We have lost a gifted actor, his wife has lost her loving partner, and his two children have lost their “hero!”
Most of all, we have lost, yet again, an opportunity to shed new light on what really causes “heart disease…” Let me explain this further.
Here are some of the leading headlines alerting us to the “heart disease” fueling Gandolfini’s untimely death:

• “James Gandolfini: Heart Problems Top  Cause of Vacation Death” (www.livescience.com)
• “James Gandolfini was a ‘Walking Time Bomb,’ Says Top Heart Doc” (www.newsmax.com)
• “Could Testing Have Prevented James Gandolfini Cardiac Arrest?” (www.huggingtonpost.com)
• “Heart Attack and Sudden Death. ‘It’s the particles stupid.’ “ (www.docsopinion.com)

It is this last one that I’m hoping you’ll take a moment and read. It is an important article to understand.
As you read the comments attached to this article, one reader even raises a question about Magnesium! Sakes alive, this is akin to Harry Potter saying the name: “Voldemort!” at Hogwart’s Academy. Sacrilege!… How dare they confuse this #1 cause of death (for 100+ years in America, mind you…) with a lowly mineral deficiency…
Well, here are  my comments that www.docsopinion.com elected to exclude from their readership. I’ll share them with you now:

Curious that Magnesium gets no response (this comment had NO retort for 36 hours…) In effect, these are questions that any MAG-pie worried about their heart’s health might ask their Cardiologist to better understand why a robust 51 year old celebrity would suddenly drop dead while on vacation…

o What caused the elevated cholesterol in the first place? Answer: There are three enzymes (LPL, LCAT and HMG CoA Reductase — all Mg dependent, btw) that didn’t regulate the blood lipids properly due to an obvious  Mg deficiency… It turns out that $tatins are designed to affect the HMG CoA Reductase, which lowers cholesterol levels when activated by Mg-ATP , except with recognized side effects.

o What caused the plaque, vulnerable or otherwise? Answer: A recent blockbuster scientific article (Maier JAM, Clinical Science 2012) puts the spotlight on 10 dysfunctions inside the Endothelial Cells of the coronary arteries — again, all of them the result of Mg deficiency…  And said another way, essentially what happens is that the LDLs (that didn’t get made into HDLs — see note above ^^^) rust (“oxidize”) due to an increase in the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) because key anti-oxidant enzymes couldn’t get activated due to a lack of Magnesium (Esfandiari E et al, Jrl Agricul Science 2010).

o What caused the Inflammation inside the heart and arteries? Answer: This is where the field of Cardiology is moving the spotlight now, based on the work of Peter Libby, MD (Circulation, 2002). That’s all well and good, but a full decade previously, William Weglicki, MD and Terry Phillips, MD (Am Jrl of Physiology 1992) published a definitive article that proved that Inflammation, and the entire Inflammatory Cascade (Substance P >> IL-1, IL-6, TNFa >> host of Chemokines & Cytokines), arrive on the scene when the level of Mg deficiency gets too great INSIDE the cell…

o So, what REALLY caused James Gandolffini’s heart attack? Answer: It became starved for energy! And how is energy spelled inside the heart muscle cells (and every other cell in our body, btw) — Mg-ATP. You see, the “battery” that runs our cellular activity is called ATP, and it’s Magnesium that brings that ATP to life!” And what depletes Mg faster than a NY minute? “Stress!” It’s very well documented in the scientific, clinical and magnesium literature…
 

Gee wiz… that’s a lot of dysfunction caused by just one lowly mineral…
That’s exactly how I see it. And with sufficient time and information, that’s how I’m hoping you’ll see it!
As a former hospital exec and consultant I had no idea that soooo many aspects of heart health and cardiac metabolic activity are maintained by Magnesium, but especially the Mg status of the heart. In fact, a heart unable to make adequate amounts of Mg-ATP, literally starves itself to death. A bit graphic, but far more accurate, both clinically and physiologically.
And it’s not that this Magnesium deficiency is some “new” disease… It is merely that new and leading research is revealing that the mechanism of “heart disease” starts far earlier than realized, and at a cellular level that underlies all these cardiac issues and events.
And would more testing have found this out? It’s actually a great question and the subject of a forthcoming post later this week…

For those seeking new answers to heart disease, please take a spin at www.gotmag.org. The Magnesium Advocacy Group (MAG) is shedding important new light about the metabolic mineral, Magnesium, that regulates thousands of proteins, enzymes and functions inside our bodies, as well as what Mg deficiency does to set the stage for most chronic disease, but especially heart disease…

A votre sante!