Heart Disease and Vitamin C

By Dr. Matthias Rath

Matthias Rath is a leading expert in cardiovascular disease and nutrition. The former director of cardiovascular research at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, he has held research and clinical posi-tions at the University of Ham-burg and the German Heart Center in Berlin. After participating in the discovery of lipo-protein(a) and its connections to Vitamin C, Dr. Rath came to the U.S. to pursue the goal of eliminating heart attacks and strokes. He currently serves on the editorial boards of three medical journals.

IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES IGNORED FOR YEARS
For years, practitioners and researchers have presented evidence pointing to the importance of vitamin C to human health. Nearly 50 years ago, for example, the Canadian cardiologist J. C. Patterson, M.D., reported that more than 80% of his heart disease patients had low vitamin C levels in their blood.

In 1954, G. C. Wills, M.D., showed that vitamin C supplementation could reduce atherosclerotic deposits in the arteries of patients. His study received scant attention. Since 1970, the major advocate for increasing our vitamin C intake has been Linus Pauling, Ph.D., a two-time Nobel Laureate. Due at least in part to his influence, vitamin C consumption in the U.S. rose by 300% during the 1970's. During this same period, mortality from heart disease plummeted more than 30%.

In May 1992, University of California-Los Angeles researchers reported on a study of 11,000 Americans. They found that increasing intake of vitamin C nearly halves the death rate from heart disease and lengthens life expectancy up to six years.

VITAMIN C-HEART DISEASE FIGHTER

My colleagues and I have found that heart disease is an early form of scurvy. Scurvy, known as the sailor's disease of earlier centuries, is caused by a complete lack of vitamin C in the diet. In this condition, only very little collagen is produced in the body, thus weakening blood vessels to the point that they break apart. Collagen is the reinforcement of fiber for blood vessel walls and other parts of the human body. Without the reinforcement of collagen, blood leaks through the vessel like water leaks through a brittle garden hose. Massive blood loss through vitamin C-depleted blood vessels killed thousands of sailors until limes became part of their diets.

Adequate vitamin C, on the other hand, allows your body to produce many collagen molecules. These reinforce and guarantee strong and elastic blood vessels that do not allow atherosclerotic deposits to develop.

Heart disease lies between this optimum condition and scurvy. The American diet contains enough vitamin C to prevent full-blown scurvy, but in many cases, not enough to guarantee stable blood vessel walls. Over the years, this inadequacy permits fat globules and other blood-born risk factors to enter the blood vessel walls. Millions of these particles collect and become atherosclerotic deposits, which, in the arteries of the heart lead to heart attack. Deposits in the arteries of the brain lead to stroke.

A RISK TEN TIMES GREATER THAN CHOLESTEROL

Recently, a reevaluation was done of the Framingham Heart Study, one of the largest risk factor studies ever conducted. The results fly in the face of conventional wisdom. The reevaluation revealed a threat ten times greater than low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. This risk factor is called lipoprotein(a).

Lipoprotein(a) is a low-density lipoprotein (LDL) fat globule with apo(a) wrapped around it like adhesive tape. Each fat globule contains thousands of cholesterol molecules. It is the apo(a) which makes these fat globules stick inside the wall of weakened blood vessels.

Lipoprotein(a) is found in humans and other species whose bodies cannot internally manufacture vitamin C. In contrast, animals which produce their own vitamin C within their livers do not need lipoprotein(a). Lipoprotein(a) is nature's emergency repair particle produced to fix blood vessels weakened by a shortage of vitamin C. It is meant to be a short-term solution. When vitamin C deficiency continues over many years, this repair process is prolonged abnormally. In other words, heart disease is a repair process for weakened blood vessels that continues too long and eventually overshoots, causing the development of atherosclerotic deposits.

Neither diet nor any of the presently available cholesterol-lowering prescription drugs is known to affect this newly identified risk factor. In contrast, supplements of vitamin C and vitamin B3 (niacin), as well as the natural amino acids proline and lysine, can help reduce these deposits and reverse existing heart disease in a non-surgical way.

Vitamin C stabilizes the blood vessel wall and makes the deposit of lipoprotein(a) unnecessary. Vitamin C and niacin can also lower lipoprotein(a) levels in blood. The natural amino acids L-proline and L-lysine are "anti-adhesives" which prevent gluing of the adhesive lipoprotein(a) particles to the blood vessel wall. Higher daily dosages of these vitamins may be needed in some patients to achieve this goal.

NUTRIENTS AND YOUR HEART CELLS

The heart is the central organ of the cardiovascular system. Its main function is the pumping of blood throughout the body 70 times per minute, more than 100,000 times a day. Thus, the heart is the busiest organ of the human body and the organ undergoing the greatest mechanical stress. The heart and the blood vessels are composed of millions of cells whose proper function determines cardiovascular health.

Vitamin C, the B vitamins, camitine, co-enzyme QIO, and certain minerals and trace elements are the fuel for the body's cells. They are key to optimal cardiovascular health. If the heart cells become vitamin deficient, they may fail to perform properly and different forms of heart disease develop.

Vitamin deficiencies in the electrical cells of the heart lead to irregular heartbeats, or arrhythmia. Vitamin deficiencies in the heart muscle cells lead to impaired blood pumping, as well as shortness of breath and edema.

UNCLOGGING BLOCKED ARTERIES

A dream of mankind is the non-surgical reversal of existing deposits in our arteries. Vitamin C, proline and lysine can not only help to prevent the buildup of atherosclerotic deposits, but also help to decrease ex-isting deposits and thereby reverse heart disease. L-proline and L-lysine, which are man made forms of the naturally occurring amino acids made within the body, can help reverse atherosclerotic deposits by releasing lipoprotein(a) and other fat globules from inside the vessel wall, thereby decreasing the size of these deposits.

Vitamin C can also help to remove fat particles from the deposits in the blood vessel wall by increasing the levels of HDL (so-called good cholesterol), which picks up and transports away HDL (so-called good cholesterol), which picks up and transports away fat particles that cling to blood vessel walls. Clinical studies now underway promise further information about this effect.

Magnum C is an improved form of C known as "Ester C", pH neutral with potassium, magnesium, bioflavonoids, botanicals, and rosehips.

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