Mr. Fonorow,
Thank you for writing your 2008 book. Despite having read 3 books from Dr. Levy -- including the one specifically on heart disease -- I still found it worthwhile to read your book today in 2023.
The Resources section has many addresses to explore. I started with the VitaminCFoundation,org where I saw your recommendation for DSM QUali-C. But it dates from 2007. What are your current recommendations for a pure vitamin C product? On Amazon, I see that C products are expensive today. Bulk Supplements' 1 kg bag is so much cheaper per gram. Something wrong with it?
[My Lp(a) is only 18, therefore I am reluctant to add lysine, especially since lysine and arginine are antagonistic and one should not tip the ratio too much, like the zinc:copper ratio. My plasma lysine and arginine are also in the middle of their lab reference ranges, So, no lysine deficit.]
Regards,
Steve
Thanks for the kind words about our book.
We still recommend DSM Quali-C as an excellent, trusted source of vitamin C, but there are others made in ISO labs that are most likely as excellent. The price of excellent vitamin C has risen. The problem with "cheap" vitamin C is that only L-ascorbate is vitamin C, and certain manufacturing methods produce other isomers (e.g. D-ascorbate). The vitamin C in some products may be only half as effective (i.e. half L-ascorbate and half D-ascorbate).
There is a new writer I have become fond of, Mark Sloan, who thinks that Nitric Oxide is an emergency (and harmful) method of expanding arteries to promote blood flow. Mark maintains that contrary to dogma, carbon dioxide is our bodies best way of promoting body oxygenation and cell metabolism. I like Mark because he does not have a medical education, and digs into the historical studies and forms his own opinions. (I found him because he wrote a popular book an Methyelene Blue, after reading a paper on MB by Dr. Levy.)
Mark recommends against arginine, and my "other worldly" source, Anthony William, the Medical Medium, does not recommend arginine, but does recommend lysine; almost as much as Pauling recommended. The Medical Medium recommendation is based on l-lysine's anti viral properties, while Pauling recommended lysine because of the lysine binding site on the Lp(a) molecule.
18 isn't a bad Lp(a) number, but not adding lysine eliminates a tool that literally reverses atherosclerotic plaques you may have built up.
As far as the zinc/copper ratio, another reason to pick up and read the Medical Medium books. Copper is generally considered a heavy metal toxin, while the "other worldly source" claims that all humans are zinc deficient. See:
https://www.amazon.com/Medical-Medium-Revised-Expanded-Secrets-ebook/dp/B08ZK7B38Y/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=medical+medium&qid=1689002151&sr=8-4