"If you have more than 20mg/dl of lipoprotein­(a) in your blood it begins to deposit plaques, causing atherosclerosis." - Linus Pauling


REAL SCIENCE
 

THE UNIFIED THEORY

& Heart Disease Therapy

Assembled By Owen R. Fonorow and M. S. Till, Sr.
Page Copyright 2003, 2011

Overview

  • Pauling/Rath Unified Theory Paper (PDF) Pauling/Rath's original paper.

  • Pauling/Rath Lp(a) Abstracts from Medline

  • Many Lp(a) Study Abstracts from Medline (this was download 1997!)

  • The Willis and Paterson Canadian Vitamin C Papers (from the 1950s!)

  • Vitamin C Abstracts from Life Extension

  • Large Compilation of the Science of Micronutrients from Dr. Rath

  • Owen's Article on the Long Neglected Vitamin C Theory

  • Optometrist Sydney Bush's 1600+ Vitamin C Secrets

    Early Pauling Lecture on Heart Disease, Lp(a) and Vitamin C at Stanford

     

    Dr. Thomas Levy, MD, JD on the Vitamin C Science and the Law

    "Vitamin C has already been researched more than any other supplement or pharmaceutical drug in the history of the planet." - Thomas Levy

     

    Strong Link Between Dental Toxicity and Heart Disease

     

    THE Vitamin C Lecture that Every Medical Doctor Should See

    Why is Vitamin C Ignored by Medicine?

    According to Stephen Jeffrey, DDS, private correspondence:
    "The ongoing effort to discredit vitamin C began in the 1940s after it was shown to have anti viral and antitoxic properties. Certain members of the pharmaceutical­medical complex, after first promoting vitamin C as a treatment for fevers and infections, realized that widespread use of this non prescription substance would cancel the need for developing a lucrative prescription anti viral drug market.

    For this reason, all the scientific trials which have not shown vitamin C to be of any benefit against viral attacks either shorted the recommended dose or altered the recommended treatment procedure. Anyone who knows that vitamin C has been blatantly discredited in this manner should be ashamed to speak of ethics in order to forestall a proper evaluation of the vitamin's therapeutic potential. [Referring to the recent NY Times story]

    REPEATABLE EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE


    • There have been careful experiments with guinea pigs, first attempted by the Canadian Willis in the mid 1950s.

    The result is always the same.

    When these animals are deprived of vitamin C they die a terrible scurvy death in a matter of weeks. When their vitamin C is limited to the U. S. RDA they live, but develop atherosclerosis. When fed roughly the human equivalent of 3 to 5 gm of vitamin C, the pigs thrive with no signs of atherosclerosis.

    Disease in guinea pigs occurs in weeks, the human form of the disease usually takes decades to develop. [1] While differences are to be expected in animal experiments, the lesions produced by these experiments are remarkable for their similarity to the human lesion. [2]

    The Pauling/Rath vitamin C theory you are about to learn about makes sense. Animals, other than guinea pigs, manufacture their own vitamin C in the amount of several thousand milligrams every day. Humans, like guinea pigs and other primates, can not manufacture a single molecule of vitamin C in their bodies. [1]

     

    THE CAUSE OF HEART DISEASE

    Scientists have known for almost two decades that damage to the walls of blood vessels (or lesions) are a necessary precondition for the formation of atherosclerotic plaques in human beings.

    The most popular competing theories as to why these lesions occur include:

    1. Oxidized cholesterol in the blood,
    2. Elevated levels of (oxidized) homocysteine in the blood, and
    3. Vitamin deficiencies.
      It is safe to say that few researchers believe that high levels of fat or cholesterol in the diet are the primary cause of heart disease. An exception may be researchers working for companies that offer high priced cholesterol lowering medications .

    In our view, all competing theories must be able to explain:

    1. Why occlusive cardiovascular disease does not generally occur other animals, and
    2. Why infarction's in humans usually occur in the arteries at points of high mechanical stress (e.g., higher blood pressures, arterial bending and stretching, etc.), rather than randomly distributed throughout the cardiovascular system.

    THESE TWO OBSERVATIONS ARE THE CORNERSTONES OF THE VITAMIN C THEORY.

    The early findings of Canadian doctors Paterson and Willis are often overlooked.  Their early research found that arterial tissue levels of ascorbate (vitamin C) are much lower in heart patients when compared with controls, and that ascorbate supplementation could reduce arterial deposits.

     

    During the last decade, twice Nobel Prize winner Pauling, and his associate and heart researcher Dr. Matthias Rath, M.D., independently formulated their own assessment regarding the cause and nature of occlusive cardiovascular disease AKA heart disease. Rath and Pauling agree that heart disease is essentially a natural repair process. The process begins in response to a lesion (injury); their theory explains the primary reason these lesions occur - inadequate vitamin C.

    What we call atherosclerosis or human cardiovascular disease, is a condition usually found in the arteries and not the veins. (Clue: Blood pressure out of the heart is higher in arteries than veins, and arteries are generally thicker then veins.)

    In the Pauling/Rath view, Atherosclerosis can be understood as the symptom of a low-grade scurvy (vitamin C deficiency), a natural healing process. This process often begins in blood vessels under mechanical stress, such as the walls of arteries near the heart. (A clue according to cardiogist Thomas Levy, is that while the coronary arteries outside and on the surfice of the heart suffer occlousions, the coronary arteries inside the heart do not.)

    Only the vitamin C/collagen theory explains all the data. The oxidized cholesterol and homocysteine theorists have yet to satisfactorily explain the distribution of infarctions, which are not random, and usually close to the heart.

    Nor do the "something bad in the blood" theories explain why animals that produce their own vitamin C are generally free from the disease.

    VITAMIN C AND HEART DISEASE A CHRONOLOGY

    • 1941 Canadian cardiologist Dr. J. C. Paterson reports that more than 80% of his heart disease patients have low vitamin C levels compared to other patients.
    • 1954 Dr. G. C. Willis shows that vitamin C supplementation can reduce arterial deposits. Makes first claim that atherosclerosis is reversible.
    • 1960s Biochemist Irwin Stone and others recommend increased dietary vitamin C supplementation to improve health.
    • 1967 Boris Sokoloff studies 1­3 gm vitamin C on 60 over age 60 with CVD. Not a single vascular event during the year long study period when 6­12 were expected.
    • 1970 Dr. 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 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 bestseller.
    • 1989 Dr. Rath and Dr. Pauling discover that optimum dietary vitamin C prevents the deposition of lipoprotein(a) in artery walls.
    • 1991 Dr. Rath and Dr. Pauling publish "Solution to the Puzzle of Human Cardiovascular Disease". This scientific 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.
    • 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 At age 92 Pauling tapes video lecture on Heart Disease.
    • 1998 The
      • Vitamin C Foundation submits grant proposal to U.S. National Institutes of Health to study Pauling's claim.

    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 hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine, both important to the collagen structure. [Elson M. Hass, M.D. http://www.healthy.net/library/books/haas/vitamins/cvit.htm]

    A 1997 American Heart Association press release reported on German studies that credit vitamin C in the blood stream with "almost completely reversing endothelial dysfunction" in smokers. In other words, ascorbic acid may prevent damage to the walls of blood vessels caused by smoking that eventually leads to cardiovascular disease.

    The Life Extension Foundation reported on page 19 of the September 1997 issue:

    "A study of 1,605 randomly selected men in Finland, aged 42 to 60 years, was conducted between 1984 and 1989. None of the men had evidence of preexisting 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 that, "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)

     

    According to the American Medical Association (May 1998) cholesterol lowering drugs are now being touted as beneficial -- for reasons other than lowering cholesterol!?! (The lay public doesn't realize this and thinks they are beneficial because they lower cholesterol.) The truth is that all the benefits cited, e.g. collagen formation, endothelial function, reduced inflammation, can be had without side effects, simply by taking vitamin C.

    LIPOPROTEIN(a) "small a" LDL LOOK­ALIKE

    Dr. Rath was part of a research team in Germany that studied post­mortem human aortas and dentified a "sticky" variant of LDL cholesterol in human atherosclerotic plaques. The only component, according to Dr. Rath [2, 4] . No ordinary LDL.

    This substance called Lp(a) is not found in most animals, coincidentally, its not found in the animals that manufacture vitamin C in their bodies. Animals, remember, do not generally suffer the same kinds of occlusive cardiovascular disease as humans. Although similar in composition to LDL (so-called "bad" cholesterol), the significance of this mysterious substance escaped most other researchers, until recently.

    According to Pauling/Rath,

    " The concept that Lp(a) is a surrogate for ascorbate (vitamin C) is suggested by the fact that this lipoprotein is found, generally, in the blood of primates and in guinea pigs, which have lost the ability to synthesize ascorbate, but only rarely in the blood of other animals. Properties of Lp(a) that are shared with ascorbate, in accordance with this hypothesis, are: the acceleration of wound healing and other cell­repair mechanisms, the strengthening of the extra cellular matrix (e.g. blood vessels), and the prevention of lipid peroxidation. High plasma Lp(a) is associated with coronary heart disease and other forms of atherosclerosis in humans, and the incidence of cardiovascular disease is decreased by elevated ascorbate. Similar observations have been made in cancer and diabetes. We have formulated the hypothesis that Lp(a) is a surrogate for ascorbate in humans and other species and have marshaled the evidence bearing on this hypothesis." [3]

    Scientist Pauling and Medical Doctor Rath performed careful laboratory experiments on animals in order to test their theory. They repeated earlier experiments which induced atherosclerosis in guinea pigs by restricting the intake of vitamin C to the U. S. RDA (adjusting for body weight). [1]

    Unknown in Willis' time, Pauling and Rath carefully measured Lp(a) levels in the animals.

    Over time, roughly five weeks in these animals, vitamin C restriction limits the animals ability to produce the protein collagen. Ultimately, the blood vessels lose strength, causing the lesions that result in the arterial healing process we call atherosclerosis.

    Experiment Confirms Theory

    Microscope pictures show that the animal lesions mimic the human form of the disease. Lp(a) levels in animals deprived of vitamin C were shown to rise as described in their 1994 U. S. Patent.

    Animals in the control group that were fed the same, except for the addition of a human equivalent of 3 to 5 gm of vitamin C per day, showed no signs of atherosclerosis. Lp(a) remained low in these animals.

    This experiment shows beyond a reasonable doubt that a single factor ­ too little vitamin C ­ causes Lp(a) based atherosclerotic plaques.

    Note: If there are other experiments with guinea pigs that can reliably produce human-like atherosclerotic plaques (not fatty streaks) , i.e. by elevating homocysteine or cholesterol levels in the blood, when adequate vitamin C is added to the pigs diet, we would very much appreciate being supplied with references.

    The subject of intense scientific scrutiny, Pauling and Rath's insight about the "missing link" in heart disease ­ the coagulating healing factor lipoprotein(a) ­ has been confirmed during a reevaluation of The Framingham Heart Study.

    Dr. Pauling stated that, "if you have more than 20mg/dl of lipoprotein­(a) in your blood it begins to deposit plaques, causing atherosclerosis."

    According to Dr. Rath, studies show that special diet does not influence lipoprotein(a) blood levels. Vitamin C and vitamin B3 (niacin) can lower blood levels of lipoprotein(a).

    Furthermore, according to Dr. Rath, significant documentation attests that Vitamins belong to the most powerful agents in the fight against heart disease. This fact has been established by studies of thousands of people over many years. Here are some important results of recent clinical studies:

    Vitamin C cuts heart disease rate almost in half (documented in 11,000 Americans over ten years)
    Vitamin E cuts heart disease rate by more than one third (documented in 36,000 Americans over six years.)
    Beta Carotene (provitamin A) cuts heart disease rate almost in half (documented in 36,000 Americans).

    "No prescription drug has ever been shown to help prevent heart disease similar to these vitamins [e.g. vitamins A, C and E]. These results and those of countless other studies are so clear that anybody questioning the value of vitamins in the prevention of heart disease may safely be considered as uninformed. Matthias Rath, MD"

    A SURPRISING SAFE, EFFECTIVE, AND SIMPLE CURE?

    The Lp(a) Threat Can Be Neutralized ­ High Success Rate Reported

    Armed with knowledge as to how and why plaque forms in human arteries, Pauling devised what has turned out, at least empirically, to be a viable cure.

    Based around their Lipoprotein(a) experiments and the Nobel discoveries concerning the "cholesterol (Lp(a)) binding region," Pauling theorized that large amounts of an essential amino acid, lysine,  (in combination with vitamin C) would be therapeutically effective.

    Quoting Pauling:

    "Many investigators contributed to demonstrating that it is lipoprotein(a) that is deposited in plaques, not merely LDL, but Lp(a). If you have more than 20 mg/dl in the blood it begins to deposit plaques and causes atherosclerosis. The question then is: What causes Lp(a) to stick to the wall of the artery and form these plaques?

    "Countless biochemists and chemists discovered what in the wall of the artery causes Lp(a) to adhere and form atherosclerotic plaques and ultimately lead to heart disease, strokes, and peripheral arterial disease. The answer is that there is a particular amino acid in a protein in the wall of the artery ­ lysine ­ which is one of the twenty amino acids that binds the Lp(a) and causes atherosclerotic plaques to develop. I THINK IT IS A VERY IMPORTANT DISCOVERY" [Linus Pauling, 1994]

    Furthermore, Pauling said,

     
    "Knowing that lysyl residues are what causes lipoprotein­(a) to stick to the wall of the artery and form atherosclerotic plaques, any physical chemist would say at once that to prevent that put the amino acid lysine in the blood to a greater extent than it is normally. You need lysine, it is essential, you have to get about 1 gram a day to keep in protein balance, but we can take lysine, pure lysine, a perfectly non toxic substance as supplements, which puts extra lysine molecules in the blood. They enter into competition with the lysyl residues on the wall of arteries and accordingly count to prevent Lp(a) from being deposited, or even will work to pull it loose and destroy atherosclerotic plaques."

    Dr. Pauling became convinced that this new understanding of cardiovascular disease would aid in the prevention of the disease and help doctors treat the condition, thereby, saving countless lives. In response to a question as to whether or not the new therapy of vitamin C and large amounts of the amino acid ­lysine could really reverse the atherosclerotic process?", Dr. Pauling replied:

     
    "I think so. Yes. 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. If you are at risk of heart disease, or if there is a history of heart disease in your family, if your father or other members of the family died of a heart attack or stroke or whatever, or if you have a mild heart attack yourself then you had better be taking vitamin C and Lysine." (dosages )

    When Pauling and Rath demonstrated laboratory evidence that clogged arteries can be opened in vivo, they were awarded the first two U. S. Patent(s) for reversing heart disease without surgery in 1993 and 1994. (Note: Their first patent, # 5230996, was awarded for the cleansing/removal of atherosclerotic plaque from human organs during transplant surgery. The invention consists of dipping plaque coated human organs into a vitamin C and lysine (analog) solution. The plaque on the surface of the organ is melted away by the vitamin C/lysine solution.)

    These patents are important because they establish Pauling and Rath as pioneers who first recognized the importance of Lp(a) as the primary risk factor for human cardiovascular disease.

    Linus Pauling, PhD, and Matthias Rath, MD, are NOT listed in the references of vast majority of the Lp(a) medical research studies.

    Currently, there are no drugs available for the Lp(a) problem.

    As simple and safe as the Pauling protocol is, don't overlook Pauling's earlier published nutritional recommendations (e.g., the anti-oxidant Vitamins E, Vitamin A, and good amounts of the various B vitamins. See How To Live Longer and Feel Better 1986), as well as the cardiovascular nutritional recommendations of Brian Liebovitz, PhD, editor of the Journal of Optimal Nutrition. Dr. Liebovitz's recommendations include vitamin E, magnesium, carnitine and co-enzyme Q10. The cardiovascular recommendations of Hans A. Nieper, MD, include bromelain and mineral orotates. The most research into Nitric Oxide (NO) spawned a Nobel prize in medicine in 1998. Blood pressure is regulated by NO and Dr. Woodson Merrel, MD, recommends 3-6 gm of supplemental arginine, which like lysine, is an essential and non-toxic amino acid.

    However, there are "drug free" solutions based on vitamin C and l­lysine!

    A recent anecdotal report comes from an individual with a history of severe heart disease. He reports that his 55 mg/dl level of Lp(a) dropped to 11 mg/dl (80% reduction) in three weeks on a high dose of the Tower Heart Technology high dose vitamin C/lysine/ proline/carnitine/vitamin A/vitamin E product. He sent us a copy of his before and after Lp(a) blood assays which, one of several we have available. Medical doctors, such as Warren Levin, MD, of New York City, have noted similar blood changes in patients. Dr. Levin wrote to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) about this remarkable finding. His letter was not published.

     

    At age 92, Pauling lectured on this important development.

    This lecture ­ which includes Pauling's surprising yet carefully researched recommendations for the proper doses of vitamin C and L­Lysine ­ is now available on
    60 Minute DVD .

    Note:

    The Pauling/Rath paper on this monumental development was submitted to the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences. After being first accepted, it was then summarily rejected.

    Question:
    Why hasn't this story been picked up by the mass media, especially health magazines such as Prevention ?

    Answer:

    There are no good answers to this question. (Why not ask them?) One answer may be pharmaceutical company advertising...
    Now you can order (or tell your librarian how to order) the one­of­a­kind video tape which explains this monumental discovery: More information on Pauling video tape, lipoprotein(a), and l­lysine ­ including dosage! (NEW)

    VITAMIN C DEFICIENCY AND HEART ATTACKS There is substantial evidence for the proposition that vitamin C deficiency is the root cause of heart attacks, a small portion of which is listed here. (An excellent bibliography can be found at the end of Pauling's book HOW TO LIVE LONGER AND FEEL BETTER.)

    Of course, people require different amounts of this important substance. In our experience over the past five years talking to heart patients about the Pauling therapy, it is rare to find a heart patient who consumes more than 2000 mg of vitamin C daily, although a few claim to take 3 to 4 grams (3000 to 4000 mg.) Most are not supplementing or take less than 500 mg daily.

    We have not spoken with a single person who has been diagnosed with heart disease and claims to take more than 8,000 mg daily. This observations has been backed up by study run by the Life Extension Foundation.

    WHY NO PROOF?

    "I solemnly profess that I hate all pretenses to secrets and I look upon the printed bills of quacks, who pretend to nostrums and private medicines, to be mere cheats and tricks to amuse the common people and to pick their pockets. But if any man can communicate a good medicine, he shows himself a lover of his country more than of himself, and deserves the thanks of mankind". -- Dr. William Simpson (1680 AD) found in Ralph Moss's Cancer Therapy: The Independent Consumers Guide

    The Pauling Therapy is drug free and safe on the basis of what is known.

    However, our medical doctors need to know more. Does it really work? In all cases? Serious studies need to be conducted.

    The current system is designed to ascertain the safety and efficacy of "drugs."

    There are no established medical research processes or procedures to evaluate "non drug" remedies, and with good reason. There is little evidence that vital substances required for life in small amounts can have great therapeutic effects in larger amounts. The medical scientific establishment, to put it simply, doesn't know how to evaluate the claim you are reading about.

    It stands to reason that any safe heart disease therapy, no matter how low the probable success rate, should be vigorously investigated. Hundreds of thousands of people world wide would benefit. For example, if only a dozen or so heart by-pass operations are avoided, the savings is a million dollars. The loss of life is incalculable.

    Anecdotal and empirical experience since 1995 matches Pauling's own experience as described on the video. Heart patients declared terminally ill with no more medical options, tell the same story. They all say that they experienced a remarkable recovery with the Pauling multiple gram therapy. An apparent outright cure invented by the only person ever to win two unshared Nobel Prizes: world famous chemist Linus Pauling. (Even CVD patients who had not been declared terminal by their MDs claim great benefit.)

    While reasonable people do not expect 100% success for any therapy, more than 9 out of 10 reports match Pauling's initial experience, as described on his video.

    Perhaps, Linus Pauling was right and the medical profession is wrong? Perhaps, human cardiovascular disease is caused by a chronic Vitamin C deficiency!? Isn't that why we have science, to investigate questions such as this?

    That's right. Many of these former heart patients had been declared beyond hope ... at least according to their MDs... Surgery was no longer an option... Fortunately, they somehow stumbled across this internet page or another like it...

    Drug free therapy aside, it is beyond comprehension that scientific studies neither refute nor support Linus Pauling's specific claim of a cure for heart disease. (Apparently, the march of science depends on projected monetary returns.)

    Reread the above paragraph . Pauling made his public pronouncement in 1993/1994. (If you are getting a headache, you are not alone. This is most difficult to believe.)

    Recently, the United States government, National Institutes of Health, rejected a proposal to study this claim.

    If the NIH/Government sponsored a good study, the outcome could potentially stop about 900,000 heart operations and angioplasties (of the 1 million U.S. operations currently.) This creates a strong vested interest opposing such a study.

    Our Top Ten Reasons Why You Haven't Heard about the Pauling Discovery 

     " -- the heart surgery industry is a fraud."
			-- Julian Whitaker

    "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 who were told that they needed immediate surgery to save their lives actually had a 98.4% chance of surviving without surgery! [According to the CASE study published by the New England Journal of Med., 1983] 
      			-- Julian Whitaker

    There is no scientific justification for the use of angiography, balloon angioplasty and bypass surgery to treat most cardiovascular disease. Several studies over the past two decades, involving over 6,000 patients with heart disease, have shown that patients funneled into surgical procedures do significantly worse than those treated with noninvasive techniques. "Noninvasive" refers to the use of medication, but not diet, exercise and multiple vitamin supplements, which can be quite beneficial."

    "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]

    You Could Wait for Proof...

    To understand why The PAULING HIGH-LYSINE THERAPY has not been investigated one needs to realize that there is no special interest economic incentive to provide proof, only a large counter-incentive not to do so by those with the means to run such a study. In other words, the only incentive is a general, rather than a special interest. So, if Governments won't conduct a study on behalf of their people to verify a cure already available in local drug stores for a few dollars, who will, especially if it would cost a company millions? And why bother? Vitamin C and lysine are completely safe. Should this therapy not work, it has been shown to be harmless. Furthermore, a large study isn't going to do the average person much good. The only way to find out whether it can work for a particular individual is for that individual to try the therapy. Then that person can find out what we learned years ago, high vitamin C and lysine reverse plaques safely.

    A survey of the MEDLINE database confirms: No effort what-so-ever, has been made to investigate, much less verify, the extraordinary therapeutic claims presented here.

    During the 1970s vitamin C consumption in the U.S. rose by 300%. Mortality from heart disease decreased by 30% in the U.S. ­ the only country with a significant drop in heart disease fatalities. Yet, the media and organized medicine ignore these facts and disseminate misrepresentations of scientific findings regarding the value of vitamin C. Under the heading truth is stranger than fiction, a recent media campaign credits a substance found in "junk food" for what they claim is a 40% reduction in heart disease mortality during the past 2 decades in the United States.

    Pauling on Waiting for More Clinical Studies

    It simply boggles the mind the mind that there have been so few scientific follow-ups to the original clinical studies of the relationship between Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C) deficiency and atherosclerosis. We agree with Linus Pauling:
    "Well, I don't know that there is a need for a randomized prospective, double blind controlled trial when you get evidence of this sort, the value of large intakes of vitamin C and also of lysine for preventing the deposition of atherosclerotic plaques, and preventing death from cardiovascular disease."
     [1993, Linus Pauling commenting on the three case studies covered in Linus Pauling Video on Heart Disease]

    Pharmaceutical association advertisements claim that the drug companies are developing over 80 new drugs to fight heart disease.

    QUOTABLE QUOTES ABOUT VITAMIN C

    Albert Szent­Gyorgyi, M.D., Ph.D., Nobel Laureate
    My own interest in ascorbic acid centered around its role in vegetable respiration and defense mechanisms. All the same, I always had the feeling that not enough use was made of it for supporting human health. The reasons are rather complex. The medical profession itself took a very narrow and wrong view. Lack of ascorbic acid caused scurvy, so if there was no scurvy there was no lack of ascorbic acid. Nothing could be clearer than this. The only trouble was that scurvy is not a first symptom of lack but a final collapse, a premortal syndrome, and there is a very wide gap between scurvy and full health. But nobody knows what full health is!"

    Irwin Stone from THE HEALING FACTOR: Vitamin C Against Disease

    "We can surmise that the production of ascorbic acid was an early accomplishment of the life process because of its wide distribution in nearly all present­day 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 microorganisms, 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 lines."

    Dr. Emanuel Cheraskin, Dr. Ringsdorf and Dr. Sisley from THE VITAMIN C CONNECTION

    "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."

    Can someone please explain the void about vitamin C in typical "pre­med" textbooks. It is a fact that one Biochemistry text book (e.g. the one used at Illinois Benedictine) does not have a single entry in its index for vitamin C, ascorbate or ascorbic acid (the technical name for vitamin C)!?

    This can be verified by examining the text BIOCHEMISTRY by Mary K. Campbell, Copyright 1991 by Saunders College Publishing, ISBN 0­03­052213­7

    E. Cheraskin, M.D., D.M.D., in his recent book VITAMIN C: Who Needs IT? makes a similar point on page 98:

    "So, what do the experts tell us about a vitamin C connection in the control of sugar metabolism?

    We turned to five of the leading textbooks dealing with diabetes mellitus published during the last five years. Would you believe? There was not one word indicating any connection ­ or a lack of correlation ­ between ascorbic acid and carbohydrate metabolism!

    This becomes even more incomprehensible when one realizes that reviews of the literature as far back as 1940 showed that blood sugar can be predictably reduced with intravenous ascorbate."

    There is a strange omission of information about vitamin C in the medical textbooks. (This assertion is easily verified.) The result is that most medical practitioners today are grossly ignorant of the properties of ascorbic acid and find it difficult to believe that ascorbic acid deficiency could be the root cause of heart disease.

    Medical textbooks earlier this century contained much more information about vitamin C than today's modern texts. Most certainly the information about vitamin C and collagen production was there. Why the change? Shouldn't we have learned even more by now? If Pauling was correct about vitamin C, then it is likely the mysterious missing knowledge about vitamin C is an intentional omission designed to misinform medical students.

    If you are a medical student, ask your professors why so little information is provided about one of the most important vital substances known. [Owen Fonorow]

    WHEN WILL HEART SURGERY CONSTITUTE MEDICAL MALPRACTICE?

    "It is interesting to note that surgery entered the modern world as a very disreputable procedure, little better in the eyes of medical orthodoxy than the herbalists or quacks with whom it competed for the same lower-class clientele. Surgeons could not write prescriptions, for example, without the countersignature of a physician, nor could they perform operations except in the presence of a licensed physician." Ralph Moss, THE CANCER INDUSTRY, Equinox Press, Brooklyn, NY.

    We agree with Dr. Whitaker that the money involved has corrupted the heart surgery industry. According to Dr. Julian Whitaker in his newsletter that reportedly reaches over 500,000 people:

    "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 therapy­and there have been very few of these studies­patients 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 self­serving "presumption" only. 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" [J. Whitaker, MD]
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