February is Heart Month, and an absolutely critical nutrient for the heart and cardiovascular system is vitamin E. When experimental animals are deprived of vitamin E, they die of heart disease. The two principle roles vitamin E plays in heart health are as an antithrombin, preventing clots inside blood vessels, and as an antioxidant, preventing lipid peroxidation, or oxidation of fats. While vitamin C is our body’s major water-soluble antioxidant, vitamin E is its major fat-soluble antioxidant. Maintaining healthy arteries, free of plaque, is key to maintaining a healthy heart. Plaque forms when cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein or LDL), which is a type of fat, becomes oxidized. Vitamin E plays an essential role in protecting LDL from such oxidation. Cell membranes are composed primarily of fats. As we age our cell membranes tend to become stiffer, primarily due to oxidation. The blood cells themselves become thicker, which increases blood viscosity and impedes circulation…

An absolutely critical nutrient for the heart and cardiovascular system is vitamin E. When experimental animals are deprived of vitamin E, they die of heart disease. The two principle roles vitamin E plays in heart health are as an antithrombin, preventing clots inside blood vessels, and as an antioxidant, preventing lipid peroxidation, or oxidation of fats. While vitamin C is our body’s major water-soluble antioxidant, vitamin E is its major fat-soluble antioxidant. Maintaining healthy arteries, free of plaque, is key to maintaining a healthy heart. Plaque forms when cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein or LDL), which is a type of fat, becomes oxidized. Vitamin E plays an essential role in protecting LDL from such oxidation. Cell membranes are composed primarily of fats. As we age our cell membranes tend to become stiffer, primarily due to oxidation. The blood cells themselves become thicker, which increases blood viscosity and impedes circulation. Vitamin E helps blood cell…

Now I’ve got to the point where I think we can get almost complete control of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and strokes by the proper use of vitamin C and lysine. If you are at risk of heart disease or if there is a history of heart disease in your family . . . or if you have had a mild heart attack yourself, then you had better be taking vitamin C and lysine. – Linus PaulingIn the US, heart disease causes 700,000 deaths each year—more than all forms of cancer combined.  Atherosclerosis, or “hardening of the arteries” causes most heart attacks and strokes and is found to some degree in almost everyone today, even babies. It doesn’t have to be this way.Dr. Linus Pauling proposed a solution: vitamin C . . .Thirty years ago, chemist Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel Prize winner and one of the great scientific minds of the 20th century, proposed that vitamin C deficiency is the major cause of atherosclerosis.Among its more than 300 functions in the human body, vitamin C helps the…