The Rural Voice, 1979-07, Page 21The Voice of A Farmer
by Adrian Vos
Heart disease
and cholesterol
Heart disease is the biggest killer of men in N. America. This
is a proven fact. It kills fifty per cent and cancer in its various
forms disposes of another two thirds of us.
While some causes of Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD) are
known, such as high blood pressure and nervous tension, often
called managerial disease, caused by our hurried society, others
are little understood and have given rise to food fad diets to
prevent a heart attack.
The best known of these is the cholesterol theory, based on
statistical evidence. The theory, and that is all it is, surmises that
clogging of the arteries by blood serum cholesterol components,
which causes heart infarcts and strokes, can be avoided by eating
food with a low cholesterol content.
Clinical research has shown that the intake of cholesterol
containing fats has little or no influence on the bloodfat level, but
the theorists never gave up on their conviction.
A few years ago there was a flurry of interest in high fiber diets
for the prevention of CVD, but this fizzled when results proved
too inconsistent.
Exercise has a marked effect on the incidence of CVD, for it
supplies the heart muscle with needed oxygen, which is lacking
in our sedentary lives.
During much of that time, Dr. Kilmer McCully, a professor of
pathology at Harvard Medical School, has been quietly working
in his laboratory on the cholesterol hypothesis. Begun in 1969,
the result of these ten years of work have now been made
available to the medical world and throws a completely new light
on the controversy.
The scientist found that it was more a quesr;ln of protein than
a question of fat, from whatever source, that showed a
connection with CVD. As nutritionists and livestock farmers
know, the protein we consume contains the necessary nutritional
building blocks, which are called amino acids. One of the more
important ones is Methionine. In the digestive process
themethionine breaks down to homocysteine. This is toxic and
our body takes care of that by using the vitamin B6 in the protein
to convert it further into cystionine, which we need and which is
not toxic.
Dr. McCully found that if there was a low level of vitamin B6 in
our protein, that the toxic homocysteine attacked the walls of the
arteries, as if stripping them bare on the inside.
When that happens the cholesterol components (lipids) in our
blood, if they are produced by our organs or not, find the
unprotected spots on the artery wall and attach themselves
thereto. Slowly they build up until the artery becomes blocked
completely and we have a heart attack or stroke.
The good doctor didn't stop at that discovery; he wanted to
find out why some people have a low Vitamin B6 level. He found
some of the causes, if not a:l. This vitamin, that now looms
suddenly very big in our nutritional needs, is for a good deal
destroyed by cooking and canning. If that is the case, the
difference in CVD between poor and prosperous countries is
explained by the consumption of more canned vegetables by the
rich. Vegetables are namely high in vitamin B6.
The largely discarded high fibre theory suddenly begins also
to make sense, for in the milling of wheat to white flour, most of
the B6 is removed.
The cholesterol theorists could never explain why Eskimos
who eat almost exclusively raw whale meat, almost never have
CVD. It was partly explained by their vigorous healthy outdoor
life, but with the new theory of Dr. McCully, it falls neatly into
place, for the B6 is not killed by cooking.
Supportive evidence comes from a British study on women
who have been on the birth control pill for an extended period of
time. Researchers there noted that the blood of these women
contained a very low level of vitamin B6. It was also noted that
women who had been using the pill for five years or more, had a
ten time higher death rate than non-users. And for further proof,
the increased level of deaths was due solely to heart disease.
The medical profession is careful though, for they don't say
that everyone should go out to obtain vitamin B6. This in sharp
contrast with that segment of the medics, who draw conclusions
from statistics only.
Before Dr. McCully's findings are accepted, a series of clinical
trials will have to take place, but it is heartening to see that there
are still quiet people who try to restore some sanity to our fad
mad world.
ALFRED
KNECHTEL
Spray Painting Ltd.
—SPECIALIZING IN FARM BUILDINGS—
(519) 669-2638
R.R. 2 WALLENSTEIN, ONTARIO
THE RURAL VOICE/JULY 1979 PG. is