The one-third of men consuming the most dietary magnesium—an average of 523 mg per day—were 6% MORE likely to die over the next 10 years compared to the one-third of men consuming the least dietary magnesium—an average of 387 mg per day—according to a study that followed 23,366 Swedish men, aged 45–79 years, who were NOT taking dietary supplements.

However, this difference was not statistically significant which means it could have been due to random chance.

“EDTA chelation does retard or reverse atherosclerosis with improvements in edema, wound healing and in walking distance before pain,” writes Joel M. Kauffman, PhD, the author of Malignant Medical Myths: Why Medical Treatment Causes 200,000 Deaths in the USA each Year, and How to Protect Yourself.

“This chapter [in my book] also showed the first example that mainstream medicine does not ‘fight fair’ in debunking alternative treatments any more than in promoting mainstream treatments,” Kauffman notes.

People with cardiovascular disease whose blood sugar levels were at the top of the normal range, being 100 mg per deciliter, were 2.4 times more likely to die over the next two (2) years than those with blood sugar levels in the bottom of the normal range, being 67 mg per deciliter according to a analysis by UCLA statistician, Sidney Port, PhD.

People with cardiovascular disease whose elevated blood sugar levels of 133 mg per deciliter, were 3.8 times more likely to die over the next two (2) years than those with blood sugar levels in the bottom of the normal range, being 67 mg per deciliter according to a analysis by UCLA statistician, Sidney Port, PhD.

“Trans fatty acids are sufficiently similar to natural fats that the body readily incorporates them into the cell membrane; once there their altered chemical structure creates havoc with thousands of necessary chemical reactions—everything from energy provision to prostaglandin production,” writes lipid biochemist, Mary Enig, PhD, and journalist, Sally Fallon Morell in a wonderful, eye-opening article about fats and heart disease titled The Oiling of America.
“But most of the trans isomers in modern hydrogenated fats are new to the human physiology and by the early 1970’s a number of researchers had expressed concern about their presence in the American diet, noting that their increasing use had paralleled the increase in both heart disease and cancer,” they note.

A 1968 statement from the American Heart Association (AHA) noted that Partial hydrogenated vegetable oils contained trans fats rather than natural cis fats, but the statement was never distributed, and a researcher from Proctor and Gamble convinced the AHA’s medical director to remove this statement before their recommendations were released to the public.

Lipid biochemist, Mary Enig, PhD, and journalist, Sally Fallon Morell write about this in a wonderful, eye-opening article about fats and heart disease titled The Oiling of America.

“The 1968 International Atherosclerosis Project, in which over 22,000 corpses in 14 nations were cut open and examined for plaques in the arteries, showed the same degree of atheroma [ occlusions or plaque buildup in the arteries ] in all parts of the world—in populations that consumed large amounts of fatty animal products and those that were largely vegetarian, and in populations that suffered from a great deal of heart disease and in populations that had very little or none at all,” writes lipid biochemist, Mary Enig, PhD, and journalist, Sally Fallon Morell in a wonderful, eye-opening article about fats and heart disease titled The Oiling of America.

“[Myocardial infarction / heart attacks were] almost nonexistent in 1910 and caused no more than three thousand deaths per year in 1930,” writes lipid biochemist, Mary Enig, PhD, and journalist, Sally Fallon Morell in a wonderful, eye-opening article about fats and heart disease titled The Oiling of America.

“By 1960, there were at least 500,000 [heart attack] deaths per year in the US,” they continue.

“What life-style changes had caused this increase?”

“[I]f you have come to believe that you can ward off death from heart disease by altering the amount of cholesterol in your blood, whether by diet or by drugs, you are following a regime that still has no basis in fact,” wrote Edward R. Pinckney, MD, editor of four medical journals and former co-editor of JAMA.
“Rather, you as a consumer, have been taken in by certain commercial interests and health groups who are more interested in your money than your life.”

[This is an article written by Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD, and is an excerpt from his book The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease.]

[Note: The book Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You is a shortened, simplified and updated version of Dr. Ravnskov’s first book, “The Cholesterol Myths”.]

George Mann [ScD, MD], now retired, was previously a professor in medicine and biochemistry at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. From his studies of the Masai people (see section 3) he realized that diet couldn’t possibly be the main cause of high cholesterol and coronary heart disease. As long ago as 1977, in The New England Journal of Medicine he published a strong argument against the diet-heart idea citing the lack of relationship between dietary habits and blood cholesterol, the lack of correlation between this century’s trends in fat consumption and death rates in the United States, and the disappointing outcome of the cholesterol lowering trials (92).

[This is an article written by Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD, and is an excerpt from his book The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease.]

[Note: The book Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You is a shortened, simplified and updated version of Dr. Ravnskov’s first book, “The Cholesterol Myths”.]

Michael F. Oliver, a former professor and director of the Wynn Institute for Metabolic Research, London, [and formerly worked at the National Heart and Lung Institute in London, England] those at a very high risk for cardiovascular risk may benefit from cholesterol lowering, but in several papers he has warned against campaigns for cholesterol lowering in the general population.

He notes that the accumulated evidence [of cholesterol-lowering in the general population] is that total mortality is unchanged or possibly even increased (94).

[This is an article written by Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD, and is an excerpt from his book The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease.]

[Note: The book Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You is a shortened, simplified and updated version of Dr. Ravnskov’s first book, “The Cholesterol Myths”.]

“The idea that saturated fats cause heart disease is completely wrong, but the statement has been “published” so many times over the last three or more decades that it is very difficult to convince people otherwise unless they are willing to take the time to read and learn what all the economic and political factors were that produced the anti-saturated fat agenda,” lipid biochemist Mary Enig was quoted as saying in an interview when asked if saturated fat causes heart disease.

[This is part of an article written by Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD, and is an excerpt from his book The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease.]

[Note: The book Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You is a shortened, simplified and updated version of Dr. Ravnskov’s first book, “The Cholesterol Myths”.]

Hypoglycemia, defined as having a blood sugar level of 69 mg/dl or less, increased the risk of dying from cancer by 30 percent during the next eight years in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) compared to those with normal blood sugar levels of 80-109 mg/dl according to a 2004 study.

The difference did not reach statistical significance, meaning there was greater than a 5% chance the difference was due to random chance, however, it still suggests that it is likely.

Diabetes, defined as having a blood sugar level of 140 mg/dl or greater, increased the risk of dying 2.1-fold during the next eight years in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) compared to those with normal blood sugar levels of 80-109 mg/dl according to a 2004 study.

Diabetes, defined as having a blood sugar level of 140 mg/dl or greater, increased the risk of dying from coronary artery disease (CAD) 2.3-fold during the next eight years in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) compared to those with normal blood sugar levels of 80-109 mg/dl according to a 2004 study.

Borderline diabetes, defined as having a blood sugar level of 126-139 mg/dl, increased the risk of dying from coronary artery disease (CAD) 1.7-fold during the next eight years in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) compared to those with normal blood sugar levels of 80-109 mg/dl according to a 2004 study.

Hypothyroidism reduces the number and activity of mitochondria, the energy-producing cells, notes Mark Starr, MD, author of the wonderful book Hypothyroidism Type 2: The Epidemic.

Mitochondria make up one-third of the weight of the heart muscle, Dr. Starr notes in this short audio clip from a speech he gave in 2007 at an Orthomolecular Conference.

This appears to the connection as to how hypothyroidism can cause some forms of congestive heart failure where the heart muscle is too weak to pump enough blood to the rest of the body (cardiomyopathy). It’s an energy problem.

Dr. Starr’s book contains the wonderful “Before” and “After” pictures showing X-rays of enlarge hearts that shrink back to normal size after the patient is given natural desiccated thyroid.

A decrease in mitochondria also appears to be the connection of hypothyroidism to Alzheimer’s, which Dr. Starr noted in another audio clip. Again, it’s an energy problem.

Hypothyroidism is the major cause of cardiovascular disease according thyroid expert, Broda Barnes, MD, PhD, author of Hypothyroidism, The Unsuspected Illness.

He also notes that in his patients on desiccated thyroid, there were 94 percent fewer heart attacks than were predicted by the famous Framingham Study.

This two-minute audio clip is from from a speech he gave called “The Importance of Thyroid Therapy in Preventive Medicine”. The text of the audio clip is below.

Our hunter-gather ancestors showed little signs of cardiovascular disease despite eating a diet containing about 65 percent of their calories from animal food and 35 percent from plant foods, containing 28-58 percent fat according to a paper from researchers at Colorado State University.

Potassium-enriched salt reduced the risk of dying from cardiovascular-related causes in elderly men by 41% over 2.5 years according to a study from Taiwan.

“Recent and soon to be published research reveals that soldiers who fought in theatres as diverse as Vietnam and Lebanon are not only more likely to die from an accident on their return, but are also twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even cancer later in life.”

— New Scientist, Aug. 27, 2005

For some time now, I have been banging on about the fact that “stress” causes diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. Of course, my definition of stress, or a stressor, is any factor that can lead to a long-lasting dysfunction of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA-axis). This definition may seem — and probably is — a bit pedantic. But it does have the advantage of being reasonably accurate. That is more than can be said for the word “stress,” which can mean all things to all men.

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .)

Eighteen ounces (18 oz) of Orange Juice raised HDL levels by 21% in one month, from 60 mg/dL to 78 mg/dL (1.56 mmol per liter increased to 2.03 mmol per liter) according to a study published in 2000.

HDL levels seem to be key to preventing heart disease, NOT the lowering of LDL which the statin manufacturer’s would like us to believe.

The one-fifth of people consuming the most potassium were 35% less likely to die from coronary heart disease than the one-fifth of people consuming the least.

The top one-fifth consumed an average of 3363 mg of potassium per day versus 1720 mg per day for the bottom one-fifth.

Hi, this is Larry Hobbs @ FatNews.com

The one-fifth of people consuming the most sodium versus the one-fifth consuming the least were:

• 42 percent more likely to have cardiovascular disease
• 55 percent more likely to have a stroke of any kind
• 104 percent more likely to have an ischemic stroke (2X as likely).

The top one-fifth consumed 6523 mg of sodium per day versus 2322 mg per day for the bottom one-fifth.

The greater the reduction in LDL cholesterol in statin users who were also given the cholesterol-lowering drug Zetia (ezetimibe), the greater the acceleration of atherosclerosis according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“We found an unexpected paradoxical relationship of a greater degree of atherosclerosis progression in patients with larger, [ Zetia-induced ] ezetimibe-induced reductions in LDL cholesterol level,” the researchers noted.

“The use of [ Zetia ] ezetimibe led to a paradoxical increase in the degree of atherosclerosis in association with greater reduction in LDL cholesterol, an effect we hypothesize may stem from unintended biologic effects of this agent,” they concluded.

But that’s not all.

Even though LDL levels were lower in the statin plus Zetia (ezetimibe) than the statin plus niacin group, during a 14 month period there were:

• 3 times as many heart attacks in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group (3 vs 1)
• 5 times as many cardiovascular deaths in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group (5 vs 1), and
• 7 times as many total deaths in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group (7 vs 1), and
• more than 3 times as many heart bypasses performed in the Zetia (ezetimibe) group (3 vs 0)

Do not be fooled by whether or not a drug lowers some number on a piece of paper, that is, some marker, such as LDL cholesterol, blood pressure or blood sugar.

The drug companies have convinced doctors and patients alike that if a drug lowers cholesterol… or blood pressure or blood sugar, that is must be good for you.

This is not true!

Studies going back to the early 1970’s found that while oral diabetes drugs lower blood sugar, they caused more problems than they solved.

A 2004 study of blood pressure drugs in older women found that while these drugs lowered blood pressure by 10-15 points lower than women taking no blood pressure drugs, women taking the drugs were MORE likely to die of cardiovascular disease in seven out of the eight ( 7 of 8 ) drug groups than the “no drug” group!

Yes, really.

In fact, women who had been given a diuretic plus a calcium channel blocker were 2.4 times MORE likely to die of cardiovascular disease than women taking no blood pressure medicines at all, even though the systolic pressure of the women taking this drug combination was 11 points lower (138 mm Hg in the drug group vs 149 mm Hg in the “no drug” group)!

This is another example showing that the number on a piece of paper is irrelevant!

It does not matter whether or not a drug lowers LDL cholesterol or blood pressure or blood sugar or any other marker.

The only thing that matters is whether or not it lowers your total risk of death.

Please do not fall for this advertising nonsense!

Dr. Rodney A. Hayward says we should IGNORE LDL cholesterol ignore

Researchers quoted in the January 17th, 2008 cover story in BusinessWeek titled “Do Cholesterol Drugs Do Any Good”, said that they research suggests that we should IGNORE LDL cholesterol altogether.

”[C]urrent evidence supports ignoring LDL cholesterol altogether,” University of Michigan’s [Dr. Rodney A. Hayward, professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School] was quoted as saying in this BusinessWeek article.

There were fewer heart attacks, fewer heart bypasses performed, fewer cardiovascular deaths, and fewer total deaths during a 14 month period in statin users given extended-release niacin compared to those given Zetia (ezetimibe) according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The final dose of extended-release niacin was:

• 2000 mg in 75% of patients
• 1500 mg in 3% of patients
• 1000 mg in 12% of patients
• 500 mg in 10% of patients

In rare cases, niacin can cause liver problems.

This is more common with extended-release niacin than regular niacin.

This is because extended-release niacin (or time-release niacin) is roughly the equivalent of double the dose of regular niacin as noted by Dr. William Parsons in the 1993 book Coronary Heart Disease: The Dietary Sense and Nonsense. An evaluation by scientists.