Why don’t animals get heart attacks, but people do?

Animals produce vitamin C In their bodies
We humans cannot manufacture vitamin C, and because of that our ancestors were prone to scurvy.  Scurvy happens when our blood vessels weaken, leak, and blood loss occurs inside and outside our bodies.

A Scottish physician, James Lind, proved that providing sufficient quantities of lime and lemon juice to sailors prevented bleeding and blood loss on long sea voyages.  It was the vitamin C in these fruits that kept those sailors alive.

Early humans frequently didn’t have access to vitamin C.  Think of humans during the ice age.  What did the human body do under that circumstance to keep the blood vessels from weakening?  It created a band-aid solution.

Lipoprotein repairs weak artery walls
Our bodies repair artery walls.  Among the repair molecules, one is particularly efficient – lipoprotein (a).  This molecule carries cholesterol and other fats as building blocks for new artery wall tissue, and a biological adhesive tape wrapped around it glues this molecule to weakened artery walls.  In other words, in order for “bad” LDL cholesterol to stick to artery walls, there must be adhesive surrounding the LDL molecule- apolipoprotein (a).

Why do deposits in artery walls develop, and eventually clog them?
With insufficient vitamin intake over many years, the artery wall becomes weaker and more and more repair becomes necessary.  Eventually the repair efforts overshoot and deposits develop, somewhat like piling on the band aids until they reduce the space available for blood flow.  Then if a clot comes along it can totally block the artery.   Eureka, a heart attack.

The “band aids” are called “atherosclerotic” deposits.  Atherosclerotic deposits are Nature’s plaster cast for an artery wall weakened by vitamin deficiency.

How to keep your artery walls strong, smooth and flexible
According to research done by Matthias Rath, MD, the more vitamin C there is in your body, the less apoloprotein (a).  And, when you are lacking in vitamin C, then you have more apolipoprotein (a).  So, the solution is vitamin C plus a healthy diet.

If stability of the vessel wall is the underlying problem rather than cholesterol in the blood stream, then your first order of business is to strengthen your blood vessels.

• Optimal nutrition, which in turn provides you with all the vitamins and minerals you need, is vital.  Optimal nutrition includes consuming fruits and vegetables each day that provide you with vitamin C.

In a clinical study, drinking 16 ounces of tomato juice a day kept cholesterol from oxidizing and attaching to your artery walls.  While tomatoes juice is full of beneficial lycopene, it is also full of vitamin C

• If you aren’t in a position to get all the nutrients you need from food and drink the way Mother Nature made them, supplement with vitamin C.

• Avoid processed foods that maximize food producer profits and minimize human nutritional needs.  Our bodies were not made to handle fake foods (ones created by humans rather than Mother Nature) such as refined sugar, refined grains, added chemicals, etc.

Are cholesterol lowering drugs necessary?
According to Dr. Mathias Rath (*), the answer is no.  He claims that lowering cholesterol levels isn’t important because any sticky coating (apoloprotein-a) will be absent in the presence of sufficient vitamin C.  What is important is protecting artery walls with adequate nutrition.

If you are on cholesterol medication, you do want to seek your doctor’s counsel regarding the benefits of continuing such medicine.  Bear in mind that cholesterol lowering medication is a 13 billion dollar business that has sustained all challenges to date and a simple inexpensive solution may not be accepted.

However, no one can argue against the wisdom of eating fresh fruits and vegetables that contain significant amounts of “C.”  So, go eat an apple.

(*)  Dr. Rath’s research and conclusions regarding heart disease, cancer, AIDS, etc. have been denounced by many medical professionals, so what you read here is not generally accepted medical thinking. Do an online search for Dr. Matthias Rath and you’ll come up with many naysayers.

Also, recent research has shown that those who consume more than 500 mg of “C” a day have thicker artery walls.  Whether that’s good or bad, we don’t know.

But, as stated above, what’s wrong with an apple a day, orange juice for breakfast, a sweet red pepper for lunch, tomato juice for dinner, etc?  And vitamin C is a cheap supplement that you can buy in bulk (ascorbic acid), so we’re not talking about any big financial outlay to try out this approach to flexing your arteries.

Books by Dr. Mathias Rath: 
Why Animals Don’t Get Heart Attacks…But People Do Ten Years that Changed Medicine Forever
Eradicating Heart Disease

Popularity: 2% [?]