Alcohol, coffee, and diuretics, or medication given to stimulate urine production, appear to increase the urinary losses of all nutrients which dissolve in water, Of the 40 nutrients required for health, all but five-vitamins A, D, E, K, and linoleic acid are readily lost in the urine. For example, when volunteers were given a carefully measured amount of fluid daily including orange juice (70 cc) and later 95 per cent alcohol was substituted for the juice, the magnesium excretion increased fivefold;105 and symptoms of a magnesium deficiency -nervousness, tension, and hangover jitters-are common in social drinkers.

Persons having abnormally high blood fat and cholesterols have been found to obtain almost twice as many calories daily from alcohol as normal individuals. Alcohol (196 calories per ounce) readily changes into saturated fat, often causing the amount of blood fat to double. It slows the blood flow, inhibits the utilization of fats, supplies no nutrients except calories, satisfies the need for food, and increases the requirement for vitamin B1, pantothenic acid, and cholin.

One study of 2,000 men observed over a seven-year period revealed that individuals who developed coronary disease drank five cups or more of coffee daily. Even a single cup of coffee, acting as a stress, causes a prompt rise in blood fats and cholesterol; and when both coffee and benzedrine were given to patients with heart disease, their blood fat and cholesterol tripled over previous levels. Strong coffee given to rats and dogs caused loss and graying of hair, convulsions, paralysis, watering eyes, and many more symptoms, none of which occurred in animals receiving decaffeinated coffee. These abnormalities could be largely prevented by giving liver.

Diuretics frequently cause deficiencies of magnesium, potassium, the B vitamins, and many other nutrients. Potassium and magnesium are vital in helping to prevent heart attacks, and a lack allows clots to form in the heart and brain alike. The loss of the vitamin B1 and pantothenic acid can result in decreased circulation (a condition conducive to clotting) and degeneration of the heart muscles; and the excessive excretion of iodine and other B vitamins can be disastrous.

The only people I have worked with whose blood cholesterols have remained persistently high have been individuals who have not wished to decrease their coffee and/or alcohol intake or who were being given diuretics. In other respects these persons have followed their diets carefully. One social drinker, whose opening remark was, "Don't get any funny ideas about lowering the alcoholic content of my blood," still has a cholesterol of 330 milligrams. Another man, whose cholesterol is above 500, is being given a diuretic daily.

When diuretics have been withdrawn and/or the coffee or alcohol avoided, cholesterols have dropped quickly without alterations in the diet. After a heart attack, many men will give up smoking or social drinking, but not both. I have not worked with any non-drinking heavy smokers whose cholesterol was difficult to reduce.

"Sudden" Heart Attacks

Investigators, thinking that early heart damage may be caused by a lack of essential fatty acids, fed baby monkeys prepared infants' formulas with and without adding vegetable oil. The blood cholesterols of the monkeys not receiving oil were higher than those given oil, but in both groups all arteries were severely diseased by the end of a single year. Yet such formulas invariably claim to be "identical" to breast milk.

Regardless of nationality, infants throughout the world are born with approximately the same amount of cholesterol in their blood. That coronary disease is now being produced from birth on in the majority of American children is tragic though scarcely surprising when one realizes that most diets given to babies and growing youngsters are woefully deficient in vitamin E, cholin, inositol, pantothenic acid, magnesium, essential fatty acids, iodine, and other nutrients.

The blood fat and cholesterol may be high for many, many years before heart disease manifests itself, yet little attention has been paid to these warnings. For instance, a survey-one of many-showed that almost everyone of a group of executives and businessmen who considered themselves to be in excellent health had blood fat and cholesterol levels far above normal. Diet analyses revealed that some executives obtained 60 per cent of their calories from saturated fats; death from heart disease has been repeatedly produced in animals given only 40 per cent saturated fat and an otherwise ideal diet.

Coronary deaths are often spoken of as "sudden," a strange adjective to apply to a condition which has been perhaps years in forming. The attack itself, bringing an abrupt end to ignorance concerning an abnormality of long standing, can indeed be sudden. One post-mortem study of coronary patients under 50 years of age showed that 63 per cent had died during the first hour of their first attack, 85 per cent during the first 24 hours, and only 23 per cent had lived long enough to be attended medically. Nearly half had had no previous symptoms except-undoubtedly-excessive blood fat and cholesterol of which they were probably unaware.

To prevent such tragic loss of life, I believe that industry should make annual tests for blood cholesterol and perhaps blood fat compulsory for all employees; that schools should require such tests for their athletes; and that each individual who values his health should know his blood cholesterol level. If either the blood fat or cholesterol is found to be high, an adequate diet can usually rectify the condition. A heart attack, however, is perhaps the most severe stress a human can endure; hence the antistress formula and, when possible, the entire antistress program should be followed until convalescence is advanced.