A Nobel prize in Medicine was awarded for the finding that lesions in the walls of blood vessels are the primary cause of atherosclerotic plaques. Clusters of "fat" molecules acting as repair agents form nature's "plaster casts" against the weakness of blood vessel walls. These sticky molecules are lipoprotein(a). If these deposits continue to develop in the arteries of the heart they lead to heart attack. If they continue to develop in the arteries of the brain they lead to stroke.
 
Hundreds of investigators found that only a specific type of cholesterol molecule, lipoprotein-(a), or Lp(a) for short, is the primary material that binds to a lesion in the walls of an artery forming plaques. Lp(a) is an ordinary LDL cholesterol molecule with a sticky apo-protein(a) (or apo(a)) attached to the surface. Animals that make their own vitamin C generally do not have the variant Lp(a) cholesterol molecules.
 
Dr Linus Pauling’s revolutionary concept is that lipoprotein-(a) cholesterol in the blood is an evolutionary adaption for, and a symptom of, low vitamin C.
 
After crucial experiments, Dr. Pauling and heart researcher Dr Matthias Rath believed that the vitamin C / lysine protocol would save lives by:
a) Preventing chronic scurvy,
b) Strengthening and healing blood vessels,
c) Keeping Lp(a) blood levels low and
d) Inhibiting the binding of Lp(a) molecules to blood vessel walls.
Pauling/Rath Unified Theory
Can the absence of cardiovascular disease in animals confirm the Pauling/Rath Unified Theory? According to veterinary text books, heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular disease in general -- is largely unknown in animals. Dr. Rath points out that if scientists could determine the reason, they would have an important clue to the puzzle.
 
Irwin Stone introduced Linus Pauling to the benefits of high amounts of vitamin C. Stone wrote, "We can surmise that the production of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) was an early accomplishment of the life process because of its wide distribution in nearly all present-day living organisms. It is produced in comparatively large amounts in the simplest plants and the most complex; it is synthesized in the most primitive animal species as well as in the most highly organized. Except possibly for a few micro-organisms, those species of animals that cannot make their own ascorbic acid are the exceptions and require it in their food if they are to survive. Without it, life cannot exist. Because of its nearly universal presence in both plants and animals we can also assume that its production was well organized before the time when evolving life forms diverged along separate plant and animal lines." [I. Stone, THE HEALING FACTOR: Vitamin C Against Disease, ‘76]
 
You might wonder, Don’t animals die young? The average life span of the Elephant is 60 years. There are other species (e.g. Giant Tortoises) that can live over 100 years. Why don’t most animals (other than primates, guinea pigs, fruit bats and a few parrots) suffer from heart disease? The reason, according to Linus Pauling:
 
Most animals produce their own vitamin C in amounts varying between 3,000 mg - 12,000 mg per day adjusted for body weight.
Most animals convert ordinary sugar (sucrose) to vitamin C in their kidneys or their liver. The newly created vitamin enters directly into the animals blood stream. Animals also get some vitamin C from their food.
Humans cannot produce a single molecule of vitamin C and must rely entirely on the diet. Tissue levels of ascorbic acid, the technical name for vitamin C, may be the most important difference between the physiology of primates (including humans) and other beings.
 
It is an important finding that the few animal species that do not produce vitamin C, such as the primates and guinea pigs, do produce the "sticky" Lp(a) molecules.
 
Pauling recommended that people supplement their diet with vitamin C in amounts hundreds of times higher than the 60 mg amount recommended by dietary authorities in the USA. If animal metabolisms are any guide, Pauling’s recommendation may be too low.
 
Pauling’s own experiments showed that roughly 1/2 the amount of vitamin C ingested may be lost in the digestive tract or by urinary excretion. [1986 Pauling video on Cancer]
 
Heart Disease Cure
The great chemist Linus Pauling and Heart researcher Dr Matthias Rath have led the medical paradigm shift away from vitamins-as-prevention to vitamins-as-therapy. Their efforts have failed to sway most medical doctors. Then in 1991, armed with the knowledge of Lp(a) and the understanding of how Lp(a) binds to our arteries creating plaque, Pauling/Rath invented what they came to believe, was the cure for heart disease.
The Pauling/Rath invention is based on chemistry. The idea is to nullify the binding effect of Lp(a) to the damaged arterial wall.
 
According to the Pauling/Rath 1994 United States patent, the amino acid lysine (lysine analogs), along with vitamin C and other antioxidants (e.g. Co-Q10, vitamin E and vitamin A), can, in sufficient concentration, inhibit Lp(a) binding to exposed lysine residues. Proline residues are also exposed by lesions in blood vessels. Later experiments showed that proline as well as lysine, with vitamin C, other amino acids and antioxidants, in oral amounts well past what is needed for prevention, becomes a solvent by inhibiting the binding of Lp(a). A binding inhibitor augmented with vitamin C can stop and apparently even reverses some plaque formations. Pauling and Rath even have a second U. S. patent for using these binding inhibitors as solvents to melt atherosclerotic plaques from human organs during organ transplants. The organ is dipped in the Lp(a) Binding Inhibitor solution and the plaques melt away.
Although the Pauling/Rath therapy is based on safe substances required for life, it acts like a powerful drug. The mega therapy increases blood concentrations of important substances so as to:

• Strengthen and heal blood vessels,
• Lower Lp(a) blood levels and keep Lp(a) levels low, and
• Inhibit the binding of Lp(a) molecules to the walls of blood vessels.

Pauling/Rath claimed that large megadoses of Lp(a) binding inhibitors taken orally will prevent and may even dissolve existing atherosclerotic plaque build-ups. These levels, apparently achievable in most people at oral doses well beyond what we normally consume, raise blood concentrations to therapeutic levels.
 
We call high intakes of these substances, esp. vitamin C and lysine, the Pauling therapy. The Pauling therapy treats the root cause and our experience shows it can rapidly reverse advanced heart disease.
 
Increase Vitamin C intake.
If the Pauling/Rath Unified Theory is correct, then the most likely reason you have heart disease is because your vitamin C intake has been less than optimal. You will want to increase your vitamin C.