(NaturalNews) Doctors tell us that cardiovascular disease cannot be cured, but instead can only be managed, primarily with drugs such as statins. Likewise they would also have us believe that the best way to prevent cardiovascular problems is through the use of statins and daily aspirin, along with avoiding being overweight. In a sense, the doctors are right – cardiovascular disease cannot be cured by mainstream medicine. However, cardiovascular disease can be cured and prevented by whole food nutrition, and what doctors know about the links between diet, weight and heart disease are mostly wrong
The most common serious side effect of statin drugs is muscle pain and damage – and the heart is the most important and most active muscle in the body as well as one of the largest muscles. Statin drugs' primary method of action is to interfere with the liver function of producing cholesterol. In the process they also interfere with the liver's production of CoQ10 from selenium. CoQ10 is a primary heart protector. Thus drugs that are supposedly for the heart prevent a vital heart protector and cause damage to muscles, such as the heart itself. Not surprisingly, liver damage is another serious statin drug side effect.
The fact is that there are no benefits derived from statin drugs which cannot be achieved from whole food chromium and selenium, neither of which have the many side effects associated with statin drugs. Both chromium and selenium were established as essential minerals for life over half a century ago by the NIH. Yet the use of statin drugs is almost universal in mainstream medicine while the nutritional approach of whole food nutrition with those two essential mineral nutrients remains little known and rarely used.
A second mainstream approach for heart problems is daily aspirin, a dangerous mainstream marketing myth. Aspirin is actually dangerous for the heart. All of the early studies on aspirin and heart benefits used a buffered form of aspirin. The buffering agent used was the heart healthy mineral magnesium and often the buffered aspirin studied contained more magnesium than actual aspirin. In the intervening years no heart benefits have been found in studies on aspirin alone. Nevertheless, the aspirin heart protection myth continues to this day.
Magnesium helps prevent heart attacks, regulates high blood pressure and helps ease heart arrhythmia, in addition to having a great many other vital health benefits. Thanks to today's SAD diet and mineral depleted soils, it is estimated that anywhere from 80 to 95 percent of us are deficient in magnesium.
It was also noted over a half century ago that the mineral silicon played a vital role in heart health since it was abundant in healthy hearts and deficient in diseased hearts and heart vessels. Silicon is responsible for both the strength and elasticity of cardiovascular tissue. It also is a semiconductor that is involved in nervous system message transmissions and is likely important for the heart's electrical functions.
In part two of this three part series we will look at the vital roles of vitamins D3 and B6, myths and truths about the roles of obesity and diet and why it is crucial to get needed nutrition from whole food sources.