Infection with latent Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) may lead to heart disease and heart attacks. – PLoS One
Everybody knows that high cholesterol can cause heart disease.
Now, studies have shown that viruses can also cause atherosclerosis, the scientific name for heart disease. For many years, the scientific and medical communities believed that viruses may be dangerous but only when replicating and causing symptoms. They did not believe that while dormant, or latent, viruses can cause disease.
New research, published by PLoS One, has provided “the support for …the role of latent viral infections as an environmental risk factor for atherosclerosis and acute coronary events…..” (1) This research provides backing for the Microcompetition Theory introduced by Dr. Hanan Polansky in 2003. (2) The theory argues that foreign DNA fragments, called N-boxes, cause most major diseases including heart disease.
What’s Missing on This List? Latent Herpes Viruses.
In the nucleus, “microcompetition” between the foreign N-boxes and the human N-boxes in the human genes can lead to a major disease.
When the foreign N-boxes belong to a virus, microcompetition between the viral DNA and the human DNA can lead to disease even when the virus is latent (dormant), or the viral DNA is broken into pieces and cannot express proteins.
As predicted by Dr. Hanan Polansky, the PLoS One study shows that “viral infections can promote both the evolution of atherosclerosis (heart disease) and the occurrence of acute coronary events (heart attacks)…even during incomplete viral replication when there is a low viral load that is difficult to detect using standard analytic methods. This would account for the inability of some reports to confirm the presence of a virus such as EBV despite its proposed role in atherogenesis.” (1)
In simple terms, certain herpes viruses can lead to heart disease and heart attacks.
The Epstein Barr virus (a herpes virus) may cause these conditions even when the numbers of EBVs in the body are extremely low, or when it is latent, that is, showing no signs of an infection.
This means that people who feel completely healthy, yet are infected by EBV, are at risk of developing heart disease even if they keep their cholesterol low.