Arterial disease is the most serious health problem in the modern world. Isn’t it curious, that with all this talk about including exercise in our life style, nowhere is there an explanation of how aerobic exercise prevents the buildup of cholesterol and hardening of the arteries? Many books describe the improved arterial profile resulting from aerobics. Extensive research has made it clear that exercise is extremely beneficial. Unfortunately, the actual cause-and-effect chain has not been understood.

In this book the information unfolds by way of a conversation between three human entities, The Mental, The Physical, and The Emotional. Revealed through their discussion are the reasons why a lack of aerobic exercise is to blame for hardening of the arteries, the development of excessive cholesterol on the inside walls of arteries, and weak collateral circulation.

As a physical educator, the author spent thirty-seven years teaching the aerobic preventive approach to arterial difficulties. He says, "We are talking about a muscle system that has been weakened by the inactivity of modern technology." This will be the first published explanation of how aerobics actually influences the inside diameter of arteries.

The projected readership will be physical educators, the medical community, athletes, and everyone possessing arteries. This fresh approach has no rival and represents a genuine advance in the prevention of arterial disease. We are not what we eat, but rather we are what we do.

Ron Portal is retired after thirty-seven years of teaching physical education in the San Jose Unified School District.

Portal says that his career was most influenced by a thirty-five year old heart specialist who was the keynote speaker at a physical education conference in 1961. The doctor provided his audience with a detailed explanation of the effects that aerobic exercise has on the arterial system. The most interesting information he provided was that aerobic exercise lowers the resting pulse rate and that it is the elevated resting pulse rate that causes hardening of the arteries and not cholesterol. Shortly after that presentation, the young doctor unexpectedly died of a brain tumor and his revolutionary ideas about the influence of aerobic exercise were forgotten.

Portal observed that though out the 20th century increased research continued to strongly support the doctor’s views about aerobic exercise and improved arterial profiles. Unfortunately the effects were not understood and attempts at an explanation resulted in blind speculation (B.S.).

Frustrated because the current general belief has cholesterol as the villain and diet as the most important preventive feature of arterial disease, Portal became convinced it is time and there is a need for Aerobics, The Invisible Advantage.

CHAPTER ONE

FACTS AND THEORIES

In which the three Voices, "Mental," "Emotional," and "Physical" that are part of all of us introduce the importance of a lower resting pulse rate and the need for aerobic exercise when we talk about reducing artery disease.

The Emotional: "You guys always end up arguing about which of you is more important and I always feel left out."

The Physical: "Well, behavior is a pretty big deal and my all-important muscle is responsible for every bit of it."

The Mental: "Yes, but none of your muscle behavior occurs without direction from my brain."

The Emotional: "See, there you go. I thought we were supposed to work together."

The Physical: "Well, we do work together."

The Emotional: "I could make the argument that it’s my feeling good that should be the ultimate goal."

The Mental: "Yes, and feeling good often depends on how well The Physical and I work together but we don’t always agree."

The Emotional: "See, there it is, you’ve regulated my well-being to whatever you guys come up with. You both forget that I’m often a major influence on the ability of each of you to function."

The Mental: "OK, I agree, but no matter what, I’m the one in charge. I make all the decisions."

The Physical: "That’s fine as long as the decisions are in our collective best interest, but sometimes they aren’t."

The Mental: "Balony! When have I ever made a bad decision?"

The Physical: "For starters, I’m concerned about your warped approach to arterial disease, which is our greatest life-threatening challenge."

The Mental: "Are you talking about heart disease here?"

The Physical: "When you use the term, ‘heart disease,’ you localize the problem to the heart when in fact arterial difficulties can occur throughout the body."

The Mental: "Well, the experts have been calling it heart disease for almost a century."

The Emotional: "Listen, sometimes the experts are wrong. Don’t forget it was the experts who once believed the earth was flat."

The Mental: "That’s a ridiculous comparison."

The Physical: "It may not be ridiculous when we consider that the general population believes that diet is the most important factor when it comes to preventing heart disease, when the most important influence should really be aerobic exercise."

The Mental: "Well, in general, the medical community has determined that it is the build up of cholesterol on the inside walls of arteries, often called atherosclerosis or plaque, that causes arteriosclerosis, which is frequently referred to as hardening or thickening of the arterial wall."

The Emotional: "So, many people believe that diet is the most important factor because it’s the best way to control cholesterol consumption."

The Physical: "Exactly. Cholesterol is misunderstood. It’s really a lack of aerobic exercise that contributes most to arterial disease."

The Emotional: "I do hear exercise mentioned but usually in a supportive role and not as the primary factor as is the case with diet."

The Physical: "Exercise has a secondary status because just how aerobics retards the development of excessive cholesterol and arteriosclerosis hasn’t been recognized,"

The Emotional: "That’s true. I’ve read the results of extensive research on exercise, and the experts always mention the importance of an exercise life-style, but there’s never an explanation of exactly how aerobics changes the inside of the arterial system."

The Mental: "Physical, are you telling us that cholesterol doesn’t cause hardening of the arteries?"

The Physical: "Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying."

The Mental: "Well if cholesterol isn’t responsible for hardening of the arteries, then what is to blame?

The Physical: "It’s a rapid resting pulse rate that causes arteriosclerosis."

The Mental: "Physical, you’ve got to be crazy to make such a claim. It’s common knowledge that cholesterol causes hardening of the arteries, excuse me, arteriosclerosis."

The Physical: "No, it isn’t cholesterol, it’s that overlooked resting pulse rate that’s to blame. Aerobic exercise reduces an excessive resting pulse rate.

The Mental: "I’ve never heard that before. It sounds like a really off-the-wall idea. I’d rather rely on facts."

The Physical: "What facts are you talking about?"

The Mental: "Everyone knows that excessive accumulation of cholesterol on the inside wall of the artery causes hardening of the arteries."

The Physical: "It’s true that arteriosclerosis or hardening of the arteries is always accompanied by excessive amounts of cholesterol ‘atherosclerosis’, but to assume that the cholesterol is the cause of the thickening of the arterial wall is pure theory."

The Mental: "It seems to me that all that consistency strongly supports the theory.

The Physical: "No matter how consistent the appearance, it’s only an unverified theory because there’s no explanation of how all that cholesterol actually causes the hardening and thickening of the arterial wall."

The Mental: "Then the experts are wrong?"

The Physical: "The experts have arrived at a perfectly reasonable conclusion. However, it’s not an explanation, it’s only an assumption."

The Emotional: "What about my stress? I thought it was a fact that my stress level contributes to heart disease."

The Physical: "You’re right, research demonstrates that people with arterial problems often show high stress."

The Emotional: "Well then, doesn’t that kind of research consistency make it a fact?"

The Physical: "As with cholesterol, the overwhelming connection between stress levels and heart disease isn’t ignored by the experts. There’s a strong correlation. It would only be fact if the actual effect of stress on the arterial system could be explained."

The Mental: "So, Physical, are you saying that your resting pulse rate idea is really the one we should be focusing on?"

The Physical: "Yes, aerobic exercise strengthens arterial muscle which lowers the resting pulse rate’s pace. It’s not only the most logical explanation, but it’s the only one that’s accompanied by a description of cause and effect."

The Mental: Now that you mention it, I must agree. We’re constantly being told that exercise is good for us without ever hearing why.

The Emotional: "That’s interesting, I have noticed that a sedentary life-style, or more specifically a lack of aerobic exercise, is always presented as one of the health risk factors."

The Physical: "Yes, and extensive research involving aerobic exercise has demonstrated its considerable benefits for good health."

The Emotional: "Well, that all sounds pretty factual. Why haven’t the effects of aerobics been told to us?"

The Physical: "Prior to this conversation, the influence of aerobics on the arteries has never been explained. This has the effects of exercise as correlated but not proven."

The Mental: "You’ve got to be off-base. Don’t you realize that your going against a long established majority opinion?"

The Physical: "Listen, Mental, don’t you find it curious that in spite of all the supporting evidence, there has never been an explanation of how aerobics reduces hardening of the artery walls and build-up of cholesterol, the two conditions that most narrow the inside diameter of the artery?"

The Mental: "That does seem strange. Why is that?"

The Physical: "It simply hasn’t been understood."

The Emotional: "Are you saying that exercise is the ultimate form of prevention when so many other sources are claiming prevention comes from diet, drugs, herbs, acupuncture, meditation, psychotherapy and other treatments?"

The Physical: "Each of those approaches might play a comparatively small role and might make a contribution to prevention. However, in terms of influence, compared with aerobic exercise, they all have insignificant effects. Before all else we are talking about a muscle system that has been allowed to become weak. This is why the exercise approach demands the initial focus."