“Once there is an active heart problem the importance of magnesium actually increases considerably. This has actually been noted in medical research since the 1950s.” — Christopher Barr
Almost all adults are concerned about the condition of their heart and cardiovascular system. Some live in constant fear wondering whether any ache, cramp or pain in their upper body is a sign of a heart attack. There isn’t an adult living in North America that hasn’t lost a loved one or a family member to heart disease. The fact is, heart attacks kill, and they kill by the millions every year!
Just recently we witnessed the sudden death of TV news anchorman Tim Russert from a massive heart attack. Tim was only 58 years old. It came as a complete shock to the world. Since Tim was internationally recognized, our society tends to give deaths like his more attention than others. What happened to Tim Russert is only a microcosm of what is happening on a massive scale every year. Generally we expect people in their seventies, eighties and nineties to die from heart attacks. When it occurs with people in their twenties, thirties, forties or fifties, it’s usually considered a tragedy.
There’s a reason why statin drugs, high blood pressure drugs, and diabetes medications are the best selling drugs on the market. Drug companies have done a masterful job of instilling fear into virtually everyone alive that if there are any imbalances, their risk of dying from heart disease greatly increases. What they haven’t told you is that these numbers have been deliberately manipulated so they can sweep in millions and get them on a regimen of drugs for life on the false assumption that they will live longer by taking them.
What you will rarely hear is that most heart disease is caused by nutritional deficiencies. You won’t get well or live out the years you were created to live until you know what’s causing your heart condition or how to prevent one altogether. Of all the organs in the body the heart is the one most often damaged by nutritional deficiencies. It is also the most responsive organ to nutritional therapies.
Over the course of the past year, our readers have been blessed beyond measure by the incredible insights and pearls of wisdom that Christopher Barr has shared with us on a number of important health topics. We continuously get calls and letters all the time from readers who have followed his advice and have seen the results in their own life. In this issue of Crusador we have a special interview that is over the top. If you, a loved one, co-worker, friend, or associate ever wanted to know the full truth about heart disease and what you need to do to avoid becoming another victim, the following interview below is one of the best ones you will ever come across.
Crusador: Chris, it is truly a pleasure to interview you again. I want to give more coverage to heart health than we have in previous issues since heart disease is the #1 killer in this country. You have spent many years doing some amazing research to distill out truth people need to know to stay well. What pearls of wisdom can you share with our readers and why should someone listen to what you have to say on this subject as opposed to anyone else?
Well, Greg, pearls are formed over time from an irritant. It is through a lifetime of research by way of science, history and journalism that I have come to a variety of pearls of wisdom with inestimable value – considerably by way of my being an irritant to both medical and nutritional mainstreams.
You’ve heard of the proverbial “between a rock and a hard place”? That is where I do my work. The “rock” is modern medi$in and the “hard place” is nutrition. Either of these is filled with erroneous biases and neither of these is open to being challenged due to their “love of money” which as the Scripture notes “is the root of all evil”. I do what I do due to the Scriptural precept of “love of the truth” rather than for “love of money”.
“The proof of the pudding” as they say “is in the eating”. More and more people all the time taste for themselves the proof of my knowledge by way of the interviews provided by me to Crusador over the past year or so.
Crusador: Mainstream medicine’s answer to heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes/blood sugar issues is to treat it with drugs. Why do they have it all wrong?
The simplest answer is that neither heart disease, high blood pressure nor diabetes/blood sugar issues are due to “drug deficiencies”. The reasons for each of these problems are due to complexities of nutritional deficiencies. The most complex of these matters you have mentioned is heart disease. A variety of nutritional deficiencies are what leads to heart disease. These deficiencies come from a few very bad dietary habits that have only become common place over the last 100 years.
100 years ago cardiovascular disease was not even among the top ten causes of death. Today it is the number one cause of death and has been number one more than half a century.
Crusador: So much bad press has made headline news lately regarding the ineffectiveness and outright dangers of statin drugs. Some have even argued that statin drugs are the biggest scam ever. Where do you stand on this issue and why?
If statin drugs are not the biggest scam ever they are at least right near the top.
The whole purpose of statins is to lower cholesterol levels in order – allegedly – to protect the heart. Cholesterol levels are reduced due to statins interfering with normal liver processes. Liver problems are one of the two most common and most serious side effects of taking statins which should not be surprising since statins work by interfering with normal liver processes.
The other most common and most serious side effect of taking statins is muscle damage. Isn’t the heart a muscle? Why, YES, it is! “Sometimes it is just a matter of asking the right question,” my good friend Dr. Kenneth O’Neal, M.D. said with a smile when I put forth this question to him in a discussion of statins when he was a guest on my daily radio broadcast, ‘VOICE OF CHANGE’.
Additionally, cholesterol is not an issue because one has too much cholesterol but rather because one has too little of the essential trace mineral element chromium.
Chromium manages cholesterol. In the absence of chromium cholesterol is unmanaged and goes haywire. Low density lipoproteins (LDL) increase which are commonly regarded as “bad” cholesterol while high density lipoproteins (HDL) decrease which are commonly regarded as “good” cholesterol.
High HDL levels are so much more important than low LDL levels that even a recently published medical research study noted that if HDL levels are high enough then LDL levels are irrelevant when it comes to heart disease.
Statins are very effective at reducing the “bad” LDL cholesterol but do not increase the “good” HDL cholesterol. Medical options – in other words DRUGS – for increasing the “good” HDL cholesterol are limited both in number of options and in their effectiveness, PLUS they have serious side effects so that they are barely used at all. Of course, statins also have serious side effects but since they are very effective in their targeting of the “bad” LDL cholesterol they are prominently used anyway. The use of statins is so prominent that they are the number one most prescribed class of drugs in the world.
Now back to chromium. Increased chromium does two things; it increases the levels of “good” HDL cholesterol and decreases the “bad” LDL cholesterol. The nutrient option provides the best of both worlds with no side effects as well as numerous other benefits. However, only 100 per cent whole food, grown varieties of chromium are significantly utilized by the body. Meanwhile, the drug options are many though limited in application and with many side effects.
The nutrient answer to the cholesterol question is superior in every way to the multitude of drug answers. Yet, the nutrient answer of 100 percent whole food, grown chromium is too little known and even less addressed.
Dr. Henry Alfred Schroeder received the highest award of The American Heart Association and established the dietary and drug protocols used for high blood pressure. He was one of the greatest researchers of the 20th century – if not the greatest – yet his considerable researches on the mineral chromium were almost entirely ignored.
Dr. Schroeder wrote that “we found that chromium in the aorta was not detected (too low to be found) in almost every person dying of coronary artery disease, one manifestation of atherosclerosis, and was present in almost every aorta of persons dying accidentally.”
How does this happen?
Refined white flour and refined white sugar made up a negligible part of the average American dietary 100 years ago at which time such began to increase in American dietaries. Through the 1920s and 1930s there was a dramatic escalation of these “foods” and cardiovascular disease cracked the Top 10 causes of death. That dramatic escalation continued and cardiovascular disease has been the number one cause of death now for more than 50 years. Refined white flour consumption now averages more than 150 pounds per person per year in America and refined white sugar consumption is about the same.
Whole grain is an abundant source of chromium but refining it into white flour removes 91 per cent of that chromium. Whole sugar cane is also an abundant source of chromium but refining it into white sugar removes 98 per cent of that chromium.
Recent U.S. government figures note that refined white flour is 20 per cent of the typical American diet. That means that refined white flour and refined white sugar now makes up almost half of the typical American diet.
Schroeder wrote of “the typical American diet, with about 60 per cent of its calories from refined sugar, refined flour, and fat”. He noted that this diet “was apparently designed not only to provide as little chromium as feasible, but to cause depletion of body stores of chromium”.
“The result is a prevalent disease, in this case, atherosclerosis,” concluded Schroeder about chromium deficiency.
You do not have high cholesterol and heart disease because of a deficiency of Lipitor! Artificial means (DRUGS) do not fix the problem. They may delay the problem although at what cost in both dollars and cents, and in side effects?
Regarding chromium Schroeder wrote that “the most effective way of avoiding the atherosclerotic-diabetic syndrome is by prevention.” He looked for the day that “this essential micronutrient so necessary to the integrity of arteries” would no longer be removed by refining. Either that “or if the public insists on white flour and white sugar” that chromium would be “restored in sufficient quantities to those foods to ensure their adequate metabolism.”
Schroeder has been gone now for more than 30 years and that day he longed for has yet to arrive.
“Modern man makes many mistakes through lack of knowledge, but there is no excuse for his continuing his mistakes in the face of knowledge,” Schroeder wrote in his writing on chromium more than 30 years ago.
I agree with Schroeder. There is no excuse for modern man to continue removing chromium from his food supply and not add it back.
Crusador: CoQ10 is a naturally occurring compound that is found in every cell of the body. It also plays a major role in protecting the heart, hence the reason why millions of people take it regularly. There is a real interesting side to this story that is rarely discussed though. You stated in a previous interview with me that selenium is more important than CoQ10? I found that rather shocking since it flies in the face of accepted nutritional dogma. Why Is that?
There are many reasons. First, CoQ10 is produced in the body from selenium. Second, selenium is relatively inexpensive and CoQ10 is one of the more expensive products on the market. Plus the superior, whole food varieties of CoQ10 are rare and hard to find, and even much more expensive than the commonly available varieties. It is a matter of common sense and dollars and cents – as well as scientific sense – to concentrate more on selenium supplementation than on CoQ10 supplementation.
There is also no better antioxidant than selenium. Antioxidants protect against free radicals that damage the arteries, thereby setting up the basis for plaque build-up.
Selenium deficiency is also at the root of hypertension (commonly called high blood pressure) that also increases cardiovascular risk. This is a very technical matter that a whole article could be devoted to but I’ll just sum it up here.
It was Dr. Schroeder who discovered the connection of salt to hypertension and devised the low salt for high blood pressure that continues to be used today more than 50 years after his discovery of this. However, his later, more advanced finding that salt was not actually the culprit have been ignored.
Schroeder found that refined, white salt was a carrying agent for the mineral cadmium and that a build-up of cadmium was the real agent for causation of hypertension.
Cadmium is a heavy metal and as such is stable against the processing that removes other minerals when refining salt deposits to the pretty, white, sodium chloride salt so popular with almost everybody – thereby setting up an exaggerated imbalance of cadmium in the body that results in high blood pressure so very, very common to so very, very many.
Cadmium displaces zinc due to some technical matters of physics. The only normal means by which the body has to remove cadmium is the mineral selenium. Selenium physically bonds with cadmium to escort it out of the system. Of course, selenium is sacrificed in this role so that it is then unavailable to protect the heart, prevent cancer, or to perform any of the other myriad functions that it nutritionally performs.
Cigarette smoking is documented to dramatically increase high blood pressure risk. Cigarette smoke is very high in cadmium. The subsequent loss of selenium due to such cadmium increase also explains why cigarette smokers have so much more heart disease as well as cancer.
The processing of whole cane sugar to refined, white sugar has the same cadmium problem as with salt refining noted earlier.
Whole grains can be very high in selenium, although there is a wide disparity due to modern farming practices and geographical distribution of selenium in the soil, In any case, refined, white flour removes 92 per cent of selenium from the whole grain and leaves a similar exaggerated imbalance of cadmium, as with white salt and white sugar.
Dr. Alexander Schauss is noted to have said that practically the only mineral left in white flour and white sugar is cadmium. Dr. Schauss is the author of the book, ‘Diet, Crime and Delinquency’, and has been researching physical, mental, and social effects of nutrient mineral deficiencies and toxic element build-ups for many decades.
Selenium is important for so many functions in the body that it just makes sense in so many ways to concentrate on selenium supplementation rather than CoQ10 supplementation.
Crusador: What effect do statin drugs have on the body’s CoQ10 levels?
The artificial means by which statin drugs interfere with the production of cholesterol also interferes with the production of CoQ10 from selenium.
So, if you are so brainwashed and/or brain dead as to use a statin drug then you must supplement with the very expensive supplement of CoQ10 because this very important substance for heart health (and so much more) cannot be produced from the more economical selenium due to the interference from the statin drug.
Crusador: Isn’t it true that Merck, the maker of Zocor, originally patented this drug with CoQ10 but never brought it to market?
“Speaking of the devil” to coin a phrase, and speaking of brainwashed and brain dead, yes there is quite a story regarding Merck and the FDA when it comes to statins and CoQ10.
Indeed, the Merck magicians who first opened the cursed Pandora’s Box — that is statin drugs — did know from the outset that the Merck black magic of statin drugs – subsequently copied by most every other black magic sorcerer of the pharmaceutical world and the number one most prescribed drug in the world today – prevented the body’s own production of CoQ10.
Please note again that CoQ10 is expensive and Merck chose not to utilize the patent for statins with CoQ10 since there was no demand from the marketplace for it. Of course, how can there be demand if almost nobody knew – other than those at Merck?
Just the normal course of business practices at Merck.
Almost 20 years ago internal memos at Merck noted dangers of mercury in vaccines – a BIG part of Merck’s murky business – but they took no action for more than a decade. It was only after mercury in vaccines began to become a common news item that Merck “volunteered” that they were going to stop adding it to vaccines. Even at that it took some years before they actually stopped adding mercury to vaccines – or at least to mostly stop adding most of the mercury in most of their vaccines – even though they knew about the problem for a very long time before it gathered considerable attention from others.
Then there is the whole Vioxx illicit affair in which there was years of delay after its connection to increased heart deaths before Merck finally “volunteered” to remove it from the marketplace.
Back to CoQ10, statins, Merck and the FDA.
Dr. Julian Whitaker, M.D., is a fairly well-known doctor who has at least attempted to integrate nutrition extensively with his practice of medicine. Sometimes I’m amazed at how much he doesn’t know about nutrition considering how much that he does know about nutrition.
Anyway, Dr. Whitaker spent considerable time and expense preparing and submitting a petition to the FDA regarding statins and CoQ10. He had quite a combination of lawyers, researchers and documentation compiled and submitted on the matter.
Dr. Whitaker was calling for one or more of several options regarding statin drug usage. One option was to require CoQ10 with all statin drug usage. Another was to at least recommend CoQ10 with all statin drug usage. Yet another was to place a black box warning on statin drugs about the interference of these drugs with production of CoQ10.
It took the FDA three years to respond. The FDA did not deny that statins interfere with production of CoQ10. Rather, the FDA denied that the interference of statins with production of CoQ10 warranted any FDA action.
Crusador: One of the big buzzwords that frightens people when it comes to heart related issues is plaque. Should we be concerned about this, how does plaque build-up and is there a nutritional regimen that counters it?
Plaque build-up should be a very great concern to the vast majority of Americans who make Standard American Dietary choices that most Americans do and yes, there is a nutritional regimen that counters it.
First, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” as the old saying goes. Preventing heart problems is easier than countering heart problems.
Dr. Schroeder came to believe and wrote that chromium deficiency is the cause of heart disease. While chromium deficiency is A primary cause of heart problems, it is not THE primary cause of heart problems. This is a very complex matter so the answers are complex.
You can’t blame the late, great Dr. Schroeder for putting his eggs mostly in the chromium basket when it comes to heart disease as some of the other significant factors were very little or practically unknown at the time of his death 30 years ago.
Chromium is rich in both flour and sugar before more than 90 per cent of it is removed, whereas other nutrients important to heart health are abundant only in flour before they are significantly removed.
Chromium and selenium have been addressed at some length already in this interview.
91 per cent of chromium is removed when white flour is made. However, before cholesterol goes out of control due to a lack of chromium and becomes a significant part of the plaque process there has to be damage to the artery.
92 per cent of selenium is removed when white flour is made. However, before a lack of selenium becomes a part of the plaque process due to increased damage to the artery there is another matter of the heart.
95 per cent of the mineral silicon is removed when white flour is made – more than either selenium or chromium. Silica is vital to the integrity of the blood vessels. It is key to both strength and elasticity of the vessels.
Lack of silica results in weaker vessels. This results in easier damage to the weaker vessels from free radicals due to lack of selenium. Then cholesterol acts as a band-aid to a problem that is not truly countered without the restoration of the nutrients. The continual placing of cholesterol band-aids is the plaque that builds up in the arteries – in combination with excess calcium as well.
A study many years ago confirmed that in those dying from cardiovascular disease there was little or no silica to be found in the arteries. Those who died with healthy cardiovascular systems had an abundance of silica in their arteries.
Other very important nutrient deficiencies contributing to heart disease are magnesium, of which 75 per cent is removed in the refining of white flour, and pyridoxal compounds (commonly referred to as vitamin B6) of which more than 50 per cent is removed in the refining of white flour.
Once there is an active heart problem the importance of magnesium actually increases considerably. This has actually been noted in medical research since the 1950s.
Crusador: So what’s the truth about cholesterol? Has there ever been a proven link to high cholesterol and heart disease?
Well, Greg, there is a link between high cholesterol and heart disease, but then there is also a link between breathing and heart disease. The key is not whether there is a link but rather whether there is a causative link. There is absolutely no causative link between high cholesterol and heart disease.
This is just one more reason that statin drug use is so absolutely idiotic. The primary function of statins – the number one most prescribed drug in the world – is to reduce cholesterol, which is not a primary cause of heart disease. Neither is cholesterol secondary or even tertiary to heart disease. Yet statins do prevent production of CoQ10 which IS a primary PROTECTOR of the heart!
Crusador: Do you believe that the numbers for high blood pressure and cholesterol have been manipulated to sell drugs instead of health?
Greg, that is not a matter of belief. That is a simple matter of fact for any who are intelligent and honest health researchers and practitioners.
Before the advent of statins 20 years ago there was not much that modern mediSin could do about cholesterol. So even though those pholk predominantly believed the phantastic phraud that cholesterol causes heart disease, they pressed somewhat about diet but tended to downplay seriousness of cholesterol levels unless they began to climb above 220 or more.
As statins entered the marketplace suddenly a goal of 200 became common. As that level began to become more commonplace then “less than 200” was the new goal, and with the passing of time more and more doctors are shooting for considerably below 200.
There is even growing talk of statins being given to children. THAT would be child abuse.
Then there is the more recent high blood pressure phraud. Textbook perfect blood pressure has been 120 over 80 for decades, but in just the last few years, that which has always been called perfect is now called pre-hypertension for which it is recommended that drugs should be considered – as if there are not already enough people on high blood pressure drugs. It seems like most adults are on these, and often these people are on more than one type at a time.
Crusador: Should we have a genuine concern if our cholesterol or our blood pressure is high?
If cholesterol is alleged to be high the only concern should be to dramatically reduce or preferably cease refined white flour and refined white sugar products, and start taking a minimum of 100 micrograms of chromium in a 100 per cent whole food form three times daily. I’ve never known a “cholesterol problem” not resolved with that regimen through three decades of experience and usually in short order – a matter of months and sometimes in a matter of weeks.
The most important aspect of utilizing chromium with cholesterol issues – since cholesterol issues ARE actually chromium deficiency issues – is that chromium balances out cholesterol by decreasing truly high “bad” LDL levels and increasing low “good” HDL levels.
As to blood pressure issues … that is far more complex.
For one thing, determining high blood pressure is not an exact science. Let me give you a personal example.
My blood pressure right out of high school as an active, healthy young man was 140 over 90 more than 30 years ago. Doctors would have said then and especially now that that is high blood pressure and would have medicated me – if I didn’t know better. Learning about better eating habits and nutrition 30 years ago – and applying what I learned – has resulted in my blood pressure now varying from the 120s to 140 over the 70s to 90 depending upon how hard I am pushing myself.
Also, doctors are commonly ignorant or dishonest about blood pressure anyway. People commonly have higher blood pressure readings at a doctor’s visit due to nervousness and/or discomfort. PLUS the first reading is practically NEVER accurate anyway. To get an accurate reading usually requires at least taking the blood pressure reading twice consecutive and three times consecutive is better. Doctors commonly just take blood pressure once and then drug people due to an inaccurately high blood pressure reading.
Crusador: Is there any evidence that suggests the long-term use of cardiovascular medications actually worsens cardiovascular health?
Any evidence? There is a boat load … no a whole fleet of boats loaded full of evidence. This interview is already lengthier than any other we have had and there are still some very important matters to address so briefly I’ll just cite two dramatic examples starting with a very recent one.
A robust and very active NBC newsman, Tim Russert, just died very suddenly at a young 58 years of age from a heart attack. His own news network reported that he had “been diagnosed with asymptomatic coronary artery disease, but it was well-controlled with medication.” His heart disease “was well-controlled with medication” and he suddenly dropped dead from a heart attack? Sounds like the old adage, “The operation was a success but the patient died.” It is lunacy that an allegedly serious news agency could make such a statement.
The second example is actually many examples. Research studies and several books by Dr. Duane Graveline, M.D. extensively document exhaustive side effects of statins. This is no fringe lunatic, health nut. He has multiple degrees including from Johns Hopkins. He is called “SpaceDoc” because he was a NASA astronaut and U.S. Air Force Flight Surgeon who additionally practiced as a family practitioner for more than 20 years.
Crusador: Dr. Bruce West who puts out a health alert publication says that there is absolutely no scientific evidence that stents, bypasses or balloon angioplasty provide any lasting benefits to heart patients. In fact, he says they can make you gravely ill and even kill you! Do you agree or disagree with his position and why?
There are many studies even in the polluted mainstream of medicine as to lasting benefits to heart patients being fleeting or non-existent. More importantly, all drugs or medical procedures have risks and side effects. Most important of all – heart problems are not caused by drug deficiencies but rather due to complex nutritional aberrations and deficiencies.
Crusador: I have read that of all the organs in the human body, the heart is most responsive to nutritional therapies. Have you seen the same results too?
I have seen extraordinary results first hand and routinely receive excellent reports from those I know and help with such matters. Also, I receive great reports from other doctors as well – including medical doctors.
Crusador: What nutrients are the most important for cardiovascular health and why?
The mineral chromium is the most important of all for cardiovascular health and many of the reasons are already covered earlier in this interview. One reason is that all the most important nutrients for cardiovascular health – chromium, silicon, selenium, magnesium and the pyridoxals (vitamin B6) – are significantly stripped from the very common American dietary staple of refined white flour. However, chromium is also 98 per cent removed from sugar cane in which it is abundant to produce the refined white sugar that is about as common an American dietary staple. That – among other things – makes chromium the most important of all for cardiovascular health.
A study late last year in the New England Journal of Medicine noted that the lowest incidence of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular problems is in those with the highest HDL levels.
The medical doctor who authored the study said, “The fundamental important message of the paper is that if you take HDL high enough, LDL doesn’t matter.”
Plainly speaking that means the statins are useless even by medical standards if HDL is high enough.
The same doctor just cited then said, “What we desperately need is a new drug to raise HDL levels.”
No drug new or otherwise is needed at all. 100 per cent whole food chromium raises HDL very effectively because that is one of its specialty functions in the body.
Once there is an active heart problem, the role of magnesium is magnified in importance. This was actually documented in Massachusetts hospitals 50 years ago – and there is no magnesium so dramatically most effective as 100 per cent whole food magnesium. Countless numbers of people – including doctors – are amazed at the added improvement they note when switching to 100 per cent whole food magnesium.
Crusador: Hawthorne berries are touted as being a great benefit to those with heart conditions. From what I know most of the hawthorne products being sold on the market do very little for heart health. Why is that and can you tell our readers what to look for if they have come across information regarding hawthorne berries?
Most hawthorne products being sold on the market do very little for heart health because they are based on wishful thinking, ignorance and/or dishonesty.
Some purport that you shouldn’t even use the berries at all. While it is true that the healthful heart principles are present in all parts of the hawthorne, it is in the berries that these principles are most concentrated. Of course, it is more work and a greater difficulty to work with the berries of the hawthorne so some don’t bother and that is a shame for anybody using those hawthorne products.
The most important part to success with hawthorne berries is using them fresh or freshly processed into a syrup that protects the powerful benefits of this truly miraculous heart healing berry.
There is one hawthorne berry heart syrup formula that has been used for nearly 150 years. Dr. Christopher’s Hawthorne Berry Heart Syrup is one of the few Dr. Christopher formulas that is actually not his own formula. It was given to him as a gift for being such an excellent student by his herbal professor who was given it by his herbal teacher.
I could fill an interview with the experiences of Dr. Christopher with this formula. However, I have observed at least as many wonderful experiences myself with his formula as I have read or heard from Dr. Christopher.
In just the past few months alone I’ve had two different men report reversals of carotid artery blockages. One man with a 90 per cent blockage of his carotid artery had that blockage reduced to 75 per cent in a very short space of time on Dr. Christopher’s Hawthorne Berry Heart Syrup. Of course, he was already taking whole food forms of chromium, selenium, magnesium and silica for some time before and that could only hasten the healing experience with the hawthorne syrup.
The other man had a 60-70 per cent blockage of his carotid artery and put the doctors off for a month while he took hefty tablespoon dosages instead of the label recommended half-teaspoon dosages. When he showed up at the hospital a month later where they were prepared to do angioplasty they discovered his blockage was only 30 per cent. Of course, this man had been taking whole food forms of chromium, selenium, magnesium and silica for more than a year. The doctors were befuddled and the man went home without angioplasty.
Recently a medical doctor who was a student of mine some years ago commented on his amazement at the hawthorne berry heart syrup and especially noted that he sees the most dramatic results of all in those who are in their 90s. He noted how that they come in practically lifeless and with no energy, and that after getting on the hawthorne berry heart syrup they are full of life.
I laughed with him as I know this very, VERY well.
A very dear brother in the faith, just shy of 93 years old suffered a heart attack while I was out of state some years ago.
Another brother and I arrived at the hospital the next day (two days before Thanksgiving). Our dear brother had been there almost a full day and was all hooked up in ICU, very pale, eyes sunken, with speech that was almost non-existent and slurred. His heart rate was 51, pulse at 41, blood pressure 139 over 41. He was on 100 per cent oxygen and even with that his oxygen was only holding at 90 to 95 per cent. He was in VERY bad shape.
We asked him and his wife if he would like some herbs. We told them we had hawthorn berry syrup with us. His wife excitedly said, 'YES! ' He barely muttered 'Yes.’'
Hawthorn berry syrup only calls for one-half of one teaspoon per dose three times daily – though I recommend four times daily. This brother's wife used a common dessert spoon and filled it almost full. That means he received more than a teaspoon.
Less than thirty seconds passed and the heart monitor began climbing into the 60s. In sixty seconds his heart rate was at 67 and his pulse was catching up. After two minutes his heart rate stabilized at 69, pulse rate was steady at 71, and his blood pressure steadied at 155 over 89.
Our dear brother disconnected the oxygen and began pulling off monitors as he said, "I'm going home". Within a few more minutes his oxygen was at 98 to 99 per cent AFTER he disconnected himself from the oxygen respirator.
Through the years I have seen hawthorn berry syrup make some difference in minutes and work wonders in days but never before have I seen it work such wonders in such a short time as in this instance.
This provided for an especially thankful Thanksgiving.
He went home against the doctor’s urging. I learned a few weeks later that he stopped taking his Toprol, Metaprolol, and nitroglycerine against the urging of family and some friends. He lived for several more years carrying a small vial of the hawthorne berry heart syrup and just sipping on it a few times each day while taking a full complement of 100 per cent whole food nutrients.
Crusador: Are there any other first-hand testimonials and successes with people you have consulted with who have taken your advice?
I’ve had people who had their doctor tell them they would die if they didn’t have a heart operation in 10 days or two weeks. It is amazing to see the dramatic improvement in them as they use the hawthorne berry heart syrup and 100 per cent whole food nutrients instead. They didn’t die and are all still kickin’ many years later – without heart surgery.
High cholesterol levels routinely decrease. Low HDL levels just as routinely increase.
One woman earlier this year who has had open heart surgery in the past and a long history of heart disease was taking a turn for the worse. She couldn’t walk across the room without losing her breath and her energy. She heard about the hawthorne berry heart syrup from a friend who raved about it. After one week she was walking to the mail box and back again – down a long driveway a quarter mile one way. Her husband with just mild heart problems got himself his own bottle after that.
I could go on and on with countless other reports of my own personal knowledge.
Crusador: Some health experts believe that the sole reason for declining cardiovascular health is caused by unhealthy fats. Where do you stand on this issue and why?
Unhealthy fats certainly are no help and do gum up the works in the cardiovascular system but they are far, FAR from “the sole reason” for heart problems. I’m going to decline to go any further due to time and space constraints.
Crusador: There are some very knowledgeable researchers who believe that the pasteurization and homogenization of milk is a major factor in causing heart disease. What are your thoughts on this?
Oh, Greg, I could spend a lengthy interview on this subject. Briefly, pasteurization and homogenization of milk each are major factors in causing heart disease for distinctly different reasons – and no, I am not a milk hater. I absolutely LOVE milk. But if I can’t get it unpasteurized and unhomogenized then I won’t drink it – it’s a slow poison. I tell people there is not a nickel’s worth of difference between pasteurized, homogenized milk and a glass of soda pop as far as health goes.
Crusador: Regular exercise is a big factor in cardiovascular health. What kind of regimen do you recommend and how much more important is getting the right nutrition into the body than exercise?
Deep breathing and lymphasizing are far and away the very best. The most common and easiest form of lymphasizing is at least 15-20 minutes daily of gentle bouncing on a trampoline. Check out the International Academy of Lymphology for much more great information on the hows, whys and wherefores on this subject of tremendous importance all by itself.
Exercise apart from nutrition will only take you so far and so long. Exercise eventually becomes counterproductive due to increased energy use more rapidly depleting chromium and extra oxygenation eventually bringing harm if there is an absence of antioxidants of which there is none better than selenium.
There is an old song, “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart”. I tell people, “Don’t Fixx it!”
Jim Fixx is credited by many with starting the fitness revolution in the 1970s. It is primarily due to his influence that you commonly see men and women jogging along roadsides, in parks, and to some extent where ever there is room to roam.
"The most important single indicator of overall health is cardiovascular endurance, which is what running develops," Fixx wrote in 'The Complete Book of Running' in 1977.
I counseled people in the early 1980s that the Fixx approach was incomplete and even deceptive. Fixx had a family history of heart disease. Most people call that genetics.
One thing I have learned through the years is that one "acquires" dietary habits from their family as much — and more — than they acquire "genes". Bad dietary habits don't just effect your jeans. Bad dietary habits effect your genes, too.
In fact, there is a brand new study just out by Dr. Dean Ornish published in the journal ‘Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences’ in which they were stunned to find swift, dramatically positive changes at the genetic level in individuals making healthful dietary changes. More than 500 positive genetic changes in only three months.
Well, back to exercise and running – which requires energy. The basic energy unit of the body at the most basic level is ATP. That is formed from glucose and oxygen. The extra energy required for running requires extra chromium. If that is absent then the benefits of running will only take you so far. The lack of chromium will eventually catch up to you. Sooner or later it will overtake you.
Jim Fixx dropped dead of a massive heart attack at the young age of 52 in the midst of his normal 10-mile daily run. It was only seven years after releasing his book on running. Though a runner for many years he died with one coronary artery blocked almost 100 per cent, a second blocked 80 per cent, and a third 70 per cent blocked.
If your heart is broke, don't Fixx it. Running causes the release of endorphins and makes those who do so feel good. Running is a better option than drug therapy. It may make you feel better. It may even extend your life more than if you did nothing at all. Ultimately, it still does not address the underlying problem of chromium deficiency. Running in fact demands more chromium and will therefore increase a deficiency if that nutrient need is not addressed.
Crusador: Do you have any parting thoughts or recommendations for our readers?
As long as this interview is, it’s best to keep it short and simple. How about, “Read and re-read this interview over and over again and again.” There is a lot here that I have come to through four decades and it will take going over it again and again to retain the information herein.
Oh, and one more very important extra. Take a 100 per cent whole food B6 every time you eat any animal food – that’s meat, eggs, or any heated dairy product. The reasons are too complicated to get into at this late stage but are very, very important to prevent the formation of homocysteine that damages arteries.