New to this forum. First post.
Helping elderly father with severe cardiovascular problems (atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, atherosclerosis).
I feel a personal stake as well, since to the extent these problems are genetic I'm next in line to deal with them.
Unfortunately my background does not include any significant knowledge of biology, chemistry, biochemistry, or medicine. But I am well grounded in science and engineering principles. Have been researching and learning as much as I can for about a year now, but still have far more questions than answers.
One thing I'm certain of is that mainstream medicine is about as wrong as they can be when it comes to cardiovascular issues. But they sure make a lot of money selling drugs and surgical procedures. Always sad when true science is trumped by money. But that's the nature of the world we live in.
Conventional treatment for my father under direction of a cardiologist has done nothing to improve situation, and if anything health is getting worse since cardiologist insisted on restart of atorvastatin due to "high" cholesterol numbers in May. Had stopped in February and seemed much better mentally and physically.
Now at point of seriously considering trying alternative (unconventional) treatment options. Planning to give Pauling protocol a try, and have been trying to learn as much as I can about it. All I've read makes a lot of sense and seems sound from a scientific perspective. The lack of published studies evaluating its effectiveness is unfortunate but understandable given the way the medical/pharma industry works.
But there's one thing that puzzles me regarding the protocol. If the primary reason (in the context of atherosclerosis) for the Ascorbic Acid and L-Proline is to boost collagen production, why not just take collagen as a supplement? Seems like it would be a more immediate/direct way to address the actual problem and a logical extension of the idea of boosting/supplementing the bodies natural synthesis facilities.
Since it's not part of the protocol I assume there's some biochemical reason for not taking collagen, but in all my research so far I've never seen this issue addressed, and efforts to search the forum on this topic came up empty. I see different types of oral collagen supplements for sale, so if they're not useful in this context, what are they for?
Hoping someone with expertise on this topic would be kind enough to enlighten me.
Thanks,
Jeff