X-Message-Number: 11605
From: 
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 21:48:33 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Book Review: The Heart Revolution

Book Review:
The Heart Revolution by Kilmer McCully, M.D.
(1999; HarperCollins Publishers, NY; ISBN: 0-06-019237-2)

I got four messages from reading this book.  They are:


Primary message:  By taking a cheap, daily multi-B vitamin pill (which includes 
B-6, B-12 and 

folic acid) heart disease can be arrested or prevented.  (Vitamins E, C and 
balanced bulk and 
trace minerals are also recommended as advisable).


Secondary message:  Thirty years of medical evidence indicate that elevated 
levels of the amino 

acid homocysteine directly cause damage to arteries, "leaving them susceptible 
to cholesterol 
and fat deposits".  Dietary cholesterol is not the cause.  


Political message:  The medical-pharmaceutical-industrial complex can and does 
strive to supress 

health discoveries which might undercut expensive drug and surgical therapy 
alternatives.  (They 
WILL let you die to make money).


Cryonics message:  Take a cheap multi-B vitamin daily as it will not hurt you 
and it may prove 

to be very, very helpful to extend your life.  (This follows the Cryonics 
formula: Small 
known cost now, large potential payoff later).

Summary:


In 1968, Harvard-trained medical researcher Kilmer McCully discovered the 
association between 

homocysteine and arteriosclerosis based on an index case first published in the 
New England 
Journal of Medicine in 1933.


When McCully began publishing his findings in the early 70's he ran full in the 
face of the 

politally-approved anti-cholesterol public propaganda movement.  Following the 
publishing of his 

initial findings, McCully lost his grant support, as well as his appointments at
both Harvard 
and Massachusetts General Hospital.

The old story of trying to kill the messenger.


Fortunately, despite successful efforts to squash McCully's research efforts, 
other researchers 

in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Ireland confirmed his hypothesis years 
later.  


Finally in the 1990s, two major United States research groups, the Physicians 
Health Study and 

the Framingham Study, found clear correlations between homocysteine levels and 
heart disease 

which were then published in The New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal
of the American 
Medical Association.

The old story of trying to revive and reclaim the messenger as your own.


Before you are tempted to dismiss McCully's ideas, understand that while his 
suggestions may 

seem simplistic at first glance, his tone is calm, his reasoning balanced and 
his research 
impeccable.  


And sometimes simple things work (washing hands before surgery, eating limes to 
prevent scurvy, 
thinking before expressing opinions, etc.).


McCully recommends obtaining one's B vitamins from food selection (and avoiding 
processed foods) 

rather than just turning to a supplemental vitamin pill, as there may very well 
be other 
critical elements good for health not yet discovered.  (How ridiculous!)


He also wants to move the patient away from simply popping a B vitamin pill 
while not making any 

dietary choices at all.  (What!  NOT eat a Big Mac and fries every day!  What 
nonsense!). 

The book is short (190 pages) and written for popular consumption.  


Page 117 lists his recommended levels of supplementation based upon disease 
symptomology and 
plasma homocysteine levels.  


Chapter 8 deals with issues involving aging and chapter 9 examines homocysteine 
as the possible 

major cause of Alzeimer's disease, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue symdrome, and 
some autoimmune 
diseases.

I found the book refreshing and thoughtful.  


Presenting evidence that the homocysteine connection can explain not only why 
the Mediterranean 

diet can be high in fat but low in heart disease statistics, as well as 
suggesting that the 

failue of aging cells to produce sufficient levels of thioretinaco ozonide (a 
compound made of 

homocysteine, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and ozone) IN the cells is the PRIMARY 
cause of aging, made 
for fascinating reading.


From page 176, McCully writes, "I can't promise that your wrinkles will go away,
your gray hair 

will disappear, and your energy will be the same today as it was when you were 
twenty.  But the 

Heart Revolution can slow down the aging process - considerably - and prevent 
disease - 
definitely.  You'll live longer, be healthier, and age more gracefully."


I hope others will read and comment on this book.  Right now, I have to go take 
my vitamins.

-George Smith

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