The 21^st Century Magazine,
at South Florida's www.miami-dade-online.com.

In chapter 1 we discussed the methyl group and how it is passed betweenmolecules to turn on certain chemical reactions. In chapter 2 we discussed the byproduct of methylation, the dangerous homocysteine which is luckily controlled through adequate intake of vitamins. In addition to recommending a regime of vitamin/mineral supplements, water was considered critical to good health.

Water, vitamins, and minerals the key to good health? Many will find this preposterous. The next time you find yourself thinking, "Man, am I tired," pour yourself a large glass of water and drink it down. Sit down and close your eyes, just focusing on how you are feeling. You should be able to feel yourself reviving, like the wilted plant revives after being watered. If you feel nothing, you probably are wasting your time reading this material. If you cannot accept the benefits of adequate water, how are you going to accept your need for sufficient vitamins, minerals, and other elements?

You will counter that, if good health is so easy and cheap, why don't we know this? It is because good health is cheap. The medical/drug establishment makes money treating not preventing disease. For the last 85 years, heart disease was treated through control of cholesterol by diet and finally by expensive drugs. Depression also eats up millions of dollars in a vast array of drugs. Arthritis fuels the pockets of pain relief drug companies. In addition to the financial consideration, the vast majority of the medical community has believed in certain theories that are very hard to give up; not only would they lose money, they would lose face.

Let's take a look at what happened to one doctor who saw homocysteine as the root of heart disease rather than cholesterol. His name is Dr. Kilmer McCully, B.S. from Harvard, Doctorate from Harvard Medical School, 14 years professorship at Harvard by 1979.

Ten years earlier, Dr. McCully had presented his observations that amino acid homocysteine was directly causing arteriosclerosis. Only after homocysteine has damaged cells and tissues inside the arteries does cholesterol come along and become attached to the damaged areas. During the ensuing decade, the doctor and his colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospitals, Pathology Department had found the link between vitamins and the conversion of homocysteine.

Unfortunately, Dr. McCully was the lone voice in a crowd heavily invested in the concept that cholesterol was the cause of heart disease. Research money was provided for cholesterol research. Government agencies had invested in propaganda programs supporting the Cholesterol Theory, in a desire to better American health. Drug companies were finding drugs to combat the enemy.

By January 1978, Dr. McCully had lost his laboratory at Mass General, as well as the support of the staff for his research into the Homocysteine Theory. After losing his grant support, the Harvard Professor found himself without a job. Between 1979-1981 Dr. McCully was turned down 51 times for a job, anywhere in the country. Only after beginning legal proceedings against Harvard and Mass General did the doctor land a job with the V.A. Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island where he continues to work.

But time was on Dr. McCully's side. Long-term studies in numerous countries were substantiating the link between homocysteine and heart disease. By 1995, Dr. Kilmer McCully was introduced as "the father of homocysteine" at the first International Conference on Homocysteine Metabolism in County Clare, Ireland.

Norway, 587 coronary heart disease patients were studied with an amazing conclusion: risk of death was directly related to homocysteine levels while no similar correlation could be made with cholesterol levels. In 1992 the 5 year Physicians Health Study concluded that among 14,000 participants, those having high homocysteine levels were 3 times more likely to have a heart attack than those with normal homocysteine levels. The 1996 Nutrition Canada Study that had followed 5,000 people for 14 years focused on the blood levels of folic acid. Those with low levels of folic acid had 2 times the chance of dying from heart problems than those with high folic acid levels in their blood. The 1997 conclusions of a multi-country European study found that incidents of heart disease were directly related to homocysteine levels. The more homocysteine, the more heart attacks. February 1998, Harvard School of Public Health published its Nurses' Health Study, a 14 year program of questionnaires answered by 80,000 nurses. The conclusion was that nurses consuming the lowest amount of folic acid and vitamin B6 died more frequently from cardiovascular disease and heart attack. In April 1998, the English study of 21,500 men over a 9 year period concluded the risk of dying from heart disease increased the higher the blood homocysteine level. Framingham Study, 50 year study of the population of Framingham, Massachusetts concluded their was a strong correlation between the incidents of hear disease and high homocysteine levels.

Today we see orange juice being advertised as a way of combating heart disease. Actually it is the folic acid in the orange juice that is the key. Multivitamin advertisements have also used the homocysteine connection as a risk for heart disease. Articles in medical journals "The New England Journal of Medicine" and the "Journal of the American Medical Association" along with those in "Newsweek", "New York Times Magazine", and "Time" have spread the Homocysteine Theory. Routine advice from many doctors includes taking daily multivitamins to maintain high B vitamin levels.

At the beginning of the 2oth Century, the impact of missing vitamins was brought home in two locations. In Indonesia beriberi spread to epidemic proportions. Beriberi results from a deficiency in vitamin B1. The beriberi epidemic coincided with the spread of the new processed, white rice, which entails polishing rice to remove the husk. In losing the husk, the rice loses B1. The cure for beriberi was fortifying white rice with B1.

In the American South, at the same time, the disease pelagra resulted from a deficiency in niacin (B3) caused from a main diet of white corn hominy. Now processed corn is fortified with niacin and palagra is virtually unknown.

Sailors and explorers of the 15^th and 16^th Centuries who suffered from scurvy due to lack of fruits and vegetables on board ships needed vitamin C. Because limes were used by the British sailors to combat scurvy, we still hear of those "British Limeys" sailing the seven seas.

And, now, at the beginning of another century, we have to learn the lesson all over again: vitamins are required for good health. But, unlike the rather localized palagra outbreak in the South, heart disease has turned up in almost all advanced societies, all over the world and grown to epidemic proportions by the 1960's in the United States.

The concept of "heart attack" was not identified until 1912. During the 1930's, heart attacks began to become a common crisis. The numbers of heart attack deaths continued to climb until the end of the 1960's. During the last 3 decades of the 20^th Century, deaths due to heart disease have declined and is now only half of what it was at its highest. What happened, first to cause the increase and then to cause a decline in heart attack deaths?

In the beginning, there was the hunter-gather who ate raw food or lightly cooked meat. They were nomads who did not store food, but ate it fresh. All the fiber, vitamins, minerals, essential oils, and trace elements in the food was ingested. These early humans were apparently free of degenerative diseases and height and strength were at optimum.

When the concept of cultivation came into reality, the gathering was replaced by farming. This Agricultural Revolution marked a basic change of diet and cultivated crops became the dominant food source, supplemented by hunting and the gradual domestication of animals. The high protein diet of the hunter evolved into a high carbohydrate diet of beans, corn, and squash.

It was not long before grains were found to be eatable. And, even better, by milling, the husks of wheat could be removed to make flour. Unfortunately, 80-90% of all the valuable vitamins, minerals, oils, and fiber are lost during the milling process. Pictured is the Grain Mill at Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. The mill is powered by a water fall fed by the manmade pond. The food may have been better, but the change in diet was taking us even further away from the best way of eating - hunting and gathering.

By the time of the Industrial Revolution, heart disease was still not a problem. Most foods spoiled easily and we were still eating fresh food, even if the type of food had shifted. Insects, molds, and bacteria all eat the same nutrients we need. Spoiled food can be put off through various forms of preservation. The Industrial Revolution allowed for creation of new preservation processes. The main way of smoking or using salt to preserve meats and fish was about to undergo a revolution. Man was becoming efficient at preserving foods by taking out the stuff insects, molds, and bacteria eat.

WHITE FLOUR: The original mill grinding produced a rather crude flour by our standards. After the Industrial Revolution the steel roller presses could actually press the oil in the grain right out of the flour. With the nutritional oils went most of the vitamins, minerals, trace elements and anything else that was appealing to bugs, mold, or bacteria. Only humans would eat what remained: nothing much more than empty calories.

WHITE SUGAR: As of 1997, sugar intake per day for the average American was almost half a pound! That is astounding. Think about sitting down with a half pound of sugar and a spoon. Since the Industrial Revolution, the extraction process of getting white sugar from sugarcane or sugar beets became mechanized and sugar became a cheap food filler. I say again "food-filler".

And, what does this food filler do to us? Pure sugar is also called sucrose which is extracted from sugarcane and sugar beets. Or, you can get corn syrup - corn's version of sugar - in the same way.

Both sugar and corn syrup are converted to glucose which ends up in the blood. The glucose stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin which is used to transport glucose into the cells. Once in the cells, glucose is converted into energy or into fat. If the cells need energy, there is a conversion. But, at some point of overfill, glucose overruns the system, demanding too much from the pancreatic-insulin system, resulting in diabetes, among other things. Welcome to the 20^th Century.

TO SEE CHAPTER 4, CLICK.