You may have noticed a large difference in the amounts of vitamin c and lysine recommended by Dr.Pauling and Dr. Rath in their formulas for the natural reversal of heart disease. This has been the subject of many questions about our free report. Dr. Rath’s dosages of these two essential nutrients only seems low by comparison. If Dr. Pauling’s higher doses of both vitamin c and lysine came matched in the same ratios of nutrients as the synergistic formula offered by Dr. Rath the total number of pills would be too many for some people. A larger number of pills may also be too expensive for some people as well. Basically, Dr. Rath and Dr. Pauling had to concentrate as much nutrition as possible into the fewest number of pills. This was for practical reasons of affordability and some people’s unwillingness to swallow large numbers of pills every day. Dr. Rath’s regimen dosages of vitamin C and lysine are still much higher than the USRDA recommendations.

So the differences in recommended dosages between the two scientists came down to a debate of quantity versus quality. Vitamin C and lysine are the two most essential ingredients of the Pauling/Rath formula for reversing heart disease. They have both agreed on this point. Collagen is made mostly of two amino acids, proline and lysine. Our bodies can make their own proline but are unable to manufacture their own lysine. This means lysine, like vitamin c, is an essential nutrient that we must consume in our diets. Dr. Pauling felt it was more important to give high doses of these two alone rather than the synergistic blend. Dr. Rath prefered to insure that those two essentials came with their partner nutrients knowing that they would enhance the effect of vitamin c and lysine. Either one of the formulas has proven to be effective and Dr. Rath was very open about the fundamental importance of both vitamin c and lysine as this quote from his book can attest.

“Vitamin c is the key nutrient for the stability of our blood vessels, our heart and all other organs of our body. Without viamin C our body would literally collapse and dissolve, as it happens in scurvy.

Vitamin c is responsible for an optimum production and function of collagen, elastin and other connective tissue molecules that give stability to the blood vessel walls and to our body. Vitamin c is important for fast wound healing throughout our body, including the healing of millions of tiny wounds and lesions at the inside of our blood vessel walls.

Vitamin c the most important antioxidant of the body. Optimum amounts of vitamin c protect the cardiovascular system and the body effectively against biological rusting. Vitamin c is also a cofactor for a series of biological catalysts (enzymes) which are important for an improved metabolism of cholesterol, triglycerides, and other risk factors, which helps to decrease the risk for cardiovascular disease.

Lysine, like vitamin c is an essential nutrient which means the body cannot make its own and has to be acquired in the diet. Lysine is an amino acid and a major component of collagen.

Lysine, like proline, is an important building block of collagen and of other stability molecules and its intake helps to stabilize the blood vessels and the other organs in the body.

Lysine is another “Teflon” agent, which can help release deposited fat globules from the blood vessel deposits. People with existing cardiovascular disease may increase their daily intake of Lysine and proline to several grams.

Both Proline and Lysine benefit from a combined intake of vitamin c. In order for collagen molecules to function properly, many of the amino acids lysine and proline composing the collagen molecules need to be chemically modified into hydroxy-lysine and hydroxy-proline. This is accomplished by vitamin c, nature’s most effective hydroxylating agent.

Lysine is also the precursor for the amino acid carnitine. The conversion from lysine into carnitine requires the presence of vitamin c as a biocatalyst. This is another reason why the combination of lysine with vitamin c is essential.”

Dr.Mathias Rath, pg. 203, Why Animals Dont Get Heart Attacks-but People Do, Health Now, 1997.