(Updated 24th March, 2024)
There's the myth that eating meat and saturated fats are the main drivers of coronary artery disease, and it's killing people. I once preached the merits and virtues of going fat-free and keeping low on animal products, including eggs and dairy, and paid the price for my foolishness. As my cardiovascular health began to deteriorate, as my cholesterol began to climb and my heart began to weaken and pump erratically, I doubled down by shifting further away from red meat and dairy, to cholesterol-lowering spreads, fat-reduced milk, more fish, and chicken, and restricting egg intake to one or two a week.
Despite these dietary interventions, I got worse and, by my late fourties, I could no longer run, depressed and inflammed, with an increasingly arthritic knee and I was consulting a cardiologist for suspected atrial fibrillation. Nothing seemed to be working and I wasn't about to take medication, so I went even harder on the diet.
Upon being introduced to the science of hair tissue mineral analysis, I reluctantly accepted that I had been misled by the "science, and set about progressively reversing to a diet rich in meat, fat, full-cream dairy, plus vegetables. Slowly, but steadily, my health was restored, and my heart beat stronger, and it shows in the sporting results of recent times. The reversal began in about 2007, and I'm continuing to make gains despite advancing age.
It turns out that my heart has been functioning better than ever. There's no muscle inflammation or pain; my joints are completely functional, and I'm having a blast!
Sure, I did other things like taking various dietary supplements, but the foundational part of my recovery has been with getting the basics of my diet right, including not snacking between meals and being low on carbs and sugar.
Just one thing: When a person reduces, or removes animal products, including saturated fats from their diets, it's inevitable, and by default, that they increase their intake of carbohydrates, and, as you'll realise when you watch the following video by Professor Tim Noakes, that carbohydrates are far from being "heart-healthy".
Please set aside some time to watch the video below by Professor Tim Noakes. Professor Noakes is one of the most prolific researchers, exploring the physiology of human performance, including nutritional and environmental factors in sport. I'd rank him as the greatest living authority on sport, exercise, and nutrition. I've followed his work for about 40 years, I'd say. Like me, Professor Noakes was completely sold on the cholesterol myth and it being the causation of most heart disease. Like me, he underwent an epiphany several years ago, and he's now regarded as a kind of scientific heretic. However, I'll leave it over to Professor Noakes to tell his story in this video and explain the science that he now follows, as do I.
And what follows is one of my client's compelling evidence that heart disease isn't due to the consumption of animal products: It's complicated!
"Hi Gary
Hope all is well with you.
Attached is a detailed report from a CT Coronary Angiogram Scan I had less than a couple of weeks ago.
I had a telephone conference with my cardiologist tonight to discuss the results. He said the findings were simply excellent and despite the over-reporting, my heart resembles that of someone much younger than what I am.
The point is – there is zero calcium or stenosis throughout my heart despite being brought up on meat and three verges all my life. Mince, casseroles, stews and bacon & egg pies were my staple diet. Even in more recent years, there wouldn’t be many days I would go without meat, possibly once a week at the most. I have also been a big consumer of milk my whole life although I’ve cut it back recently on your advice whilst I try to get this copper under control.
Anyway – so long as I retain a degree of anonymity, I would be happy for you to use some of this hard evidence to challenge the critics.
Give me a call if you want to discuss further.
Regards..."
(name supplied but withheld)
Here's his Coronary Angiogram report
Note: when the cardiologist refers to his having a "bicuspid aortic valve", note that this is considered "trivial" in his case.
Here are his 2019 hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) charts
One of the reasons why human beings are so incredibly successful as a species is our ability to be anywhere on the planet and able to find and produce food. With the assistance of fire, you could say that we are the ultimate omnivores. Bearing this in mind, I'm very, very reluctant to tell people, especially those with chronic health issues to avoid complete food groups, such as grains, eggs, meat, and dairy or, say, foods that contain lectins. I'll only advise avoiding a food group if there is clear evidence that doing so may be beneficial to their health. If I do recommend that a food group be avoided, this advice is best reviewed now and then with the intention of gradually reintroducing that food group if and when the time comes when it can be done safely.
Is meat really the root of all evil diseases?
This statement is simply one big fat lie. The generators of chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease are many and complicated. To focus on one possible factor while ignoring the 1,001 others does nobody any favours. Ill health is complicated - very complicated.
In our man's case, who was referred to cardiology because he was suffering shortness of breath and had a family history of cardiovascular disease, let's look at the evidence of his HTMA and medical scans (above).
He'd probably get worse if he went low-fat-low-meat, because he has very high levels of copper and a vegan diet tends to increase copper. Copper that's either high or low on the HTMA, is associated with cardiovascular disease. He has high levels of the highly toxic heavy metal, lead. Lead interferes with just about every aspect of human physiology and may be a factor with exercise-induced asthma and seasonal allergies.
It's important that his traditional diet consisted of meat and three vegetables. Note the three veggies. Was the meat fresh? Was it soaked in disease-inducing preservatives such as nitrates, which it wasn't? Was it from grass-fed as opposed to grain-fed sources? How was it cooked?
To give you a better idea of the complexity of nutrition and lifestyle factors and the range of options that may influence the progression of heart disease or even its reversal, take a few minutes to scan some of these studies:
https://www.greenmedinfo.com/disease/clogged-arteriesSolution-focused nutritional therapy
According to his HTMA, this man is lacking cellular magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, manganese, chromium, selenium, cobalt, and molybdenum.
He has astronomically high levels of copper and high levels of lead.
High copper can be an indication of sub-clinical liver dysfunction. This is usually the consequence of having had something like hepatitis, Glandular fever, liver damage from excessive drinking, or the damage from pain and fever meds. This may have happened as far back as infancy.
In his case, he used ammunition that had copper-coated projectiles. He has handled thousands of rounds while loading them into magazines. He has never been a heavy drinker and not had hepatitis. Copper contamination from handling ammunition may be the most likely source.
High lead can be from handling firearms (lead and brass in bullets) and sanding down old paint to name a few. In his case, high lead and copper content is likely to have come from extensive use of firearms over the last 20 years.
Anybody who uses, or once used firearms, including police officers and even the adult who had a slug gun when a teenager, should consider being tested for lead contamination.
Low iron can lead to heart palpitations and shortness of breath. Lead and copper interfere with iron metabolism.
Low magnesium is associated with anxiety, epilepsy, arteriosclerosis, diabetes, asthma, and even alcoholism.
Low potassium is associated with weak adrenals, poor digestion, fatigue, cardiac irregularity, and carpopedal spasms.
Low chromium can lead to hypoglycemia, anxiety, and light-headedness, peripheral neuropathy, and diabetes.
Low selenium is associated with inflammation, anaemia, and cardiomyopathy.
Low cobalt is associated with B12 and other B-vitamin issues.
Low manganese is associated with weak adrenals, glucose intolerance, anaemia, joint disease, fatigue, and neurological diseases such as Parkinson's.
Low zinc is associated with diabetes, Prostate disease, ulcers, anxiety, connective tissue disorders, and poor digestion.
Copper and lead interfere with zinc, iron, and most other nutrients. High copper interferes with vitamin C.
The list is long, what I have listed is just the more relevant ones just to give you an idea of the complexity and why single-factor solutions seldom work.
The first action is to ensure that there is no more ongoing exposure to lead and to support healthy liver function.
The second action is to assist the body with gently removing all of the lead while carefully rebalancing the nutrients he is lacking and helping to remove excess copper (his copper was an extraordinary 79 on the first test when it should be around 2.0). This is by way of adjustments to what was already a pretty healthy diet, plus some special supplements to balance his nutrients and to aid the gentle "detoxification" process.
The results after several months
Refer to the chart above
Copper is slowly dropping, as is lead.
Mg, K, Zn and Mo have all decreased.
Fe, Mn, Cr, and Se have all increased.
All good stuff, and the repeat test helps guide us as to where to concentrate our nutritional therapy.
What we can all take from these test results is reversing an unhealthy set of conditions that may be deeply embedded takes a long time. Getting better is best measured in terms of years, rather than months, let alone weeks and days. The good thing is he is feeling better and better with time. He is fully on board with the programme I have put together for him.
Ignore the "Gurus" and go with the evidence
The world is awash with diet gurus and incredibly powerful commercial interests (Big Grain, Big Dairy, Big Beef, GMO, Big Pharma, Big Supermarket, Big Blender - yes the blender industry! etc) They want all of your money, not a just a little bit. Their solution is to offer you the "one-size-fits-all" solution that will cure all that ails us, usually packed with an extreme diet regime. But they go a step further by invoking the "Bush Doctrine", demanding a blind, almost religious zeal by their followers:
"If you are not with us, you are against us!"
This blind faith in a particular dietary practise can make life uncomfortable for people like myself who dare to question what they are foisting on others.
You are unique! We all are. Beware of one-size-fits-all solutions, especially the ones that sound too good to be true! The best solutions are the ones that are tailored to the individual.
The evidence from medical scanning and the HTMA for the man who is featured in this article suggests that he has a clean cardiovascular system. Our aim, therefore, is to keep him that way.
If he has any issues with his cardiovascular health, it is probably not to do with his diet and more likely to be due to high copper and lead, low magnesium, zinc, iron etc. If he likes meat, then I encourage him to continue to eat it along with his veggies.
As these imbalances are gradually corrected, he can expect his health to improve, bearing in mind that the normal course of events is for health to decline with age, rather than improve.
The final word goes to him
"Gary,
What astounds me is that I still outperform many men much younger than me whether that be running, cycling or undertaking the annual XXX fitness test. I now know that a lot of the high performance comes from my healthy heart, and I’m excited to think how much better I may perform when I get these other high levels under control."
Reading:
The Risks of Sudden Death during Exercise: notes for a presentation on the topic by Gary Moller
When Are You Most Likely to Have a Heart Attack?http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1825044,00.html