This is a book after my own heart! Natasha Campbell-McBride is a Russian-born doctor living now in London, who in my view is one of the few who understands the causes of our modern diseases and how to avoid/cure them by means of nutrition and healthy living as a whole.

In this book she tackles the subject of CHD (Coronary Heart Disease). She tells us this is caused by atherosclerosis, which is “a disease of the arterial wall that leads to narrowing and obstruction of the artery”. CHD is our number one killer. Its two major forms are angina pectoris and myocardial infection (heart attack).

Angina pectoris develops when the space inside the coronary artery is narrowed but not closed up. A heart attack occurs when “the coronary artery closes up completely and the blood supply to the heart muscle stops”.

The author states that conventional medicine does not know the cause of atherosclerosis or how to cure it. She explains in this book what it is and what really causes it, and also how to prevent and reverse it. She dispels the myth of the “diet-heart hypothesis”, and explains that cholesterol is not the enemy but an “integral and very important part of our cell membranes”.

The diet-heart hypothesis stated that dietary fats, including cholesterol, cause heart disease and by avoiding these foods we can avoid developing heart disease. Ancel Keys, who put forward this hypothesis back in 1953, used completely faulty “evidence” and selective data to “prove” his point. In subsequent studies, data that did not support the hypothesis were ignored and the data that did were “inflated and advertised”. Honest studies from different countries have proved the hypothesis to be completely erroneous. Most of the experiments on the influence of dietary fatty acid on blood cholesterol were “biased by serious faults”. Professor George Mann called the diet-heart hypothesis “the greatest scientific deception of our times”.

Natasha Campbell-McBride does a great job in demolishing the myths that have been instilled in us. She explains things clearly and simply and we come to understand how dangerous in fact low cholesterol is and how death-bringing the new cholesterol-lowering drugs, statins.

Campbell-McBride provides us with so much absolutely essential and life-saving information that I can’t begin to mention it all. But we cannot live without cholesterol and in fact every cell of every organ has cholesterol as part of its structure. In the clinical experience of the author, foods with high cholesterol and high animal fat content are an essential medicine for a person with multiple sclerosis, for instance. Caviar is the richest source, followed by cod liver oil, fresh egg yolk, butter, cold-water fish and shellfish, and, finally, lard. So I, who have MS, have begun to eat caviar.

Cholesterol from food has no effect whatsoever on the level of our blood cholesterol. As long as we don’t take cholesterol-lowering drugs, we don’t have to worry about cholesterol. Some people whose bodies are unable to produce enough cholesterol are prone to “emotional instability and behavioral problems”. Low blood cholesterol has been recorded in those who have committed murder and other violent crimes, people with aggressive and violent personalities and those prone to suicide.

The so-called “bad” cholesterol, LDL, is not bad but “directly binds and inactivates dangerous bacterial toxins”. The lethal toxin Staphylococcus aureus which is the cause of MRSA, a common hospital infection, does not work in the presence of LDL cholesterol. People with high levels of cholesterol are protected from infections, while those with low blood cholesterol are prone to various infections and more likely to die from one.

Blood cholesterol “goes through the roof” in people after surgery, goes up when we have an infection, after dental treatment and when we are under stress. This is because cholesterol is a “healing agent” in the body. The body produces cholesterol and sends it to the site of the damage. Because cholesterol travels from the liver to a wound in the form of LDL, “our science”, in its wisdom, calls LDL a “bad” cholesterol. When the wound heals and the cholesterol is removed, it travels back to the liver in the form of HDL, and “our misguided ‘science’ calls it a “good” cholesterol.

Thus, when we have a high blood cholesterol level, it means that the body is dealing with some damage. We should not interfere with this process. When a doctor finds high cholesterol in the patient, he should look for the reason. He should ask “What is damaging the body so the liver has to produce all that cholesterol to deal with the damage?”. Instead he attacks the cholesterol.

“Cholesterol has been mistakenly blamed for the crime, just because it was found at the site of the crime.”

The author devotes a chapter to explaining in detail what atherosclerosis is, and another to what causes it.

The third section of the book explains what we can do to prevent atherosclerosis, heart attacks and strokes. She informs us that the answer is simple: 1) Stop eating processed foods and 2) Stop polluting your body with chemicals. She goes into these points in detail.

We are given the invaluable information to begin to eat fermented foods which will provide us with massive amounts of probiotics and thus heal our gut.

The final section, informing us that all diseases begin in the gut, is most valuable.

There is a chapter with selected recipes, including how to ferment our foods ourselves.

The author writes well and in an entertaining style, though I found her “foreign” method of placing commas distracting.

In short, this is an absolutely invaluable book that sets us straight on the whole subject of coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis, the causes of the latter and how to prevent it and heal ourselves. I thoroughly recommend that you read this book! ( )