The Law of 70s (In Medicine)
I got an interesting and catchy email from Dr. Kevin Ham this week; he called it the Law of 70s.
I like his point but—just to clarify—the Law of 70s in not like the 80/20 rule (applies to almost anything), it’s actually a financial multiplier formula. Turns out that it measures the time it takes for interest or other value to double in value. It’s simply 70 divided by your growth rate. So if your interest increases regularly at 10% a year, it will take 7 years to double your holdings (70 divided by 10). If it grows at 5% then it will take 14 years, right? (70 divided by 5). Simple. But not really relevant!
On with the 70s then. Dr. Ham has uncovered a few startling ones:
• A Korean War study examined the coronary arteries of American soldiers who had died in their 20s and found that 70% of them had atherosclerosis (with 5% having up to 90% narrowing of the arteries)
• 70% of heart attacks happen to those with normal LDL cholesterol levels
• 70% of heart attacks are caused by early smaller soft plaques in the coronary arteries rather than the older more calcified obstructive plaques
• More than 80% blockage in your left anterior descending coronary artery puts you at a greater than 70% chance of sudden death (not for nothing, the left anterior descending coronary artery is christened “the widow maker”!)
The point is that, with serious atherosclerosis starting in your 20s (often in the teens: fact), the possibility of being pretty clogged at say 55 or 65 is rather high. That means an awful lot of guys (yes, men preponderate) are going to drop dead unexpectedly. The first symptoms of heart trouble may be, as a friend joked, waking up in Heaven!
What can you do to protect yourself?
The first step is to get a status report. That can be done by asking for a calcium heart scan. It’s a kind of CT scan and you don’t have to swallow any preliminary dyes, etc. Just turn up! The more calcium you have deposited in your coronary arteries, the more danger you are in. Results above 500 are actually very dangerous.
But here’s the major point: sudden blockages (a so-called “coronary”) that take you out in less than a minute don’t usually come from these old, calcified obstructions.
70% of heart attacks occur from plaques that are more newly formed, that are soft and not calcified. These can rupture, like a pimple, and their content can lead to a blood clot that suddenly fully obstructs the heart vessel. In these cases, a stent can be life-saving as it allows blood to flow. But as a real solution, stenting is worthless and survival figures show it. As with a bypass, it’s really just like a plumber fixing a short section of rotten pipe when the whole plumbing system is rotten and weak.
Doesn’t make sense.
So what do we do? We get rid of the coronary artery calcifications! Easy to say but surely not easy to do? Well, it’s not as difficult as you might think. You just have to go about it the right way. As in all things, you don’t have to get to zero; just reduce your body’s burden to where it can cope.
A 20% – 50% reduction will get you right back into the safety zone. Be assured, coronary artery calcification can be reversed.
Step #1. ABANDON ALL MEDS
There is no drug that will undo the years of unhealthy living. You’ve got to grasp that. With cardiovascular disease (heart attacks and strokes) riding as the number one killer in all the civilized world (but worst in the USA) you have to figure that DOCTORS ARE NOT ON TOP OF THIS.
The reason is simple: they are distracted by drugs and the fake science, such as the smoke-and-mirrors surrounding statins. They simply prescribe the latest drug “solution” to the problem and do not take the trouble to look upstream and find the real cause of the adverse condition, which is ALWAYS about diet and lifestyle. It is NOT about pathogens, it is NOT about genes, it is NOT about fats or cholesterol, it is NOT about deficiencies…
It’s about throwing the wrong things at your body which are causing widespread (so-called systemic) inflammation. I’m talking about wrong foods, faulty nutrition (not quite the same thing), toxic chemicals, EMF radiation, vaccines, wrong sleep and wrong movement patterns. And of course don’t forget stress, which is right up there, though not as an immediate cause of coronary artery calcification!
Step #2. OVERHAUL YOUR DIET
I do NOT mean follow the dogmas: the high carb, low carb, low fat, vegetarian, plant-based (again, not quite the same thing), calorie controlled, keto or whatever…
I mean ASK your own body what foods IT likes and dislikes! You are the most recent step in an evolutionary line that has been experimenting and diversifying for millions of years. It makes NO SENSE whatever to suppose we are all the same and need the same things to eat for optimum health. No sense whatsoever. But that’s what medical “science” is based on.
As it happens, we are into my wheelhouse. At my age I could now be considered the doyen of food and environmental allergies and their multiple and varied effects. We early adventurers produced MIRACLES by eliminating select foods from a person’s diet. I don’t mean just casein and gluten allergy; you can tell an absolute phoney “expert” by that, it means they just Googled for their “knowledge”. There is more, MUCH MORE, to food allergies than that.
Anyone who has done their time—and I admit there are almost none of the 70s and 80s pioneers now left alive (me, Damien Downing, Jean Monro, Sherry Rogers, and a few others)—will tell you a person can react to anything, anything at all.
I rarely use the term food allergy or food intolerance these days. I call ‘em BANDIT FOODS, which is a sort of social media thumbnail concept. It works.
I wrote a book guiding you on how to help your body by learning how to question it and get real, safe, answers as to what to eat and what to avoid. For many, it’s the compete opposite of the government pyramid or what wannabe nutritionists are telling you. We’re all different!
Step #3. THE RIGHT NUTRIENTS.
Here’s where the right nutrients really do help. Viz:
Vitamin K2
Vitamin K2 is great at de-calcifying coronary arteries. Ideally you need to take several milligrams daily. Most supplements are pitiful and supply around 100 mcg or 200 mcg. Not enough if you are serious.
Personally, I take Koncentrated K, which is a blend containing all-natural versions of vitamin K1 and K2, plus Astaxanthin. Vitamin K1 is phylloquinone and MK4 (25 mg) and MK7 (0.5 mg) menaquinones or K2s. These are the highest doses of any product on the market. You can buy the product on Amazon.
[Incidentally, you should take this even just to counter the effect of vitamin D, which is great to take, but it does tend to deposit calcium in your blood vessels, where we DON’T want it]
Vitamin C
Vitamin C does a lot of great things. But you may not know how vital it is for a healthy heart and blood vessels. Simply put, there is a cogent theory that thickening of the arteries is a kind of scurvy (vitamin C deficiency disease). According to this model, which I embrace entirely, the arteriosclerotic plaques are just non-healing scars produced by the lack of vitamin C. The thickening is the body’s response and includes the use of cholesterol derivatives. BUT CHOLESTEROL DOES NOT CAUSE THE PLAQUES. It just heals them. That’s why statins are, basically, just based on junk science.
You need to take 5 – 10 grams daily, as a minimum. You’ll likely get diarrhea and abdominal pain if you try! But there is an answer: my own Super C is especially formulated to get round this problem. But as I have written all along, it may not suit everybody. After all: we are all different!
Buy some Super C from Dr. Keith’s Own
Remember: your body doesn't grade supplements on good intentions. It only responds to what it can actually absorb and use. Choose accordingly.