Dr Mel Siff Blog

Dr Mel Siff shoots straight from the hip in this post taken from the Supertraining mailing list.

For many years the role of elevated cholesterol in cardiac disease has been
debated but never adequately resolved. Several years ago, research suggested
that a bacterium, chlamydia pneumoniae, may be implicated in heart disease.
Now, workers are investigating the possibility that other bacteria may also be
involved in the process of cardiac disease.

I first read about this theory in 1997 soon after I had a near fatal heart
attack and quadruple bypass surgery and I raised the subject with my
cardiologist, who confirmed that he had also been studying the same research.
As a result, he suggested that I took a short dose of a specific antibiotic
called Azithromycin.

One of the sources which discussed this discovery was the Canada News, which
stated:

“Ours is the first compelling experimental evidence in the world to show how
a bacterial infection in the genital tract or lungs can lead to heart
disease,” Dr Penninger said of the study that his team published in the
scientific journal ‘Science’ (February 26, 1999).

Penninger and his research team found that the chlamydia bacterium resembles
the heart protein that makes the heart beat, but the body’s immune system
can’t tell the two apart. As a result, the immune system, which uses white
blood cells to kill off infectious diseases foreign to the body, is tricked
into launching twin attacks to destroy the invading bugs. It first attacks
the offending bacteria and then the heart protein. ”

http://canadanews.about.com/aboutcanada/canadanews/library/weekly/aa030199.htm
?iam=mt&terms=%2Bpenninger

Now, Penninger and co-workers have reported in ‘Nature Medicine’ (Aug 2000)
that bacteria, viruses and other microbes are all components of the protein
bit that is common to heart muscle and the chlamydia bacterium (Science News
Aug 2000, Vol 18).

In other words, microbes may play a central role in heart disease. Who
knows, within a few years elevated cholesterol and sedentary lifestyle may be
replaced by a dominant theory that heart disease may be “caught” like a
common cold and that all of the recommendations!

MORE REFERENCES

Other more technical articles relating to the same or related issues appear
in the following journals:

Penninger JM, Bachmaier K Review of microbial infections and the immune
response to cardiac antigens. J Infect Dis 2000 Jun;181 Suppl 3:S498-504

Bachmaier K, Neu N, Yeung RS, Mak TW, Liu P, Penninger JM. Generation of
humanized mice susceptible to peptide-induced inflammatory heart disease.
Circulation. 1999 Apr 13;99(14):1885-91

Bachmaier K, Neu N, de la Maza LM, Pal S, Hessel A, Penninger JM. Chlamydia
infections and heart disease linked through antigenic mimicry. Science. 1999
Feb 26;283(5406):1335-9.

Opavsky MA, Penninger J et al Susceptibility to myocarditis is dependent on
the response of alphabeta T lymphocytes to coxsackieviral infection. Circ Res
1999 Sep 17;85(6):551-8

Gura T. Chlamydia protein linked to heart disease. Science. 1999 Feb
26;283(5406):1238-9.

Bachmaier K, Le J, Penninger JM. “Catching heart disease”: antigenic mimicry
and bacterial infections. Nat Med. 2000 Aug;6(8):841-2.

Irwin MW, Mak S, et al Tissue expression and immunolocalization of tumor
necrosis factor-alpha in postinfarction dysfunctional myocardium.
Circulation. 1999 Mar 23;99(11):1492-8.

Penninger JM, Pummerer C, Liu P, Neu N, Bachmaier K. Cellular and molecular
mechanisms of murine autoimmune myocarditis. APMIS. 1997 Jan;105(1):1-13

Izumi T, Kodama M, Fujiwara M. Cardiac muscle cell damage through autoimmune
mechanism–can cardiac proteins provoke autoimmune myocarditis? Jpn Circ J.
1991 Nov;55(11):1138-43.

Dr Mel Siff

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Tags: Azithromycin, bacteria, Bacterial Infection, Bacterium Chlamydia, cardiac arrest, Cardiac Disease, Chlamydia, heart attack, Heart Muscle, Infectious Diseases, Mel Siff, Microbes, virus, viruses, White Blood Cells