The Real Cause of Most (85%) Heart Attacks and Strokes

Dr Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD (director of cardiovascular research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and previous head of the American Heart Association) published the results of a forty-year study (from 1959 to 1999) in a book called Understanding Vulnerable Plaque. The rest of us first heard of this study in an article by Ron Winslow first published in the Wall Street Journal. It was such an amazing story that it had four headlines:

Coronary Culprit

Heart-Disease Sleuths Identify Prime Suspect: Inflammation of Artery
The Body’s Efforts to Repair Irritated Lining of Vessel Can Backfire Disastrously
Plaques Burst Like Popcorn

The article starts off describing the previous (popular) line of thought concerning the mechanism of heart attacks. First there is the accumulation of plaque until a blockage is created. Then a clot forms and gets caught in the plaque, which cuts off the blood to the heart and bingo, heart stops: standard cardiac arrest caused by coronary thrombosis (blood clot in the arteries that feed the heart).

“But the popular view is wrong,” writes Ron Winslow. We’ve been wrong a long, long time. If you take a look at your Encarta Encyclopedia, you’ll see this “popular view.” If you go today to the American Heart Association’s web site, you’ll still see this same view. Billions of dollars are spent yearly on medical procedures supporting this “popular view.”

Even Newsweek eventually picked up the story quoting Dr Fuster: “inflammation in the circulating blood may play an important role in triggering heart attacks by activating blood clotting mechanisms.” Fuster even has the integrity to state that the role of physicians should be to care for the blood and not go into the plumbing business (performing expensive “roto-rooter” services on our blood vessels).

If you go to Dr Garry Gordon’s web site, www.gordonresearch.com, you’ll see that Dr Gordon was pushing this line of thought years before it was released in the Wall Street Journal. You’ll see that for the past ten years Dr Garry Gordon has not sent one of his heart disease patients in for bypass surgery. You’ll see that he has written all sorts of papers on Bypassing Bypass Surgery:

Based on my 40 years clinical experience during the last 10 years of which I did not have to send a single patient for bypass or angioplasty surgery no matter how advanced their blockages were, I now believe that most degenerative and cardiovascular diseases can be improved and often nearly totally reversed.

Dr Garry Gordon was kind enough to help us with this edition. He is a co-founder of the American College for the Advancement of Medicine. He is founder and president of the International College of Advanced Longevity and a board member of the International Oxidative Medicine Association. He is a medical doctor, a doctor of osteopathy, and a homeopathic physician. He practices orthomolecular and functional medicine and is a full-time consultant for many nutritional supplement companies, one being Longevity Plus where his office is located. He is responsible for the majority of their formulations. In his late seventies now (2018), he’s enjoying an active, energy filled lifestyle because he follows his own advice.

Dr Gordon lectures around the world on cardiovascular wellness: “The End of Bypass Surgery is in Sight.”

During his radiology residency at Mount Zion hospital in San Francisco, he suffered from terrible angina attacks. He watched carefully the cardiology practice at this hospital, knowing that he would soon be a patient. He discovered he didn’t like the odds. For every two cardiac patients who walked through the entrance, only one walked out the exit after treatment.

He learned right away the limits of modern diagnostics. No matter which instrument we use to view the arteries, we can never see them in three dimensions. And when we find a completely blocked artery, doctors want to jump right in and start cracking open the patient’s chest. They jump in despite all the evidence that collateralization has taken place. When an artery collateralizes, it branches off and forms a new artery to deliver the blood the blocked artery can no longer deliver.

Dr Gordon long ago suspected inflammations in the blood had a connection to heart attacks and strokes. He has now completely eliminated the problem using Wobenzym® from Germany (along with nutrition and chelation therapy). From Dr Gordon’s web site:

Wobenzym® is an enzyme preparation initially developed in Germany in the 1960’s by the Medical Enzyme Research Foundation.

Wobenzym® is backed by millions of dollars of research. This research has been primarily done in Europe, there are FDA approved studies under way in the United States on Osteo-Arthritis and Multiple Myeloma.

Studies in Europe have documented an average lowering of C-reactive protein levels (a marker of chronic infection in the body) of 30%.

New research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, has documented that higher levels of C-reactive protein have up to 6 times the incidence of death from heart attack and stroke as lower levels. This obviously means that long-term use of Wobenzym® can be life saving. In addition it has the well deserved reputation of being the leading natural safe alternative for anti-inflammatory drugs such Ibuprofen.

As great as these numbers sounded back when we first published them (in 2002), there’s a new guy on the block that’s kicking Wobenzym’s ass. It’s an omega-7 fatty acid, known as palmitoleic acid, and in just 30 days on a supplement of a “purified” omega-7 fatty acid, the experimental group realized a 50% drop in their C-Reactive Protein levels, while the control group’s levels did not change. The experimental group also realized a 17% drop in triglycerides and a 7% drop in total cholesterol. [Source: Martinez, L. Purified Omega-7 in the reduction of hs-CRP: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Proprietary Research Report, 2013.]

The company that patented their purified form, and tested it, then went on to make a larger capsule nearly doubling the the content of their first product, Cardia-7, calling it Flexinol. And since we always give full disclosure here, you need to know this.

We try to maintain objectivity at all times and also try to avoid conflicts of interest. Simply the Best, an online non-profit store, was started by a close friend who wanted to sell all the great things I discovered in my research. I helped her hire the handicapped to do her shipping. And the person hired, ripped her off for $3,000.oo. I was immediately “volunteered” to do the shipping, and I also became involved in all the workings of the company.

The people from Cardia-7 found this website and read the wonderful write-up I gave them, and they called me and sent me a year’s supply of Cardia-7. I then helped Simply the Best get it on their shelves. Then recently, they contacted me again about Flexinol, which we were thinking of carrying, and they told me that they had a few cases that had gone past their expiry date. They did not have to tell me that the stuff was still good, because I’m well aware of the practice of capriciously setting expiration dates and even NPR did a production on how medicines are still good years after they’ve “expired.” They offered us a case at half price. Well, we sold out in just about two months and ordered again. People write us and are very happy with this product, and as long as we can get them to people at half price, I’m happy too. Look for them here. Oh, and Simply the Best only handles the Flexinol, not its little brother Cardia-7.

Ron Winslow points out in his article that it is our own body’s immune system that becomes a turncoat and works against our longevity by bursting holes in our arteries. Trying to attack the intruders causing the infections, our own immune system contributes to the problem.

Infections in our blood are not new. They’ve been uncovered in a good many books, such as the Root Canal Cover-up, published in 1992 that focused on the low-grade infections caused by root canals, low grade infections that can get into the blood stream. However, this root canal business goes back even further when you realize that Weston Price, working with 60 other scientists in the 1920’s and 1930’s, did the original research on the root canal problem and predicted that a host of systemic diseases—including heart disease—can be caused by these low grade inflammations as well as by gum disease.

The process, the actual development of Vulnerable Plaque, its coming to a head and exploding, and the subsequent clotting that can result in one huge clot racing through your bloodstream to get caught in your brain or heart is as interesting as any detective novel.

Vulnerable Plaque: Left: Ultra-High-speed Magnetic Resonance Image showing vulnerable plaque in the walls of the left coronary artery (arrow). Right: Image from the top portion of the aorta shows the plaque made up of cholesterol deposits, calcium and blood clots. (Courtesy of Dr Zahi A. Fayad, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.)

As you will learn later under the heading of Arteriosclerosis (or hardening of the arteries), a good portion of the assault on our arteries, as described by Doctors Linus Pauling and Matthias Rath, is caused by lack of proper nutrition. Now we see another cause, which is the attack on the vascular wall by germs, and a cycle of inflammation.  According to the article, the repeated attacks and repairs cause this build-up of plaque: “Researchers believe that coronary-artery disease is an inflammatory process, characterized by a decades-long cycle of irritation, injury, healing and reinjury to the inside of the blood vessels.”

Sadly, the article hangs onto old prejudices: “The new research doesn’t detract from well-known risk factors. On the contrary, it bolsters arguments for controlling blood pressure and cholesterol, avoiding smoking and adopting a healthier lifestyle.”

We agree about the smoking and the lifestyle changes, but this cholesterol stuff is outdated and, at best, a harmful misconception. Cholesterol is a secondary factor only. It is not cholesterol that causes cardiovascular disease, but cardiovascular disease that causes your cholesterol levels to rise.

We will later on talk about the build up of plaque on the arterial walls, but first let us take a look at Ron Winslow’s article and his take on this:

The picture that emerges from their labs as well as others is of a disease that begins as early as adolescence with an initial irritation to the artery’s inner wall, called the endothelium. This sets off alarms summoning the immune system and the broader inflammatory response, dispatching cellular soldiers to fight the invaders and fix the damage.

If the injury is a one-time event, this is no problem. The immune-system players retreat, and the inflammatory response that accompanied their efforts recedes as well. But over decades, with persistent irritation such as from high blood cholesterol or exposure to cigarette smoke, this becomes chronic, and the body’s repair machinery begins to run amok.

“It’s a smoldering process,” says Dr Libby. As it proceeds, “the normal defense mechanisms get turned against you.” For instance, an irritated cell in the lining produces molecules that act like flypaper to attract the beneficial repair crews. But over time, these stuck molecules become the seedbed for eventual cholesterol deposits called plaques.

The only problem in the above quotation is this strange idea that cholesterol, a very needed component to our basic biology, is called an irritant. Rancid, oxidized cholesterol is an irritant that can be avoided by the proper use of antioxidants and anti-inflammatories.

At this point we need Dr Gordon’s input, as the article doesn’t seem to completely tell the story.

Dr Gordon points out that the inflammations in the blood (we all have them or will have them; it’s just a matter of time) are caused by microbes (such as mycoplasma, HHV-6, chlamydia, CMV, and a few others, possibly even stealth viruses—viruses that have gone undetected by modern science but cause low grade inflammations in the blood). He also reminds us that not all inflammations are caused by infections. He points out that poor metabolism (not burning cleanly) and a lot of free radicals can cause inflammations. (See also: Blood—Care and Cleaning) The infections in the blood stream are caused by tiny microbes that get into the artery and are attacked by the immune system. This causes inflammation. The resulting scar tissue is first covered up by lp(a)—first discovered by Pauling and Rath—and then by cholesterol, and finally covered with a fibrous cap (from the fibrinogen in the blood, the clotting mechanism). This entire process of inflammation and attack keeps the blood hypercoagulable, as fibrin is needed to patch the wounds. Interestingly enough, the microorganisms become hidden from the immune system by the fibrin coating.

Keep in mind that, normally, a healthy immune system keeps these microbes in check. But when you are stressed, overtired, and undernourished, with your immune system deactivated, these critters can get out of hand.

One of the problems leading up to vulnerable plaque is caused by macrophages (or “big eaters”). The job of macrophages is to eat things that are causing problems: microbes and excess cholesterol. They get so full of cholesterol that they can no longer function and become, what scientists call, foam cells. The processes of patching the arteries hides the foam cells beneath the fibrous cap and the macrophages die adding their contents to what Ron Winslow calls a “cauldron of plaque bubbling under the fibrous cap.”

Dr Garry Gordon calls it a boil. And like any boil, it’s eventually going to burst.

Now let’s step back for a second. Science is developing more and more sophisticated instruments to peer into the human body. Recently on the radio we’ve heard advertisements about this new machine (in a “heart” hospital in Minnetonka) that can peer into all your clogged arteries and tell you precisely the percentage of clog. But do not think for a minute that it can tell you that you have vulnerable plaque. It cannot tell you that you have a boil about to burst. They would have to scan your entire body, inch by inch to find this boil.

So, POW! the boil explodes. Do these tissues and fibrin and gunk cause a clot? No. They are cleaned up by the immune system. But a clot is formed. It forms when passing blood cells spot the epithelial tissues laid bare by the boil’s explosion. They begin to clot and form a patch. Blood clots to correct a problem, but as you will see, the clot becomes the problem.

Because of the hypercoagulability of our blood (due to all the infections, our diet, our heavy metals, etc., as noted earlier) our blood is quick to clot. It wants to clot. It creates an extra large, humongous clot to patch the hole. Because of its ungainly size, it can break loose in the current of the blood flow. This is the clot that is going to kill you. It is going to kill people with no visible signs of heart disease. It is going to kill people who seem to be perfectly healthy. It is going to kill people with cholesterol levels that are “within the normal range.” It is going to kill a million people this year, and it is 100% preventable.

Oh the medical profession is jumping on this one right now. They want you to take an aspirin a day. They want you to continue your cholesterol lowering drugs, the statins.

Did you know that statins actually extend your life? Their job is to artificially lower your cholesterol, but they also happen to be slightly anti-inflammatory. And if you think about it, there are anti-inflammatory foods and supplements out there that cost a lot less than your statin.

They want you to take Coumadin to thin your blood, the new COX-2 inhibitors to attack the inflammation, or NSAIDS to thin your blood. (As we’ve reported at this web site, the COX-2 inhibitor, Vioxx does lower inflammation, and at the same time attacks your arteries. We published this information 2 years before the FDA told us that over 60,000 had died because of Vioxx.)

Statins have side effects. Reducing your cholesterol levels does not extend your life. Anti-inflammatories can. Despite the advertising that tells us how aspirin saves lives, aspirin and NSAIDS kill at least 20,000 people a year. They either bleed to death or die from hemorrhagic strokes. [We got these statistics from www.gordonresearch.com which no longer exists] The total number of deaths due to bleeding caused by the use of NSAIDS is over 30,000 a year. Coumadin? From the 2001 Encarta Encyclopedia [also no longer exists] we see:

Possible side effects of [Coumadin] include hemorrhage (severe bleeding), chest pain, joint pain, headache, difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing, or swelling. Other side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, fever, hair loss, skin inflammation, discolored (purplish) toes, or gangrene. Excessive bleeding from a nosebleed, cut, puncture, or unusual menstrual flow should be checked by a doctor.

Just recently, medical journals are pointing out that patients on coumadin for a long period of time increase their chances of hemorrhagic strokes.

No wonder it’s the main ingredient in rat poison.

According to Dr Gordon, most of the blood in blood banks is used to replace the blood lost by people on conventional blood thinners. Does this tell you anything?

We dispute the practice of using aspirin as a blood thinner throughout our articles on cardiovascular disease, but right here we will give you Dr Val Fuster’s take on aspirin (and other anticoagulants) because aspirin (and the others) affect only one pathway to coagulation:

Aspirin interferes with only one of the three pathways of platelet activation – the one dependent on thromboxane A. The other two pathways — one dependent on ADP and collagen and the other on thrombin — remain unaffected, as does the coagulation system. On the other hand, current anticoagulant agents interfere only partially with the coagulation system and do not affect platelet activation. It is not surprising, therefore, that aspirin or anticoagulants cannot completely prevent coronary thrombotic events, although the relative antithrombotic effectiveness of both types of antithrombotic agents is clinically similar.

Treatment Begins After Testing

I’m sure you’ve all seen the television commercial in which a “doctor” recommends some antacid product to someone with heartburn. Prescribing without testing is malpractice. In this case, the heartburn, the physician did not even know whether the heartburn was caused by too much stomach acid or too little stomach acid. Simple logic tells us that to fix a problem, we must know the problem. Therefore to fix whatever is causing your hypercoagulability means you must have the proper testing, and the following is a list of tests about which you might wish to learn more.

• Serum Ferritin (iron) levels: high iron is almost as dangerous as high lead levels in your blood. People who give blood have fewer heart attacks than those who don’t. If we just lowered our iron levels we could cut the number of diabetes cases in America by one third. (Vitamin C helps to chelate iron. [1,2])
• lp(a) test and oxidized cholesterol antibody test: adhesion molecules such as VCAM and ICAM that measure how sticky things are at a molecular level (implicated in the impaired circulation of the tiny vessels [capillaries]) eventually leading to heart attacks, strokes, and loss of vision.
• Platelet aggregation, fibrinogen, lipid peroxides, and other markers of free radical damage and monitor antibody levels to various infections implicated in atherosclerosis: CMV(cytomegalorvirus), Herpes, etc.
• Fasting insulin levels, homocysteine levels, triglycerides/HDL ratio, Redox, pH, Resistance, APO E-2, 3, or 4, blood type testing, and food allergy tests.
• Fatty acid analysis (on red blood cell membranes), and amino acid testing on urine and blood.
• And most important of all, the C-reactive protein test and an IL-6 test, published in the article: Chronic Inflammation.

Valentin Fuster, M.D., Ph.D., in an article entitled, “Heartbeat, A Heart Health Update” [again from the defunk site: gordonresearch.com] writes “During the inflammatory process, a substance—C-reactive protein—is produced in the blood. By measuring blood levels of C-reactive protein, researchers now have an important tool for studying the role of inflammation in heart attacks and strokes, since the amount of inflammation can be measured by the C-reactive protein.”

C-reactive protein levels in your blood can reach a point where you are 8 times (800%) more likely to die from a heart attack or stroke. No other test even comes close to this indicator. Dr Gordon told us, “There has never been a lipid disorder or cholesterol value that was associated with 8 times the risk of death.”

UPDATE 2016: We have since learned that testing for CRP is not enough. What you need is a battery of tests that will establish your “inflammation index.” Click on that link to learn about those tests in our paper, “Chronic Inflammation.”

So it is the care and cleaning of our blood that medicine must focus on, as Dr Val Fuster and Dr Garry Gordon both tell us, and not by playing plumbers trying to repair our pipes. We now have many, many supplements that can help us get away from blood thinners whose side effects all too often include death.

Dr Gordon does concede that we might have to put a patient on Heparin and antibiotics at first just to get a handle on the coagulation problem. Thin the blood and attack the infections. But after this, let’s use supplements that are natural and needed and we can slowly wean the patient off of the other drugs.

Vitamin C, a weak acid, bonds with iron. All weak acids are natural chelators in that they either pull heavy metals from the body or they bond with them and keep them from doing damage. We now know that viruses and bacteria congregate in organs that are high in heavy metals. Pulling these metals from the body is just one step in helping to clear up the viruses. Dr Gordon takes a daily chelation formula because he says our environment, “has exceeded the body’s ability to handle [heavy metals].”

Next we have the blood thinners we’ve mentioned above: garlic, cayenne, vitamin E, and magnesium (there are more we’ll show you at the end of this paper).

Wobenzym® digests proteins in the blood such as C-reactive protein. To begin with, you might need to take twelve to sixteen capsules of Wobmenzym® per day to get your levels down. Keep in mind, you must test, treat, retest, and modify your treatment. This is not a hit or miss practice. FYI, or For Your Inflammation, from Dr Gordon’s research, complements the Wobenzym® nicely.

Of course, then there’s my favorite, Flexinol. When it’s little brother (about half strength), Cardia-7 was studies, CRP levels were cut in half in just 30 days.

However, elevated C-reactive protein, according to Dr Gordon, “is not merely the chlamydia growing in our blood vessels; it is the overall impact of all the things going wrong with our metabolism and the entire infection load we’re handling.” He goes on to talk about the antibiotics in our fruits and vegetables and livestock (75% of antibiotics used go into our livestock). With all these antibiotics in our system he directed us to up our probiotics and fiber. Fiber has an interesting side effect: it also too helps to lower C-reactive protein.

Dr Garry Gordon’s plan is based upon years of research and treatment, and we want to pass on his own words.

First, on hypercoagulability:

I believe that with our improved understanding regarding the need for effective control of hypercoagulability in virtually all ill patients, it may be beneficial to routinely add a more therapeutic level of intravenous or subcutaneous Heparin, along with more aggressive therapeutic levels of intravenous Vitamin C, in our efforts to manage this newly identified epidemic of hypercoaguability/infection related problems. 4,000 to 6,000 units of Heparin, based on weight, administered subcutaneously b.i.d. are safe, for a therapeutic trial of several weeks, without doing specialized coagulation studies in patients without a history of serious bleeding disorder (personal communication with David Berg, May 3, 2000). Longer term use of oral enzymes or daily heparin injections to decrease fibrinogen concentrations and soluble fibrin monomers appear to greatly facilitate the treatment of any chronic infectious process.

[David] Berg [of Hemex labs in Phoenix, AZ] has shown that a coagulation panel that is more sensitive than hitherto available is capable of distinguishing healthy from unhealthy subjects with over 95% accuracy. In fact, hypercoagulability is associated with a large number of chronic diseases.

Since EDTA prevents clotting in blood collection tubes used daily, I believe more sensitive tests may show some subtle reduction of hypercoagulability. Possibly lowering the number of adhesion molecules, or soluble fibrin monomers, may be one of its subtler, but life saving benefits. The combination of a polluted environment, stressful life style and chronic low-grade infection leading to hypercoagulability, initially called the AntiPhospholipid antibody syndrome, has now more recently been renamed “immune system activation of coagulation” (ISAC). It appears to be surprisingly common and those at risk need long-term effective but safe lifelong anticoagulation treatment. Aspirin alone is too weak and too dangerous to handle this epidemic of hypercoagulability. It has also recently been reported to be too dangerous for men with hypertension to take on a regular basis. Effective aspirin substitutes include pancreatic enzymes (Wobenzym®) and properly stabilized bromelain supplements, preferably used in combination with garlic, Ginkgo, and salmon oil. A polysaccharide/ chelation based product, containing EDTA, also acts as an effective aspirin substitute and affordably helps to meet this nearly universal need.

The polysaccharide he prefers is a mucopolysaccharide from red seaweed, however, again, there’s a new kid on the block. When you think polysaccharides, you should think “mushrooms.” If you search a vitamin and supplement store online with the key word “polysaccharide,” the first things that will pop up are mushrooms. And the king of the mushrooms is the Reishi.

Furthermore, he adds that to fight infections in the blood, his own daily regimen consists of Wobenzym® and RM-10™. RM-10™ is a proprietary mushroom blend that boosts interferon and interleukin levels, and kick-starts Natural Killer Cell activity. However, it comes in second to Organo™ Ganoderma Lucidum (the Reishi Mushroom) which you can even get in your morning cup of coffee. See below for more on mushrooms.

On a more natural note, you might wish to try willow bark: Willow bark has been referred to as Nature’s Aspirin. It is a natural anti-inflammatory that has been shown to decrease the incidence of stroke and heart attack. Keep this in mind when battling infections in the blood too, for it is a wonderful tea and can be used daily.

Update 2016: Many of Dr Garry Gordon’s designer supplements are now made by Garden of Life. You can get all of these products from Swanson.

In Summation

We’ve just handed you a lot of information, information your physician might or might not know. So we’re going to summarize all you have to know about the real cause of 85% of Strokes and Heart Attacks, and then give you the best solutions currently accepted to prevent them. Do not forget to check out the solutions we’ve added in our article Chronic Inflammation.

Infections/inflammation in the blood are the beginning of the problem. Fibrin is central to inflammatory conditions. Our diets and lifestyles also add to the hypercoagulable condition of our blood. Repeated activation of our immune response to the inflammation and pollution (heavy metals) produces antibodies and circulating immune complexes that only add to the viscosity of our blood. Fibrin, normally a substance that tries to save our lives, starts to coat the infection in the vessel wall and ends up coating the microbes and immune complexes. This creates a boil on our blood vessel that eventually explodes uncovering the epithelial tissue. Red blood cells are signaled to patch up this hole. The hypercoagulable state caused by all this fibrin creates a much bigger clot than is needed. The clot can be dislodged by over-exertion, over-excitement, or just getting up in the morning, depending on the size of this clot, its adhesion strength, and the current in the vessel. Once dislodged, it travels to the brain for a stroke or to the heart for a heart attack.

Aspirin and Coumadin affect one facet of the clotting process only. However, time and again we see that nutritional protocols are not only more effective in the long run but much safer. Dr Valls-Serra treated 245 patients with systemic enzymes and witnessed substantially better therapeutic outcome than with conventional anticoagulants and vasoactive substances. You can call Longevity Plus (800-580-7587) and request a copy of the article: Aspirin vs. Enzymes, by Dr Garry Gordon.

From Dr Garry Gordon’s web site (www.gordonresearch.com), we get these Darkfield Microscopy Images:

The blood of a patient with cardiovascular disease shows signs of severe clotting, indicated by the gray mass.

After three months supplementation to make up for nutritional deficiencies, the blood is free of clots.

Two weeks after temporarily discontinuing supplements, some clotting returned. (Courtesy of James R. Privitera, M.D.)

The following is just a part of Dr Garry Gordon’s protocol (which he himself uses daily—we will list his entire daily protocol following this section). He has not sent one patient in for bypass surgery in over ten years. This works for him, and you might want to see if it works for you, but as always, get yourself a professional health practitioner to help you along your way. Get tested, treated, and retested. All of the following products are made by Longevity Plus, 800-580-7587.

However, before you go there, you might also want to check out an article that took years of research to write: Chronic Inflammation. You’ll find even more info on inflammation and even more supplements (with links) that can help.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

In 2002, when we published this after over four years of research, we described the best anti-inflammatories and immune stimulants known at that time. Since then, we’ve discovered the best of the best of both worlds, and though we’ve mentioned them above, repetition helps learning and the job of this page/book is to keep you alive. So we are just thrilled again to update you of everything we’ve discovered. And in the many articles we point you to, such as Chronic Inflammation you will find references to those same discoveries.

We are going to start off with the best of the best. Yes, Wobenzyme is a damn good proteolitic enzyme, but there’s now Serapeptase on the market and you really need this. Serrapeptase also known as Serratia peptidase, is a proteolytic enzyme found naturally in the intestine of the silkworm, which is used by the silkworm to dissolve the cocoon and emerge as a moth. It is a powerful anti-inflammatory agent, used for bruises, for fibrocystic breast disease, bronchitis (loosens and expels mucous), edema, and lupus. And of course it’s used in place of NSAIDs, especially in Europe. We’ve received testimonials that it has helped a lot of people with their arthritis. Always keep in mind that if you have arthritis, you are ripe for cardiovascular disease; the same process eating at your joints is eating at your cardiovascular system.

Again, we want to put out the fire and boost the immune system. This is the plan to prevent cardiovascular disease.

Thus we have mushrooms. They are immune boosting and have anti-inflammatory properties. These are, in this order of their “strength,”  shitake, mitake, reishi, ABM or Agaricus blazei Murill. The first two are now sold in grocery stores and taste delicious. The reishi is much more powerful, but tastes horrible, and only one company so far can guaranteed 99% of their spores have been cracked open and the nutrition is actually available and sadly, that’s a Multi-Level-Marketing company. You can purchase reishi spores everywhere, but your body really can’t use them. That is why, this particular product, Organic Spore Powder, is listed at $99.00 retail. But since it’s an MLM site, sure, they’ve got some great deals for you if you want to be a preferred customer, or, heaven forbid, you want to sell the stuff. It’s the best, but we just don’t like MLMs.

As for the ABM mushroom, all the businesses we found working out of Brazil or Central America have run and hid or got lost. The only ABM mushrooms we get are from China, and since they’re not grown in a jungle, they are not the originals. You might find them on Amazon.  I love Swanson, and this is their version: Agaricus Blazei Mushroom Extract, but I’m not sure of its country of origin. If it’s from China….not as good as if it was from Central America, in which case I would go with the reishi mushroom. Here is an article tell you all about what this King of Mushrooms does.

Note that the reishi mushroom, in addition to being anti-inflammatory is also hypoglycemic (keeps blood sugar from spiking) and new to these pages on cardiovascular wellness will be an entire section dedicated to blood sugar, insulin resistance, and the Disease of our Time. Stay tuned.

Del-Immune V™: This is such an important product that we’ve dedicated this entire page to it: Del-Immune V™. It is the best immune stimulant in the world and that is not an exaggeration. Coming in second, as a preventive, is EpiCor, something we told our newsletter readers about years ago. The price has come down since it first hit the market. It’s a great product that should be taken daily. Keep in mind that selenium boosts its performance and this is our favorite form: Se-Methyl L-Selenocysteine. This is one form used in all the great studies about selenium, and not found in Brasil Nuts. It is an antioxidant and is boosted by taking other antioxidants such as Vitamin C or Vitamin E.

Colloidal Silver has always been a great germ killer. The new nano silvers are even better and sipping it daily will help keep inflammation out of your arteries, but we’ve discovered something even more potent, something that was referred to on the web as Covalent Silver Solution when we first heard about it, is known as BACO. We are currently writing a book about it (it’s a book in progress) and you can find it here: BACO ― A Blessing and a Miracle. As a bit of a summary: it’s been around 30 years, cures malaria, cured 150 cases of AIDs, and kills pathogens, yet is as safe as water to drink. It’s thousands of times more effective than colloidal silver. It is one atom of silver bonded to multitudes of oxygen. My dogs both have lime disease and anaplasmosis, and they take it daily. For some reason, we can’t eliminate these diseases but both dogs are not showing any symptoms. And there are these things in humans called “stealth viruses,” that go undetected. BACO seems to keep them from taking over, but some just aren’t killed. To learn about stealth viruses, you might want to visit The Center for Complex Infectious Diseases.

R-Lipoic Acid: We used to recommend Alpha-Lipoic Acid, but no more. We recommend only a stable R-Lipoic Acid. First off, it’s more bioavailable, is absorbed quicker, and if it isn’t stable, it turns to gunk in your body. It is an antioxidant that facilitates the metabolism of Vitamin C, E and glutathione, while breaking down carbs to be used by your organs. There are some studies showing that it also protects the brain.

EPA (Eicosapentaenoic Acid): Essential fatty acids like those naturally occurring in some fish. “The benefits of these can be best summarized by pointing out that the mere ingestion of salmon twice a week has been shown to reduce the overall mortality from heart attacks by more than 40%,” says Dr Gordon. “The deficiency in our diet of this essential nutrient is widely recognized, and its use in preventing thrombosis or hypercoagulable states in the bloodstream is well documented.”

GLA (Gamma-Linolenic Acid): Essential fatty acids which also help prevent thrombosis and the tendency toward excessive blood clotting implicated in heart disease.

OMEGA 3, 6 AND 9: More than 25% of the adult American population has low levels of omega 3s. Look for a good fish oil, krill oil, and/or a good flax oil, such as Omegasentials™.

GRAPE SEED EXTRACT: Grape seed contains OPCs (oligomeric phenolic compounds), which enhance anti-oxidant activity and are also anti-inflammatory and anti-viral. They are believed to be more powerful than Vitamin C, E, or beta-carotene and are also very potent chelating agents.

GINKGO BILOBA: Reduces the cholesterol concentration present in the arterial wall and protects against all nerve degenerative diseases, among other beneficial effects.

ORGANIC GARLIC: Reduces triglycerides, lowers blood pressure, and is anti-viral.

RED YEAST (mucopolysaccharides): Lipid-lowering; reduces total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.

CoQ10, also known as Ubiquinone, is present in every cell of the body and is responsible for cellular respiration. It has been shown to improve cardiac function, reduce episodes of angina, decrease arrhythmias, improve cardiac strength and contraction, slow the heart rate, lower blood pressure and, most important, decrease the oxygen demand on the heart. It’s most potent from is called Ubiquinol. And again, our friend Dr Al Sears has created the best using a mixture of tocopherols, tocotreinols, vitamin C, and medium chain triglycerides to boost the absorption to 8 times faster than the others. It’s called Accel.

Inulin is a soluble fiber that cannot be digested by the human body. It is absorbed intact and travels to the colon as fibrous material where it serves as a selective food source for beneficial bacteria. However, recent studies show that it also feeds bad bacteria, so you must make sure that you’ve got a good balance of bacteria in your system, and that is by taking a good probiotic regularly. It has been formulated not only to improve digestive health but also to restore floral balance in the intestine.  Inulin, like most fiber, also helps to thin the blood. It also reduces C-reactive protein.

Another soluble fiber that feeds the bacteria in your gut is FOX or Fructooligosaccharides. FOS and inulin both polysaccharides, just of different length. They are fiber and they are indigestible by the human body, but your bacteria love them.

Probiotics are aplenty in the world, but here are our favorites:

Ultimate Probiotic Formula 3-Pack —  15 different strains, and over 66 billion per capsule. Comes with FOS.

Dr. Stephen Langer’s Ultimate 16 Strain Probiotic with FOS — 16 strains, 3.2 billion “colony forming units” (CFU) per capsule.

Probicell — This is a Minnesota product. It’s very unique in that you don’t get bacteria, you get spores. The spores open in the colon and this way you get more delivered to you that passed through the digestive process.

Yes, you have to take these on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. If you take them with food, only a small portion, if any, will get through to your colon.

Nitric Oxide is out of place here because it needs its own focus, so try this first: Nitric Oxide Revisited. However, in short, nitric oxide “linked to hemoglobin allows blood vessels to expand or contract, depending on how much of the molecule is present.” Additionally, it “dilates blood vessels and thus allows oxygen to better reach tissues.” [Scientific America, Nov 2001]

How can we get Nitric Oxide? This nutrient is so important, that we’ve written all about it, and here are the articles referencing NO:

Beet Juice ― Great Stuff or Latest Fad?

Ecklonia Cava

Hypertension Update [Not quite finished.]

Stroke Prevention Basics

Editor’s Note: you would not believe how much money has been spent acquiring the information we are supplying you. Every health newsletter has published a special report on this subject; mailings go out hinting at the secret cause of most heart attacks and strokes. Books have been written on the subject. And we subscribed to JAMA, NEJM, and the BMJ. You don’t want to know how much those cost us, but we no longer subscribe because we just and afford them.

Everything at this site is given out to you absolutely free. Still, please don’t let that stop you from making a donation. If everyone who reads this article were to toss us just one dollar, we would never have to sell another book, and could send our books out to everyone free. Think about it, please. You might want to take a look at our Go Fund Me page: https://www.gofundme.com/wellnesspublications