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Re: [OM] IMG: Why I Keep on Ticking

Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: Why I Keep on Ticking
From: bj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2016 18:51:06 +1300
 

Brian writes about his previous post 

Jez wrote 

... and here's me
a couple of days
later:

http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20893 [1] [1]
[18]

On 1 November 2016 at 18:39, Jez Cunningham <jez [at]
cunningham.net>
wrote:
>
Excellent! I had a repair with a reinforcing
ring, rather than a replacement, in
2004.
>
...................................................
 In the
meantime, I've been working on another front re heart disease. A
submission to a Parliamentary Committee examining a proposed law which
would specify exactly which and how certain compounds etc may be used in
non-prescription medicines. The had listed L-arginine ( a natural amino
acid which is part of our diet) as being suitable ONLY for topical
application ie on the skin. That is a nonsense. Here's what I sent
them.

 Submission on the Permitted Substances List as at 18 December
2015 

The purpose of this submission is to explain why and request for
the essential amino acid L-arginine to be included in the Permitted
Substances List as a substance which can be ingested - taken orally.


Arginine is already on the List in rows 771, 772, 773, and 774. 
For
the formulations listed, the only permitted route of administration is
Topical, ie, placed on the skin. 

I submit that L-arginine in its pure
form to be taken orally should be added for the following reasons. 

In
1998 three USA medical researchers ( Drs Ignarro, Furchgott and Murad )
were awarded the prestigious Nobel (Medicine) Prize for their
discoveries concerning the evanescent gas nitric oxide (NO) as a
signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system. These discoveries
opened a door to a new way to prevent most heart disease and strokes.
This is through the use of the amino acid, L-arginine, being part of the
normal human diet and physiology. The tiny molecule nitric oxide,
generated through this amino acid, makes it easy to prevent most heart
disease and strokes, and to reverse heart disease ( atherosclerosis and
arteriosclerosis) where present. 

The amino acid L-arginine is part of
the normal diet of humans. It is present in many of our food items. One
of its functions is to help keep the lining of arteries, the
endothelium, clean and free of plaque and calcium build-up. It does this
through a mechanism whereby it causes the short-lived gas nitric oxide
to be released, which is a signal for the endothelium to clean itself.


The amount of L-arginine released naturally in our blood ought to be
sufficient to keep our arteries clean internally, but unfortunately that
is not the case. For people such as many New Zealanders who include red
meat, dairy products and some other specific foods in their diet this is
not enough, as evidenced by the high level (approximately 30%) of
premature deaths due to heart disease and strokes. These foods produce
in the body sufficient free-radicals to lead to artery obstructions
which result in these premature deaths. 

The term "free radical" comes
from the science of Chemistry, and it means an atom, molecule, or ion
that has unpaired valence electrons. With some exceptions, these
unpaired electrons make free radicals highly chemically reactive towards
other substances, or even towards themselves: their molecules will often
spontaneously dimerize or polymerize if they come in contact with each
other. Most radicals are reasonably stable only at very low
concentrations in inert media or in a vacuum. 

In consequence, people
should ingest extra L-arginine to overcome the handicap to good health
that such free radicals present. About 6 gm per day is a dose that has
proved to be effective. 

There is not much evidence for the
effectiveness of this procedure, but what there is, is very impressive.


The main set of data that I know of is that of Dr Joe Prendergast (now
retired (2014)) of Palo Alto, California. 

He was an endocrinologist
who treated diabetics. The death rate among his patients from heart
disease and strokes once was about the same as in New Zealand's entire
population - 30%. 

While in his 30's, Dr Prendergast had a CAT scan
done of his abdomen which showed he had about 80% occlusion of the
arteries there. This really scared him, since his doctor father had died
early from cardiovascular disease. Dr Prendergast then took advice from
medical researchers nearby, and as a result commenced taking L-arginine
at 6 gm per day. He also prescribed the same treatment for all his
diabetic patients. 

I asked him if he had changed his diet, at the same
time, and he replied he had not. 

Some years later he had a repeat CAT
scan done, and to the astonishment of his technician, his abdominal
arteries were as clean as those of an 18 year-old. He then had a CAT
scan done of his heart arteries, and these also were clear. 

At about
the time of his retirement in 2014 he reported that less than 1% of his
approximately 7,000 diabetic patients over the previous 20 years (all of
whom had been prescribed oral L-arginine), had suffered a heart event or
stroke. 

The next piece of evidence I offer comes from the writings and
teachings of Dr Louis Ignarro, the sole current survivor of the trio who
were awarded the Nobel Prize (Medicine) in 1998.
In his main book he
devotes a whole chapter to the use and benefits of orally ingested
L-arginine, which he whole-heartedly supports. 

Dr Ignarro's book is:
NO More Heart Disease ISBN 0312335822 (In this context, 'NO' is a play
on words for nitric oxide). 

Dr Prendergast's book is: Dr. Joe's Rx for
Managing Your Health ISBN 1599750228 

You might well ask, as I have,
why the NZ Heart Foundation, and the NZ Ministry of Health, do not
promote or support the use of L-arginine. The answer is simply that
nobody has written a scientific paper of adequate standard for them to
use, given that they require "evidence-based" double-blind research as a
basis for medical recommendation. Books such as the two above have no
value in that system - if indeed the relevant people are even aware of
them. 

Why didn't Drs Ignarro and Prendergast write such papers? In the
typical fashion for where they live they each decided to develop
nutritional oral medicines which incorporate L-arginine, which they sell
through multi-level marketing systems in the same fashion as Amway, for
their own financial benefit; rather than publish scientific papers which
would benefit the whole world. 

In the Permitted Substances List,
L-citrulline is also listed, as an amino acid which may be ingested.


It so happens that when L-citrulline is swallowed, through the
arginine-citrulline chemical pathway, it can produce L-arginine. To
quote from two online articles "In the body, citrulline is produced as a
byproduct of the enzymatic production of nitric oxide from the amino
acid arginine, catalyzed by nitric oxide synthase.[3] This is an
essential reaction in the body because nitric oxide is an important
vasodilator required for regulating blood pressure". 
And, "Citrulline,
a coproduct of the NOS-catalyzed reaction, can be recycled to arginine
in a pathway known as the citrulline-NO or arginine-citrulline pathway.
This is demonstrated by the fact that, in many cell types, citrulline
can substitute for arginine to some degree in supporting NO synthesis".


I hope that this submission is clear enough for you. 

I attach also
an updated version of an article which I wrote for Investigate Magazine
(now no longer published in paper form), in which I explored the history
to date of the use of L-arginine for the prevention and cure of heart
disease. The original version may be seen
here:-
http://www.investigatemagazine.co.nz/Investigate/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/his_octnov13.pdf

 

Links:
------
[1]
http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20893
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