Some Popular Risk Factors Debunked

Heart studies in the 1950s and early 1960s statistically linked various factors with the risk of developing heart dis­ease. In 1964 the major risk factors were typically de­scribed as high blood pressure, physical inactivity, cigarette smoking, obesity, diabetes, a family history of heart dis­eases, and an elevated level of blood cholesterol.

Research was aimed at discovering ways to control cholesterol, blood pressure, and obesity. Blood triglyceride (fatty materials) levels were added to the list of risk factors. Also, lung vital capacity (amount of air expelled by the lungs in a single breath) was used more as a measure re­lated to physical activity, and the electrocardiogram was relied on increasingly.

Attempts to control the heart-disease risk factors, how­ever, have not reduced the incidence of heart disease. Con­trolling diabetes, for example, does not lower the risk of heart disease, but it does reduce the probability of dying from other causes. Study after study has shown that lower­ing the blood pressure does not lower the heart-disease incidence, but it does reduce the risk of dying from heart disease or stroke.

Reducing cholesterol intake or reducing serum choles­terol levels has not been proved to reduce heart-disease incidence.

Reducing severe obesity does not lower the risk of heart attack unless other concomitant factors, such as blood pres­sure, serum cholesterol, etc., are also reduced. Smoking has received widespread agreement concerning its role in heart disease, although findings are not conclusive. According to a twenty-five-year study beginning in 1950 in  Massachusetts, those who smoke more than a pack of cigarettes a day have a larger than three times as great a chance of dying of a heart attack as a non-smoker. Heavy smokers who quit smoking experience de­clining risk until after ten years of nonsmoking when their risk becomes only slightly higher than a nonsmoker’s risk.

The degree of risk of incurring heart disease was deter­mined primarily from a mathematical equation derived in the  study. The study is an “un­touchable deity” to most physicians, but recently it has come under attack. The twenty-five-year study, directed by the Boston University Medical Center, of 5.000 residents of Framingham, Massachusetts, may have been a multimil­lion-dollar waste because of a wrongly applied equation. Using the equation, however, the above risk factors were postulated.

Serum cholesterol above 240 mg % (milligrams of cholesterol per 100 milliliters of blood) was said to be three times worse than below 200; a level above 260 was considered six times worse. Systolic blood pressure over 160 was four to eight times worse than below 120. Ciga­rette smoking, varying according to contributing factors, was two to six times worse than not smoking. Men smoking more than one pack- of cigarettes a day were said to be six times as likely to have a stroke as non-smokers. Electro­cardiogram abnormality increased the risk by a factor of two.

The sedentary man, according to the study, had twice the risk of the active man. Having high serum cholesterol, high blood pressure, and an electrocardiogram abnormal­ity, it was claimed by the study, gave you  twenty-three times the probability of dying of a heart at­tack. Later we will look at errors in the study that may invalidate these factors.

Many physicians treating heart disease will concentrate on reducing serum cholesterol and dietary cholesterol, be­cause they believe the alleged link of higher blood choles­terol with greater risk. Is there direct evidence linking heart disease to the dietary intake of cholesterol, or even to blood cholesterol levels? NO! There is name.

My thesis is that neither coronary thrombosis nor athero­sclerosis will occur in genetically normal people, provided they have complete Super nutrition and engage hi moderate activity. Any vitamin or mineral deficiency may directly or indirectly lead to heart disease. The most important vitamin for lowering the incidence of heart disease is vita­min E; it is, unfortunately, the most deficient in our diet. Vitamin C is next in importance with vitamin B third. The minerals selenium, magnesium, and zinc are the key minerals in warding off heart disease.

Failure to stimulate die body naturally with motion and activity will cause poor circulation, hormone unbalances, and atrophy of organs needed for health. Personality pat­terns such as “personality type A” may be influenced and protected by Super-nutrition. Personality type A charac­teristics have been a high drive toward poorly defined goals, persistence of work for recognition and ad­vancement, eagerness to compete, and heightened mental and physical stresses and drives which consume more B and C vitamins than they ingest. Smoking also destroys vitamins, especially vitamin C; this may explain the link between smoking and heart disease.