The Real Causes of Heart Attacks.
By: Dr. William Wong, ND, PhD.

http://www.totalityofbeing.com/FramelessPages/Articles/CauseofHA.htm

For the last 30 years people have thought the cause of heart disease was, cholesterol. That was the bogeyman
orthodox medicine waved in front of Americans noses as the do all end all of heart disease. Control your
cholesterol and you'll avoid heart disease. So for the last 30 years Americans have dramatically lowering their
fat intake: who eats steady diets of deep fried foods anymore, who still cooks with lard, even Kentucky Fried
Chicken changed their cooking technique and name to reflect the nations wanting to reduce their fat intake.
And, by and large the targets that were set by medicine were met. In 1966 after Harvard's famous Framingham
cholesterol study, the public was told that a cholesterol count of 300 was good. That was easily accomplished
mostly via diet alone, but the rate of heart disease and heart attack did not go down!

Then in the 80's the number was dropped to 244, that was the gold standard for a while. That figure was harder
to get to, both diet and exercise were needed by most to accomplish the task but again by and large the target
was met. Again there was no drop in heart disease or in the death from heart attack figures. Instead of
wondering whether they were chasing the wrong boggy man, as physicians the world over were telling US
doctors, American heart health authorities stuck to their guns about cholesterol being the near do all end all of
heart disease. There was even a Niteline show with Ted Koppel in the early 90's where cardiologists from
around the world were gathered and asked why American's had so much heart disease! The foreign docs
pounded the American experts for their dependence on cholesterol as their most important marker of heart
health.

Around this same time drug companies had developed a slew of cholesterol lowering drugs called Statins. This
gave even more incentive to stick to their guns about cholesterol, and the authorities lowered the target figure
once again to under 200. Now most people needed drugs to get close to that figure. (Could there have been any
relation between the invention of the drugs and the lowering of the cholesterol target to one that most folks
couldn't meet with out the drugs? No, couldn't be that would be a conspiracy theory)! By the way these
cholesterol drugs have been found to cause lower extremity nerve damage, decrease memory, increase
chances of breast cancer, cause liver damage and death. (1,2). A press release about one of these drugs in
December of 2003 stated that the drugs was in itself causing heart attacks!

All this silliness about cholesterol continued until the late 90's when a good number of very young, extremely
fit 30 to 40 something's dropped dead of heart attacks. Autopsy's found they had not a whit of athero sclerotic
(cholesterol) plaque anywhere in their arteries! So what killed them!

Well, what these victims did have were very, very high levels of inflammation in their blood vessels. It was
then that the work of a researcher who had been fired from Harvard for saying cholesterol was not the primary
cause of heart attacks, was rediscovered and realized by medical world to be true. This researcher had said that
vascular inflammation could close the blood vessels as tightly as athero sclerotic plaque could and bring on a
heart attack. He asserted that measuring a marker for inflammation called C Reactive Protein was a better
indicator of heart health then measuring cholesterol! (Later in the decade he sued Harvard for wrongfully
firing him and won).

So, first and foremost we have the primary cause of heart attack, vascular inflammation. What is this and how
does it set in? Vascular inflammation is a result of stress, some thing we have in abundance and something
those high intensity 30 and 40 something's who keeled over had multiplied in their lives. Those heart attack
victims had been under stress since school making good grades, jumping into careers, starting and managing
families, exercising or over exercising regularly (many were marathoners and tri athletes); in other words
most of every second of every day was filled with activity and the rush of getting from one task to another.

In causing vascular inflammation another effect kicks in. Inflammation is a form of trauma that creates
fibrosis. Yes, our old nemesis returns! When the intima, (inside wall of a blood vessel), swells they are
irritated and stretched. The body reacts to this insult by weaving fibrin into the walls to strengthen what it sees
as a weak point. This fibrin causes the blood vessels to lose their expandability and elasticity. This is the
primary stage of hardening of the arteries. It's only in the later stages of hardening that spider webs of fibrin
grow on weak points inside the lumin (hole) in the artery and on that matrix cholesterol plaque accrues and
plugs up the works making matters worse. During this entire process if the stress remains the inflammation
remains and the cycle continues.

So it's the inflammation that kicks off the process of hardening of the arteries and athero sclerotic plaque. The
combination of the swelling and plaque closing the lumin of an artery can cause trouble. But remember it has
been found that the inflammation alone may be severe enough to close off the blood vessel creating a heart
attack!

Mineral deficiencies can make matters worse still by creating irregularities in the heart beat. Calcium is the
electrolyte responsible for muscular contraction, magnesium is the mineral electrolyte responsible for
muscular relaxation. Muscles in magnesium deficit spasm. Remember calcium = contract; magnesium = relax.
When the body lacks magnesium then calcium gets into the magnesium channels producing a contract –
contract signal instead of the contract - relax signal and there you have arrhythmia's.

So what's a true, all encompassing plan to increase heart health? Any scheme to better the health of the heart
and blood vessels needs to start at the source, stress and it's resultant inflammation. I'm supposing that most
folks out there have their lives so regimented that lowering the stress levels likely is not possible so we'll
work from the next stage.

To lower vascular and any other inflammation, lower C Reactive Protein levels, eat away at fibrin and reduce
arterial plaque: Systemic Enzymes at 1 to 3 caplets per day.

To lower C Reactive Protein marker:
Vitamin B 12, 1000 mcg daily.
Folic Acid, 400 to 800 mcg daily.

To increase tissue oxygenation in the heart:
Co Q 10 (oil based, not dry), 300 to 500 mg daily.
Vit. E (mixed tocopherols) 400 to 800 IU's daily.

To regulate heart beat:
Magnesium 1000 to 2000 mg daily.
Hawthorn Extract 1/4 teaspoon in warm water 3 to 4 times a day.

To lower cholesterol, improve HDL to LDL ratio:
Lecithin Granules, 1 tablespoon daily. (Don't use the capsules as it take 12 to 19 capsules to equal one
tablespoon of the nutty tasting granules).

Optional for cholesterol: Cod Liver Oil, 1 tablespoon daily.
Olive Oil 2 tablespoons daily, add garlic, lemon soy sauce and pour it over salads Lunch & Dinner

Aerobic exercise:
8 to 24 minuets of work at target heart rate no more than 3 times per week. For the rational behind this see my
article titled: “How To Keep From Having A Heart Attack; Do Less Aerobic Exercise” found in the archived
health articles section of www.totalityofbeing.com.

For Marfans Syndrome patients add:
MSM 1000 mg daily (sulfur) or eat cabbage
Rutin 1000 mg daily. or eat  real buckwheat as morning cereal, cooked like oats, with cinnamon, raisins. Rutin is found in many plants, fruits and vegetables. The richest source is buckwheat. Rutin is also found in citrus fruits, noni, black tea, apple peel. During digestion much of the rutin is metabolized to its aglycone, quercetin.

And take Niacin. A friend, eye surgeon, told me: I got mine from "The vitamin Shop".  It was inexpensive and I started low dose and built it up.  Most people apparently get a prickly sensation it they go to high a dose.  I didn't so just kept increasing my daily dose.  I have been tracking my cholesterol numbers for probable ten years from my doctors (I keep all my files in my own medical record at my office).  I think I am at about 1.5 grams twice a day.  I have not experienced any flushing or other side effects.  My cholesterol numbers really look better than they have in ten years and I have been on Lipitor or other statin all that time.  Now I am on no statins and haven't
been in over a month.   Looking forward to what my cardiologist has to say.  I also just had an EKG by my nurse that works in my ASC. (that's ambulatory surgery center )  it is read by a computer but nonetheless was read as "normal sinus rhythm = normal EKG"  Now I had a real heart attack  because my heart enzymes increased-- that means  muscle death.  Usually that means muscle   DEATH.  AND ENZYMES ARE RELEASED INTO THE BLOOD STREAM.   USUALLY ONCE YOU HAVE HAD A HEART ATTACK YOU EKG REMAINS ABNORMAL FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.  I AM BECOMING ANTI STATINS AND PRO VITAMINS, AND OTHER NON TRADITIONAL MEDICAL TREATMENT.  WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME/????" (He's panicky as he's a doctor. Give you his name if you want.)

It goes with out saying that if you can lower your stress levels by doing less, compressing less into your day
and worrying less, that should be done. But for most folks these crazy days that's much easier said than done.
So, it behooves us to do the things that can be done so as not to become a statistic.

References:
1) www.mercola.com
2) Mortimer, J.E., Axelrod, R., Zimbru, K. Sentara Norfork General Hospital, Norfolk VA.: Effect of Statins
on breast cancer incidence. Proc An Soc Clin Oncol, 22, page 93, 2003.

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