10. Questions & Answers

What is rheumatic fever and why does it affect the heart?

The disease that physicians have labeled "rheumatic fever" is considered by them as the most common heart disease of childhood and youth. Most commonly, it begins by a minor sore throat and cold. This is an indication that the body is initiating a "housecleaning" and ridding itself of some of its toxic debris. It is a sign of vitality and should not be suppressed but instead you should cooperate with the body in this effort and health will be restored quickly. Most often, it is not understood that this "disease" is a healing process and drugs are given. Drugs suppress healing and add more toxins that are enervating. Now the joints become inflamed and heat and pain are felt in the knees, wrists or elbows. More drugs are given in the form of antibiotics or hormone drugs and the healing process is again suppressed, the body becomes even more enervated and toxic and the heart becomes inflamed. Instead of securing rest and allowing the body to eliminate its toxic overload and recover from its enervation, additional drugs are given. The end result from this series of abuses is extreme enervation and toxicosis and eventual damage to the heart itself. Physicians often blame this "disease" on a strep infection but it is not germs that produced the heart damage. If the body had been allowed to rest and fast when the minor sore throat first appeared, health would have been restored immediately.

Is vitamin E a good preventative for heart disease?

Disease is not a normal occurrence and therefore does not need to be prevented.. If we live healthfully, we do not have to worry about heart impairment. The body does need vitamin E but cannot utilize it in a synthetic or inorganic form. Further, we do not require very much of this vitamin since a great deal is stored in our tissues and can be used over and over again. All of the vitamin E that we require is found in the fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds of our daily diet.

What is Raynaud's phenomenon and how should it be treated?

Raynaud's phenomenon is a condition where the smallest arteries supplying the fingers or toes constrict on exposure to cold or following any stressful situation. Because the small veins are usually open, the blood drains out of the capillaries and the fingers or toes become pale, cold and numb. If there is a spasm in the small veins and the blood becomes trapped in the capillaries, the fingers or toes become blue as the blood loses its oxygen. The condition clears when the spasm is released by rubbing the parts affected or by returning to a warm environment.
This condition should not be treated at all. Instead examine your lifestyle to see if all the proper conditions for health are present including a regular exercise program. A healthy individual possesses a purity of the bloodstream and circulatory system and abnormal conditions such as Raynaud's phenomenon do not occur.

Have researchers established a definite correlation between hypertension and high levels of salt use?

In countries such as Japan, where there is an extraordinarily high level of salt in the common diet, there is also a significantly high rate of hypertension. Salt stresses the mechanism that controls the fluid and blood levels, and high blood pressure comes about as a response to the additional salt load.
Dr. Lewis K. Dahl of the Brookhave National Laboratories conducted research on salt and hypertension. Dr. Dahl wishing to explore why hypertension is so rare among primitive peoples with low-sodium diets, investigated the correlation between salt consumption and hypertension. Dr. Dahl conducted a pilot study at Brookhave where 1,346 adults were classified according to their intake of salt. There were three categories: low intake (never adds salt to food); average intake (adds salt after tasting if insufficiently salty); and high intake (customarily adds salt before tasting).
Of the adults in the study, 105 were found to be hypertensive. Of all the subjects who had a low intake of salt, one was hypertensive. The high-intake group had 61 cases of hypertension.