An interesting article was posted recently:
Mutation found that cures heart disease
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562542/posts
In 1980, a man from a small town called Limone Sul Garda in northern Italy went to a doctor for some problem, not heart related.
Testing of his blood showed very high levels of triglycerides, and very low levels of HDL, the good form of cholesterol. By all rights, the man should have either been dead from, or in imminent danger of a heart attack.
But his arteries were clear.
Analysis of his blood showed he had a very special form of Lipoprotein, a type of HDL. And further work with this particular type of Lipoprotein revealed astounding results.
In some of the initial small scale tests of this form of HDL, volunteers were given one shot a week of it, for a trial that lasted five weeks.
Measurements of the blockage in their arteries showed that total blockage was reduced by 4% in five weeks. While this may not sound like much, to a cardiologist, it's equivalent to taking years off of your cardiac age.
Further testing and analysis with animals show fantastic results. While standard HDL's are desirable, this substance has been shown to for all intents and purposes, to completely reverse heart disease.
I smoked for 18 years, quite for 15 years and then suffered the same scenario as John Ritter.
He was one of the 95% who died instantly, I was one of the 5% who survived.
After all the testing, surgery, and trauma, I was told by the finest in medicine that my heart toted the physical characteristics of the heart of an 18 year old lacking scar tissue at the age of 43.
I never watched my diet, smoked, and life styled happily, however I have never been considered obese.
God decides timing...
Papers can be wrote, PHd's can be sought, and money can be spent, however in the long run, your just part of the plan as an individual IMO.