The Vita-Nutrient Solutions Part 1

CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONS

It is certainly logical that we begin with the heart, the organ most responsible for determining our life span. Cardiovascular disease is one of the most glaring examples of mismanaged health problems in medicine today. While cardiologists possess excellent diagnostic skills, many show an ignorance of nutritional medicine, which can easily lead to second-rate health care. Coronary heart disease – more specifically, the clogging of arteries that leads to heart attacks and heart muscle deterioration – was extremely rare a hundred years ago. (In fact, the symptom complex of crushing chest pain and sudden death had not even been described by medical writers until the early part of the twentieth century). One hundred years ago, people ate considerably less sugar and refined starches. They also derived a larger percentage of dietary fat from animal sources, a fact that should cause you to question the official warnings to avoid such fats.

Anyone (myself included) who claims that his is the only diet that will prevent heart disease must be at least partially wrong. There are several relatively diverse paths to heart disease, and no one diet would stave off the condition for everyone. The trick is to find the specific abnormalities, if any, that serve as metabolic risk factors and eradicate them as dramatically as you can.

– The most common of these abnormalities is not, as previously thought, a problem of high cholesterol. But rather it involves a defect in our insulin’s activity against glucose. This can be detected by abnormal glucose and insulin levels during a glucose tolerance test or whenever the critically important (yet rarely stressed) triglyceride-to-HDL ratio is greater than two to one. (You can calculate it yourself from the numbers in your lipid profile.)

– Other abnormalities involve elevated homocysteine levels and a variety of lipid disturbances such as elevated levels of oxidized LDL cholesterol or of lipoprotein(a). Each is best corrected by a different programme.

Certain generalities apply.

Eat a diet extremely low in sugary corn syrup or other natural sweeteners. Avoid margarine or any other similar fat that provides a source of unnatural trans-fatty acids. Try to eat at least three servings of fatty cold-water fish per week (salmon, sardines, mackerel and the like) or else take fish oil supplements. Use flaxseed oil and olive oil on your food, and keep away from foods with antinutrient effects, such as white flour and cornflour. Nuts and seeds rich in essential fatty acids should be included as additional snacks.

Heart disease may also be prevented by taking in enough antioxidants (such as vitamins С and E) and minerals (such as magnesium, zinc, copper, chromium and selenium). This short nutrient list is also valuable in helping to treat established heart disease. Heart-energizing nutrients such as carnitine and CoQ10 are major players, as are herbs like hawthorn and garlic. And let’s not forget folic acid and vitamin B6 which are crucial for preventing homocysteine from damaging the coronary arteries.