What an amazing report, worth the price of my annual subscription alone. I will pay for a gift subscription to your substack right now but would also like to increase my contribution to you to support your work. How would I do that?
I can attest to Sinatra's protocol to reverse heart failure. It works. It's cheap. It's criminal for any cardiologist to be ignorant of it.
And lately I've been digging into thiamine's role in gut dysfunction. It's needed to sustain peristalsis. Not having enough slows down gut motility, which will eventually affect microbiome balance.
I had severe ventricular arrhythmias 8 years ago, and that has led to a cascade of diseases in the aftermath: pancreatitis; heart failure; irritable bowel syndrome (leaky gut). I believe each one in turn is caused by deficiencies created by my initial heart crisis. And magnesium and thiamine are the two biggest deficiencies.
What a fabulous article, complete with a history lesson. Yes, statin-induced CoQ10 deficiency is likely the major cause of the epidemic of heart failure. Diuretics causing potassium and magnesium deficiencies are also culprits. Like magnesium, the vast majority of body potassium is inside cells; a normal serum potassium level can hide an intracellular deficiency. Both should be added to anyone on diuretics, and I recommend (and take) daily Mg, since it’s not abundant in food. With normal kidney function, both are very safe.
Ketones are the preferred energy source for the heart, with or without heart failure. The keto diet, and perhaps keto supplements, are safe therapeutic options. Your mainstream cardiologist will never suggest this.
No one should take statins, but if you’re unable to ditch them for whatever reason, please take CoQ10! Depletion may persist after stopping statins, so continue taking the supplements.
“Heart failure is not reported as a side effect of statin treatment according to the trial reports, probably because patients with heart failure are routinely excluded from statin trials, but also because heart failure may be seen as the result of the primary disease rather than an adverse effect.”
It's like psych meds. Any worsening of mental health after they have been prescribed is seen as proof of the diagnosis, or even that a new diagnosis needs to be added on, or the original one modified.
Very interesting. I went down the DCM rabbit hole due to a problem I thought my dog had (it turned out to be damp heat - more kidney or spleen related). During this deep dive, I discovered that as much as 1/3 of humanity has a potential problem in their folate pathway, which can result in a taurine deficiency. The genetic issue is a gene expression that exhibits polymorphism and affects the Vitamin B12 pathway, due to an issue with methyl group recycling. One cardiac issue that stuck with me is that in many instances, this results in a taurine deficiency and that supplementing taurine makes the issue go away.
We hear about this in cats, and I am not sure why cats are susceptible, but it also exists in dogs, and it turns out in humans. Early stages, all that shows up is macrocytic anemia. B12 helps a lot; apparently so does taurine, which is an intermediary to one of the metabolic pathways to ATP formation. It is rare that the gene expression results in total failure of the pathway. More often, it is a suboptimal utilization of folate because there are several ways the body uses B12 and rarely does nothing work. But there is at least one that can result in DCM and eventually CHF. I believe the mechanism outlined here is more likely because it is drug induced. However, I would ask the question what causes the 'heart issue' that prompted the patient to seek the services of a cardiologist in the first place?
Thank you for explaining the role of taurine. My mother (a CHF sufferer) always felt better with taurine. (She could not tolerate Dr Sinatra’s heart protocol.) Also, taurine boosts GABA in body, so it might be helping the heart to heal by supporting parasympathetic nervous system.
Thank you for sharing your research and documentation- it truly has been very enlightening. My father has CHF left ventricular- rEF and this has added to my knowledge to help him. 🙏
In the early 90's, I had symptoms that definitely sounded like CHF. I'd already given up on doctors a couple of decades earlier (thank heavens); my chiropractor happened to know of an article by a Dr West (sorry, don't remember anything else about him) who seems to have been the first, or among the first, to realize:
a) it's not "failure," it's a weak muscle, and muscles can be strengthened; and
b) it's essentially beriberi of the heart, and thus requires certain B vitamins, which are best gotten from organ meats.
He recommended large quantities (about 9 pills per day) of each of two Standard Process combinations: Cardio-Plus, and another one whose name has to do with B-vitamins (interestingly, when I just now searched on Standard Process to look for the exact name, and clicked on two of the entries, I got "access blocked" and "doesn't exist" or similar. What a surprise (not).) Anyway, those organ-meat pills totally did the trick for me and instead of dying a few years later, I'm still breathing and active.
Because Std Process can be hard to find/buy, I'd like to point out that there are other companies who've begun selling clean-beef products... grass-fed organ meats. I like Piping Rock, but there are MANY available. Highly recommended for anyone, IMO, even w/o CHF symptoms, because they're almost totally not in our diets any more.
By the way, I HAVE heard, like this article says, that thiamine is the main B-vit that's lacking; but Dr West said it was vitamin B4, which "experts" later said doesn't exist. Gee, I wonder why. Anyway, if you look up what comprises B4, or used to, it's several aminos that might be worth looking for independently. AND, I have to say, I've had two friends with loved ones dying of CHF to whom I forwarded Dr West's short article, and neither of them would even consider simply getting some of these whole-food "vitamins." Is there hope for America? Not looking good...
While I do like the "garden" metaphor, your emphasis on soil as the primary of the holy trinity — soil, water, and sun — tends to push the other two into the background. This is especially striking given that your own explanatory framework leans on Pollack's structured water and radiant energy as the actual mechanisms driving circulation. In that model, water and light aren't supporting cast — they're the story.
And of course, without the sun, none of it gets started.
You say “During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, over 200,000 soldiers developed beriberi. Twenty-seven thousand died of it — compared to 47,000 combat deaths.³ More soldiers died from a nutritional deficiency than from Russian weapons.” But 27,000 is considerably less, not more than 47,000.
Heart failure is very, very closely aligned with atrial fibrillation. Dr. Ray Peete had made very convincing arguments that in heart failure the cells lack enough energy to get rid of excess water. This requires energy and the cells are working on a very low level of energy production, cytoplasmic glycolysis
This isn't enough to get rid of the water that accumulates in the cytoplasm. I suspect that high rT3 plays a huge part. If you looked at these patients, most of them are being irresponsibly prescribed only T4 thyroid supplementation.
..."The average patient takes seven drugs."...equal to the number of active brain cells. For every drug you take, your body has to do something about the poisons in that drug. Be assured, it robs Peter to pay Paul somewhere along the line. Of course, there is never any discussion about what causes heart troubles. Or what are the root causes as there has to be a direct reason(s) for all medical problems.
"While the deaths from heart disease and heart attack have declined, the incidence of death from heart failure has increased in the past fifteen years."
I understand that "heart attack" is an acute singular event, but what is the difference between "heart disease" and "heart failure"?
What an amazing report, worth the price of my annual subscription alone. I will pay for a gift subscription to your substack right now but would also like to increase my contribution to you to support your work. How would I do that?
Thank you Kerry, you can make a contribution here.
https://ko-fi.com/unbekoming
I agree with you, Kerry Lawson. I will do the same.
I can attest to Sinatra's protocol to reverse heart failure. It works. It's cheap. It's criminal for any cardiologist to be ignorant of it.
And lately I've been digging into thiamine's role in gut dysfunction. It's needed to sustain peristalsis. Not having enough slows down gut motility, which will eventually affect microbiome balance.
I had severe ventricular arrhythmias 8 years ago, and that has led to a cascade of diseases in the aftermath: pancreatitis; heart failure; irritable bowel syndrome (leaky gut). I believe each one in turn is caused by deficiencies created by my initial heart crisis. And magnesium and thiamine are the two biggest deficiencies.
What a fabulous article, complete with a history lesson. Yes, statin-induced CoQ10 deficiency is likely the major cause of the epidemic of heart failure. Diuretics causing potassium and magnesium deficiencies are also culprits. Like magnesium, the vast majority of body potassium is inside cells; a normal serum potassium level can hide an intracellular deficiency. Both should be added to anyone on diuretics, and I recommend (and take) daily Mg, since it’s not abundant in food. With normal kidney function, both are very safe.
Ketones are the preferred energy source for the heart, with or without heart failure. The keto diet, and perhaps keto supplements, are safe therapeutic options. Your mainstream cardiologist will never suggest this.
No one should take statins, but if you’re unable to ditch them for whatever reason, please take CoQ10! Depletion may persist after stopping statins, so continue taking the supplements.
“Heart failure is not reported as a side effect of statin treatment according to the trial reports, probably because patients with heart failure are routinely excluded from statin trials, but also because heart failure may be seen as the result of the primary disease rather than an adverse effect.”
It's like psych meds. Any worsening of mental health after they have been prescribed is seen as proof of the diagnosis, or even that a new diagnosis needs to be added on, or the original one modified.
Very interesting. I went down the DCM rabbit hole due to a problem I thought my dog had (it turned out to be damp heat - more kidney or spleen related). During this deep dive, I discovered that as much as 1/3 of humanity has a potential problem in their folate pathway, which can result in a taurine deficiency. The genetic issue is a gene expression that exhibits polymorphism and affects the Vitamin B12 pathway, due to an issue with methyl group recycling. One cardiac issue that stuck with me is that in many instances, this results in a taurine deficiency and that supplementing taurine makes the issue go away.
We hear about this in cats, and I am not sure why cats are susceptible, but it also exists in dogs, and it turns out in humans. Early stages, all that shows up is macrocytic anemia. B12 helps a lot; apparently so does taurine, which is an intermediary to one of the metabolic pathways to ATP formation. It is rare that the gene expression results in total failure of the pathway. More often, it is a suboptimal utilization of folate because there are several ways the body uses B12 and rarely does nothing work. But there is at least one that can result in DCM and eventually CHF. I believe the mechanism outlined here is more likely because it is drug induced. However, I would ask the question what causes the 'heart issue' that prompted the patient to seek the services of a cardiologist in the first place?
Thank you for explaining the role of taurine. My mother (a CHF sufferer) always felt better with taurine. (She could not tolerate Dr Sinatra’s heart protocol.) Also, taurine boosts GABA in body, so it might be helping the heart to heal by supporting parasympathetic nervous system.
Thank you for sharing your research and documentation- it truly has been very enlightening. My father has CHF left ventricular- rEF and this has added to my knowledge to help him. 🙏
In the early 90's, I had symptoms that definitely sounded like CHF. I'd already given up on doctors a couple of decades earlier (thank heavens); my chiropractor happened to know of an article by a Dr West (sorry, don't remember anything else about him) who seems to have been the first, or among the first, to realize:
a) it's not "failure," it's a weak muscle, and muscles can be strengthened; and
b) it's essentially beriberi of the heart, and thus requires certain B vitamins, which are best gotten from organ meats.
He recommended large quantities (about 9 pills per day) of each of two Standard Process combinations: Cardio-Plus, and another one whose name has to do with B-vitamins (interestingly, when I just now searched on Standard Process to look for the exact name, and clicked on two of the entries, I got "access blocked" and "doesn't exist" or similar. What a surprise (not).) Anyway, those organ-meat pills totally did the trick for me and instead of dying a few years later, I'm still breathing and active.
Because Std Process can be hard to find/buy, I'd like to point out that there are other companies who've begun selling clean-beef products... grass-fed organ meats. I like Piping Rock, but there are MANY available. Highly recommended for anyone, IMO, even w/o CHF symptoms, because they're almost totally not in our diets any more.
By the way, I HAVE heard, like this article says, that thiamine is the main B-vit that's lacking; but Dr West said it was vitamin B4, which "experts" later said doesn't exist. Gee, I wonder why. Anyway, if you look up what comprises B4, or used to, it's several aminos that might be worth looking for independently. AND, I have to say, I've had two friends with loved ones dying of CHF to whom I forwarded Dr West's short article, and neither of them would even consider simply getting some of these whole-food "vitamins." Is there hope for America? Not looking good...
Just now in Australia I can access all Standard Process products on their website.
Maybe try a VPN server from Aus?
Organ meets deliver a high quantity of toxins which will be a burden on the entire body and difficult to detox.
I think I just read why my beloved grandmother passed from HF in the 80s when almost no one questioned doctors
Fabulous work.
While I do like the "garden" metaphor, your emphasis on soil as the primary of the holy trinity — soil, water, and sun — tends to push the other two into the background. This is especially striking given that your own explanatory framework leans on Pollack's structured water and radiant energy as the actual mechanisms driving circulation. In that model, water and light aren't supporting cast — they're the story.
And of course, without the sun, none of it gets started.
You say “During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, over 200,000 soldiers developed beriberi. Twenty-seven thousand died of it — compared to 47,000 combat deaths.³ More soldiers died from a nutritional deficiency than from Russian weapons.” But 27,000 is considerably less, not more than 47,000.
I think of all the people - including my mother - whom I have known with congestive heart failure.
Masterful!
Heart failure is very, very closely aligned with atrial fibrillation. Dr. Ray Peete had made very convincing arguments that in heart failure the cells lack enough energy to get rid of excess water. This requires energy and the cells are working on a very low level of energy production, cytoplasmic glycolysis
This isn't enough to get rid of the water that accumulates in the cytoplasm. I suspect that high rT3 plays a huge part. If you looked at these patients, most of them are being irresponsibly prescribed only T4 thyroid supplementation.
..."The average patient takes seven drugs."...equal to the number of active brain cells. For every drug you take, your body has to do something about the poisons in that drug. Be assured, it robs Peter to pay Paul somewhere along the line. Of course, there is never any discussion about what causes heart troubles. Or what are the root causes as there has to be a direct reason(s) for all medical problems.
Nope. Rockefeller didn't like questions. Only the cash :).
"While the deaths from heart disease and heart attack have declined, the incidence of death from heart failure has increased in the past fifteen years."
I understand that "heart attack" is an acute singular event, but what is the difference between "heart disease" and "heart failure"?
I know. I"ve always been suspicious of the term "heart disease."
Excellent! Great work!
Thank you so much!