Heal Your Heart – Causes and Cures of Heart Disease

The Role of Stress, Malnutrition, and Environmental Toxins

In the May 28, 1997 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Duke University researchers published findings showing that “moderate to strong feelings of sadness, tension, and frustration can more than double the risk of having a heart attack within the next hour.”

The opposite was found to be true of people who felt content. In the January 2001 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, it was reported that having a bad marriage can bring on chronic high blood pressure and heart attacks just as surely as smoking, and that resolving such tensions (by switching to a supportive, loving partner or successful counseling) could heal the heart. In 2005, the U.S. National Academy of Science research showed that happy people had lower concentrations of the blood chemical fibrinogen whose presence signals inflammation, a precipitator of heart attack, stroke and cancer.

These findings have made stress reduction techniques, nutrition, counselling, meditation, prayer, and psychotherapy central components of cardiovascular therapies. In this area of medicine, the heart brought about something of a truce between standard medicine (focused on surgery and drugs) and alternative medicine (which proved that the soul, food, and human relationships are important in the causation as well as the cure of cardiovascular disease).

The high blood pressure hoax – In 2006, Dr. Sherry Rogers, MD, published a book entitled The High Blood Pressure Hoax. In it, she wrote: “For every ailment, even one as simple as high blood pressure, there are multiple causes and multiple cures,” and none of those include synthetic drugs which, at best, temporarily control symptoms. High blood pressure is caused by damaged blood vessels whose millions of cells become unable to repair themselves when external toxins and the starvation caused by nutrient-poor foods overwhelm them. “Since blood vessels supply oxygen and nutrition to every organ of the body, any damage to your vessels eventually leads to damage of any organ,” says Rogers.

The connection between malnutrition and heart disease is increasingly being recognized by mainstream medicine; Toronto cardiologist, Dr. David Alter, showed that postal code areas with the highest number of fast food restaurants have the highest rate of fatal and non-fatal heart attacks(Canadian Journal of Public Health, May 12, 2005).

It follows that consuming real food which contains the essentials for life (fatty acids, minerals, vitamins), while stopping the body’s exposure to environmental toxins (from cosmetics, cleaning products, detergents, pesticides, etc.) will enable cells to resume repair of the damaged blood vessels and return blood pressure to normal.

In cases of high blood pressure, potassium and magnesium are of central importance. The Standard American Diet (SAD) causes potassium deficiency through carbonated drinks along with insufficient fresh vegetables and fruit. And SAD is so deficient in magnesium, according to US government agricultural research, that most North Americans only get 40% of the daily amount required for basic health. One study showed that 56% of hospitalized stroke patients were severely malnourished (Medical Post, Sept. 26, 2000), and Harvard Medical School published research showing that a high potassium diet (i.e. vegetables and fruit) lowers the risk of stroke (Focus, Oct. 2, 1998).

The High Blood Pressure Hoax gets particularly frightening when Dr. Rogers discusses the drugs used to control hypertension, such as the beta blockers, the ACE inhibitors, as well as those drugs that cause high blood pressure as a side effect such as the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Nosies like Vioxx and Celebrex): these all deplete potassium, magnesium and important heart nutrients like Coenzyme–Q10. The most serious side effect of this symptom control-approach is cancer. All these drugs cause a general inflammatory response in the body which sets the stage for cancer.

The discussion of vitamins C and E in Rogers’ book is excellent. Both vitamins are not only anti-inflammatory, but actually prevent as well as treat all forms of heart disease effectively. (As an aside, erectile dysfunction is an early symptom of heart disease, not a Viagra deficiency. Your love life is controlled by the heart – one way or the other!)

In her book, Dr. Rogers systematically presents the many causes of heart disease including plasticizers (which enter the body via food packaged in plastic) and heavy metals stored in our tissues, contaminated food, over-the-counter drugs, gum disease, and more. She then presents all the preventive and therapeutic measures, chief amongst which is, of course, food.

It turns out, for example, that the observation found in the writings of Hippocrates (2,500 BCE) that fresh celery is good for the heart, is true: within minutes of consumption it actually improves blood flow everywhere! The Romans believed that celery was an aphrodisiac and served it at weddings. This would certainly have worked for older bridegrooms burdened with a life-long diet of too much fat and alcohol and too little fresh fruit and veggies; they would have received a welcome shot of blood supply where it counts.

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To order Dr. Rogers’ book (U.S.$19.95), go to: www.prestigepublishing.com or call 1-800-846-6687.

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