Rath Three-fold Article

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=40 BGCOLOR="#000066" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#66CCFF" FACE="Arial" >Selected Writing:  Management Philosophy</FONT>    | <A HREF="index_home.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Philosophy"><U> H</U></A><A HREF="index_home.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Philosophy"><U>ome</U></A>  | <A HREF="id19_writings_1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writings: Philosophy Psychology"><U> Writings Menu: Phil. & Psy.</U></A>  | <A HREF="id17_bio.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bio"><U> Bio</U></A>  |  Writings Menu:  General Topics  </div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#000066" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>OTHER ARTICLES</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id26_lear.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Selected Writing: On Lear"><U><B><IMG SRC="0fa15150.gif" border=0 width="21" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#66CCFF" FACE="Arial" ><I><B><---Language as a Metaphor:  Translation as a Model for Understanding Johathan Lear's Analysis of Freud's    Concepts</B></I></FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id27_myth_metaphor.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Selected Writings: Myth"><U><B><IMG SRC="0fa15150.gif" border=0 width="21" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></FONT><B><----</B><I><B>Myths, Metaphors and Mental Worlds:  </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>An Incorporative Model for Describing Ego Dynamics</B></I></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id28_karla_faye.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Selected Writing: Karla Faye"><U><B><IMG SRC="0fa15150.gif" border=0 width="21" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></FONT><B><----</B><I><B>Texas' Stone of Stumbling:  On the Occasion of the Texas Execution of </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Karla Faye Tucker</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(February, 1998)</B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#66CCFF" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>   </B></I></FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id18_writings.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="When A CatAngel"><U><B><IMG SRC="0fa15150.gif" border=0 width="21" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></FONT><B><----</B><I><B>When a Cat Is Really an Angel:  Target Data vs. Imagination in CRV</B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="id80_cassirer.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Selected Writings: Cassirer/Buchanan"><U><B><IMG SRC="0bd18180.gif" border=0 width="24" height="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#66CCFF" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>Cassirer, on the Expressive Form of Mythopoeic Thought: A Foundation for Buchanan's Concept of Ambiance </B></I></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="id50_influence_med__concept.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="New Med. Paradigm"><U><B><IMG SRC="0be15150.gif" border=0 width="21" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#66CCFF" FACE="Arial" ><I><B><----Influence of Conceptual Models on Today's Health Care: The Physician as Dr. Goodwrench</B></I></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="id53_they_die_young.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="King Memorial"><U><B><IMG SRC="0be15150.gif" border=0 width="21" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#66CCFF" FACE="Arial" ><I><B><----They Die Young:  In Memorium to Dr. Martin Luther King</B></I></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="id55_johnny.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Byline: Johnny"><U><B><IMG SRC="0be15150.gif" border=0 width="21" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#66CCFF" FACE="Arial" ><I><B><----Byline:  Johnny Can't Read</B></I></FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id85_disappearing_amer__dream.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Byline: Disappearing American Dream"><U><B><IMG SRC="0bd18180.gif" border=0 width="24" height="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></FONT><B><---</B><I><B>Byline:</B></I><B>  </B><I><B>A Disappearing American Dream</B></I></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=440 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="09880803.jpg"> <div>  <A NAME="rath"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A> </div> <div> <B>FROM DEMON TO FRIEND:</B></div> <div> <B>      </B></div> <div> <B>A New Look at Cholesterol  in the</B></div> <div> <B>     </B></div> <div> <B>Eradication of Heart Disease</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>By</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Bill Stroud, Ph.D.</B></div> <div> <B>Copyright, 2001</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Perceptual Blindness</B></div> <div> We just can't see some things even when they are right in front of our eyes.  It's the old adage about not being able to see the forest for the trees.  </div> <div> Today something is going on right in front of us, something which the American people in general--and our medical gurus in particular--just haven't been able to see.  Let me tell you about this particular case of what I call <I>proximity blindness</I>.</div> <bR> <div> <B>The Mechanical Model</B></div> <div> Being so excited with technology, most people do not see that we have come to view our entire world in a mechanistic way, even to the point of seeing the human body as if it were no more than a machine.  And look where this has led us.  We see our physicians as body mechanics.  Our medical doctors have become Dr. Goodwrenches.  Consequently, when we become ill, we immediately go to one of these good medical "mechanics" to get something "fixed."  We expect him or her to give us our annual tune-up, make necessary repairs, prescribe the latest oils, and now--thanks to transplant technology--even provide us with an aftermarket of replacement parts.  <I>Repair</I> has become the mindset instead of  <I>prevention</I>.</div> <bR> <div> <B>The Body-Machine</B></div> <div> And there is no place where this impact of the body-machine model is more evident than in our medical approach to heart disease, which, according to the World Health Organization, <I>kills twelve million people</I> every year.  To our Dr. Goodwrenches, the heart becomes merely a pump.  As a heart specialist, our medical mechanic is hired to "fix" any problem we might have with it.  According to this model, the blood vessels are viewed as pipes which need to be unclogged like your kitchen drain.  The doctor, therefore, becomes a Mr. Rotor Rooter and snakes a "tool" into your artery to unclog your pipes.  If you're beyond this type of help, he just leaves in the old plumbing and shunts around the problem, installing a by-pass system.  He gives you a blood thinning drug to thin the viscosity of your blood (moving you from a 30 to a 20 weight), and he monitors the results with a good diagnostic machine which spits out a paper cardiogram like a mechanic's diagnostic machine.   And by the way, this approach has saved thousands of lives!  So I'm not on some crusade to debunk medical doctors!</div> <bR> <div> <B>An Alternative Model</B></div> <bR> <div> But something else is happening today which many do not see--even though it is taking place right in front of their eyes.  Today people are beginning to ask new questions.  They are beginning to approach health differently.  The new approach says, "Why are we always fixing things.  Why don't we keep things in shape so they don't break in the first place?"  This new way of looking is actually based on a new model, one not related to mechanics.  The new model is based on husbandry.  </div> <bR> <div> Husbandry, as a model, helps us formulate our questions differently.  For instance, if your plant wilts and drops its leaves, you ask, "Did I give it enough water?  Did I give it too much Miracle Grow?  Does it need more sunlight?"  True, you may prune its limbs and spray it for fungus.  However, most of the time you approach it from a nourishment model; i.e., you trust it to do what a plant is supposed to do by its very nature so long as it gets what it needs.  For instance, you will expect it to bloom because that is what it is designed to do if you don't get in its way.   You don't think about disassembling it and giving it new parts.  </div> <div> This new model has sprung up as a result of many factors.  For one thing, our present culture is mad as heck about the cost of medical repair.  In fact, if healthcare costs continue to rise, the average American soon will be paying more for his healthcare insurance per month than he does for his home.  It's gotten to the point that you just can't afford to be sick any more. </div> <div> Also, we are finding out that drugs can kill you as well as heal you.  To put it bluntly, we are seeing too many young doctors die before they reach sixty years of age, going to their graves with a ton of pharmaceutical information in their heads.  (Recently a man who obviously resented my sharing with him the observation that our physicians are really coming down hard on the danger of smoking said:  "Well, I know a lot more old smokers than I do old doctors.")</div> <div> And what form is this new trend taking?  It's called alternative medicine, a movement which is developing into a cultural revolution.  And it is growing at a momentous rate today.  People are beginning to say:  "Why don't we adopt the philosophy of the Chinese, who only pay their doctors if they stay well?"  (Now there is a new twist to the mechanical model:  What if we took our bodies back to our physicians and said, "Hey, Doc.  I'm no better after you took out my gall bladder.  Obviously, that wasn't my problem.  I want my money back.)  </div> <div> But regardless of the causes, it is a fact that people are taking more and more responsibility for their own health.  And one area of medicine is fast being drawn into this new movement.  It is the area of heart disease.  In fact the treatment of heart disease is about to be turned on its head.  It is an example of how we can solve health problems by <I>prevention</I> instead of by <I>repair</I>.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Anomalous Heroes</B></div> <div> I can mention Pasteur and most people will remember studying as a child how Mr. Pasteur introduced us to the world of microbes.   We have immortalized his name with the word, pasteurization.  I can mention Dr. Salk and almost everyone will think of the polio vaccine.  However, when I mention the name, Dr. Rath, people say, "Rath who?"  However, I predict that Dr. Matthias Rath will soon become a household word.  In fact, in honor of Dr. Matthias Rath, I prefer to call the new revolution the Rathean Revolution!  So let me tell you about this revolutionary named Dr. Matthias Rath.</div> <div> Dr. Matthias Rath is a leading expert in cardiovascular disease and nutrition.  He has held research and clinical positions at the University of Hamburg, Germany and at the German Heart Center in Berlin.  He later became Director of Cardiovascular Research at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine in Palo Alto, California, and he now has his own company, Health Now, Inc., which promotes nutritional medicine through scientific research and educational services.  Dr. Rath has published many articles in scientific journals of the American Heart Association, the National Academy of Sciences and other scientific publications.  Put bluntly, Dr. Rath is a heavy!</div> <div> If you <I>have</I> heard of Dr. Rath, it's probably in relation to his books, and, more likely, the one entitled <I>Why Animals Don't Get Heart Attacks</I>.  Besides this popular book, he has a major work on heart disease entitled <I>Eradicating Heart Disease</I>.  Dr. Rath also has a newsletter which reports on his research and findings.</div> <div> So, you ask,  "Just what is Rath saying which is so revolutionary?"  Well, this is best explained by pointing out some very interesting observations which Dr. Rath makes about what we have traditionally called the culprits of heart disease. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Healthy-hearted Animals</B></div> <div> Rath first challenges the traditional view of heart disease by asking a simple question:  "Why don't animals have heart attacks?"  Rath cites renown veterinarians who have observed that most animals have all of the factors and mechanisms which we cite as the cause of human heart disease.  However, according to these veterinarians, only with the rarest exceptions do heart attacks  occur in animals; i.e., athero-sclerotic disease is not impossible in them, but, according to vets, it just does not happen.  Rath cites one of the recognized text books on veterinary medicine, <I>Veterinary Pathology</I>, in which the authors, Smith and Jones, suggest that if we could find out the reason for this exception among animals, it might cast some very useful light on the human disease.  Well, Dr. Rath has thrown some light on the situation.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Cats and Scurvy</B></div> <div> The very heart of Rath's research on heart disease focuses on his contention that heart disease is basically an early form of scurvy, a disease which results in the breakdown of the integrity of the blood vessels.  When you have scurvy, your gums bleed and your vessel walls deteriorate until they actually leak.  Scurvy is popularly known as a  sailor's disease.   In the days when one literally had to use sails to navigate the open seas, many sailors died of scurvy.  But note:  their cats didn't.  But why, asks Rath, didn't the ship's cat get scurvy?  His answer:  Because cats and most other animals produce their own Vitamin C, and scurvy is an advanced complication caused by a lack of Vitamin C.  (There are a few exceptions, one being the guinea pig, and--please note--the other is the human animal.  Humans do not produce their own Vitamin C.  We have to ingest it from food or food supplements.)</div> <div> According to Rath, coronary problems occur as early symptoms of an early stage of scurvy.  He illustrates how Vitamin C, heart disease and scurvy are connected by giving a 101-lesson on the make-up of the inner linings of your blood vessels.</div> <div> Collagen serves somewhat like reinforcement rods for the inner lining of the arteries.  Just as reinforcement rods in concrete strengthen it and keep it from cracking under stress, so does collagen act to strengthen the inner linings of the blood vessels.  And what supports the collagen?  Vitamin C.  </div> <bR> <div> <B>Cholesterol as Friend</B></div> <div> But after giving this little lesson in collagen formation, Rath hits you with a shocker:  He says your body has a built-in friendly helper which comes along to try to save you when the inner linings of your blood vessels begin to crack.  And who is this friend within your body?  Surprise, surprise!  It is cholesterol!  That very thing which you have been attacking like the plague, that contemporary culprit which has taken away your bacon, your butter, your eggs, that demon which has condemned you to jogging, aerobics, and god-awful diets.  And now this Dr. Rath comes along and tells you that the demon which has been interfering with your life is actually your friend?  Well, that leaves us with one of two responses:  to see Rath as a pork chop savior or as a complete charlatan.  Well, let's see how Rath plays this out.</div> <bR> <div> According to Rath, we need to make a distinction between cholesterol and what doctors are referring to as bad cholesterol (LDL) and good cholesterol (HDL).  Neither one of these is simply cholesterol per se.  Cholesterol in combination with other molecular factors forms globules of fat-like substances called Lipoproteins (the common "L" in LDL and HDL).  LDL is low density lipoproteins, often called the "bad cholesterol."  HDL is high density lipoproteins, which we usually call the "good cholesterol."   Now here is another kicker!  Rath says that LDL, the low density lipoprotein, rushes in as Mr. Plasterman to fill the lesions or cracks in your arteries when they weaken from a lack of Vitamin C.  That's right.  It is nature's way of trying to save your life.  In other words, "the road to your heart attack hell is paved with good intentions."  Rath says that this repair work overshoots (somewhat like those rescuers who try to help little old ladies across the street-even when they don't want to go!).  This LDL plaster job builds up too much of a good thing and begins to fill the open space through which your blood must flow to the heart.  (Don't forget!  Your heart is a very selfish organ.  It pumps blood through the lungs to get oxygen to come back to the heart to keep its muscle tissue alive so it can pump again to do the same thing!)</div> <bR> <div> <B>Plumbing Lesson</B></div> <div> Just what does the surgeon do to you in the process of giving you a by-pass operation?  Well, he takes a length of artery from your leg and connects one end of it to the coronary artery in front of the clogged spot and the other end to that same artery beyond the clogged spot; he shunts around the bad section to let the blood simply by-pass or go around that obstruction.  Now ask any heart surgeon and he will tell you that all too often this new, re-located artery section also starts getting clogged.  Now, here is the shocker:  If cholesterol itself or even its LDL form were the problem, wasn't it in the blood that was flowing through the artery while it was in the leg?   Well, why didn't it start clogging up down there if cholesterol were the problem?  Why does it clog up now after it has been moved?  It's the same blood flowing through it, isn't it?</div> <div> But Rath gives us the connection:  The large vessels near the heart literally take a beating!   As the heart pumps, vessels near it flex between being open and almost closed.  This flexing puts more strain on the inner linings of the vessels, causing them to develop cracks.  Now note:  If the inner linings of these blood vessels are weak in their collagen reinforcement structures, this section of blood vessels will be more liable for inviting in the plastering work of the LDL globules of fatty substance.  </div> <div> So far, I have been talking about the gospel of cardiac salvation according to Rath.  And since many readers of this article are probably over 25 years of age, you need to know that according to Dr. Rath one out of ten of you already has arteries which are clogged 50% or more.  In fact, 75% of the people between the ages of 20 and 30 have arteries which have developed some deposits.  But Rath has chapter two of his good news report for you who have waited too long to simply prevent atherosclerotic deposits.</div> <div> Rath categorically says that heart disease can be reversed, not just prevented.  Now reversal means that you can start a process which actually begins to extract bit by bit the atherosclerotic deposits attached to the walls of your coronary arteries.  In fact, Rath now introduces what he calls the Teflon factor.</div> <bR> <div> <B>The Teflon Factor</B></div> <div> To understand what Rath calls the Teflon factor, we must look at some special research he did in Germany before coming to the States.  Rath was one of the primary pioneers in the study of what has lately come to be called the cholesterol which is "badder than the bad."  Rath has identified a special form of LDL which is known as Lipoprotein(a) or apoprotein(a) or the shortened form, apo(a).  According to Rath the amount of LDL or the "bad cholesterol" is actually not the best indicator of risk for coronary problems.  You can have a high reading of LDL and still not develop heart disease in relation to that high reading.  The real test is how much of the "badder than the bad" apo(a) you have in your bloodstream.  So, what is apo(a)?</div> <div> Apo(a) is a specific LDL molecular structure which has around it an envelope of a sticky substance.  You might call apo(a) the LDL which has some glue around the outside of its surface.  Now note:  Rath says you can neutralize the glue.  Then,  not only will the globules not stick in the first place, but those already stuck will start to "unglue" themselves, as it were, and go back into your bloodstream to be metabolized and flushed out of your system.  So what is the Teflon factor?  What is this new coronary Slick Fifty which he talks about?</div> <div> According to Rath, the stickiness of apo(a) is destroyed by the work of two amino acids, L-Proline and L-Lysine.  With about 500 milligrams of each taken on a daily basis one will find that the deposits will gradually turn loose and re-enter the bloodstream.  According to Dr. Rath, this dosage range has no negative side affects.  In fact, Dr. Rath's book, <I>Eradicating Heart Disease</I>, presents numerous positive testimonies of patients gaining relief from angina pectoris (that chest pain which comes with a coronary restriction) after taking these two amino acids.</div> <bR> <div> <B>A Reluctant Revolution</B></div> <div> As with all revolutions, a revolutionary has a target which is to be overthrown and replaced by a new order.  And the Rathean revolution is no different.  Today, the business of treating heart disease exceeds several trillion dollars yearly.  The drugs which are presently being used-even with all of their side effects-are bringing millions of dollars in profits to pharmaceutical companies.  What is being proposed will largely replace the expensive procedures of surgery,  a claim that Dr. Rath states categorically.  So don't ever think that this revolution will not be countered by those whose very financial existence depends on the old procedures.</div> <bR> <div> I hope you will take the Rathean revolution to heart. It is good news.  And making sure that you get enough Vitamin C and these important amino acids just might save your life. The best investment you can make is in prevention.  Don't wait until you get signals from your body that you have cardio-vascular problems.  Remember.  Many times you will not get signals of pain and discomfort from blocked arteries until these arteries are 90% blocked.  Waiting for your body to warn you that you are about to have a heart attack may be the biggest gamble you ever make, with the stakes being your immediate death.   All too often the first pain is an announcement more than a warning, like some terrible fanfare announcing your immanent death.  So don't be foolish by gambling on having any time for repair.   In the case of heart disease, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of bypass cure.  </div> <bR> <div> <B>Responsibility from Knowledge</B></div> <bR> <div> Now that you have heard the good news, you have become somewhat responsible.  Think of your friends and relatives.  Once you know about the Rath research and its clinical results, you have an obligation to get this information to them.  No, you are not your brother's keeper; you are, however, your brother's brother.  Do yourself a favor and do your friends and family a favor.  Have a heart which is kind by protecting a heart with an act of kindness.  Help with the Rathean revolution by sharing the good news with others.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>