Don Colbert - The New Bible Cure for Heart Disease: Ancient Truths, Natural Remedies, and the Latest Findings for Your Health Today

H OPE BEATS THE statistics and will help you overcome the threat of cardiovascular disease. In the United States, over 800,000 people a year die from disease related to the cardiovascular system. Nearly another 150,000 die from strokes, which are the equivalent of a heart attack of the brain. While the good news is that these numbers are on the decrease, the bad news is that cardiovascular disease is still the leading cause of death in the United States. Instead of becoming one of these statistics, you can take positive steps naturally and spiritually to beat heart disease. The risk of heart attacks can still be greatly lessened through dietary and lifestyle changes.

In fact, cardiovascular disease is one of the most treatable and preventable of all afflictions, despite the fact that it causes more than one in three of all deaths in the United States every year. That means you can fight back, overcome, and win the battle. Through lifestyle changes, good nutrition, prayer, and Scripture reading, you can respond in confident hope to this disease.

The initial symptoms and warning signs of heart disease are not a death sentence, but they are a life warning. Change is required. Positive steps must be taken. The way you live and eat cannot remain the same if you want to have a healthy and strong heart. Take courage, and be hopeful. You and God will prevail as you learn about the Bible cure for cardiovascular disease.

Originally published as The Bible Cure for Heart Disease in 1999, The New Bible Cure for Heart Disease has been revised and updated with the latest medical research on this disease. If you compare it side by side with the previous edition, youll see that its also larger, allowing me to expand greatly upon the information provided in the previous edition and provide you with a deeper understanding of what you face and how to overcome it.

Unchanged from the previous edition are the timeless, life-changing, and healing scriptures throughout this book that will strengthen and encourage your spirit and soul. The proven principles, truths, and guidelines in these passages anchor the practical and medical insights also contained in this book. They will effectively focus your prayers, thoughts, and actions so you can step into Gods plan of divine health for youa plan that includes victory over heart disease.

Another change since the original The Bible Cure for Heart Disease was published is that Ive released The Seven Pillars of Health. I encourage you to read it because the principles of health it contains are the foundation to healthy living that will affect all areas of your life. It sets the stage for everything you will ever read in any other book Ive publishedincluding this one.

I pray that these spiritual and practical suggestions for health, nutrition, and fitness will bring wholeness to your life, increase your spiritual understanding, and strengthen and prolong your ability to worship and serve God.

DR. DON COLBERT

ABIBLE CUREPrayer for You

Heavenly Father, open my eyes to the natural and spiritual ways I can prevent and overcome cardiovascular disease. Give me the insight to apply all I learn with great wisdom. And grant me Your abiding peace, freeing me from all fear, anxiety, and worry as I trust in Your sovereign will. In the name of the Healer, Jesus of Nazareth, amen.

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HOPE TO BEAT THE STATISTICS FOR HEART DISEASE

H AVE YOU EVER considered the marvelous design and operation of your cardiovascular system? Its the bodys amazing superhighway. The large arteries within it are much like interstate expressways, and the smaller arteries are like streets and side streets. The primary function of the circulatory system is to deliver oxygen and nutrients to all the cells in your body and to remove cellular debris and waste.

Each day your heart beats approximately 100,000 times pushing about 2,000 gallons of blood through the 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body, which include arteries, veins, and capillaries. Despite this incredible distance, blood circulates throughout your entire system about once a minute. Thus your heart will beat over 2.5 billion times if you live an average lifespan, and it will pump over 50 billion gallons of blood. This superhighway system is truly wonderful.

Wouldnt it be a good idea to keep this blood vessel superhighway free of traffic jams?

Yes, we might think of heart problems in terms of traffic flowand a traffic jam. The worst contributor to a potentially deadly backup is a condition called atherosclerosis, which attacks the hearts blood vessels. The arteries that supply the heart with blood and nourishment are the coronary arteries. These are the most stressed arteries of the body because theyre squeezed flat from the pumping action of the heart.

Atherosclerosis is the hardening of these arteries most commonly due to excessive amounts of plaque. This plaque contains cholesterol, calcium, white blood cells, collagen, elastin, platelets, and other materials. You could compare plaque to a buildup of debris in a pipe. As the plaque builds up in the arteries, blood flow is eventually decreased to vital organs, including the heart and brain. This buildup can lead to an interruption of blood flow to an artery in the brain, which causes a stroke. When blood flow is interrupted in a coronary artery, a heart attack occurs.

If atherosclerosis is the cause of a traffic jam in the blood flow, youll be happy to know that forces are at work in your body to free up the traffic jam. I can explain this best by breaking the process into two parts: (1) the problem of free radicals, and (2) the problem of inflammation, which Ill discuss in the next chapter.

A free radical isnt a terrorist trying to bomb our embassy; rather, its a defective molecule that sends out molecular shrapnel, damaging the coronary arteries and other cells in our bodies. To envision this problem, think about the oxidation process. Burn wood in a fireplace, and smoke is a by-product. Likewise, when you metabolize food into energy, oxygen oxidizes (or burns) the food in order to produce energy. This process does not create smoke like burning wood in a fireplace, but it does produce dangerous by-products known as free radicals. These are molecules that have electrons roaming free to do damage in other cells. The by-products of oxidation are called free radicals. Isnt it ironic that breathing oxygen is critical for life and that oxygen usage by the cells is our bodies greatest source of free radicals?

With regard to heart disease, the problem is that free radicals wreak havoc on the linings of arteries. You see, the lining of the coronary arteries is comprised of very sensitive cells that can easily sustain damage by free radicals produced from oxygen free radicals, cigarette smoke, hypertension, excessive stress, high cholesterol, high lipoprotein(a), elevated homocysteine, and other risk factors. Oxidation is a normal biochemical process in the body. However, sometimes excessive amounts of free radicals are produced, or we have inadequate antioxidant protection. This oxidative stress can damage healthy cells and tissues, including the lining of the arteries or endothelium. When LDL cholesterol is oxidized, it is especially damaging to the arterial lining and is associated with plaque formation.

So, free radicals are the enemies of our blood vessels and of our bodies cells in general. Some estimates calculate that the cells in our bodies may sustain over 10,000 hits from free radicals each day, especially if we have inadequate antioxidants.

Dont you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For Gods temple is holy, and you are that temple.