LLycine and Vitamin C (Ascorbate) are a powerful combination which have profound and vital effects on our health.
Studies, starting back with Dr.
Linus Pauling (a two time Nobel prize winner for his discoveries) have shown that heart disease comes about because of factors which these two nutrients prevent.
Unfortunately, neither are manufactured in the human body.
We are rare because most animals are able to naturally produce them.
Interestingly we were able to produce it in the past and scientists have actually found the gene responsible - which lies dormant today.
It is estimated that it stopped working about 10,000 years ago.
Therefore Ascorbate and L-Lysine must be taken by supplement.
They should be mixed in water for best absorption.
What these do for the body includes maintaining immunity against diseases and infections, promoting calcium absorption, proper growth, cholesterol control, allowing the formation of collagen (part of the collagen matrix) which is the basic fabric of the body and many, many more.
Popular sources of nutritional information, today, are almost criminally silent regarding these crucial benefits.
Published standards for daily recommendations for Vitamin C are barely a fraction of what we really need.
Studies have shown that we need about 3 to 5 grams, daily (depending upon body size and other factors) to prevent and even reverse atherosclerotic plaques from forming on the arterial walls.
Points to note:

• Since guinea pigs also do not produce ascorbate, an experiment was run giving one group no ascorbate and the other an equivalent of 3 to 5 grams, daily.
  The experiment was done several times and in each time atherosclerosis (plaque build-up) was induced in the guinea pigs without the ascorbate.
  The groups with the ascorbate produced collagen and showed no signs of the disease.
  This experiment was conclusive.
  
• Another scientific paper summarized that vitamin C deficiency is the direct and most frequent cause of heart attacks.
  They also noted that humans are unique in their suffering from heart attack and stroke but rarely from failure of other organs.
  They also concluded and noted that animal species who are able to produce their own vitamin C in the body do not develop heart disease.
  
• At University of Southern California, their " The Life Extension Foundation" concluded from their own ultrasound tests that 23 out of 30 of the subjects, who took very high vitamin C supplement s, had no evidence of carotid plaque formation, no obstructions or thickening of the arteries and no signs of cardiovascular disease.
  Their extensive tests caused them to conclude that plaque buildup is the body's way of patching the walls of arteries and veins made structurally weak from insufficient collagen and this condition is caused by inadequate vitamin C in the diet.
  

Vitamin C is vital in the formation and maintenance of collagen which is the basis of connective tissues found in skin, ligaments, cartilage, vertebral discs, joint linings, capillary walls, and the bones and teeth.
Scurvy is a disease which is caused by lack of Vitamin C.
Though a big problem for sailors in the past, today most of the population is actually sub-scurvy (a mild form) and have cracked blood vessels as a result.
The body attempts to patch the arterial walls to keep the body from bleeding internally and this results in the buildup of the plaque that can kill us.
Hopefully this simplified explanation drives home the importance of getting sufficient Vitamin C (ascorbate) in your diet.
This stuff about elevated cholesterol being the cause of plaque build up is drivel.
Cholesterol is a factor, just as bricks are A FACTOR in building a home, but NOT THE CAUSE.
Why is this not common and well- disseminated knowledge?

• Linus Pauling was "boggled' by how few a clinical scientific studies were done regarding relationship between Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C) deficiency and atherosclerosis.
  
• Since then, there have been others who have verified the discoveries about vitamin C.
  Given the certainty that has been established it is quite mysterious the missing info about vitamin C in established circles of medicine.
  I, and others, believe that this not being broadly disseminated is either an intentional omission or truly constitutes scientific fraud.
  
• The most likely reason is that this information would cut across the financial and operating lines of the established pharmaceutical­-medical complex that operates and exists only so long as the disease also exists.
  Don't get me wrong, these are not bad people but they suffer from the very-human desire to survive as a profession and a simple treatment for such a serious condition would put many of them out of business.
  If any entity survives because of a bad situation, they will tend not to get rid of the bad situation.
  Sorry - but that is the truth.
  

Conclusion: Science has known for many decades that damage to the walls of blood vessels (or lesions) are a necessary precondition for the formation of atherosclerotic plaques in human beings.
Plaque forms when the artery walls are damaged and the body is trying to simply repair the situation.
These lesions or cracks occur because of too little Vitamin C.
This is a simple fact.
Too few know it.
SO PLEASE TAKE NOTE.
Please note, I am not a doctor of medicine.
These are my opinions based upon my own research.
You should follow your own health care professional's recommendations.
Your health also includes your gaining all the knowledge you can so you can be a partner with your health care professional and take charge of your own health destiny.
If you are at risk of heart disease, or have a family history of heart disease, you NEED to be taking sufficient ascorbate and L-Lysine.
Frankly, everyone should.