AddedFirstly, thank you for what you are doing!!! Your website and book cured my stress and depression!!! I was a broken man in late April when the doctor (not my usual doctor who had retired) told me I had heart disease and that there was nothing I could do about it to reverse it. He had no empathy or hopefulness when he told me the news and just wanted to put me on statins.
I was shocked as I’m only 42 years old and I felt lost, but now I have learnt so much about what I did wrong to get me to end up with heart disease. It was all my fault with my life choices; however, I’m determined to fix my mistakes and move forward. I have stopped drinking and started taking a variety of heart beneficial vitamins as I did more research online. I changed my diet (healthy vegetarian 4 days of the week, pescetarian the other 3 days and recently have started eating some lean red meat once a fortnight). I also increased my exercise (mostly long walks, cycling and weight training).
I have lost 21 kg in 12 weeks and aim to lose 15kg more (but slowly) to be under 90kg by end of the year.
When I had a CAC test in April, it was 49. I then had a MRI scan with the dye in May and my results were mild to moderate blockages. The Australian cardiologist said he could not give me a number but could only say mild to moderate. The doctor and then the cardiologist wanted to put me on statins however I declined and turned to the internet. This is where I found your website about Linus Pauling and your products and recommended readings. I have read your book, Levy’s books, Leake’s book and I just got hold of one of Pauling’s books.
Based on this knowledge I have learnt, I have ordered some vitamins, your Cardio c – xl and Tower’s Heart Tech and plan to take them soon. I plan to take them for over 12 months in high tolerable doses and then get another CAC test done. I plan to get the MRI with dye test in 18 months. I look forward to seeing the results
Sorry to waffle on too much. I contacted you because I have a few questions that I wanted to ask in the forum.
Does your Cardio C – XL have a scoop inside the container?
YES
I have been looking at vitamin tablets online and Im not sure which ones to buy and does it matter between:
l-ascorbic acid or ascorbic acid
l-lysine or lysine HCL
l-proline or proline
To be labeled as vitamin C a product must be (have some) L-ascorbic acid. (There is some question whether some manufacturing processes include other forms, e.g. D-ascorbate, so a label with L-ascorbate is preferred. Ditto the aminos.
What are your favourite brand names of supplements in tablet form (Vitamin C, Lysine and Proline)?
An old friend once recommended NOW Foods brand because of their rigorous product testing process. Their pricing is reasonable.
But any company that has been around for awhile should be fine. The longer they have been in business the better.
I have been considering buying the brand Pure Encapsulations because this brand seems to have less other ingredients (like rice flour, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose and silica etc). What are your thoughts on the other ingredients included in supplements?
It is wise to reduce all fillers, which is one reason our company focuses on pure powders.
Regarding the Tower Heart Tech formula, it has 5,000 IU of Vitamin A (Palmitate) per scoop. It is recommended to take two scoops a day to treat heart disease. However, I’m concerned that I would then be over the recommended dose of no more than 10,000 IU per day, especially since I eat other foods that would take my vitamin A levels over the 10,000. Im worried about damaging my liver. Why has Tower made such a high dose of vitamin A and sill it be a risk to take two scoops a day?
Vitamin A (Palmitate)
0 IU
5,000 IU
Our answer is that the Founder of Tower knew Linus Pauling personally. Pauling recommended 20,000 to 40,000 iu of vitamin A daily (at least in the original 1986 book written by Pauling. The Institute that uses his name republished and lowered the amount in the revised book published after Pauling died.) The only death in the literature attributed to a form of vitamin A (beta carotene) was an individual who consumed gallons of carrot juice.
It seems unlikely that vitamin A would harm the liver since we have evolved to store this vitamin in our livers, i.e., for times when vitamin A is in short supply, e.g. during an ice age! The vitamin is slowly released during times of dietary shortage, otherwise we would not have survived. The vitamin A "scare tactics" apparently emanate from the fact that in studies, vitamin A (which promotes cell differentiation) controls soft cancers better than approved chemo-therapies.
I have a bad knee and I used to take glucosamine and chondroitin until I read this publication https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9506459/ . Therefore, I would like to know your thoughts on glucosamine please?
No negative thoughts, but I will take a look at the reference.
Many thanks in advance,
I just scanned the study, and I don't find the results all that impressive, e.g. incidence of heart disease 16.63% versus 15.08% in non glucosamine users.
First, from the text in the study
The difference, while "statistically significant" did not seem all that important. And please note that the incidence of strokes was less." When compared with non-users, the glucosamine users were older, more likely to be females, more likely to have hypertension, more likely to have lipid treatment or antiplatelet treatment, less likely to have NSAIDs therapy, had higher CCI, and had lower HCUI.
Table 2
Incidence of cardiovascular disease events.
Glucosamine Non-Users Glucosamine Users p Value 2
Number of Events Incidence 1 (95% CI) Number of Events Incidence 1 (95% CI)
Overall CVD 40,858 15.08 (14.93, 15.23) 23,742 16.63 (16.42, 16.84) <0.001
CHD 16,686 6.01 (5.91, 6.10) 9844 6.72 (6.59, 6.85) <0.001
Stroke 11,742 4.21 (4.13, 4.28) 6090 4.13 (4.03, 4.23) 0.57
CVD, cardiovascular disease; CHD, coronary heart disease; CI, confidence interval. 1 “Incidence” indicates crude incidence without adjusting for any covariates. 2 “p values” were calculated for the difference between incidences of two groups.
