Cure for Heart Disease – Vitamin C Deficiency?

Dr. Linus Pauling alerts the world to the cause of heart disease: a chronic vitamin C deficiency. He was the holder of 48 honorary Ph.D.s, the world’s only 2-time unshared Nobel prize laureate, and the founder of modern chemistry. Dr. Pauling was unequivocally certain that too little vitamin C leads to elevated cholesterol levels, especially the Lp(a) variant of LDL (so-called bad) cholesterol that causes plaques in blood vessels.
His unified theory of cardiovascular disease constitutes one of the greatest potential breakthroughs of modern science, yet this remarkable theory, and its intriguing claim that very low-cost Lp(a) binding inhibitors will prevent and even dissolve arterial blockages, has been ignored by the pharmaceutical industry, the medical profession, and the media.

Pauling Facts:

[1] That atherosclerotic plaques deposit in response to injury is accepted. The confusion in the media is cause and effect. The fallacy is that cholesterol causes heart disease, but plaque build-ups are the effect of heart disease. Our understanding of the arterial healing process comes, in part, from research that led to the 1985 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

[2] Ordinary cholesterol cannot and does not cause heart disease any more than calcium. Human beings are well protected from scurvy by the RDA of vitamin C (now 75-90 mg), but this meager amount virtually guarantees “hardening of the arteries,” i.e. the development of occlusive cardiovascular disease as scabs (atherosclerotic plaques) form on the arterial walls weakened by the vitamin deficiency.

[3] This realization is not new: The Canadian doctor G. C. Willis, MD, made the crucial observation in the early 1950s. He observed that atherosclerotic plaques seemed to form mainly in the same places, near the heart where the blood vessels are stretched and bent. Willis suspected a vitamin C deficiency, and his experiments which proved the vitamin C connection, implicated mechanical stress caused by the heart beat.

[4] The Pauling and Rath theory relies on Willis observations. (Note: In a heart bypass, veins from the leg are used which are without plaque.) Because plaque does not form uniformly throughout the bloodstream, it is unlikely that the primary cause of the lesions leading to heart disease are “poisons” circulating in the blood.

[5] We now know that plaques form overstress fractures in the walls of blood vessels. Visualize stepping on a garden hose 70-80 times per minute, a fate similar to the coronary arteries feeding the heart. Over time, human arteries may wear down and develop small cracks. Mechanical stress then, not cholesterol, causes heart disease. But why are humans more susceptible to this stress than other beings with heartbeats? Some factors must cause lesions in the walls of human blood vessels but not in the coronary arteries of most other animals. Pauling and Rath blame the lack of a specific protein caused by a specific vitamin deficiency. A vitamin deficiency that is impossible in most animals!

Roger J. Williams, PhD, in his 1971 book Nutrition Against Disease explained vitamin C’s role in collagen:

“Vitamin C is essential for the building of collagen, the most abundant protein built in our bodies and the major component of connective tissue. This connective tissue has structural and supportive functions which are indispensable to heart tissues, to blood vessels, –in fact, to all tissues. Collagen is not only the most abundant protein in our bodies, it also occurs in larger amounts than all other proteins put together. It cannot be built without vitamin C. No heart or blood vessel or other organ could possibly perform its functions without collagen. No heart or blood vessel can be maintained in healthy condition without vitamin C.”

Pauling and Rath postulate that the root cause of atherosclerotic plaque deposits is a vitamin C deficiency.

[6] Pauling called this condition “chronic scurvy.” It is normal in humans, but it cannot happen in most other species. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is not a vitamin for most animals in the sense that it is not required in their diet. They make it in high amounts in their livers or kidneys. The sad fact is that we humans must obtain all our vitamin C from what we eat. (Unless we supplement, our diets contain less than 1/100th of what animals make, and we lose some in the gut during digestion.) According to the Pauling/Rath theory, suboptimal vitamin C results in less collagen. As collagen supplies dwindle, our blood vessels deteriorate. In an acute shortage, we die of scurvy. In a chronic shortage, humans develop atherosclerotic plaques. Pauling believed that most human beings suffer chronic scurvy.

“Vitamin C has been under investigation, reported in thousands of scientific papers, ever since it was discovered (circa) fifty years ago. Physicians had observed forty or fifty years ago that amounts a hundred to a thousand times larger (than the RDA) have value in controlling various diseases.”

[7] A vast amount of experimental research supports the Pauling/Rath view. Careful studies with animals that do not make their own endogenous vitamin C (such animals are rare) prove that when the dietary intake of the vitamin is low, collagen production is limited, and blood vessels tend to become thinner and weaker from wear and tear; plaque deposits then form to compensate for this weakness. Large population studies show that higher C intake results in a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease and lower death rates.[Enstrom, 92]

[8] Plaque forms over injured blood vessels. If one suffers plaque deposits, it is likely he/she owes his life to this material that narrows arteries. Without plaque, the weakened blood vessels would rupture or leak causing internal bleeding and death. A slower version of scurvy, the disease long-dreaded by ancient sailors. (James Lind discovered (year 1753) that eating fruit prevents this disease. Acute scurvy can be prevented by a mere 10 mg vitamin C per day. ) The correct terminology for cardiovascular (heart) disease then is “chronic” scurvy or “subclinical” scurvy.

[9] The human body’s healing response to chronic scurvy is what medicine calls coronary heart disease (CHD), AKA cardiovascular disease (CVD), “heart disease”, “atherosclerosis”, “arteriosclerosis”, “hardening”, “plaque”, “narrowing”, etc. This process by itself rarely kills people, but plaque lined arteries make heart attack more likely from a blood clot or blockage. (Plaque lined arteries cannot easily dilate in response to a clot.) Currently, it is unknown what amount of vitamin C prevents the atherosclerotic plaques of chronic scurvy, but Linus Pauling often recommended 3000 mg.

[10] The chronic scurvy healing process begins with an important “sticky” form of cholesterol. Pauling and Rath were among the first to attach utmost importance to the blood lipid: lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a) for short. From the research that led to the 1985 Nobel prize, medical researchers learned how plaque deposits as Lp(a) binds to lysine strands that appear in the arterial walls. Lysine and proline are building blocks of the collagen super-molecule, but the Cholesterol or Lysine strands the Lp(a) Binding Sites adhered to are not normally exposed. The binding sites can adhere only after blood vessels crack or suffer a small sore or lesion. Scientists have since discovered the Lp(a) Proline Binding Sites too. Note: Mainstream medical science has known since 1989 that Lp(a) binds to form plaque, not ordinary LDL.

[11] Many experts believe that something circulating in the blood must cause these cracks in our blood “pipes”. For many years, ordinary LDL cholesterol has been blamed because elevated levels have sometimes been correlated with heart disease. Other scientists correlated elevated homocysteine and oxidized cholesterol. Again, the confusion is cause and effect. If cholesterol causes cracks or lesions, the plaque should be more randomly distributed throughout the bloodstream. According to the Pauling/Rath unified theory, both elevated homocysteine and oxidized cholesterol are symptoms of scurvy.

[12] Before teaming with Pauling, Dr. Rath’s German research team examined plaque from human aortas (blood vessels near the heart) post-mortem. They discovered that atherosclerotic plaques are composed primarily of Lp(a), not ordinary LDL cholesterol. Dr. Rath, realized that Lp(a) was connected somehow with vitamin C and joined the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine. Together, Pauling and Rath developed their unified theory which holds that increased Lp(a) acts as a surrogate for low vitamin C and hardens weak blood vessels. Their experiments, to test their theory, proved that low vitamin C intake will increase blood levels of Lp(a) in test animals compared to controls.

[13] An important finding is that this sticky Lp(a) (a form of cholesterol similar to LDL) has only been found in the very few animal species that do not make their own vitamin C, including humans. Today, most animals:

Humans are almost unique among life on Earth in that we must receive our vitamin C entirely from the diet.

[14] Linus Pauling the Chemist led the medical paradigm shift from vitamins-as-prevention to vitamins-as-therapy. Pauling became fascinated by vitamin C and other life-giving substances that, like drugs, have powerful physiological effects in minuscule amounts, but unlike most drugs, are completely non-toxic at very high dosages.

[15] In 1991, armed with the knowledge of the how and why Lp(a) binds to our arteries creating plaque, Pauling invented the way to unbind, or “turn off”, the sticky Lp(a) molecule: The cure for heart disease. The Pauling invention nullifies the binding effect of Lp(a) to the damaged arterial wall. The agents can be taken by mouth and act chemically as solvents that both prevent and attack existing plaque formations. Importantly, the formula attacks the root cause by stimulating the production of collagen. With collagen, blood vessels stay healthy or heal normally, so there are no cholesterol binding sites to attract Lp(a).

[16] According to one Pauling/Rath 1994 United States patent, the amino acid lysine (lysine analogs), along with vitamin C and other antioxidants (e.g. Co-Q10, vitamin E and vitamin A), can, in sufficient concentration, inhibit Lp(a) binding to exposed lysine residues. Proline residues are also exposed by lesions in blood vessels; later experiments showed that proline is a powerful binding inhibitor. Proline and lysine, with vitamin C, other amino acids and antioxidants, in oral amounts well past the amounts needed for prevention, become solvents by inhibiting the binding of Lp(a). An Lp(a) binding inhibitor, augmented with vitamin C, can stop and apparently even reverses plaque formations. (Pauling and Rath’s second U. S. patent is for using binding inhibitors as solvents to melt atherosclerotic plaques during organ transplants or heart surgery. The organ or blood vessel is dipped in the Lp(a) Binding Inhibitor solution and any surface plaque melts away. Also, arginine and proline have been shown to inhibit the binding of apo(a) to the LDL cholesterol molecule, thus interfering with the formation of Lp(a).)

[17] High intakes of these substances, esp. vitamin C and lysine, are the Pauling Therapy.The Pauling Therapy treats the root-cause and our we have become convinced long ago that one of the world’s leading intellects was correct: At sufficient dosage, these substances have powerful effects, and will rapidly reverse advanced heart disease.

[18] The Pauling mega-vitamin/amino acid therapy increases blood concentrations of important substances to:

• Strengthen and heal blood vessels,
• Lower Lp(a) blood levels and keep Lp(a) levels low, and
• Inhibit the binding of Lp(a) molecules to the walls of blood vessels.

The components of the Pauling Therapy are remarkably safe. Unlike ordinary drugs, there are few known health risks. There are no known adverse side effects, other than the laxative effect of vitamin C. ( We now believe that it is prudent to balance high-dosage lysine with a good B-complex vitamin, and later during maintenance, high-dose arginine.)

[19] Unlike the $2300/month cancer cure, the Pauling heart therapy costs less than $100 per month.

[20] The Pauling “mega” dose ranges are based upon the degree of illness in a patient. In general, Lp(a) binding inhibitors are food substances that are non-toxic, and studies have shown they improve health as intake increases; lesser amounts will have lesser effects. According to his daughter Linda, Linus Pauling’s lysine dosage recommendations were carefully considered and were based on his knowledge of lysine blood serum levels, after intake. It is not practical to obtain these amounts in food alone; supplements are required.

[21] Vitamin C, and the amino acids lysine and proline, are the fundamental building blocks of collagen and the Pauling Therapy provides these building blocks in ample amounts. Over time, collagen must be replenished for blood vessels to remain healthy and plaque-free.

[22] The fact that humans use up vitamin C while producing collagen has been established. [See HOW TO LIVE LONGER AND FEEL BETTER, Linus Pauling, 1986] One reason Linus Pauling himself consumed 18,000 mg of vitamin C daily is that the human ability to produce collagen is severely limited at the US Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of 60 mg

Source: http://www.paulingtherapy.com/