Regarding populations on the industrialized "western affluent" diet, arguments ure made that: (1) plasma glucose values commonly seen and accepted as normal are abnormal; (2) their glucose tolerance is innately unstable; (3) most of their rnorbidifv and mortality is produced by hyperglycemia far below glycosuria and or arteriosclerosis which can occur independently or together; (4) simple low cost methods for preventing and treating both haw been in the literature for decades (correction of the sugar, fat and protein excesses; and controlled supplementation of pyridoxine (vitamin B6,). Mg, Cr and coenzyme Q10); and (5) these lessons were missed by main stream medicine because of the vast size of the literature, enforcement of "treatment of choice", and lack of computer aided diagnosis. Cited as striking evideiice of this tragic situation is the failure of mainstream clinical medicine to understand the cause of the remarkable decline in CVD in the 1960s and 1970s that followed U.S. enrichment of cereals with pyridoxine (vitamin B6). Recommendations are made for correction of unnecessary costly delays between publication and implementation of such research findings.