In 1990 Dr. Linus Pauling was awarded a patent for his therapy that, he claimed, could prevent and cure atherosclerosis by using oral or intravenous dosages of vitamin C, other antioxidant vitamins, and amino acids.
Dr. Pauling’s research discovered that atherosclerosis starts with mechanical damage to your coronary arteries. Because these arteries are so close to your heart, they undergo tremendous pressure swings that force them to expand and contract 70 times a minute. This stress inevitably results in damage to the lining of your coronary arteries. This is not a problem if your body has the resources available to make the proper repairs. But, if your body runs out of these resources, it can not make the proper repairs.
Your blood vessels are make strong and flexible with a connective tissue protein called collagen. The proper repair to your damaged coronary arteries, therefore, is to make more collagen. In order for your body to make collagen it has to have certain nutrients. A nutritional deficiency impairs your body’s ability to make enough collagen, and thus prevents it from making the proper repairs. This situation is very dangerous. You don’t want your coronary arteries to leak!
But Dr. Pauling discovered that your body is very smart. If it can not make the proper repairs, it does the next best thing. Your body takes whatever is handy (cholesterol, fibrinogen, calcium) and fashions a patch over the damaged portion of the artery. Disaster averted! But mechanical stress is inevitable, so more damage will occur. A continuing nutritional deficiency will necessitate larger and thicker patches as time goes on. Until one day – your coronary arteries will let you know you have a problem: angina pain (if you’re lucky), a heart attack (if you’re not).
Dr. Pauling’s research discovered that 4 vitamins and 3 amino acids were needed to maintain healthy coronary arteries. He also discovered that these same substances, when given in therapeutic doses, would reduce and (in some cases) completely dissolve the atherosclerotic plaque deposits within your coronary arteries.
If Dr. Pauling is right, the cure for atherosclerosis is right under your nose. It’s called Your Mouth! By putting the correct nutrients, in the correct dosage, into your mouth - you can prevent and even cure most angina pain and heart disease. For prevention, Dr. Pauling recommended (all doses are per day):
Vitamin C (ascorbate) 3000 mg
Vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopherol) 400 mg
Vitamin A (Palmitate) 8000 IU
Coenzyme Q-10 100 mg
L-Lysine 3000 mg
L-Proline 250 mg
L-Carnitine 250 mg
For those who already have heart disease, Dr. Pauling recommended the above dosages be doubled. None of these substances are toxic at these levels. The worst side effect of taking too much vitamin C is diarrhea. If this occurs you could always cut back to a dosage that is tolerable.
Is there proof that the Pauling Therapy works? Yes, maybe, and yes.
The First Yes
In a paper entitled, Nutritional Supplement Program Halts Progression of Early Coronary Atherosclerosis Documented by Ultrafast Computed Tomography and published in Vol. 48 of the Journal of Applied Nutrition (pp 68-78, 1996), Dr. Rath and Dr. Niedzwiecki reported the results of a yearlong study on the effect of the Pauling Therapy on the natural progression of coronary artery disease. Before the intervention, the natural progression rate of the coronary artery calcification averaged 44% per year. During the year of treatment, however, the progression of coronary artery calcification decreased by an average of 15%. In a subgroup of patients with early stages of coronary artery disease, treatment resulted in a statistically significant decrease, with no further progression of coronary calcification. In individual cases, reversal and complete disappearance of previously existing coronary calcification were documented.
Similar results were obtained by Dr. K. Kenton in London with a 3-year clinical trial of 200 males (soon to be published study). Plaque growth progression was nearly halted to about 2-3% per year in comparison with natural progression in the control group of 15-30%. Or put another way, plaque growth was 800-1500 % smaller in the group taking the Pauling Therapy. [Email from Dr. K. Kenton dated Wed, 5 Mar 2003 17:53:32]
There are also three case histories in the medical literature attesting to the Pauling Therapy curing angina pain: 1) Case Report: Lysine/Ascorbate-Related Amelioration of Angina Pectoris Linus Pauling, Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, 6(3-4): 144-46, 1991. 2) A Case History: Lysine/Ascorbate-Related Amelioration Of Angina Pectoris. M. McBeath & L Pauling Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, 1993, 8: 77-78. 3) Cardiovascular Disease: A Unified Theory of the Cause and Treatment, Institute for Optimum Nutrition, Video Tape, 1993.
Maybe
Although these reports are intriguing, scientific proof requires more than two studies and 3 case reports.
The Second Yes
G. C. Willis (1957), K. R. Sebrov (1956), W. J. McCormick (1957), R. O. Mumma (1968), R. O. Mumma and A. J. Verlangieri (1971), E. Ginter (1969), and C. R. Spittle (1971) all demonstrated that, when vitamin C levels in the blood are elevated, atherosclerotic plaque deposits begin to disappear. And in 1974, C. Krumdieck and C. E. Butterworth obtained a 60% reduction of plaque deposits using nothing but oral doses of Vitamin C.
For 30 years (from the 40’s to the late 70’s) the Canadian medical doctors Wilfrid E. Shute and Evan V. Shute successfully treated over 30,000 heart disease patients with vitamin E megadose therapy.
And these studies are just the “tip of the iceberg.” There are thousands of studies in the medical literature that document the positive cardiovascular effects of the individual nutrients that comprise the Pauling Therapy.
Sixty years after the Shute brothers began using vitamin E and 13 years after Dr. Pauling published his first paper on the Pauling Therapy – I believe it is fair to ask the question:
Why hasn’t the medical community conducted more research into this possible nutritional cure for atherosclerosis?
About the author: Ray Ellis is in the process of collecting all published scientific documents regarding the effect of nutrition on heart disease in order to make this information easily and freely available to the public. For more information on this subject, you can visit his website at www.saveyourheart.com.
References
Ginter, E. et al (1969) The Effect of Chronic Hypovitaminosis C on the Metabolism of Cholesterol and Atherogenesis, Journal of Atherosclerosis Research, vol. 10, 341-352.
Krumdieck, C. and Butterworth, C. E., Jr. (1974) Ascorbate-Cholesterol-Lecithin Interactions: Factors of Potential Importance in the Pathogenesis of Atherosclerosis, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 27: 866--876, August.
McCormick, W. J. (1957) Coronary Thrombosis: A New Concept of Mechanism and Etiology, Clinical Medicine, 839-845.
Mumma R. O, (1968) Ascorbic Acid as a Sulfating Agent, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, Vol. 165, 571-573.
Mumma R. O, and Verlangieri A. J. (1971) In Vivo Sulfation of Cholesterol by Ascorbic Acid 3-Sulfate as a Possible Explanation for the Hypocholestemic Effects of Ascorbic Acid, Federation Proceedings, vol. 30, No. 2.
Sebrov, K. R, (1956) Prophylaxis and Treatment of Arteriosclerosis with Ascorbic Acid, Terapevticheskii Arkhiv (Moskva), Vol. 28, 55-65.
Shute, Evan (1969) Your Heart & Vitamin E, London, Canada: The Shute Foundation for Medical Research. Shute, Wilfrid E. (1969) Vitamin E for Ailing and Healthy Hearts, New York: Pyramid House.
Spittle, C. (1971) Atherosclerosis and Vitamin C, Lancet, 11:1280-1281.
Willis, G. C. (1957) The Reversibility of Atherosclerosis, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 77:106-109.
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