OXYGEN DEFICIENCY—THE ULTIMATE CAUSE OF HEART DISEASE

There are many contributing causes of heart disease: nutritional deficiencies, overconsumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates, lack of exercise, obesity, smoking, coffee drinking, etc. The way all these factors affect the heart is the same, however: they cause oxygen deficiency in the heart muscle, which, in severe, acute cases, results in a heart attack and death.

The heart is a solid muscle which constantly pumps blood to the billions of cells in the body and it never rests, even for a minute, for the duration of life. It depends in its work on a constant, undiminished supply of fresh oxygen. Even the slightest insufficiency of oxygen supply to the cells of the heart will diminish its efficiency and cause permanent damage. An Austrian scientist, Professor W. Hal-den, of the World Health Organization, reported to the World Congress for Nutritional Research recently that anemia, for example, may cause degenerative changes in the heart and blood vessels through an insufficient oxygen supply to the tissues by the red blood corpuscles. Tobacco and coffee (also caffeine-containing cola drinks) can also bring about oxygen deficiency by causing violent fluctuations in blood sugar levels and increasing cholesterol and fat content of the blood. Alcohol has a very similar effect. Fatty deposits in the arteries prevent a sufficient flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart and cause an acute oxygen shortage in the heart muscle.

Thus, in the final analysis, oxygen deficiency is a direct cause of heart disease.