The Vegan Lifestyle

Natural remedies for cardiovascular diseases have long been available to man, but still more are dying annually from it. Cardiovascular disease which includes heart attack, strokes and other disorders of the heart and blood vessels is a leading cause of death in affluent societies especially in the West. Heart disease is the number one killer in civilized nations.

What causes heart attack? The following can cause heart attacks:

• narrowed coronary arteries which deprive the heart of necessary oxygen resulting to tight, heavy chest pain usually felt after some exertion or heavy meal.
• blocked coronary arteries that restrict blood flow to the heart which cause the formation of infarcts (areas of local tissue decay or death in the myocardium , a heart muscle)
• spasm of the coronary arteries caused by lack of oxygen and nutrients
• high blood pressure or hypertension

Many factors can cause high blood pressure or hypertension. One is clogged arteries caused by the consumption of meat fats, hydrogenated vegetable oils, margarine, butter, grease, and other junk foods. Another cause is the hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis). Too much sodium or salt in the diet is another cause of hypertension. Other factors include stress, enzyme imbalance, nutritional deficiencies, kidney disease, adrenal or pituitary disorders, hyperthyroidism, heredity, and certain drugs, including oral contraceptives.

Besides heart attacks, heart failures can also occur in an unhealthy heart. Heart attack is inadequate blood flow to the heart, while heart failure is inadequate blood flow from the heart. The following problems can occur due to a heart failure: arrhythmia or irregular heart beat, palpitations, bradycardia (too slow beating of the heart), tachycardia (too fast beating of the heart when it is resting), ectopic beats or skipped beats of the heart, fibrillation or heart muscle twitching, and valvular disease or disease of the valve that causes non opening or non closing of the valves. These valve defects are either congenital or caused by rheumatic fever or endocartitis or infection of the heart muscle.

To prevent heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases, we must follow the following natural remedies:

1. Drink enough water, and frequently throughout the day.
2. Do not eat meat – all meats have fats.
3. Do not overeat.
4. Do not eat greasy and oily foods, such as margarine, butter, hydrogenated vegetable oil, overheated or oxydized vegetable oils.
5. Avoid excess carbohydrates in your diet, especially the refined ones.
6. Avoid sugar – it increases triglyceride levels, uric acid, blood pressure, and platelet adhesiveness.
7. Include garlic in your diet – it lowers the LDL (bad) cholesterol, and raises the HDL (good) cholesterol
8. Include natural fat emulsifiers, such as lecithin,  in your diet.
9. Use cold-presses vegetable oil, such as flaxseed oil. It is rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids that can prevent the stickiness of blood platelets.
10. Eat more fruits, grains, and vegetables – they are rich in nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.
11. Do not consume much peanuts. But when you do eat peanuts, do not remove its red skin. It contains a powerful heart-protective antioxidant  called oligomeric procyanidins or OPCs that can prevent heart attacks, strokes, and even cancer.
12. Do not use monosodium glutamate (MSG) in your diet. Avoid all processed foods – they are loaded with MSG.
13. Eat foods rich in the B vitamins, especially folic acid, B6, and B12. These vitamins help convert the amino acid homocysteine to two other amino acids which prevent the scarring of coronary arteries, thus minimizing the sticking of arterial plaques on it.
14. Take food rich in antioxidants, such as wheat germ oil, vitamin E, selenium, coenzyme Q10, rosemary, gingko biloba, and pycnogenol.
15. Take tonic herbs such as cayenne, ginger, garlic, hawthorn extract, and Seberian ginseng extract – they strengthen the heart.
16. Do not use much salt or other sodium products in your diet.
17. Do not use coffee – it blocks the breakdown of adrenaline which results in the same response as stress.
18. Do not drink liquor or any alcoholic drinks.
19. Do not smoke cigarettes or other tobacco products.
20. Do not use illegal drugs.
21. Have regular exercise.
22. Have a normal body weight – keep your weight down.

Flesh meat eating is harmful to health. It is the main cause of cancers, tumors, heart diseases, heart attack, strokes,  and other diseases.

In the beginning, God gave man his original diet: fruits, grains, nuts, and vegetables. Man was originally designed as a herbivore. As such, the structure of his mouth, teeth, jaw, and intestines, are distinctly very different from carnivores. He has small mouth opening, and he has sharp cutting incisors with flat or nodular surfaced molars for crushing and grinding food. His jaw has  three distinct motions – up and down; sideways; forward or backward, but in a limited degree. Also man’s large intrestines runs through the abdominal cavity like an inverted U, and consists of ascending, transverse,  and descending colons.

After the Flood, plants and all the vegetation were all totally destroyed, and man was allowed to eat the flesh meats of clean animals which were brought in the Ark. From then on, man started to eat flesh meats, and all forms of diseases followed. His life span became shorter –  from over a hundred years to 70 years old.

During those ancient days, the animals were clean, and grazed on clean grasses, as vegetation started to grow back. Nowaday, animals are injected with growth hormones that are harmful to the body. And their feeds are mixed with dried pulverized carcases, additives, and other toxic chemicals. These animals are butchered in dirty slaughter houses – where animal fecal wastes mingle with their flesh meats. Also some of these animals are sick with communicable diseases that are transferred to the consumers, such as flu, pneumonia, tuberculosis, mad cow disease, foot and mouth disease, bird’s flu, Ebola Reston virus, and others.  Even the flesh meats of healthy animals, besides the chemicals from feed, and other additives, are flooded with insulin which they secrete in reaction to fear when butchered.

In the 17th century, Mrs. Ellen G. White, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote a warning concerning flesh meat eating. She predicted that flesh meat eating will be the cause of tumors, and cancer. It is only now in the 21st century that doctors confirmed her prediction as true.

Flesh meats contain a stress hormone called 17-hydroxycorticosteroid which stimulates the pituitary gland, and cause man to be more animalistic, and less rational. During cooking, some chemical substances are produced in meats, such as benzopyrene, and methylcholanthrene. Benzopyrene can cause stomach tumors, and leukemia. It is so toxic that in a one kilo of charcoal-broiled steak, there is as much benzopyrene as in 600 cigarettes. Methylcholanthrene is a cacinogenic  sustance formed when the fat of meats are superheated.

Besides, the toxic chemical substances in meats, there is also greater risk of having heart diseases, heart attacks,  strokes, and cardiovascular diseases that are closely related with flesh meat eating. Animal flesh meats are high in cholesterol that clogs the vein and arteries resulting to heart attacks and strokes.