CHAPTER 9
The Secret Cause of Heart Disease—
And Why It’s So Easily Reversed
ess than one hundred years ago, heart disease was an extremely rare disease. Today, it kills more
people in the developed world than all other causes of death combined, with the exception of doctor-
caused, iatrogenic diseases (see Chapter 14). According to the New England Journal of Medicine, sudden
cardiac arrest claims 350,000 to 450,000 lives per year in the United States (over 1,000 per day) and is
responsible for more than half of all deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease. Each year, 865,000
Americans suffer a heart attack. As of 2004, 7.8 million people in the U.S. had survived heart attacks.
Direct (medical costs) and indirect (lost productivity) costs related to coronary heart disease totaled about
$133 billion in 2004. And a recent study concludes that 85 percent of people over 50 and 71 percent of
people over 40 already have artery blockages!
Although the ability to recognize patients who are at high risk for cardiac arrest has greatly improved
over the past 20 years, 90 percent of sudden deaths from cardiac causes occur in patients without
identified risk factors. It is known that the majority of sudden deaths from cardiac causes involve patients
with pre-existing coronary heart disease. Yet cardiac arrest is the first manifestation of this underlying
problem in 50 percent of patients.
The most common underlying cause of sudden cardiac arrest is a heart attack which causes irregular
heart rhythm and subsequent stoppage of the heart. In several industrialized nations, mortality rates from
heart attacks have slightly decreased due to a generation of breakthroughs in heart care. These include
new medicines, the bypass operations, and the angioplasties. But now the "beneficiaries" of this kind of
heart care are living with unexpected, often devastating consequences; their damaged hearts still beat, but
not strong enough to enjoy a decent quality of life. Many wish they had died swiftly rather than suffering
a slow and torturous death.
The unintended result of better cardiac care is an unprecedented increase in a debilitating disease called
chronic heart failure, which could very well be called an epidemic. Heart failure is described as a gradual
ebbing of the heart's power to pump blood and supply the body with oxygen. "Heart failure is a product of
our success in dealing with heart disease and hypertension," said Dr. Michael Bristow of the University of
Colorado. Treating the symptoms of heart disease and hypertension rather than their causes has led to
more hardship and suffering than anticipated. It is the call of our time to take a more holistic look at the
causes of this greatest of killer diseases in the modern world and to apply natural methods to restore heart
functions swiftly and permanently, without side effects.
The Beginning Stages Of Heart Disease
Our cardiovascular system is composed of a central pumping device, the heart muscles, and a blood
vessel pipeline consisting of arteries, veins and capillaries. The heart muscles pump blood through the
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