the lysyl residues on the walls of arteries and accordingly count to prevent lipoprotein-(a) from being deposited or even will work to pull it loose and destroy atherosclerotic plaques." [Linus Pauling, JON, Aug. 1994]

According to this world famous chemist and medical researcher, sufficient amounts of vitamin C and lysine, dubbed the Pauling Therapy, may prevent and may even reverse atherosclerotic plaque build-up caused by lipoprotein-(a).

The NEW, Noninvasive Heart Technologiesare:

* DRUG FREE! You do not need a prescription from your doctor to take advantage of this invention.
* LOW COST! Compared to prescription alternatives.
* HEALTHFUL! These natural sub-stances are commonly found in the diet and are necessary in some amount for life itself. They promote general health by helping to heal and to strengthen your blood vessels and to increase muscle strength and fitness.
* ADVANCED SCIENCE! The new technology increases the dosage of these substances to high levels. This idea is based on the invention and the many careful experiments conducted by a team headed by one of America’s most highly regarded scientists. The Lp(a) threat is now documented in over 1100 research papers.

Linus Pauling and Dr. Matthias Rath, MD, were awarded two United States patents for methods that reverse occlusive cardiovascular disease by inhibiting the binding of lipoprotein(a).
IS HEART DISEASE A VITAMIN DEFICIENCY DISEASE?

According to the Linus Pauling Unified Theory of Heart Disease the primary cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD), also called atherosclerosis and leading to heart attack and stroke, is a chronic deficiency of Vitamin C in our diets.

The Pauling/Rath hypothesis rests on the pioneering work of two Canadian medical doctors J. C. Paterson, MD and G. C. Willis, MD conducted in the late 1930s through the 1950s. These two medical doctors suspected that the heart disease process is related to the stability of arteries. They noticed that atherosclerotic plaques are not randomly distributed. Plaques usually develop at the same locations in places where blood vessels are stretched or squeezed, i.e., where mechanical forces and stresses are great, e.g., in the coronary arteries.

In 1937, on a hunch, Dr. Paterson measured tissue levels of vitamin C in hospital patients. He showed that heart patients have 80% lower tissue levels of vitamin C in their blood vessels compared to other patients in the hospital. In the 1950s, Willis showed that vitamin C intake correlates to atherosclerosis in both humans and guinea pigs. Willis discovered that 500 mg of vitamin C added to the diet could reverse plaque build-up in about half the human patients. Plaque was not reduced in the controls. Daily vitamin C was 100% effective preventing atherosclerosis in guinea pigs.

Incomprehensibly these important first steps reported in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association were not followed-up by other medical researchers.

The hypothesis that heart disease results from a chronic vitamin C deficiency flies in the face of drug company research programs.

Today reportedly more than 80 drug companies are seeking FDA approval for heart medications. Many are aimed at reducing the so-called "bad" LDL cholesterol.


LINUS PAULING VIDEO ON HEART DISEASE: UNIFIED THEORY OF CAUSE AND CURE.

In 1993, at 92 years of age, two-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling delivered a major one-hour speech that presents his Unified Theory of Cardiovascular Disease. In Pauling’s opinion, heart disease can now be "completely controlled" by large amounts of vitamin C and lysine. The information on this video is yet to be publicly challenged, refuted, or even seriously questioned by any competent scientist or medical researcher.

Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, is essential and required for life. According to Elson M. Hass, MD:

"One important function of vitamin C is in the formation and maintenance of collagen, the basis of connective tissue, which is found in skin, ligaments, cartilage, vertebral discs, joint linings, capillary walls, and the bones and teeth. Collagen, and thus vitamin C, is needed to give support and shape to the body, to help wounds heal, and to maintain healthy blood vessels. Specifically, ascorbic acid works as a coenzyme to convert proline and lysine to hydroxy-proline and hydroxy-lysine, both important to the collagen structure. http://www.healthy.net/library/books/haas/vitamins/cvit.htm

The classic vitamin C deficiency disease, scurvy, results from an acute deficiency. A human being on a daily diet of less than 10 mg of vitamin C will die from scurvy in weeks. One half of all scurvy deaths are the result of internal bleeding as the weakened blood vessels rupture. The scorbutic guinea pig also suffers atherosclerosis.

Pauling's crucial insight is that our diets lead to heart disease, but not in the way most people think. Our diets have sufficient vitamin C to prevent scurvy, but less than what we need to function optimally and keep our blood vessels flexible and strong. The result is a sub-clinical form of scurvy, i.e., chronic scurvy.

Linus Pauling believed that most of us suffer chronic scurvy. This wide-spread, low-level condition is considered normal and eventually leads to sores (lesions) in the walls of blood vessels. Vitamin C is required to keep blood vessels strong and healthy. According to theory, the damage caused by chronic scurvy results from mechanical stress in the arteries, especially in regions where there is turbulence or high blood pressure.

Dr. Matthias Rath’s analogy for the heart beat squeezing the coronary arteries is that of stepping on a garden hose roughly 80 times every minute.

Evolution has provided humans with a solution to problem of chronic scurvy, i.e., not enough vitamin C in the diet. The internal damage caused by chronic scurvy would eventually weaken blood vessels to the point of rupture, if not for one life saving factor:

ATHEROSCLEROTIC PLAQUE

A Nobel prize in Medicine was awarded for the finding that lesions in the walls of blood vessels are the primary cause of atherosclerotic plaques. Clusters of "fat" molecules acting as repair agents form nature's "plaster casts" against the weakness of blood vessel walls. These sticky molecules are lipoprotein(a). If these deposits continue to develop in the arteries of the heart they lead to heart attack. If they continue to develop in the arteries of the brain they lead to stroke.

Hundreds of investigators found that only a specific type of cholesterol molecule, lipoprotein-(a), or Lp(a) for short, is the primary material that binds to a lesion in the walls of an artery forming plaques. Lp(a) is an ordinary LDL cholesterol molecule with a sticky apo-protein(a) (or apo(a)) attached to the surface. Animals that make their own vitamin C generally do not have the variant Lp(a) cholesterol molecules.

Pauling’s revolutionary concept is that lipoprotein-(a) cholesterol in the blood is an evolutionary adaption for, and a symptom of, low vitamin C.

After crucial experiments, Dr. Pauling believed that the vitamin C/lysine protocol (as he presents on his video) would save lives by: a) Preventing chronic scurvy, b) Strengthening and healing blood vessels, c) Keeping Lp(a) blood levels low and d) Inhibiting the binding of Lp(a) molecules to blood vessel walls.


WHY DON'T ANIMALS GET HEART ATTACKS?

Can the absence of cardiovascular disease in animals confirm the Pauling/Rath Unified Theory? According to veterinary text books, heart attack, stroke – cardiovascular disease in general -- is largely unknown in animals. Dr. Rath points out that if scientists could determine the reason, they would have an important clue to the puzzle.

Irwin Stone introduced Linus Pauling to the benefits of high amounts of vitamin C. Stone wrote, "We can surmise that the production of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) was an early accomplishment of the life process because of its wide distribution in nearly all present-day living organisms. It is produced in comparatively large amounts in the simplest plants and the most complex; it is synthesized in the most primitive animal species as well as in the most highly organized. Except possibly for a few micro-organisms, those species of animals that cannot make their own ascorbic acid are the exceptions and require it in their food if they are to survive. Without it, life cannot exist. Because of its nearly universal presence in both plants and animals we can also assume that its production was well organized before the time when evolving life forms diverged along separate plant and animal." [I. Stone, THE HEALING FACTOR: Vitamin C Against Disease, ‘76]

You might wonder, Don’t animals die young? The average life span of the Elephant is 60 years. There are other species (e.g. Giant Tortoises) that can live over 100 years. Why don’t most animals (other than primates, guinea pigs, fruit bats and a few parrots) suffer from heart disease? The reason, according to Linus Pauling:

Most animals produce their own vitamin C in amounts varying between 3,000 mg - 12,000 mg per day adjusted for body weight.

Most animals convert ordinary sugar (sucrose) to vitamin C in their kidneys or their liver. The newly created vitamin enters directly into the animal’s blood stream. Animals also get some vitamin C from their food.

Humans cannot produce a single molecule of vitamin C and must rely entirely on the diet. Tissue levels of ascorbic acid, the technical name for vitamin C, may be the most important difference between the physiology of primates (including humans) and other beings.


It is an important finding that the few animal species that do not produce vitamin C, such as the primates and guinea pigs, do produce the "sticky" Lp(a) molecules.

Pauling recommended that people supplement their diet with vitamin C in amounts hundreds of times higher than the 60 mg amount recommended by dietary authorities in the USA. If animal metabolisms are any guide, Pauling’s recommendations may be too low.

Pauling’s own experiments showed that roughly 1/2 the amount of vitamin C ingested may be lost in the digestive tract or by urinary excretion. [1986 Pauling video on Cancer]


BUT WHAT IF YOU ALREADY HAVE HEART DISEASE?

If the Pauling/Rath Unified Theory is correct, then the most likely reason you have heart disease is because your vitamin C intake has been less than optimal. You will want to increase your vitamin C.



What about existing plaques?

After investigators determined that Lp(a) causes atherosclerosis, the next question for scientists became: "What causes these "fat" molecules to stick to the artery wall?"The Nobel prize winning answer turned out to be amino acid residues -- the so-called Lysine (and Proline) Binding Sites or LBS.

The Lp(a) or "cholesterol" binding sites are really just collagen protein (amino acid) residues that becomes exposed when blood vessels "crack." These exposed residues attract the Lp(a) molecules creating the plaque.

. . . A very important discovery. . .

What if the sticky Lp(a) molecules could be reduced, or were attracted some place other than the damaged arterial wall?

"Knowing that lysyl residues are what causes lipoprotein-(a) to get stuck to the wall of the artery and form plaques, any physical chemist would say at once that the thing to do is prevent that by putting the amino acid lysine in the blood to a greater extent than it is normally." [Linus Pauling, JON, Aug. '94]

Pauling’s invention is to increase the lysine concentration in the blood serum causing Lp(a) to bind with lysine molecules in the blood rendering the Lp(a) inactive.

Today, there are more than 1100 MEDLINE (US National Medical Database) references to Lp(a). These reports confirm the Nobel prize winning research paper of Brown-Goldstein and provide a solid foundation for the Pauling Unified Theory. The fundamental and now generally recognized scientific fact is that Lp(a) cholesterol molecules bind to blood vessel walls via the Lysine and Proline Binding Sites forming atherosclerotic plaques and occlusive cardiovascular disease.

A corollary is that ordinary LDL (so-called "bad") cholesterol is not the primary cause of plaque build-up, any more than calcium.

Massive research now supports the insight of Linus Pauling, who well ahead of his time in 1994 pointed out, "If you have more than 20mg/dl of Lp(a) in your blood it begins depositing plaques causing atherosclerosis."

The Pauling/Rath U. S. Patent # 5,278,189 is for the prevention and treatment of occlusive cardiovascular disease with vitamin C and substances that inhibit the binding of lipoprotein-(a). The patent provides a method for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, such as atherosclerosis, by administering therapeutically effective dosages of a formula composed of vitamin C, lipoprotein-(a) binding inhibitors (e.g., lysine and proline or their analogs) and antioxidants.

Linus Pauling and Matthias Rath discovered that substances that inhibit the binding of lipoprotein-(a) also cause lipoprotein-(a) to be released from the arterial wall. According to the patent, a binding inhibitor (e.g., lysine or lysine analog) used alone or in conjunction with vitamin C, finds Lp(a) in the blood and binds with it before the molecule can reach the walls of arteries. At high enough concentrations, the lysine in the blood attracts Lp(a) in the existing plaques and will dissolve the plaque.

The inescapable conclusion is that the essential, very low cost and completely nontoxic amino acid lysine, when taken with vitamin C in amounts far larger than one normally consumes in the diet, may reduce or may even eliminate Lp(a) based atherosclerosis in human beings.

The lysine treatment mechanism doesn’t depend on the reason the Lp(a) based plaque forms. It really doesn’t matter whether the arterial lesions were caused by mechanical stress, a vitamin deficiency, oxidized cholesterol, elevated homo-cysteine, fat in the diet, or even little green men…


HEART ATTACKS -- A LOOK BACK

The following historical perspective and commentary is adapted from various sources, including a published interview with Linus Pauling in the August 1994 Journal of Optimum Nutrition, books published by Earl Mindell and Drs. Eades, the Wayne Martin articles published in The Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, and Dr. Julian Whitaker’s Health and Healing. It is provided here for informational purposes only and should in no way be considered an endorsement of any product or therapy by these publications or authors.

From the pen of Wayne Martin (January 1998):

This is to suggest that deaths from heart attacks and cancer can be reduced by half without changing our lifestyles all that much.

First let’s address the subject of deaths from the kind of heart attack now called myocardial infarction (MI) but which 70 years ago was called coronary thrombosis.

There are in the USA now about 500,000 such deaths a year but this is a new disease that has come about in this century. Prior to 1925 there was almost no knowledge of this disease.

Beginning in 1975 Dr. Rodney Finlayson, who is now in retirement in North Devon in England, did a study of the records of several London hospitals dating back to 1869 looking for case histories that were obvious cases of death from MI. Here is what he found. His figures are a ratio of deaths from MI per unit of population. From 1869 until 1900 there was one MI death per unit. By 1910 there were 10 MI deaths per unit. This was the time when machine made cigarettes were on the market and Dr. Finlayson suggested that cigarette smoking had caused deaths from MI to increase by a factor of ten. By 1980 MI deaths per unit of population had increased to 80.

Dr. Finlayson did not know it but at the same time Dr. Alaster Mackinnon had been doing the same study in Yorkshire. This study was of a constant population, of about 22,000. The Mackinnon results were the same as in the Finlayson study, that is that MI deaths increased in a ratio of one in 1900 to 10 in 1910 to 80 in 1980.

There were in the late 1960s reports of two populations in the world who were as free from MI deaths as was the English population in 1900. One such population was the black population in Uganda and the other was the population living near Udiapur in north India. This suggests that we could again be as free from MI deaths as was the population of England in 1900.

We will now go back to 1882 when Dr. Bizzozero discovered blood platelets and suggested that they start all blood clots. He had it all figured out right then that the beginning of all blood clots is a white or platelet thrombus. He said that in a blood clot there is first the platelet thrombus followed by the more massive fibrin thrombus. The problem was that he was about the only doctor in the world who could be made to believe this finding. However the editor of The Lancet in 1883 made favorable comment about Dr. Bizzozero's discovery. Nearly all doctors then were certain that there were no such things as blood platelets.

In 1926, Tait and Burk of the University of Montreal redid the work of Bizzozero and reconfirmed the nature of a platelet thrombus (blood clot). They had no better luck in convincing doctors than did Bizzozero. At this time, a blood clot was thought to be made of fibrin. Eventually the medical community recognized the existence of blood platelets, however, did not believe they were responsible for blood clots or disease states.

In 1930 Professor Karl Link of the University of Wisconsin discovered warfarin and believed it would prevent the formation of fibrin in a blood clot. After the discovery the university made millions of dollars on the sale of warfarin to kill rats; a massive dose would cause internal bleeding.

In 1945 doctors began to treat heart attack patients with a low dose of warfarin to prevent the formation of fibrin in coronary artery blood clots. Thereafter heart attack patients by the millions were maintained on a low dose of warfarin for years.

By 1955 the medical community concluded warfarin would not prevent a second heart attack, so cholesterol was discovered and said to be the cause of heart attacks. As blood clots seemed to no longer be the problem, the name of the disease was changed to myocardial infarction.
The Prudent Diet

Research on the polyunsaturated liquid vegetable fats, such as corn oil, in diet showed these fats would reduce cholesterol in blood slightly, which led to the birth of the Prudent Diet. With the Prudent Diet, the amount of polyunsaturated vegetable fats should double the amount of saturated animal fats.

It is difficult to believe but almost overnight cardiologists had unlimited faith in the Prudent Diet as being the ultimate answer to the pandemic of MI’s. Having said that every one should live on the Prudent Diet to keep from having a heart attack, cardiologists then set out to prove this conjecture.

The first study was the Joliffe Anti-Coronary Club in New York City. Joliffe was a doctor working for the city. He was a diabetic and a vascular wreck. He was in a wheelchair and had gone blind in one eye. He looked to the Prudent Diet for his salvation.

The control group in this trial were men of wealth on Wall Street who could afford good food, such as eggs, butter, cheese and beef. The Prudent Diet group consisted mainly of the teaching staff at universities in the city. A pharmaceutical company made a special margarine, rich in polyunsaturated fats, to be used in the Prudent Diet group. The Prudent Diet was very strict in having almost no butterfat and very little red meat.

The trial ran four years and was hailed a great success because total serum cholesterol levels were reduced by 25 percentage points. One had to read the fine print, however, to discover that eight men on the Prudent Diet had fatal heart attacks, whereas none of the controls eating eggs, butter and beef had died. Then Dr. Joliffe died, it was said, of complications of his diabetic condition. He may have had a heart attack.

Cardiologists then decided that to prove the need for the Prudent Diet, there would have to be an anti-coronary club formed with over a million men enrolled. This was the National Diet Heart Study and was formed by Dr. Irwine Page of the Cleveland Clinic who had survived a heart attack. This trial had millions of government dollars to support it. There were food warehouses set up in seven cities where men on the Prudent Diet could get (free) the proper food among which were polyunsaturated donuts.

Before they would get one million men involved, there would first be a pretrial of two thousand men. This pretrial ran for three years and the results were an utter failure. There were exactly the same number of heart attacks, both fatal and non-fatal in both groups, the ones on the Prudent Diet and the controls. This trial had been started with the maximum of PR and fanfare; it was terminated with no public announcement for reasons of "cost".

I saw Dr. Page at the beginning of this trial and he was absolutely confident that the Prudent Diet was going to keep him from having another heart attack. He then died of a second heart attack.

Food for thought: In the Joliffe trial there were no MI deaths among the control group who were living on a diet very much like the diet of 1900 in the USA. In the National Diet Heart Study, there were the same number of fatal heart attacks in both the Prudent Diet and the control group. By this time the entire nation was living on something very close to the Prudent Diet. The men in the Prudent Diet group were living on a diet that was just a little more Prudent.

In England, during the same time, there was a study that had patients who had survived a heart attack and had similar results. Here again the Prudent Diet was an utter failure with the same number of fatal heart attacks in both the Prudent Diet group and the controls.

Then there was an 8-year trial of the Prudent Diet at a VA hospital in California in which cancer deaths increased among the patients on the Prudent Diet by 15%. After this study there was an editorial in the British Medical Journal that suggested a relationship between the intake of polyunsaturated fats and the development of cancer.

By now we were up to 1970 and notwithstanding the failures of the diet trials, the Prudent Diet had become engraved in stone as the way to avoid having heart disease. Most of the population of our western world were living on something very close to the Prudent Diet.


The Prudent Diet Increases the Incidence of Heart Attacks



Five populations were studied, all of which suggested that the Prudent Diet was causing heart attacks. First there was the Roseto, Pennsylvania study. This small city is 100% Italian, prosperous Italians. If the Prudent Diet was right, then what these Italians were doing was wrong. They had a diet high in fats from cheese and meatballs cooked with olive oil, which is not very polyunsaturated. In 1955, among this Italian population, there were one-third the MI deaths as compared to other cities in eastern Pennsylvania and the nation as a whole. Here it was suggested that living in big families reduced the stresses of life thus preventing heart attacks. In no way could it be suggested that the Prudent Diet was causing deaths from heart disease. By 1970 the population of Roseto was having the same number of MI deaths as the nation, doctors having persuaded them to live on the Prudent Diet.

Next was the Boston Irish Brothers Study. Here brothers were studied, one remained in Ireland and one went to Boston. In 1965, the population of Ireland consumed large amounts of saturated animal fat in milk, butter, and meat and very little of the "good polyunsaturated fats." It was fully expected that the brothers in Boston would have fewer MI deaths than the brothers in Ireland. What they found was just the opposite, the butter-eating brothers in Ireland were having far fewer MI deaths. Cardiologists said that men in Ireland did more walking that kept them from having the same amount of fatalities from heart disease. Again there could be no suggestion that the Prudent Diet was a factor in the group with increased MI deaths.

Then there was a study in India. The population in North India were found to be nearly free from MI deaths. These Indians in 1970 were the world's biggest eaters of a fat substance called ghee. They also consumed meat and large amounts of onions and garlic. At this time there was a strict vegetarian population in the south of India who lived on the Prudent Diet more closely than anyone in the USA. They had a high fat diet in which all fats were polyunsaturated vegetable oil or margarine made from it. They were having 15 times the MI deaths as compared to the butterfat-eating north Indians. By 1988, things had changed in the north of India. Low cost liquid polyunsaturated vegetable oil had priced ghee out of the market. Also, doctors were teaching the Prudent Diet. By then the death rate from MI in north India had increased to match that in the USA.

A significant finding came from a study of the French and Scottish populations. Their diets were similar with the French consuming more butter and cheese. Both populations had elevated serum cholesterol levels, however the mortality rate from MI in Scotland was five times greater among men and eleven times greater among women. The difference was that the French were drinking about 400 cc. a day of wine. The grapes are rich with bioflavonoids and antioxidants.

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Increase the Incidence of Heart Disease

I have had a long friendship with Professor Terrence Anderson who was the administrator of the School of Public Health at the University of British Columbia. He maintains that the pandemic of MI deaths since 1900 has been caused by consuming large amounts of polyunsaturated vegetable fats from which the antioxidants have been removed. It is a fact that as MI deaths have increased 80-fold since 1900, polyun-saturated fats have increased in diet by a factor of three. The population studies also correlate diets high in polyunsaturated fatty acids with increasing MI deaths.

Just look at the fats in diet in 1900 when MI was unknown and most rare. They were butter and lard. The only polyunsaturated vegetable oil to be had then was cottonseed oil and the use of it was minuscule.

In 1980 cardiologists resurrected platelets and blood clots as a cause of MI deaths - and told everyone over 40 to take aspirin to prevent having a heart attack. One factor in the prevention of MI is the adhesiveness of platelets as the greater the adhesion of platelets the greater the chance of having a coronary blood clot.

Then came a series of trials on aspirin in the prevention of MI. The results were about the same as Prudent Diet trials. There were in the 1970s two trials in England that were failures. No benefit or very slight benefit was found for aspirin in the prevention of MI. This was followed by a much larger US government-financed trial in the USA and reported in 1980. This trial was an abject failure with much bleeding of the stomach due to aspirin and no benefit at all in the prevention of MI.

Doctors felt that the case could be made for aspirin if only doctors were the subjects. A trial in England among doctors was again a failure, however a larger trial among doctors in the USA was hailed as a great success. In this American trial, non-fatal heart attacks were reduced by 40%. The bad news however, was that fatal heart attacks were not reduced and moreover overall survival was not increased. Nonetheless as the result of this trial, it was suggested or even demanded that all men over 40 should be taking aspirin.

There was something a bit different about this trial among doctors in the USA. Bufferin was used and Bufferin contains both aspirin and some magnesium. Magnesium is greatly beneficial to the heart. It reduces platelet adhesion, is a vasodilator and is a potent antiarrhythmic agent.
Platelet Adhesiveness

At the National Heart Hospital in London circa 1970, they were using a test for platelet adhesion and the results were stated as PAI, platelet adhesiveness index. In this test a blood sample was taken and a platelet count was made. Then a second blood sample was taken and this time the blood was passed over glass beads. If half the platelets stuck to the beads, PAI was 50. Patients who had survived a heart attack would have PAI of 50 and hence were considered to be at risk of death from a second heart attack. Young women who never suffer from MI have PAI of 20 yet they will have proper blood clots in wounds.

At the National Heart Hospital, in the years 1960 to 1965, they did a PAI test on every patient to come to this hospital and they never found a single patient with PAI less than 40. They felt anyone with a PAI of less than 40 was not going to have a heart attack. Put another way, they felt that the great problem about MI was one of blood clots in coronary arteries.

The idea of testing for PAI never came to the USA.

There are all kinds of things other than aspirin that reduce PAI, one of which is the drug dipyridamole. Here mention will be made of the European Stroke Prevention Study. About 90% of strokes are thrombotic strokes, blood clots in blood vessels in the brain. This trial had as subjects patients who had had an indication of a stroke. First aspirin alone was used with little or no benefit. Then dipyridamole was added to treatment, 300 mg a day and the results were outstanding. Stroke deaths were reduced by 50%, heart attack deaths by 35% and cancer deaths by 25%.

There are many things that reduce PAI better than aspirin. Vitamin E at 400 iu a day will, as will Vitamin B6 at over 40 mg day. There was an editorial in The Lancet a few years ago on how anti-thrombic is vitamin B6 at over 40 Mg. So is fish oil. This is the omega-3 fatty acid that we have been hearing so much about of late. Then recently from the University of Wisconsin has been a report that purple grape juice at 10 oz. a day will reduce PAI better than aspirin. It has been suggested that gamma linolenic acid in evening primrose oil will reduce PAI better than anything else. Also the oils of onion and garlic will reduce PAI. Ground ginger also is greatly effective in reducing PAI and like aspirin, it will reduce pain. It is highly anti-inflammatory. It is a sad state of affairs that doctors in the USA have gotten most men over 40 taking aspirin while not setting up a test to see if it is in fact, reducing PAI.
Antioxidants Prevent MI Deaths

Now back to the teaching of Terrence Anderson. He says that antioxidants are greatly important in the prevention of MI deaths. The 10-year Zutphen study has just been reported. This is a study of a small city in the Netherlands that started out to find out about cholesterol and MI deaths. After five years, there was no good association in this study between cholesterol and MI deaths so it was changed to be a study of one antioxidant in diet, quercitin. This is a flavonoid antioxidant. In this population, quercitin came from black tea and onions. The part of this population with less than 10 mg a day of quercitin were having almost double the death rate from MI as compared to the ones with over 30 mg of quercitin. There were 39 MI deaths among the men with less than 10 mg of quercitin and only 21 among the men with the highest quercitin in diet. I say why bother with 30 mg of quercitin a day. I take 1,000 mg.

Whole grains contain antioxidants, mostly tocopherols. Vitamin E is alpha tocopherol. Now back to the teaching of Anderson, he says that after 1910 in our Western World, there was a great loss of tocopherol antioxidants as wheat flour was made white by bleaching with strong oxidizing agents which abolished the tocopherols. Deaths from MI began to increase as white bread replaced whole grain bread. He cites the case of Italy. Beginning in 1919 and until 1946, Italy banned the milling of white flour, this to reduce the importation of wheat. During this period all bread was whole grain. The big increase in MI deaths that occurred in the USA and England did not happen until after 1946 In Italy.

Anderson attributes the lesser death rate from MI among the brothers in Ireland in the Boston Irish Brother Study to the very large consumption of oatmeal porridge in Ireland, a whole grain rich in tocopherols.

We now have many new antioxidants available to us. One is coenzyme Q10 which now has worldwide usage in treating congestive heart disease. There is melatonin which like coenzyme Q10, we make a little of. About 25 years ago, cardiologists were much concerned about catecholamines causing heart attacks. If a man is exposed to great stress and excitement such as running to a fire, catecholamines are released in the myocardium causing severe damage to the heart. They most likely set off fatal arrhythmias which are followed by coronary blood clots.

In a recent letter to The Lancet there was a report that melatonin inhibits catecholamine release. In this study, patients who had survived a heart attack had low melatonin in blood as compared to men who had not had a heart attack.

Two more antioxidants that are now available in pills are N acetyl cysteine and alpha lipoic acid.

Vitamin A is a weak antioxidant, but there was a report in The Lancet a few years ago from Belgium showing that a high level of vitamin A in blood is protective against thrombotic strokes. Here it was explained that when a blood clot in a vessel in the brain shuts off oxygen to the brain nearby, free radical action begins to kill brain cells. If there is enough vitamin A in blood and tissue, this free radical killing of brain cells will not happen. The body has the ability to lyse small blood clots and in time to restore oxygen to the brain. A high level of vitamin A in blood and tissue will give the natural fibrinolytic action time to happen, fibrinolytic meaning the lysing of blood clots.

Lately, there have been super potent antioxidants found in grape seed and in the skin of grapes.

LDL Cholesterol Only Bad When 0xidized

At the end of 1996 there was a year end supplement on heart attacks in The Lancet. By now it is known that the major bulk of human atheroma is not fat or cholesterol but rather is mostly made up of proliferating smooth muscle cells. There is however, an effect that cholesterol has on causing heart attack. For many years it has been known that we have two types of cholesterol, LDL cholesterol which is the bad form and HDL cholesterol which is said to be good cholesterol. Now it is understood that LDL cholesterol when oxidized, has the effect of causing spasms of vasoconstriction of muscles in coronary arteries and that these spasms then start a heart attack by causing arrythmias. If one has a proper amount of antioxidants in diet, then LDL cholesterol will not be oxidized. It could be that cholesterol is only harmful when LDL cholesterol is oxidized.

The population of Okinawa has a very low death rate from MI while having serum cholesterol that is high by current orthodox standards. What is shaping up is that if a person has in diet enough antioxidants to prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, then a moderate elevation in blood of cholesterol may not be causing heart attacks at all.

Circa 1950, Dr. Henry Schroeder of Dartmouth Medical College had done a study in the USA on hard vs soft water and he found far fewer heart attack deaths in areas of very hard water. He concentrated his studies on two cities, Lincoln, Nebraska and Savannah, Georgia. Lincoln had water with a hardness of 200 ppm. Savannah had water With 55 ppm. Savannah was having over two times the heart attack death rate as compared to Lincoln. Water softeners came into almost universal usage after 1940. They no doubt played a part in increasing deaths from MI from 1 in 1900 to 80 in 1980. Dr. Schroeder felt that if that part of the population of Lincoln who had water softeners were factored out, then the population of Savannah would be having three times the death rate from heart attacks. Dr. Schroeder was unable to finish this study due to his developing cancer. Dr. Schroder did not know it in 1950, but the great benefit due to hard water is the magnesium connection. Here is an interesting thought: The hard water in Lincoln, Nebraska and French wine have the same magnesium content. I buy liquid magnesium citrate and drink about one ounce a day.

I think that Anderson was right in saying that a big increase in polyunsaturated fats in diet from which the antioxidants have been largely removed, has been causing the big increase in MI deaths. The question then is what would be the effect of these polyunsaturated fats along with a big packet of antioxidants. No one knows for there has been no studies of this combination.

In about 1970 I visited Dr. Kurt Oster, cardiologist at Fairfield University. Homogenized milk came on the market in 1936 and Dr. Oster holds that it has greatly increased deaths from MI. In any event, it came along at a time when MI deaths were increasing at a rapid rate. The cow puts xanthine oxidase, an enzyme that causes oxidation, in milk in big particles which are excreted in feces. When milk is homogenized, the xanthine oxidase particles are made very small and they pass right into the blood Circulation. He claims that that this enzyme causes the vasospams that precede the coronary blood clots of MI.

In 1981 Dr. Stephen Seely of the University of Manchester published a report on liquid milk consumption vs MI deaths. He compared Finland with 30 grams of protein a day from liquid milk, to Germany with 14 grams to Yugoslavia with 8 grams to Japan with 2.5 grams. Germany had only half the MI death rate of Finland. Yugoslavia had one fourth and Japan only one-tenth, the death rate from MI as compared to Finland.

Seely had started this study with the idea that butterfat may be causing MI deaths and his liquid milk study supported this concept, however he had a problem. He had done a worldwide study on cheeses and found that there is not the least association between cheese consumption and MI deaths. The xanthine oxidase concept was most welcome to him. Milk is not homogenized before it is made into, cheese.

Finally, in 1966 and 1967 Boris Sokoloff, et. al. published their findings about vitamin C and cardiovascular disease. When blood is high in tryglycerides, it is turbid. Then the tryglycerides are acted on by lipoprotein lapase (LPL) made by the pancreas and the tryglycerides are converted to water soluble lipoproteins.

First with rabbits and then with humans, he showed that one to three grams a day of vitamin C would increase LPL production to produce more alpha lipoprotein while reducing both tryglycerides and the "bad" cholesterol.

Then Sokoloff got a group of 60 patients who were past aged 60 who had survived a thrombotic stroke or a heart attack. They all had elevated cholesterol and triglycerides and low production of LPL. They were all maintained on one to three grams a day of vitamin C for one year. There was not a single vascular event, heart attack or stroke in this group in that year when it was expected that there would be between six and 12 heart attacks or strokes in such a group.

I feel certain that without changing lifestyles much, we can all get back to where MI deaths can be as rare as they were in 1900. To do this, the first thing that would have to be stopped would be the Prudent Diet.

First Published in the Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients

Correspondence:

Wayne Martin

25 Orchard Drive

Fairhope, Alabama 36532 USA



Heart Surgery

"… the heart surgery industry is a fraud."

-- Julian Whitaker, MD

"The heart surgery industry is booming. According to American Heart Association statistics, in 1995 1,460,000 angiograms (the diagnostic procedure that starts the ball rolling) were performed at an average cost of $10,880 per procedure. This resulted in 573,000 bypass surgeries at$44,820 a shot, and 419,000 angioplasties (the balloon procedure for opening up arteries) at $20,370 each. The total bill for these procedures is over $50 billion a year.

"The millions of people told that they needed immediate surgery to save their lives actually had a 98.4% chance of surviving without surgery!" [CASE study published by the New England Journal of Med., 1983]

"There is no scientific justification for the use of angiography, balloon angioplasty and bypass surgery to treat most cardiovascular disease. A good example of this is angioplasty, in which a balloon on the tip of a catheter is used to open blockages. In my opinion, there is never a reason for anyone to have an angioplasty. It is a dangerous procedure looking desperately for validation. Whenever it is compared to a non surgical therapy -- and there have been very few of these studies -- patients treated with angioplasty virtually always fare worse. There is a higher death rate, higher heart attack rate and, in general, a higher repeat surgery rate. This procedure will, in my opinion, always be an unproven, expensive and dangerous gimmick that became an accepted therapy based on self-serving "presumption" only.

"Several studies over the past two decades, involving over 6,000 patients with heart disease, have shown that patients funneled into surgical procedures to do significantly worse than those treated with noninvasive techniques. "Noninvasive" refers to the use of medication, not diet, exercise and multiple vitamin supplements, which can be quite beneficial." Bypass surgery may be helpful for some patients, but it should not be used as the first treatment, and clearly not in mild heart attack patients. Medication, dietary and lifestyle changes, plus nutritional supplements are more effective approaches"


"Other than their cost, the only thing definitely known about these procedures is that they do kill people. Roughly one in 25 patients having a bypass and about one in 65 undergoing angioplasty die from the procedure. Frankly, if we took all of the bypass surgeons and catheter-pushing cardiologists, tied their thumbs together and locked them in a closet, we would save close to 30,000 lives and over $50 billion ever year." Julian Whitaker, Health & Healing, Sep 98, Vol 8, No. 9


Cholesterol

Cholesterol: Villain or Hero?

This excerpt, from the informative book by Michael and Mary Dan Eades, MDs, PROTEIN POWER, offer an excellent overview of the life essential properties of cholesterol.

"The consensus on cholesterol seems to be the lower, the better, but as we shall see, this is not always the case. Far from being a health destroyer, cholesterol is absolutely essential for life. Although most people think of it as being "fat in the blood," only 7 percent of the body's cholesterol is found there. In fact, cholesterol is not really fat at all; it's a pearly-colored, waxy, solid alcohol that is soapy to the touch. The bulk of the cholesterol in your body, the other 93 percent, is located in every cell of the body, where its unique waxy, soapy consistency provides the cell membranes with their structural integrity and regulates the flow of nutrients into and waste products out of the cells.

In addition, among its other diverse and essential functions are these:

* Cholesterol is the building block from which you body makes several important hormones: the adrenal hormones (aldosterone, which helps regulate blood pressure, and hydrocortisone, the body's natural steroid) and the sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone). If you don't have enough cholesterol, you won't make enough sex hormones.
* Cholesterol is the main component of bile acids, which aid in the digestion of foods, particularly fatty foods. Without cholesterol we could not absorb the essential fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K from the food we eat.
* Cholesterol is necessary for normal growth and development of the brain and nervous system. Cholesterol coats the nerves and makes the transmission of nerve impulses possible.
* Cholesterol gives skin its ability to shed water.
* Cholesterol is a precursor of vitamin D in the skin. When exposed to sunlight, this precursor molecule is converted to is active form for use in the body.
* Cholesterol is important for normal growth and repair of tissues since every cell membrane and the organelles (the tiny structures inside the cells that carry out specific functions) within the cells are rich in cholesterol. For this reason newborn animals feed on milk or other cholesterol-rich foods, such as the yolks of eggs, which are there to provide food for the developing bird or chick embryos.
* Cholesterol plays a major role in the transportation of triglycerides -- blood fats -- through the circulatory system.

A quick review of this list should give you a better idea of what cholesterol does and dispel any notion that it is a destroyer of health to be feared and avoided at all costs. Far from being a serial killer, cholesterol is absolutely essential for good health; without it you would die. Without cholesterol we would lose the strength and stability of our cells, rendering them much less resistant to invasion by infection and malignancy. In fact, a grave sign of serious illness, such as cancer development or crippling arthritis, is a falling cholesterol level."

Read more in PROTEIN POWER, Miachael R. Eades, MD, and Mary Dan Eades, MD, Bantam Books, 1996.


Pharmacist Earl Mindell on Cholesterol Lowering Drugs

by Earl Mindell, RPh, PhD



Debunking the Cholesterol Myths

". . . a victim of negative press, cholesterol is an essential component of the production of the steroid hormones and in nerve function as well as other essential body processes. First, there is absolutely no evidence anywhere that normal cholesterol floating around in the blood does any harm. In fact, cholesterol is the building block for all your steroid hormones, which includes all the sex hormones and the cortisones. Even slightly low levels of cholesterol are associated with depression, suicide, and lung cancer in older women. . . For most people, eating high cholesterol foods does not raise cholesterol…

Why Does Cholesterol Accumulate in the Arteries?

"Drug company advertising for cholesterol lowering drugs gives the impression that excessive cholesterol in the blood simply deposits on the artery wall, and that lowering cholesterol levels stops that process. . . High cholesterol is a symptom of an underlying nutritional deficiency and/or toxicity that damages the arteries. . .

The Myth of the Cholesterol Count

"Another cholesterol myth perpetuated by the drug companies is that everyone with a total cholesterol count over 200 mg/dl should be concerned. This is blatantly false. . .

Drugs to More Harm than Good

"While a cholesterol-lowering drug will usually do a very good job of lowering your cholesterol, there's scant, if any, evidence that it will help you live longer or reduce your risk of heart attack unless you are extremely ill or have just suffered from a heart attack. . . There are no studies that show women benefit from these drugs -- all the studies showing even marginal benefits have been done on men. Nor are there any studies showing that they reduce heart attacks or death in men aged 65 to 75. Since heart disease takes decades to develop, it's highly unlikely that cholesterol-lowering drugs will help anyone over the age of 75. That leaves men aged 35 to 55, but even here the evidence of benefit is slim, and the possible side effects are huge. . .

"If the American public had even a clue of how destructive these drugs are, they wouldn't touch them except in an emergency. . .

"Every information sheet on the most commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs will tell you that they cause cancer in rodents when taken long term in relatively normal doses. It's also well-known that they can cause severe emotional imbalances in men, along with a wide array of life-threatening side effects. . . The wisest course of action is to avoid these drugs... "

--Earl Mindell


WARNING

SO-CALLED "ULTRA FAST" HEART SCANS SCORE FALSE POSITIVES AS WELL AS FALSE NEGATIVES!

Today we are subjected to much advertising about a "painless" non-invasive procedure to test for atherosclerotic build-ups, variously called "ultra fast heart scans." These expensive tests can detect the presence of calcium, which may or may not be an indicator of serious arterial blockage. It is well established that arteries can be clogged and blocked without calcium. In this case, the heart scan will report a false negative. In a recent case a former heart patient on the Pauling Therapy for more than two years reported undergoing such a test and having scored "massive heart disease." An invasive angiogram found very little plaque meaning the scan report was a false positive. According to this gentleman:

"The angiogram showed a couple of spots where the plaque was still there, nothing over 40% to 50% occluded. But there were long stretches of arteries, in fact most of the "left anterior descending" that the cardiologist referred to as "beautiful". This same stretch of artery was shown as dangerously occluded in the scan. In fact, so frightening that it caused me to have the angiogram."



THE IMPORTANCE OF VITAMIN C

You may find it difficult to believe that the answer to the riddle of heart disease -- the leading cause of premature death in human beings -- might be something as simple as a vitamin C deficiency. You might be surprised.

Vitamin C and Heart Disease A Chronology

* 1941 Canadian cardiologist J. C. Patterson reports that more than 80% of his heart disease patients have low vitamin C levels.
* 1954 G. C. Willis shows that vitamin C supplementation can reduce arterial deposits.
* 1960s Boris Sokoloff gives 60 humans with CVD multi-gram vitamin C. No vascular events during year long study when 6-12 were expected .
* 1970 Linus Pauling publishes his first book on vitamin C.
* 1970s Vitamin C consumption in the U.S. rises by 300%. Mortality from heart disease decreases by 30% in the U.S.-the only country with a significant drop in heart disease fatalities.
* 1986 Pauling summarizes the evidence for vitamin C against heart disease and other diseases in his book "How to Live Longer and Feel Better", which becomes a best-seller.
* 1989 Rath and Pauling discover that optimum dietary vitamin C prevents the deposition of lipoprotein(a) in artery walls.
* 1991 Rath and Pauling publish "Solution to the Puzzle of Human Cardiovascular Disease".
* 1992 Dr. Enstrom and colleagues (UCLA) show, in over 11,000 Americans, that increased intake of vitamin C reduces the death rate from heart disease by nearly half and prolongs life for more than six years.
* 1993 Pauling films Unified Theory of Heart Disease: Cause and Cure video.
* 1997 More than 1100 MEDLINE references to lipoprotein(a) since 1994, but none test Pauling's claim of a possible vitamin C/lysine cure.
* 1998 The Vitamin C Foundation submits study proposal to National Institutes of Health to formally investigate Pauling's claim.

SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH

"There are more than ten thousand published scientific papers that make it quite clear that there is not one body process (such as what goes on inside cells or tissues) and not one disease or syndrome (from the common cold to leprosy) that is not influenced -- directly or indirectly -- by vitamin C." [Dr. Emanuel Cheraskin, Dr. Ringsdorf and Dr. Sisley from THE VITAMIN C CONNECTION, 1986]

In 1941 Canadian cardiologist. J. C. Paterson reports that more than 80% of his heart disease patients have low vitamin C levels compared to controls. In 1954 Willis shows that vitamin C supplementation can reduce arterial deposits, first in guinea pigs and then in humans using a serial x-ray technique.

Guinea pig experiments are repeatable, these animals share with man the inability to make vitamin C, and show an association between low ascorbate and atherosclerosis, and recently Lp(a). Two of these guinea pig studies were followed up with human prompting the Canadian Dr. Willis, to declare that atherosclerosis is reversible.

During the 1960s Biochemist Irwin Stone and others recommend increased dietary vitamin C supplementation to improve health. In 1966 Dr. Boris Sokoloff and associates study vitamin C in relation to CVD, first in guinea pigs, and later 60 patients who were past aged 60 who had survived a thrombotic stroke or heart attack. All were maintained on one to three grams a day of vitamin C for one year. In 50 out of 60, cardiovascular indications improved. There was not a single vascular event, heart attack or stroke in this group that year when between six and 12 heart attacks or strokes were expected.

In 1970 Dr. Linus Pauling publishes his first book on vitamin C. During the 1970s his institute reports that vitamin C consumption in the U.S. rises by 300%. Mortality from heart disease decreases by 30% in the U.S.-the only country with a significant drop in heart disease fatalities.

Ginter and Schafer publish their studies on the connection between vitamin C and atherosclerosis. In 1986 Dr. Pauling summarizes the evidence for vitamin C against heart disease and other diseases in his book "How to Live Longer and Feel Better", which becomes a best-seller and has an extensive bibliography.

In 1989 Dr. Rath and Dr. Pauling discover that optimum dietary vitamin C prevents the deposition of lipoprotein(a) in artery walls. In 1991 Dr. Rath and Dr. Pauling publish "Solution to the Puzzle of Human Cardiovascular Disease". This paper explains (a) that vitamin C deficiency is the direct and most frequent cause of heart attacks, (b) how plasma risk factors lead to atherosclerotic deposits in arterial walls, (c) why humans suffer from heart attack and stroke but rarely from failure of other organs, and (d) why animal species who are able to produce their own vitamin C in the body do not develop heart disease.

In 1992 Dr. Enstrom and colleagues (UCLA) show, in over 11,000 Americans, that increased intake of vitamin C reduces the death rate from heart disease by nearly half and prolongs life for more than six years. (The majority of the 1100 Medline Lp(a) studies are from 1992 forward.)

A 1997 Japanese study published in Circulation correlates Lp(a) to restenosis (re-occurrence of plaque). A multivariate-analysis revealed that the absolute change in Lp(a) (before versus 1 day after PTCA) to be the sole significant predictor of restenosis among the clinical, angiographic, and plasma lipid parameters examined. The conclusion was that Lp(a) levels were significantly higher in the restenosis group, and they fell significantly after PTCA in the restenosis group.

In 1997 Stubbs, et. al. associated Lp(a) with unstable angina. This study provides the first evidence in man of a significant role for lipoprotein(a) in unstable angina (P = 0.0001).

A study of 1,605 randomly selected man in Finland, aged 42 to 60 years, was conducted between 1984 and 1989. None of the men had evidence of pre-existing heart disease. After adjusting for other confounding factors, men who were deficient in vitamin C had 3.5 times more heart attacks than men who were not deficient in vitamin C. The scientists' conclusion was, "Vitamin C deficiency, as assessed by low plasma ascorbate concentration, is a risk factor for coronary heart disease." British Medical Journal Vol 314, Iss 708, 1997.

In 1996, researchers at the University of Chicago discovered the Lp(a) proline binding site. In private correspondence one study author wrote:

"Our study published in JCI demonstrated for the first time that L-proline can inhibit the binding of Lp(a) and apo(a) to fibrinogen in vitro conditions. However, we have no data about the physiological relevance of this finding. It is well established that the binding of Lp(a) to fibrinogen also involves the lysine binding sites of apo(a) (component of Lp(a)), therefore, the presence of lysine and lysine analogue dramatically reduce this binding. Once again, the in vivo relevance of this inhibition is unknown.

Sincerely, Olga Klezovitch, Ph.D. University of Chicago