The Heart Attack Germ: Prevent Strokes, Heart Attacks and the Symptoms of Alzheimer's by Protecting Yourself from the Infections and Inflammation of Ca [Paperback]

"The Heart Attack Germ" packs a wealth of information into its pages. I'd read a little about the idea that infection causes (or at least may contribute to) heart disease, but I couldn't find a book on the topic until I came across this one. The authors tell you everything you need to know about this new theory and the research data that support it. There's also a detailed section on exactly what your doctor is looking for during an office visit - all those mysterious things like patting your back and telling you to cough are explained in detail. The book is well-written, in a breezy, conversational style with a sense of humor. If you want to know more about this emerging new view of heart disease and what it may mean for you, I recommend "The Heart Attack Germ."

I read this book just after "The Potbelly Syndrome". They cover similar ground but this author has a medical background (to me that is not necessarily a good thing given the drugs-are-wonderful blinkers of the medical profession). Both books provide an alternative view, claiming that many health problems and degenerative diseases are actually due to long-term infections, often in chronic form that the standard tests fail to identify and that (therefore) most doctors ignore or even deny.

Physicians are reluctant to accept that standard tests might not be foolproof and even more reluctant to accept that the same type of bacteria and viruses present in healthy people could cause a variety of diseases in sick people, even though almost all healthy people eventually die of the same diseases, such as cancer, heart or kidney disease, and stroke (see PS below).

Chlamydia Pneumoniae (not the same as the sexually-transmitted form of Chlamydia, it has thus recently been renamed to Chlamydophila pneumoniae) is the most mentioned in both books, although there are many others that could be relevant. It is for this radical departure from the usual viewpoint that I have given it the two stars although this book disappoints in the long run. It takes over 300 pages to explain the problem; then there are less than 5 pages to explain the "advanced treatment" which consists mainly of - wait for it - repeated rounds of antibiotic treatment!

The proven counterproductive aspects of antibiotics are completely ignored and no success stories (either anecdotal or research-based) are provided for this "solution". In 2005 researchers reported that, in acne patients, antibiotic users are twice as likely to get an upper respiratory tract infection within a year; the Feb. 18, 2004 issue of "The Journal of the American Medical Association" provides evidence that long-term antibiotic use is linked to increased breast cancer risks (and they haven't yet researched other cancers in the same way); in children antibiotic treatment has been associated with increased risk of recurrences; these are just three bits of the ever-mounting evidence that antibiotics are dangerous yet this book offers antibiotics as the answer?! Words fail me.

The book indicates antiviral treatment may also be necessary and then touches briefly on fungal infections but does not recommend antifungal treatment. (No mention is made of parasites in either book; to me this is a worrying oversight.) To my further surprise and disappointment, this book also recommends daily aspirin, a "treatment" that has been proved dangerous, and then repeats the usual (useless) diet and exercise BS we've been getting for decades.

Basically, this book claims to cover improved treatments for the most prevalent chronic infections but does not. Where the "The Potbelly Syndrome" is so much better - although it too provides no real solution - is that it goes way beyond this, providing some of the evidence that the "lose weight & exercise" mantra is useless advice and looking at more up-to-date alternatives.

Also worth reading is Alan Cantwell's "Four Women Against Cancer" which explains how CWD bacteria - they can live without having a cell wall and therefore act more like a virus - cause cancer and how, since this bacteria is inside the cancer cells, tests don't find them and anti-microbial treatments (both natural and synthetic antibiotics, antifungals, antiprotozoals, and antivirals) do not cure cancer. This and the similar theory in The Heart Attack Germ book may be the underlying basis for many incurable health problems.

P.S. There are a few other books on this point: "The Inflammation Cure" by Meggs and Svec, "The Inflammation Syndrome" by Challem (dietary remedies only, in this one), "Stopping Inflammation" by Appleton (food again, particularly sugar, dairy and wheat as the bad guys), "Inflammation Nation" by Chilton (good and bad fats), and "The Anti-Inflammation Zone" by Sears (nutrition again) all appeared in 2003/4/5 - and all discuss the role of inflammation in the major diseases of our time, and some of the things that one can do to limit inflammation.

All those books are also fairly easy to read but, as I know too well after more than a decade of careful nutrition, none really has a complete solution for the problem - nor can I find anything more recent that might have offered newer/better advice even though there's more and more evidence to back up the book's claims - in 2009 one report suggests that high blood pressure could be caused by a common virus, known as CMV, affecting between 60 and 99 per cent of adults worldwide, and that it is also linked to kidney disease, stroke and even cancer.

I suspect one of the reasons is that they are looking at fairly conventional solutions. I tried Lugol's (safe, inexpensive, non-invasive, and simple), having already highly rated "Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It" by Dr David Brownstein in the context of thyroid and recently realizing that Dr Brownstein also wrote that "No virus, bacteria or parasite has been shown to be resistant to iodine therapy" but it did not make a noticeable difference in this respect although it has helped many.

I'd recommend looking instead at a well-researched book called "Outsmart Your Cancer" - anything that can HEAL cancer is also a general healer and should be able to help much else in the body as well as "Trick and Treat" by Groves which turns modern eating advice on its head, backed up by plenty of evidence, and "Never Fear Cancer Again" by Raymond Francis, a brilliant distillation of what is truly needed for health. All 3 should be on the "top 10" of any list of books on health. Also, the supplement Papaya 35, a super concentrate with fermented pawpaw.

This is an informative and well written book about the notorious Heart Attack Germ also known as Chlamydia pneumonia and how it relates to heart attacks, Alzheimer disease and other symptoms in the body. The author is a retired physician and surgeon who explains in detail and at times with a sense of humor what we all should know about our body. He covers everything from doctor office visits to lab work, preventative medicine and the detailed illustrations throughout the book make it easy for the non-medical reader to understand.

I highly recommend this book.

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