Is atherosclerosis really a symptom of scurvy?
Part 1: Introduction
Another hypothesis about what causes the atherosclerosis leading to coronary heart disease is that it is caused by a lack of vitamin C, the same lack that caused scurvy in seafarers in past centuries.
This hypothesis is 50 years old, but has seen a recent resurgence of interest because of new research.
As we know, Coronary Heart Disease, or more correctly Ischaemic heart Disease, is a condition in which blood flow to the heart is restricted, making the heart malfunction. Conventional wisdom tells us that coronary heart disease is caused by a build up of cholesterol on the walls of the arteries that feed the heart — the coronary arteries. This is blamed on high levels of cholesterol in the blood, which, in turn, are blamed on saturated fats in the diet. But, as we now know, there is incontroverible evidence that this hypothesis is completely wrong.
Flawed fat findings
There have been many studies that showing conclusively that fats and cholsterol do not clog arteries.[1] In addition, the respected Framingham study, which has followed the population of the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, for decades, proved the precise opposite of the accepted theory, when they showed that the greater the intake of saturated fat and cholesterol, the lower the blood cholesterol levels of the population [2]. It's the same in animal experiments: All animals that eat a fatty meat diet, including domestic animals, don't get atherosclerosis. This has been known — at least to veterinaries — for half a century. [3].
References
1. Ravnskov U. The questionable role of saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids in cardiovascular disease. J Clin Epidemiol 1998; 51: 443-60.2.Castelli WP. Concerning the possibility of a nut . . . Arch Int Med 1992; 152: 1371-1372.
3. Smith HA, Jones TC. Veterinary Pathology. Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia, 1957.
