Heart Revolution, The

Heart disease is the number one killer in America, and the widespread belief is that it is caused by a diet high in fat and cholesterol. Why do many heart attack victims have "normal" cholesterol levels? Why do the French, who love foie gras and red wine, rarely develop heart disease? How is it that the native people of Greenland and the Masai of Africa, whose diets consists largely of animal fat, have almost no heart disease?

For eighty-five years, the cholesterol theory of heart disease reigned supreme. But it has never been scientifically proven that fats and cholesterol cause arteriosclerosis or that lowering the amount of fat and cholesterol in our diets will reduce our risk of developing heart disease.

In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Kilmer McCully explains what is really behind the epidemic of heart disease. The Harvard-trained physician and researcher reveals how the vitamin B deficiency in our Western diet has produced harmful blood levels of homocysteine, an amino acid produced in the body. Homocysteine damages the arteries, leaving them susceptible to cholesterol and fat deposits. For many years clogged arteries have been inaccurately viewed as the cause, rather than the symptom, of heart disease. Now McCully shows you how to cut your risk of heart disease by controlling the real culprit, homocysteine. Considered one of the most significant medical breakthroughs in recent years, McCully's findings have been validated by numerous large-scale studies.

The Heart Revolution:

• challenged the long-held assumptions that lowering cholesterol is the key to preventing heart disease
• explains how eating vitamin B-rich food can control homocysteine levels
• lays pout a plan with menus for putting more B vitamins in our diet
• discusses how food processing and additives compromise our health
• exposes the politics within the medical community and the pharmaceutical industry
• explains how costly cholesterol-lowering medicines can actually harm our health

In the 1970s, pharmaceutical houses were making huge profits on cholesterol-lowering drugs. When McCully dared to challenge the prevailing view that cholesterol caused heart disease, he was castigated by his peers. Thirty years later he has received international recognition for the very same work. The Heart Revolution is more than a revolutionary program for disease prevention, it is also an intriguing tale of medical discovery.