Matters of the Heart

Etymology, emotions, anatomy, and health.

My favorite street in Paris is the Rue Gît-le-Cœur, located in the historical heart of the city, a few minutes walk from Notre Dame. Though it sounds a bit apocryphal to me, the name was allegedly coined by Henri IV, the first Bourbon King of France, whose mistress lived on the street. The King passed by one day and remarked "Ici git mon coeur" ("Here lies my heart").

I first visited the street in search of the Salle d’armes Coudurier—the oldest fencing club in Paris. If my memory serves, the original house regulations are still displayed on the wall, including the final rule: “Practice regularly; don’t wait until you are challenged to a duel.”

The French word coeur means “heart,” and for centuries the heart was thought to be the seat of erotic love and of bravery, or courage. Of all people in Europe, the French probably developed these related ideas the most in their culture and customs.

If a young man really loves a woman, he must have the courage to fight for her. Historians have calculated that during the reign of Henry IV of France (1589-1610) around 10,000 duels took place in the country, involving 20,000 duelists, 4,000 or 5,000 of whom lost their lives. In the 1630s Cardinal Richelieu complained that “duels have become so common in France that the streets are turning into battlefields.”

Leonardo da Vinci is often credited as the first man to conduct a proper study and description of the heart. He started by examining pigs’ hearts, but apparently somehow got permission from the Church to conduct autopsies on humans, and historians credit him as being the first to describe the heart’s four chambers as well as the condition that we now call arteriosclerosis. One of Leonardo’s many unusual qualities was his strange “mirror” handwriting in his notebooks, as is displayed in this drawing of a heart.

I doubt that Leonardo was the first guy to study and document the heart’s anatomy. When Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, the esteemed Roman physician Antistius examined the body and recorded 23 stab wounds in the corpse. As noted in the online journal, History Collection:

Caesar’s face and groin were amongst the injured areas. But Antistius was able to identify the fatal blow… It had entered Caesar’s body just under the left shoulder blade, at an angle that suggested Caesar could have been struck in the heart. But it was equally likely that the blade could have nicked a major artery, causing death by internal bleeding or have collapsed the dictator’s lung, causing the chest cavity to fill with blood, eventually collapsing the other lung and effectively suffocating him.

I have a hunch that Antistius and other Greek and Roman physicians had examined hearts, especially those of soldiers killed in combat. The ancient Greeks and Romans understood the critical role of the heart in sustaining life. They knew that life is sustained by the beating of the heart. The moment the heart stops beating is the moment we die.

When Dr. McCullough and I started the Courageous Discourse Substack, we wanted to celebrate the virtue of COURAGE, because it is what enables us to live and to speak freely and (when called upon) to stand up to tyrants. I also thought it a fitting word for a Substack whose principle author is a cardiologist.

Not only should we aspire to be courageous, we should do all that we can to take care of our hearts—both emotionally and physically. If you were bullied or hoodwinked into taking one of the abominable COVID-19 vaccines, you can take heart in the fact that the enzyme Nattokinase seems to help to protect the heart from the damaging effects of the Spike Protein (produced in uncontrolled amounts) by the genetic code injections. As defined by WebMD:

Nattokinase is an enzyme that comes from a Japanese food called natto. Natto is made from boiled soybeans that have been fermented with a type of bacteria. Nattokinase may thin the blood and help break up blood clots. This might protect against heart disease and conditions caused by blood clots such as stroke, heart attack, and others. People take nattokinase for cardiovascular diseases including heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and stroke

WebMD adds that “there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses.” However, Dr. McCullough and his colleagues recently published a study of Nattokinase’s apparent ability to dissolve the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, and they found evidence that the enzyme does indeed have this salutary effect.

Last year Dr. McCullough and I conducted a long interview and examined the medical records of a young, athletic woman named Sierra Lund who’d developed a severe and stubborn case of pericarditis immediately after receiving one of the Moderna shots.

Sierra had been taking Colchicine for eighteen months. Dr. McCullough recommended that she take a Nattokinase supplement in addition to Colchicine. A month later she wrote us to say:

I just wanted to thank you both so much. I’ve been taking the Nattokinase for about a month with my colchicine and my heart rate hasn’t spiked over 100 in 10 days. As well as my resting heart rate being 10 bpm lower on average, no moments of chest pains throughout the day, and more comfort when laying down. Truthfully the first sign of real progress I’ve had in a year and a half. I can’t express how grateful I am.

Guided by Dr. McCullough’s meticulous investigative scholarship, the Wellness Company has formulated a Nattokinase supplement called Spike Support. On this CYBER MONDAY, customers who purchase Spike Support will also receive a free supply of Dr. McCullough’s Healthy Heart formulation, containing several natural molecules that have been shown to protect and optimize heart health (see ingredients and their benefits below). Click on the graphic below to enjoy a free Wellness Company membership, and use the code HEART at checkout to receive Spike Support and Healthy Heart for the price of one.

HEALTHY HEART ingredients.

-Vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency in the extreme state leads to dysfunction of cardiovascular system, commonly known as wet beriberi. This tends to present as acute decompensated heart failure and also with signs of hyperdynamic circulation. Patients on diuretics lose thiamine through the urine.

-Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) intake was associated with reduced cardiovascular mortality in the NHANES Study. It is needed for red blood cell production and folate methylation within cells.

-Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) research shows that people with low blood levels of vitamin B6 have almost double the risk of getting heart disease compared to those with higher B6 levels. Conversely those with higher B6 concentrations have lesser rates of heart disease.

-Folate supplementation reduces homocysteine and enables a variety of important cellular functions including vascular endothelial function.

-Vitamin B7 (Biotin) production is decreased in the gut in obese patients and this can be a source of oxidative stress and increased senescence of cardiomyocytes.

-Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid) is important for cardiac energy metabolism since it is the precursor for Coenzyme A (CoA) which is required in the catabolism of all types of substrates.

-Selenium is a necessary cofactor for cardiomyocyte function. In my practice I recommend a daily intake of 200 mcg per day. So Heart Support complements Spike Support, both contain Selenium.

-D-ribose supplementation could improve mitochondrial function by increasing ATP and enhancing cardiac performance for patients with heart failure. There is a recently completed clinical trial with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction patients that indicates D-ribose increases ATP production and improves cardiac ejection fraction.

-L-Taurine may protect both the heart and the major blood vessels from damage during ischemia where there is insufficient delivery of oxygen (eg heart attack).

-L-Carnitine may play a role in nutritional supplementation in heart failure. It also have favorable effects on lowering blood lipids modestly.

-Coenzyme Q10 (Ubiquinone) supplementation reduces mortality in heart failure and death to to cardiovascular causes.