I didn't know where to put this - so I tried here. This will be a rather long post since my research to verify this follows.

First - I am not a doctor or a medical researcher - I am a computer programmer and worked for 5 and a half years as a software developer for a software company, so I took a computer programmers approach to this. My history - I had a heart attack (I would say a mild one - I walked into the hospital) in 1998 and got a stent. That started my on my medical research for heart disease. I also had a triple bypass in April 2005 which I attribute to damage to the arteries from the stent procedure - but that is another story.

Dr. Linus Pauling got 2 patents for a cure for heart disease in the early 1990's (the same Dr. pauling who championed vitamin C). The claims were based on the fact that LP(a) is the basic component of the plaque that forms in the arteries. He called heart diease sub clinical scurvy and used vitamin C to prevent it and lysine or proline supplements to clear the plaque (3-6 graqms of each). I found these claims to be rather amazing in light of the medical profession's approach to heart disease, so I went to the biochemical books and medical literature to verify or disprove it. I welcome any comments from those who have taken biochemistry courses or have better knowledge than I do.

To start with - I looked at vitamin C - how might it be involved. I found that vitamin C prevents scurvy by modifying the lysine and proline amino acids in collegen strands and that arteries are formed from collegen that does require vitamin C for stability. I am making the assumption that Dr Pauling was right that the RDA for vitamin C is not enough to modify all the lysine and proline in the arteries, so weak spots may exist.

Next I found in the medical liturature that LP(a) has what are call lysine binding sites (LBS's) which are sites that will bind with lysine or proline and that is what makes LP(a) sticky. So we have weak spots in the arteries where there is lysine or proline and something that sticks in the arteries that binds with lysine and proline. So, with this short synopsys of my reasearch, it appears that Dr. Paulings theory may be right.

Taking a high enough dose of lysine or proline supplements my bind with the LBS sites on the free LP(a) and even rebind with the sites attached to the collagen, removing the LP(a) from the arteries.

The damage would occur in places where the arteries are subject to the most stress - the heart, the carotid, the legs. And, if the damage is tears in the collegen, there may even be inflamation.

The Pauling Therapy is described at this web site
ww.paulingtherapy.com/

I have nothing to do with this web site, vitamin or supplement sales or anything else related to this - I am merely trying to pass on information that may help someone. I have taken lipitor and my experience has me avoiding all cholestoral drugs.

Hi "wj55" and welcome to the board.

There are two very important people that the medical community at large have "snubbed". One is Linus Pauling and the other is one of his followers, Dr Kilmer McCully. LEF wrote an excellent article about Dr McCully:
ww.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=1240&Section=DISEASE
And Dr Graveline outlines Dr McCully's diet at this link:
http://www.spacedoc.net/mccully.htm

Of course the main reason for the snub... inexpensive vitamins do not support the drug companies. Excellent research and very easy for everyone to understand.

Fran

In Feb., 2005 my husband had a major heart attack, causing his cardiologist to insert two additional stents. He had one stent inserted a year before without experiencing a heart attack. He was put on statins, an Ace-inhib. (he has never had high blood pressure) and Plavix.

He had serious bad reactions to the statins and stopped taking them. After doing some research he decided to follow Dr. Pauling's method of fighting heart disease.

Since his first stent, he has had episodes of trembling, stomach pain and chest pain. He had another episode several weeks ago and I took him to the ER in case it was a heart attack. His cardiologist had him do a stress test that showed abnormal results although he was on the treadmill for 14 min. After much discussion, it was decided she would do a heart cath. The results were great. His arteries and stents are clean. I believe this is due to following Pauling's theory.

His cardiologist doesn't know why he has these trembling episodes, so my husband took himself off the Ace-inhib. first and this helped some, and then the Plavix and his episodes have now stopped.

In addition to following Pauling's theory, my DH eats mostly a vegetarian diet with high fiber, exercises three days a week, takes Vitamin E, B-complex, Vitamin D and large amounts of fish oil capsules. We also eat a lot of ground flax.

What a great online name "Fedup"...
That about sums up how most of us feel after taking statins.

Statins, BP meds and Plavix are the standard treatment following stents.
The link to this article outlines the duration of this "standard treatment":
ww.clotcare.com/clotcare/plavix.aspx
It's not supposed to be "forever".

Make sure you read Dr Graveline's article about stopping statins. In addition to recommended methods of stopping he provides some very good advice too.
http://www.spacedoc.net/stopping_statins.html

Glad your husband is doing better.

Fran

I'm no physician, but I do have the sense to know when great men of medicine are telling truths. I believe that Drs. Pauling and Rath were exactly on track with the Unified Theory of Cardiovascular Disease for which the Nobel prize was issued. An explanation of that mechanism that causes atherosclerosis, the precursor to heart disease (CVD), presented in layman's terms makes perfect sense. I haven't seen any challenge by the proponents of conventional medicine to the veracity of that mechanism. Instead the consensus is to sidestep the issue altogether.

Dr. Sydney Burke, a British optometrist, has demonstrated conclusively that sufficient amounts of supplementary vitamin C in his patients' diets has resulted in the arrest, and often reversal, of atheromatic plaques in the blood vessels of the retina. Dr. Burke has the photomicrographic evidence to prove the effects. One could be confident from the findings of Dr. Burke that atheromatic plaques in the general vascular system would be similarly affected.

Armed with the evidence of the positive effects of vitamin C supplementation in one's daily diet I embarked three years ago on a supplementation regimen including 10 grams of vitamin C in five divided doses over the course of the day from breakfast to bedtime. Successive yearly ultrasonograms of my carotids and abdominal aorta demonstrated no increase in the volume of existing atherosclerosis in the critical regions of those arteries, the four bifurcations of the carotids and the bifurcation of the aorta at the femural arteries. The attending technician also noticed that the intima of my carotids had increased in thickness, but with no change in elasticity or reduction of the area of the lumen; in other words, my carotids have become younger and stronger. Furthermore, the progression of a cataract in my left eye has been arrested. A cataract in my right eye had developed to a critical stage two years before I embarked on the vitamin C regimen; that cloudy lens was extracted and replaced with a prosthetic device.

Vitamin C taken in sufficient quantities is, in my opinion, the key to good health and the prevention of a myriad of the diseases of aging. Every day Dr. Pauling is vindicated as the truth slowly emerges thanks in part to forums such as this one.

Hi Catamaran,

My husband just had an eye checkup. While still taking Lipitor he was
experiencing amaurosis fugax (visual disturbance in one eye)
in addition to short term memory loss (including TGA) and muscle
atrophy (just a few of his major side effects).

AF is described as a cloud moving across one's vision. AF is completely
gone and he passed all tests with flying colors. Field of vision (which
takes most people 7 minutes each eye) took only 5 minutes for each eye.
The opthamologist was very please with all his stats. Hubby is only
taking 1,000 mg of good old ascorbic acid. Ester C is nothing more than
expensive vitamin C and not nearly as effective as ascorbic acid.

This is a bit off topic, but ascorbic acid 4 times a day is the only way
I cured chronic bladder infections. Our GP at the time (many years
ago) was also a farmer (raised chickens) and was one of the best
doctors we ever had. What ever happened to good ole GP's???

Fran

Where indeed have the old-time doctors gone? The late Dr. Fred Klenner of Reidsville, NC, was resolving within 96 hours cases of acute poliomyelitis with intravenous vitamin C, 1gram per 18cc of water or Ringer's.

Modern allopathic medicine is totally absorbed in addressing symptoms rather than underlying causes....the pharmaceutical industry is well-pleased with the scheme.

Please review this site for an education in the applications of vitamin C:

www.vitamincfoundation.org

To your health, RAM