"Why Haven't You Heard of These Developments?"

That is the title of the Introduction to The High Blood Pressure Solution - A Scientifically Proven Program for Preventing Strokes and Heart Disease by Richard D. Moore, M.D., Ph.D. (1993 and 2001), being a revision of The K Factor: Reversing and Preventing High Blood Pressure without Drugs (1986). The 2001 The Salt Solution also explains these developments. All three are based on the essential-to-life activity of the sodium/potassium pumps in all 50 trillion cells of the body.

This post is just in case there is any doubt about low salt/high potassium being anti-arrhythmic, which is the basis of Conference Room Session 72 (http://www.afibbers.org/conference/session72.pdf). The fact is that these health-bestowing, life-saving scientific developments have been intentionally suppressed by the drug, salt, and food industries' "Powers that Be" for more than 25 years. It is staggering to consider the amount of human tragedy that would have been averted had this information become available to the public and the practicing physicians. The following are quotes from Dr. Moore's 2001 Introduction explaining why you haven't heard:

"I don't by any means know all the details, but I do know - first hand - some of the story. . . There definitely is a medical-industrial complex that influences the discussion of "health" issues so as to maximize financial profit. Moreover, the Salt Institute continues to push the ideas that would result in more salt consumption -- for example the idea that we don't need to cut down on salt. To get an idea of this group's activities, visit its website: [www.saltinstitute.org].

"A lot of the problem is about money, power, and control. A medical-industrial complex has succeeded in inculcating a pro-drug ideology in medical education and thus practice. And the government has gone along. There is an unholy alliance between the medical schools, the drug companies, and the politicians - a "golden triangle" - that keeps this dysfunctional system going and prevents the people from having the health they deserve. What is the reason this "golden triangle" exists? It's all about gold. Indeed, universal adoption of the principles presented in this book would result not only in a huge decrease in the drug expenses of the elderly, and a corresponding high decrease in the financial strain on Medicare and Medicaid, but a corresponding huge decrease - billions of dollars annually - in income of the drug companies! There is a lot of gold at stake! And there are vested interests that want us to think that drugs are the correct answer, regardless of the scientific evidence.

"The drug companies are subtly manipulating the medical schools so that most future doctors are indoctrinated with the idea that synthetic chemicals - prescription drugs - are the treatment of first choice for almost every ailment that afflicts mankind. And guess what: part of the salary of many of the medical school instructors comes from where? You guessed it: the drug companies. And guess what: some medical journals such as the American Journal of Hypertension are almost entirely funded by drug companies. Just look at a copy and you will see. The idea that drugs are the answer for most or all of our health problems has become a religion based on faith, not evidence. . . This isn't education - this is conditioning.

"My involvement in this story began when my own research and that of colleagues finally convinced me that a proper balance of potassium to sodium is required for proper blood pressure. Having gone to medical school before getting my Ph.D. in biophysics, I naturally thought the people involved in research concerning high blood pressure would like to know more about this. So I attempted to talk with people in the organizations dedicated to research and treatment of high blood pressure. Other than a couple of physicians at the University of Vermont School of Medicine, where I held a research position, they wouldn't even listen.

"It turned out that I wasn't the first to receive a cold shoulder from the "authorities". . . Dr. Lorin Mullins, then chairperson of the Department of Biophysics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, had had similar experiences. Dr. Mullins, together with a couple of others, began urging me to write a book that would bring this knowledge to the public. I found help in a colleague, Dr. George Webb of the University of Vermont, who had come to similar conclusions and had successfully treated his own hypertension by increasing the ratio of potassium to sodium in his diet. So George and I wrote The K Factor: Reversing and Preventing High Blood Pressure Without Drugs.

"A major publishing house expressed enthusiasm for the book and gave us a $50,000 advance. Early in 1986 that publisher announced in Publishers Weekly that The K Factor would be its number two offering for 1986 and stated its intention to spend $50,000 on advertising. The book was published in 1986, and the publisher sent me to five major cities to speak on radio and on TV. In the first few weeks over 14,000 copies were sold. When we next met to discuss further promotion, I was informed that the publisher was not going to spend the advertising budget and that there would be no more speaking tours for me. I told the publicist that I had worked on this book not so much for money but to inform the public and the practicing physician. I then asked them to give me the phone numbers of radio and TV stations. The publicist looked startled and said she would have to check with a higher-up. After a few minutes, she came back and said they couldn't even give me the phone numbers! To say the whole mood had changed is an understatement!

"Several months later, another book appeared from this same publisher that promoted drugs as the answer to high blood pressure. It looked hastily written and completely ignored a large study conducted by the British Medical Research Council that had cast doubt on the effectiveness of anti-hypertensive drugs to reduce death. It also made unsubstantiated claims about drugs. I confronted the person in charge of the publishing and asked why the didn't put the other authors and myself on a talk show and let us argue it out. I pointed out that they would obviously sell a lot of both books that way. That wouldn't be necessary, he replied. He told me that a drug company had approached the publisher, asked them to find someone to quickly write the pro-drug book, and guaranteed that they would buy all of these books. There was no need to publicize either book.

"The K Factor then faded into oblivion. Both George and I regularly received letters from individuals asking how they could get copies of the book. I lent my copy to someone and never got it back. I couldn't buy a replacement even from the publisher. For over three years I didn't even have a copy of my own book. Finally, a friend found an unsold copy for me in a bookstore in Alaska. The K Factor had virtually disappeared from the face of the earth. If you think that was an accident, I've got a Brooklyn Bridge I want to sell you."
===============

So here's just a bit about how the intentional, successful suppression of indisputably life-saving science has played out:

-- with the exception of the three books above, in only one place have I seen mention of the criticality of a minimum potassium/sodium ratio in health and disease: the ExaTest interpretation guide by biophysicist Burton Silver, Ph.D.

-- the hugely important 2003 book The Magnesium Factor by Mildred Seelig, MD, MPH, and Andrea Rosanoff, Ph.D, has only one mention of the "enzymatic pump" [Na/K pump] because it requires magnesium for its function.

-- the equally important 2008 The Sinatra Solution - Metabolic Cardiology doesn't mention the Na/K pump at all, mentions the word 'potassium' twice, and doesn't even mention 'sodium'.

-- unless I've missed something, this forum's CR archives, from 2003 CR Session 1 until today's CR Session 72, has only one mention of the significance of the potassium/sodium relationship and Na/K pump activity in heart rhythm, which is PC's comment in CR 2 (2003): "Onset and duration of AF is primarily about a Na/K imbalance. These latter are more dynamic electrolytes and fluctuations in either can precipitate or terminate an episode. Magnesium (through the various ATPase pumps) is critical in maintaining the balance."

Erling

Erling that was a great read,incredible......when I changed 13 mothns ago to Potassium way beyond sodium I got my life back! after 5.5 years of constant afib and 6 electrocardioversions..now doing great! always appreciate your posts

TP

Hi Tom!

I am so very happy for you! Your freedom from arrhythmia is the fulfillment of a science that had its beginning in 1902! (please read the 2002 article by Ian M. Glynn, MD, PhD., A Hundred Years of Sodium Pumping (ref. 93 @ CR 72 - [einstein.ciencias.uchile.cl])

Best wishes!

Erling.

About the author of A Hundred Years of Sodium Pumping:

Ian Michael Glynn FRS FRCP (born 3 June 1928) is a British biologist and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

He was Professor of Physiology, University of Cambridge, 1986–95, now Professor Emeritus. He has been a Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge since 1955 (Vice-Master, 1980–86).

Education: City of London School; Trinity College, Cambridge; University College, London Hospital.

His work on the 'sodium pump' led to his election to the Royal Society and to Honorary Foreign Membership of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He is the author of An Anatomy of Thought: The Origin and Machinery of the Mind (2003) and Elegance in Science: The beauty of simplicity (2010).

[en.wikipedia.org]

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Potassium but Were Too Tired to Ask, Betty Kamen , PhD. also promotes a high K/Na ratio. It is more of a layman's book than Dr. Moore's. One item of note. Kamen suggests supplementing with something other than KCl would be more beneficial, as the Cl will cause the kidneys to reabsorb Na.

I managed to pick up this at about the same time as I purchased the '93 edition of Moore's book in 2004.

Erling, thanks for all the time you have invested here to help your fellow affibers, the info is much appreciated.

Tom C.

Erling - thanks for taking the time to post this.

Jackie

Erling,

I am so grateful to you for raising and discussing the issue of the sodium/ potassium balance. I make this a focal point of my eating and supplementation, and am constantly checking the sodium content of everything, which I recommend. Even innocuous looking chicken breasts and chopped plain frozen spinach contain sodium, much to my surprise. maintenance of low sodium and high potassium has been key in helping me control ectopics and tachycardia.

Thank you!
Louise

Tom, learning all this has been a great pleasure. Thanks for catching on to the scientist's wisdom and testing it successfully in your own body. Passing the results along has been valuable for everyone, especially since you back up subjective feeling with objective measurement.

George and you have dialogued on the use of the ion selective Cardy meter. I believe you initially felt that testing potassium in blood was more meaningful than in saliva, but now feel the opposite? Do i have that right? The discussion ought to be extended, probably with a new topic? CR 72's Addendum has the Cardy testing links from you're various posts.

Erling

Erling, yes that is correct, I believe that the saliva test is more consistent in results, the reason is simple, keep in mind that it is much easier to wet down the small test strip with just about the same amount of saliva each time you run the test, however a blood sample is more difficult to get that same amount. For a diabetes test you only need a small amount of sample because that meter is designed for the small drop you get from the lancet puncture. In fact the gentleman in the Periodic Paralysis video which explains the test adds a drop of Deionized water to the blood test strip to aid in its saturation. Although he claims that the blood test is more accurate, I disagree because the same water he uses to help saturate the test strip is the same liquid used to clean the sensor pad to bring the measurement to zero and the amount of water that comes out of the dropper may vary.
To give you an idea of how accurate and consistent the saliva Cardymeter measurement is I will use the range of numerical values in the Potassium normal range of 3.4 to 5.4. Using the conversion chart the corresponding range of saliva ppm is 150 to about 1500. I try to keep my level around 1000 which corresponds to 4.7 equivalent serum K, that is the higher side of normal and I feel a person sensative to afib should be in that range. If I repeat the test two or three times the result is usually exactly the same or a few points either way. When you consider that in the normal range alone there are 1,350 numbers and the meter is almost exact each time it is truly an amazing scientific device. Each time you use the meter you calibrate it twice: Bring the reading to zero by cleaning the sensor with the Deionized water to remove all traces of ions then you use another solution for the first calibration which is 15X10 ppm( the meter has 3 ranges X1, X10 and X100)the number is always 12 to 17 when you apply the solution to the test strip , you then move the dial slightly to 15 for the first calibration. Repeat cleaning the sensor with the D-water to obtain a 0 reading and then proceed to the final calibration with the 20X 100 solution, calibrate then clean again to 0 for the saliva test.
So now you can understand how accurate the test is. The meter is designed to test the Potassium level in anything placed in solution on the sensor pad. It is not a medical device but it is all we have available at this point to test K levels at home.
Proper Magnesium levels can be acheived by bowel intolerance, now proper Potassium levels can be measured at home with the Cardymeter and you can see for yourself the effects of Sodium intake on your levels. I have also noticed as Louise has that drastically reducing my Sodium and maintaining proper Potassium levels has greatly reduced ectopics.

Tom, thanks for your description. I had watched the Cardy video demonstrating potassium blood testing and assumed saliva testing to be the same. My awareness of the development of "ion-selective electrodes" (ISEs) was probably in '96, early in my Afib years, when noted magnesium researchers Dr.s Burton M. and Bella T. Altura were first furthering development of the magnesium ISE for measuring the biologically active Mg++ fraction in serum (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8865438). Their hope was that use of such an ISE would become routine in doctor's offices. I'm surprised that 15 years later there isn't more use being made of such electronics, and a greater variety of makes (portable ion meters = 3.5 million google results). Do you happen to know why the Periodic Paralysis organization chose Cardy?

Erling

Erling,

Can you suggest any references that specifically address the K/Na ratio as it effects hypertension.

Many thanks,

Josiah

Josiah,

See [www.afibbers.org]

Also

Richard Moore MD PhD The High Blood Pressure Solution
[www.amazon.com]

George

Erling - many thanks for your great posts - always enlightening! Where does Taurine fit in all of this? I was under the impression that taurine helps to maintain the correct balance of electrolytes in the body....yes?

Barb

Erling, I don't know that much about the PPO, I tried to contact them once through their website to let them know about our findings concerning Sodium and Potassium but never received a reply. For those who aren,t familiar with Periodic Paralysis it is a condition where you lose use of various parts of your body, they just freeze up for a period of time and Potassium levels have alot to do with the affliction, thus the use of the Cardymeter. I have not searched out another supplier for the product but for what you get I feel it is adequate.

Barb,

Here is Jackie's recent post on taurine: <[www.afibbers.org];

George

Josiah -

Within the cell K-Na are unalterably linked together*, therefor the remarkable INTERSALT study (n = 10,079 men and women aged 20-59 y from 32 countries) is about the K/Na ratio in hypertension:

The INTERSALT Study: background, methods, findings, and implications Am. Journal Clinical Nutrition 1997;65(suppl):626S-42S [www.ajcn.org]

Jeremiah Stamler, MD.
Professor, Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine
[www.preventivemedicine.northwestern.edu]

Quotes: "The INTERSALT results, which agree with findings from other diverse studies, including data from clinical observations, therapeutic interventions, randomized controlled trials, animal experiments, physiologic investigations, evolutionary biology research, anthropologic research, and epidemiologic studies, support the judgment that habitual high salt intake is one of the quantitatively important, preventable mass exposures causing the unfavorable population-wide blood pressure pattern that is a major risk
factor for epidemic cardiovascular disease.

"The root reason for this lies in evolution; during 70 million years of mammalian and primate evolution and 4-15 million years of hominoid and hominid evolution leading to Homo sapiens (40, 4 1 , 56, 57-63), our predecessors had no exposures to the several components of contemporary lifestyles now known to be related to present-day population blood pressure patterns: habitual high salt intake from daily addition of salt to foods, a fare with a high Na:K, alcohol intake, or energy intake commonly exceeding expenditure, leading to obesity. On the contrary, having evolved in the warm climate of Africa, a salt-poor continent, on a fare low in salt, the human species became exquisitely adapted for the physiologic conservation of the limited salt naturally present in foods, ie, for salt retention, not for excretion of a chronically excessive intake, 10-20 times physiologic need (8-10 mmol/d) (57). Regular addition of salt to food came late in human evolution, 6000-8000 y ago or less, in connection with the development of agriculture and animal husbandry and their multiple consequences, including a need for the first time to have a substantial reserve of food and hence to preserve food (ie, to salt meat, fish, vegetables, and dairy products). This new exposure came too late for genetic adaptation by natural selection, particularly because its pathophysiologic consequences almost always take their toll in cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity, disability, and death after sexual reproduction."

*Biophysicist Dr. Moore: "For purely physical reasons (connected with the law of osmotic equilibrium), inside the cell the sum of sodium and potassium must be constant. This means that... sodium and potassium are unalterably linked together like two children on a teeter totter. You can’t change one without changing the other."

For millions of years our ancestors had no exposure to synthetic fats and oils such as cooking oils and margarine.
The replacement of animal fats with such veggy fats since the 1930s has been little studied, but one such was the book "Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill" by Udo Erasmus. It's for that reason that no veggy oil has ever been in my house, nor do I eat in restaurants, where synthetic oils are inescapable.
Animal fat is an essential nutrient.

William

Thanks William -

The subject of fats is most important, as is the book Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill by Edu Erasmus. The type of fats that comprise the middle layer of cell membranes are crucial to the performance of the membranes, hence to the health and performance of our 50 trillion cells. The story 'Oiling of America' by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig is another modern American horror story of dominance by a the Golden Triangle (medical schools, corporate power, politicians) [www.whale.to]

Erling

Thanks, George Will check that post out ~ Barb

Dear Louise!

It is very good to know that the science developed by biophysicist Richard Moore and so many others is of benefit to you! That such important knowledge was, and is, trampled by the Powers That Be is maddeningly outrageous. Being outraged, all I can do is attempt to bring out what the grand collusion has effectively squelched to everyone's detriment: The Salt Institute, BigPharma, FDA, BigFood, BigFastFood, medical schools, medical journals, on and on . . .

Very best wishes to you, Louise!

Erling

In the lead post above, biophysicist Richard Moore is quoted:

"And guess what: some medical journals such as the American Journal of Hypertension are almost entirely funded by drug companies. Just look at a copy and you will see. The idea that drugs are the answer for most or all of our health problems has become a religion based on faith, not evidence. . ."

Today in the American Journal of Hypertension there's this: "Salt Restriction: Updated Analysis Finds No Definite Proof of Benefit." (true to form, there's not a peep about potassium in the analysis.)

If you believe that analysis (quoting Dr. Moore again), "I've got a Brooklyn Bridge I want to sell you."

Erling,

Thank you for this post, and for so much that you have placed on this site.

I hadn't heard of the "Salt Institute" - how very incredible they are. Talk about being selective with information.

After I first took unwell with AF I did as much research as I could and prior to finding the unparalleled resource that is Hans' creation I read the book by Richard D. Moore.

Since finding this forum I've learned so much more about the in-the-round issue of sodium/potassium balance - which of course requires us to observe a minimal salt intake.

Listening to Jackie's advice and following many of up her nutritional recommendations, while tailoring for my own body, I made the Na/K balance issue the core of my approach to tackling my own AF.

The result, in less than a year, is that my AF is completely under control - without prescribed drugs - I feel well again; and my blood pressure - as a measurement I can give - is significantly reduced to the range now of 110/65 to 125/75.

If I unavoidably have a salty meal when out I top up with potassium. If I misbehave and have a bout of AF then some potassium calms things down better than anything.

I'm amazed by it all!

Gary - Thanks so much for posting your experiences. It truly is remarkable that the potassium information has been so efficiently suppressed. Fortuntely and thanks to Erling's diligence in keeping this important topic at the forefront, we definitely have the advantage.

As youobserve, I've found the same thing to be true... as long as I am very diligent with my potassium intake and watch all potential sources of added sodium, my heart remains very calm in constant NSR.

Best to you,

Jackie

Erling,

Thanks for all of your research. I really think you may be on to something!
It's not just about adding magnesium or potassium or reducing sodium. Nutrition is so complex and it always ends up being about the relationship of nutrients. It's rarely about one nutrient in isolation. I think this is best achieved by trying to reach this balance through using whole foods if possible. It just makes sense that if you use whole food you will have a better balance of nutrients.

Mike has made several changes in the last 6 months. One of the changes has been to reduce sodium and increase potassium. I don't know if this is what has made the impact but he is doing so well. He rarely has PAC's and he was having them for hours at a time several times a week. He first noticed the change over two months ago.

I will post about his other change at a later date if his good fortune holds.

Debbie

Debbie - Glad to hear Mike is improving. Of course, it's the lower sodium and since it competes with (and wins) over potassium. The result is disastrous when it comes to afib...the focus here...but also with many other adverse health conditions.

It really comes down to whole foods, eliminating all packaged and processed foods, and then adding supplements where needed to fine-tune the balance. As people age, they need more nutrients and may not be able to get the total requirement from foods alone, either because they don't eat enough or the food is lacking the nutrients... overfarmed land, etc. is producing food that is lower in nutritent value. Organic foods offer a better chance but we can't always know for sure they are optimal either.

I'm very happy for Mike.

Jackie