This week, would readers help me answer a perplexing question? Their answers could be helpful to millions of people. I’m sure that very few in Canada and the U.S. have not witnessed a friend or loved one develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD). First, some of the facts about this crippling malady. Then I’d appreciate my readers’ response.
Fact #1- Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center in Oakland, California, and the University of Kuopio in Finland, followed the health of 10,000 people for 40 years. They found that high blood cholesterol was associated with a 66% higher risk of AD. And even those with borderline levels of cholesterol, were 52% more likely to develop AD.
Fact #2 – The brains of people with AD contain lumps of what’s called amyloid plaques. These result in the death of nerve cells in the brain, and the first cells to be attacked are those in the brain’s memory center.
Fact #3 – Researchers at Lund University in Sweden discovered that when mice with AD were treated with Vitamin C, amyloid plaques disappeared.
Fact #4 – Dr. Alvaro Alonso, assistant professor of Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, reported this interesting finding. Autopsy studies show that the brains of patients suffering from dementia often reveal damage to small arteries. This injury may trigger tiny strokes that eventually lead to brain damage.
Fact #5 – A report in the Journal, Dementia and Geriatric Disorders, claims there’s a link between heart attack and Alzheimer’s disease. The link is atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries) due to cholesterol.
So what does all this mean? Sir William Osler, Professor of Medicine at McGill, Johns Hopkins and Oxford Universities, remarked, “It’s good to be born with good rubber”. In effect, to have flexible, open arteries that carry adequate amounts of oxygenated blood to all organs, particularly the brain.
It is also apparent that cholesterol clogged coronary arteries are triggering an epidemic of heart attacks in North America. And since cholesterol can cause clotting in these arteries, it can also affect those in the brain, causing degeneration of brain cells.
So what can stop or reverse atherosclerosis? The medical establishment claims cholesterol-lowering drugs are the solution. But many researchers are presenting evidence that CLDs are not the be all and end all to stop heart attacks or strokes.
I believe that Linus Pauling, the Nobel Prize winner, is closer to the truth. Pauling said that humans lost the ability to produce Vitamin C eons ago due to a genetic mishap. He believed this caused subclinical scurvy, microscopic cracks in coronary arteries, and eventually death due to a blood clot. More recently, Sydney Bush, an English researcher, proved that high doses of C will reverse atherosclerosis, a monumental discovery.
History will determine who is right. But in the meantime, since we’re all terrified of developing AD, we have to start thinking outside of the box. So here is the question I want to ask you. Is there any evidence that Medi-C Plus and other natural brands containing high doses of Vitamin C, have decreased or prevented the risk of Alzheimer’s disease?
I ask this question because none of the people I know who have developed AD have been taking high doses of Vitamin C daily (4,000 to 6,000 milligrams). So, I wonder if this safe, inexpensive, natural remedy, found in Health Food Stores, could have stopped these tragedies by preventing atherosclerosis in the brain.
Here’s another vital question. Are any readers aware of anyone, who having used high doses of C for several years, has developed Alzheimer disease?
I know from my travels that tens of thousands are taking high doses of C. And if no one on these amounts of C has developed AD, it would make everyone take notice. Namely, that high doses of Vitamin C not only fights heart attack, but also Alzheimer’s disease.
This investigation of mine is not a scientific one. But since Vitamin C cannot be patented, such a study will never be done. So this question to readers is an important one that could start a serious debate. I hope you will respond.
See the web site www.docgiff.com. For comments, info@docgiff.com.