112 THE CHINA STUDYIf there is an "American" game, it is baseball; an "American" dessert,
apple pie. If there is an "American" disease, it is heart disease.EVERYONE'S DOING IT
In 1950, Judy Holliday could be seen on the big screen, Ben Hogan
dominated the world of golf, the musical South Pacific won big at the
Tony Awards and on June 25, North Korea invaded South Korea. The
American administration was taken aback but responded quickly. With-
in days, President Truman sent in troops on the ground and bombers
overhead to push back the North Korean army. Three years later, inJuly
of 1953, a formal cease-fire agreement had been signed and the Korean
War was over. During this period of time, over 30,000 American sol-
diers were killed in battle.
At the end of the war, a landmark scientific study was reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association. Military medical investiga-
tors had examined the hearts of 300 male soldiers killed in action in Ko-
rea. The soldiers, at an average age of twenty-two years, had never been
diagnosed with heart problems. In dissecting these hearts, researchers
found startling evidence of disease in an exceptional number of cases.
Fully 77.3% of the hearts they examined had "gross evidence" of heart dis-
ease.? (In this instance, "gross" means large.)
That number, 77.3%, is startling. Coming at a time when our number
one killer was still shrouded in mystery, the research clearly demon-
strated that heart disease develops over an entire lifetime. Furthermore,
almost everyone was susceptible! These soldiers were not couch-potato
slouches; they were in top condition in the prime of their physical lives.
Since that time, several other studies have confirmed that heart disease
is pervasive in young Americans.s
THE HEART ATTACKBut what is heart disease? One of the key components is plaque. Plaque
is a greasy layer of proteins, fats (including cholesterol), immune sys-
tem cells and other components that accumulate on the inner walls of
the coronary arteries. I have heard one surgeon say that if you wipe
your finger on a plaque-covered artery; it has the same feel as wiping
your finger across a warm cheesecake. If you have plaque building up
in your coronary arteries, you have some degree of heart disease. Of
the autopsied soldiers in Korea, one out of twenty diseased men had so
much plaque that 90% of an artery was blocked.? That's like putting a