: While statin drugs are effective in lowering LDL cholesterol, they have serious side effects.  For years, the public was led to believe the wonders of statin drugs, not only in lowering cholesterol but also in possessing other health benefits as well.  Millions of statin prescriptions are written yearly in the United States alone. In August 2001, however, German Pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG withdrew the cholesterol-lowering statin drug Baycol from the market because it was linked to 31 deaths.  Moreover, deaths occurred at the manufacturer's recommended initial dose (0.4 mg/day) as well as at the highest dose (0.8 mg/day). The majority of deaths occurred in elderly patients and more often in women.

High total serum cholesterol and LDL cholesterol are significant risk factors of cardiovascular disease. 14 million Americans have heart disease and more than 2,600 die daily from heart attacks in the United States alone. 15% of adults in their late 30s to 40s are afflicted by cardiovascular disease, about 50% of 55 to 64- year-olds, and 65% of those in the next decade.

Developed countries have shown a decrease in dietary fat and cholesterol consumption in recent years.  This is largely the result of an on-going massive public health campaign advocating a low fat, high carbohydrate diet as ideal to bring down blood cholesterol levels in order  to prevent arthrosclerosis. Despite this effort, the number of people with elevated blood cholesterol continues to increase. Obviously there are other causative factors that have not been addressed.  In America alone, over 40 million prescriptions were written yearly for cholesterol lowering medications.

Studies have shown that a diet high in cholesterol will not lead to high blood cholesterol if the subject is healthy. The correlation between dietarian and blood cholesterol is 15-20% at best. The blood cholesterol level only increases by 3 mg/dl after ingestion of one egg day for a continuous period of 6 weeks (one egg contains about 230 mg of cholesterol) in repeated studies. Clearly, dietary cholesterol is not the main culprit.

High sugar intake is linked to an increased risk of heart disease. Simple sugars are the primary source of high triglycerides, a type of blood fat, and very low-density lipoproteins (LDL), which are an independent risk factor for atherosclerosis. Sugar lowers good HDL cholesterol and raises bad LDL cholesterol and blood pressure levels. It is estimated that a high sugar intake may account for as many as 150,000 premature deaths from heart disease in the US each year.

Sugar increases triglyceride storage and cellular oxidative damage. This assaults the vascular wall, leading to micro-leakages in the endothelial wall of blood vessels. The body tries to patch up the leakage by increasing production of cholesterol and lipoprotein (a) production from the liver.  Sugar is therefore a significant contributory factor of oxidative stress. Simple logic dictates that the reduction of sugar intake will reduce oxidative stress. This in turn will reduce cholesterol production from the liver.

Fact: Elevated cholesterol is a symptom of oxidative stress and not a disease.

5. Arthrosclerosis

Myth: Arthrosclerosis is caused mainly by high dietary fat and cholesterol, lack of exercise, and high stress.

Traditional Treatment: Low fat diet, exercise, and reduce stress.

Discussion: Some researchers believe that cardiovascular disease is primarily caused by chronic deficiencies of vitamins and other essential nutrients with defined biochemical properties, such as coenzymes, cellular energy carriers, and antioxidants. Chronic depletion of these essential nutrients in endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells impairs their ability to function properly.

Take the effects of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) deficiency for example: Humans, other primates, and guinea pigs do not produce ascorbate endogenously.  Guinea-pigs fed a diet low in ascorbate, an amount equivalent to the usual human intake, rapidly developed atherosclerotic plaques, similar to those found in humans. When large amounts of supplementary ascorbate were given to these guinea pigs, there was a regression in plaque formation. Humans must get vitamin C from external sources. A deficiency of vitamin C leads to a disease called scurvy, the symptoms of which are caused the reduced ability of the body to make collagen, an essential component of wound healing, bones and joints, and blood vessels. Chronic ascorbate deficiency leads to impairment in the structure of the blood vessel walls and tiny lesions in its inner wall.  These changes are the hallmarks of early atherosclerosis. Atherosclerotic plaques can develop as the result of an overcompensating repair mechanism consisting of deposition of systemic plasma and local cellular response, which includes extra cellular accumulation of Lp (a) and fibrinogen/fibrin at the site of injury. This repair mechanism is exacerbated primarily at sites of hemodynamic stress. This explains why the most frequent clinical manifestation of cardiovascular disease such as myocardial infarction, is the local development of atherosclerotic plaques in coronary arteries. As a result of confirmation in animal studies, ascorbate with other essential nutrients is now being recommended for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

In a landmark study published in the Journal of Applied Nutrition (1996, 48:3), researchers showed that coronary artery disease could be effectively prevented and treated by natural means. In patients with early coronary calcification, progression was halted. In individual cases with small-calcified deposits, optimum nutritional supplement intervention led to the complete disappearance of the deposits

Fact: Coronary artery disease is a symptom of chronic vitamin C deficiency.

Nutritional Solution: Take optimum doses of vitamin C (ascorbic acid), amino acids L-proline and L-lysine. My Natural Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Protocol works well for the majority of cases.

 

Attention Because of tremendous individual variation, the use of nutritionals should therefore be personalized for your body. One person’s nutrient can be another person’s toxin. If you have a specific health concern and wish my personalized nutritional recommendation, write to me by clicking here.

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