Quieting the insulin storm

1. November 2008 William Davis (15)
The cycle of eating, satiety, and hunger is largely driven by insulin and blood sugar responses.

For instance, if I eat a bowl of Cheerios, my blood sugar will surge to 140 mg/dl or higher (how high depending on insulin sensitivity). The flood of sugar from this Frankenfood triggers the release of insulin; blood sugar then settles back down.

The decline in blood sugar back down to normal or below normal powerfully triggers hunger. Variable degrees of shakiness, mental fogginess, and irritability also commonly occur. Most people experience this to some extent; some experience an exagerrated version called "reactive hypoglycemmia" and can suffer peculiar personality changes, irrational and even violent behavior.

Foods made with wheat or cornstarch raise blood sugar higher and faster than table sugar. Accordingly, blood sugar and insulin swing more widely with these food: highs are higher, lows are lower. People who therefore follow the standard mantra of "eat plenty of healthy whole grains" therefore experience a 2-3 hour long cycle of eating, brief satiety, and recurrent hunger. Cravings for snacks, impulsive eating, and overeating all occur during the period when blood sugar has dropped and hunger is powerfully triggered.

Eliminating this up and down fluctuation is therefore key to regaining control over appetite, losing weight, reducing small LDL and triglycerides, reducing blood sugar, and putting out the fires of inflammatory responses.

You can accomplish this by:

1) Eliminating foods that trigger the exagerrated rises in blood sugar--Wheat, cornstarch, polished rices, white and red potatoes, and candy.

2) Adding a healthy oil to every meal--a strategy that prolongs satiety and helps suppress sugar-insulin fluctuations.


The ful nuts and bolts details of this diet will be released with the New Track Your Plaque Diet. Part I has already been released; part II is coming any day on the Track Your Plaque website.
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Comments (15) -

  • Anne

    11/2/2008 11:08:00 AM |

    I bought your book 'Track Your Plaque' just over eight months ago and I am rather upset that you are bringing out changes to it which are only available to members of the TYP website. I cannot afford to join TYP and I guess the book is now out of date in parts :-(

    Anne

  • Peter Silverman

    11/2/2008 12:29:00 PM |

    I have to wonder why the countries that eat huge amounts of rice, Japan for instance, usually have such low rates of diabetes and heart disease.

  • Anonymous

    11/2/2008 7:00:00 PM |

    It's all quite confusing: Doctors such as Gundry advise eating even whole fruit, while other such as McDougall and Ornish say eat all you want. This simply shows that insulin control is poorly understood. What's a body to do?

  • madcook

    11/3/2008 1:19:00 AM |

    I am so looking forward to the debut of your new TYP diet plan.  Part I was interesting, but I am really looking forward having all the details in a concise format.

    I am also looking forward to the updated edition of Track Your Plaque, which I believe is due out next Spring.  We have learned so much about prevention and reversal in the past 5 or so years, an update is the logical progression!

    Thanks for all of your efforts on this blog, and on the TYP website.

    Terri
    madcook

  • Scott Miller

    11/3/2008 3:59:00 AM |

    Dr. Davis, I have spent 4-5 hours this weekend reading your blog, from the oldest post to the newest. I am a self-taught wellness expert (relative to most people--always learning, of course) of 12 years, having read over 200 books, and countless articles, blogs, newsletters, and I participate in numerous health forums. I specifically focus on longevity techniques, including strength training, nutrition, HRT and supplements (90-ish daily). At 47 yrs I'm in superb health, 11% bodyfat, and look 35-ish to most people. I test over 125 bio-markers 3 times every 2 years, via Kronos Labs.

    Anyway, I think your blog is superb and I have already begun recommending it to many others--as an influential person in the longevity community, I hope it drums up more readers for your enlightened straight talk.

    As enlightened as you are (relative to the vast majority of your colleagues), there are still numerous areas you haven't touched upon that are greatly beneficial to the goal of preventing & reversing heart disease. For example, the reduction and/or reversing of advanced glycation end-products, which is a key component to my supplement program, and many others in a similar position as me. Also, free testosterone is another critical factor that correlates with heart disease (practically all men over 35 have reduced free testosterone, leading to reduced vascular protection).

    Practically *everything* you have written agrees with the basic truths we've come to understand in the longevity community, such as grains being unhealthy, along with oxidized small LDL, low-fat diets (my diet is approx. 50% fat in terms of cals), and so on. Plus, you've accepted and seen the importance of D3, K2, you gave one post to cocoa (cocoa deserves a LOT more attention!), and you've mentioned resveratrol. But you're missing several others that can significant help, such as pomegranate extract (punicalagins), blueberry extract (pterostilebene--a resveratrol-like molecule), and GliSODin (brand name for a supp that elevates the plaque reversing natural antioxidant, sodium dismutase).

    Keep up the great crusade! But for all of us, there's still more to learn...

  • Anonymous

    11/3/2008 7:24:00 AM |

    I don't know what a "body" is to do, but apparently what PETA members are doing is trolling the net in a desperate attempt to spread disinformation about low-carb, since the science is so persuasively in its favor.

    "Poorly understood" my ass!

  • Anne

    11/3/2008 12:11:00 PM |

    I have had great success in reducing my blood sugar spikes by using a glucometer to identify foods that cause it to rise. I have found I can have fruit if I keep the serving very small. I do best with berries. My blood sugar use to zoom up to 200 after eating, now I can keep my blood sugar from going over 120 with food choices alone. I hope this is low enough.

    I followed the directions in Blood Sugar 101 on how/when to use the glucometer. Blood Sugar 101 is a blog and a book.

    Gluten Free Anne

  • Anonymous

    11/3/2008 6:19:00 PM |

    " I have to wonder why the countries that eat huge amounts of rice, Japan for instance, usually have such low rates of diabetes and heart disease."

    But don't individual Japanese tend to eat small portions frequently as opposed to the mounds that we Westerners consume at a sitting.

  • Dr. William Davis

    11/3/2008 8:23:00 PM |

    Hi, Scott--

    Thanks for your kind comments.

    Some of these topics are covered in the Track Your Plaque website. Others, like the Superoxide Dismutase, I am awaiting more persuasive real human experience with.

    I am also mindful of not deconstructing diet too much. In other words, I'd like to avoid replacing healthy foods with isolated components that recreate the effect of these foods.

    Nonetheless, your observation is similar to mine: many of us are heading in parallel in the same direction.

  • Dr. William Davis

    11/3/2008 8:27:00 PM |

    Peter--

    I am half Japanese and my Mom would cook us traditional Japanese fare when we were kids.

    Yes, we did eat rice, but the portions were modest. Rice also seems to lack the addiction potential of wheat and doesn't quite trigger blood sugar quite as profoundly. That said, I still think we should minimize our exposure to rice and rice products.

  • Scott Miller

    11/4/2008 3:07:00 AM |

    Something else I will add just as food for thought. Just as there are natural solutions to reversing heart disease and calcification (although, few doctors practise these solutions due the the extreme bias of using FDA-approved solutions), there are ALSO non-FDA-approved, yet highly effective ways of beating cancer, even many if not most terminal cancers.

    You will not find these solutions with the conventional wisdom of the American medical system.  But again, just as they exist for heart disease, there's a whole set of solutions that also work against cancer.  In fact, some of these solutions are the same, such as resveratrol, marine-based omega-3's and vit. D3.  Resveratrol, especially, deserves special mention as it combats cancer in the five currently known ways that cancer can be defeated, and without any negative effects.  No FDA-approved drug attacks cancer in more than one of these five ways, and none are side effect free.

    Many people have been cured of terminal cancer, by taking matters into their own hands, including a 70-yr-old genetic biologist who started mega-dosing on resveratrol after learning he only had a few months to live with leukemia -- that was four years ago, and he shows no signs of this cancer.

    Oncologist are just as bad as most cardiologist (of which Dr. Davis is a rare exception) when it comes to using money-making treatments like radiation and toxic chemo, while not recommending their patients, for example, stop eating simple carbs and grains, which merely feed cancer's growth like pouring gas on a fire.

    I wish we had a blog written by a practising oncologist as enlightened as Dr. Davis. The results would be just as fantastic, because the solutions to cancer are just as real and effect as the solutions to reversing heart disease.

  • Anna

    11/4/2008 7:23:00 PM |

    Peter,

    Have you ever been to Japan?   The differences between Japan and the US are far more complex than diet book writers and epidemiologists like to suggest.   Yet they can't resist distilling one or two obvious features of Japanese diets as reasons for better health and longevity.  But it wouldn't be wise (it's already been done with soy and that's been a huge, sad joke).  

    Aside from the huge differences between American and Japanese diets, cooking methods, and food production systems, we must consider vastly different social norms, which can't be overlooked.  

    America is a nation of people focussed on their individuality; Japan is a nation of people focussed on the group.  Those powerfully opposing ways of interacting.  I'm  not suggesting one is better than the other, just that they provide a different context to life in each place.  

    Even if we adopted a handful of Japanese foods that were scientifically proven to be of benefit to longevity and health, without the overall context of food and living in Japanese culture, I seriously doubt we'd start to see even a glimpse of Japan's health and longevity statistics here.

  • Dr. B G

    11/5/2008 6:14:00 AM |

    Scott,

    You make interesting parallel observations.

    Oncologists are often reimbursed by the RADS (dose of radiation) ordered.  There currently is no incentive for radiation-sparing treatment in other words. Much like cardiovascular prevention, my understanding is that no ICD (billing code) exists for obtaining reimbursement for consultation, nutritional counseling or office visits for coronary prevention at this time (in Medicare or elsewhere).

    Sad state of affairs, right?

    It's all upon the shoulders of self-empowered, fully-aware, intelligent people like you who do not feel entitled to a 'MAGIC PILL' that will solve everything...  ha haaa!

    -G

  • Dr. B G

    11/5/2008 6:14:00 AM |

    Scott,

    You make interesting parallel observations.

    Oncologists are often reimbursed by the RADS (dose of radiation) ordered.  There currently is no incentive for radiation-sparing treatment in other words. Much like cardiovascular prevention, my understanding is that no ICD (billing code) exists for obtaining reimbursement for consultation, nutritional counseling or office visits for coronary prevention at this time (in Medicare or elsewhere).

    Sad state of affairs, right?

    It's all upon the shoulders of self-empowered, fully-aware, intelligent people like you who do not feel entitled to a 'MAGIC PILL' that will solve everything...  ha haaa!

    -G

  • buy jeans

    11/2/2010 8:25:30 PM |

    Eliminating this up and down fluctuation is therefore key to regaining control over appetite, losing weight, reducing small LDL and triglycerides, reducing blood sugar, and putting out the fires of inflammatory responses

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Do stents prevent reversal?

27. January 2007 William Davis (3)
I've seen this phenomenon several times now: A highly-motivated Track Your Plaque participant with a stent in one artery will do all the right things--lose weight, achieve 60:60:60 in basic lipids, identify and correct hidden lipoprotein disorders, take fish oil, correct vitamin D, etc.

Follow-up heart scan shows dramatic reduction in scoring in the two arteries without stents--30% per artery. But the artery with the stent will show marked increase in scoring above and/or below the stent. (It's impossible to tell what happens in or around the stent itself from a calcium scoring standpoint, since steel looks just like calcium on a CT heart scan.) In other words, there is marked plaque growth in the vicinity of the stent, despite the fact that dramatic reversal of atherosclerosis has occurred in other arteries without stents.

Should we take this to mean that a stent destroys the opportunity for atherosclerotic plaque reversal in the stented artery? I don't know, but I fear this may be true. What dangers does this different sort of plaque pose? Is it the result of the injury imposed at time of stent implantation, some modification of flow or biologic responses as a result of the presence of the stent?

These are all unanswered questions. But I believe that it is yet another suggestive piece of evidence that the best stent is no stent at all.

At what score should I have a heart cath?

25. January 2007 William Davis (0)
This question comes up frequently: At what specific heart scan score should a heart catheterization be performed? In other words, is there a specific cut-off that automatically triggers a need for catheterization?

In my view, there is no such score. We can't say, for instance, that everybody with a score above 1000 should have a catheterization. It is true that the higher your score, the greater the likelihood of a plaque blocking flow. A score of 1000 carries an approximately 25-30% likelihood of reduced blood flow sufficient to consider a stent or bypass. This can nearly always be settled with a stress test. Recall that, despite their pitfalls for uncovering hidden heart disease in the first place, stress tests are useful as gauges of coronary blood flow.

But even a score of 1000 carries a 70-75% likelihood that a procedure will not be necesary. This is too high to justify doing heart catheterizations willy-nilly.

Unfortunately, some my colleagues will say that any heart scan score justifies a heart cath. I believe this is absolutely, unquestionably, and inexcusably wrong. More often than not, this attitude is borne out of ignorance, laziness, or a desire for profit.

Does every lump or bump justify surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy on the chance it could represent cancer? Of course not. There is indeed a time and place for these things, but judgment is involved.

In my view, no heart scan score should autmatically prompt a major heart procedure like heart catheterization in a person without symptoms.

Niacin makes NY Times

24. January 2007 William Davis (0)
In the wake of the crash and burn of Pfizer's torcetrapib, media attention has turned up the miracles of . . .good old niacin. The NY Times carried a well-written report on niacin in its recent report, An Old Cholesterol Remedy Is New Again.


(Read the entire report at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/health/23consume.html?em&ex=1169701200&en=670fa84ae2ea648c&ei=5087%0A)

Among their comments:

...torcetrapib worked primarily by increasing HDL, or good cholesterol. Among other functions, HDL carries dangerous forms of cholesterol from artery walls to the liver for excretion. The process, called reverse cholesterol transport, is thought to be crucial to preventing clogged arteries.

Many scientists still believe that a statin combined with a drug that raises HDL would mark a significant advance in the treatment of heart disease. But for patients now at high risk of heart attack or stroke, the news is better than it sounds. An effective HDL booster already exists.

It is niacin, the ordinary B vitamin.

In its therapeutic form, nicotinic acid, niacin can increase HDL as much as 35 percent when taken in high doses, usually about 2,000 milligrams per day. It also lowers LDL, though not as sharply as statins do, and it has been shown to reduce serum levels of artery-clogging triglycerides as much as 50 percent. Its principal side effect is an irritating flush caused by the vitamin’s dilation of blood vessels.

Despite its effectiveness, niacin has been the ugly duckling of heart medications, an old remedy that few scientists cared to examine. But that seems likely to change.

“There’s a great unfilled need for something that raises HDL,” said Dr. Steven E. Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic and president of the American College of Cardiology. “Right now, in the wake of the failure of torcetrapib, niacin is really it. Nothing else available is that effective.”

In 1975, long before statins, a landmark study of 8,341 men who had suffered heart attacks found that niacin was the only treatment among five tested that prevented second heart attacks. Compared with men on placebos, those on niacin had a 26 percent reduction in heart attacks and a 27 percent reduction in strokes. Fifteen years later, the mortality rate among the men on niacin was 11 percent lower than among those who had received placebos.

'Here you have a drug that was about as effective as the early statins, and it just never caught on,' said Dr. B. Greg Brown, professor of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. 'It’s a mystery to me. But if you’re a drug company, I guess you can’t make money on a vitamin.'


Of course, you and I don't have to wait for the media to endorse something. I'm nonetheless thrilled that this hugely helpful vitamin is gaining greater recognition. My preferred form nowadays is over-the-counter SloNiacin (Upsher Smith). Weve seen no liver side-effects and a minimal quantity of flushing. It's also reasonably priced, $13.99 for 100 tablets of 500 mg at Walgreen's. That's a lot cheaper than prescription Niaspan at $130 for 60 tablets.

Perhaps the notoriety will cut back on the silly responses from some physicians that I still hear about from patients: "My doctor said to stop the niacin because it's going to destroy my liver."

Wheat: the nicotine of food

24. January 2007 William Davis (1)
Yes, we know that wheat contributes to creating small LDL, drops HDL, raises triglycerides, and VLDL. We also know it indirectly slows the clearance of after-eating fats from the blood (curious, I know). Wheat products also increase inflammation (C-reactive protein), raise blood sugar, and contribute tremendously to diabetes.

What many people don't know is that wheat products also have an addictive quality: have one donut and you want another. It's true for bread, breakfast cereals, pretzels, cookies, etc. How many times have you had just one Oreo cookie?

Curiously, elimination of wheat products, unlike elimination of nicotine, usually causes the cravings to disappear. In other words, if you stop smoking cigarettes, the desire to smoke doesn't go away. With wheat products, the often overwhelming desire for more wheat products often just goes away.

But most people are simply unable to dramatically reduce or eliminate wheat products from their daily diet and therefore struggle each and every day with excessive cravings for bagels, donuts, cookies, breads, etc.

Try this useful experiment: Eliminate wheat products for a month and see what happens. Most people drop blood pressure, lose the tummy excess, feel more alert, see a drop in blood sugar, experience improvements in lipoproteins, and regain control over appetite.

Good time for a heart attack?

22. January 2007 William Davis (0)
Man Has Heart Attack At Right Place, Right Time

If Robert Ricard had picked the wrong restaurant for lunch, he might have died.

The 71-year-old Michigan man suffered a heart attack shortly after ordering a glass of wine with friends at Bentley's Roadhouse on Saturday.

Luckily, a disaster medical team was sitting nearby.


A TV station in Michigan reported the above story. You've heard these "if it wasn't for ___, so and so would have died" stories. They're reported in all cities at one time or another.

What amazes me about these common local stories is that they're accepted at all. The question that comes to my mind is "Why couldn't the heart attack have been averted in the first place?" Early identification then, as close as humanly possible, elimination of risk would have been a preferable path.

Of course, it may not be the role of the media to cast judgement on why and how the entire episode could have been completely prevented from occurring. But you shouldn't fall into the same trap of complacency. We cannot expect others to save us when the "big one" hits. Your best assurance is to never have one in the first place.

How good is the South Beach Diet?

21. January 2007 William Davis (2)
I'm a fan of the South Beach Diet.

Though it is billed as a program for weight loss (for which it is very effective), it is really a program for health. The basic approach of South Beach involves:

Eat good fats — Choose good fats from olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, flaxseed oil, walnut oil, avocados, nuts, and fish. Omega-3 (fish oil) supplements are also fine.


Eat good carbs — Good carbs include high-fiber, nutrient-dense fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains.

Eat lean protein — Good sources include eggs, low-fat dairy, nuts, seeds, legumes, skinless white-meat poultry, fish, shellfish, lean cuts of meat, and vegetarian options such as tofu.

(From The South Beach Diet, Dr. Arthur Agatston)


There's no doubt that South Beach can yield dramatic weight loss. In my experience, the success in weight loss depends on 1) how unhealthy your diet was in the first place, and 2) how long you can stick to Phase I, the inital phase during which weight loss is most dramatic. Some people have to periodically cycle back to Phase I to break a "plateau" or to lose faster.

But South Beach is also healthy. It has all the ingredients of a healthy eating program: Low saturated and hydrogenated fats, rich in monounsaturated fats, high fiber, low- to moderate- glycemic index, vegetables and fruits, lean proteins.

The Atkins' diet, in contrast, while very effective for weiglht loss, is an unhealthy process. I've seen lots of bladder infections, constipation, skin rashes, and kidney stones. That's just in the short term. If you stick to the "induction phase" (the no carbohydrate, low fiber, indiscriminate fat initial phase) for an extended period, I suspect that other adverse internal phenemena also develop that might not show for years, like cancer. But--it does work for weight loss!

South Beach's Phase I is also carbohydrate restricted, but steers you towards healthier foods, such as healthy oils from olive and canola, raw or dry roasted nuts, and lean proteins and vegetables.

What really makes South Beach special, however, are its clever recipes. Dr. Arthur Agatston (the author) involved chefs from the restaurants in the South Beach area of Miami to help create healthy yet delicious recipes. We've tried many of them and, while they are different from traditional fare, are delicious and satisfying for the most part.

Criticisms? None, really. But, when my patients choose South Beach (which I often encourage), I often have to impress on them that the Track Your Plaque program is not about weight loss. It is about seizing control of a potentially life-threatening disease. It is a far more important goal with greater implications. Weight loss is just one aspect of a coronary plaque control effort. For this reason, we sometimes have to make changes in the South Beach program to allow for correction of specific lipoprotein patterns.

The most common modification is in people with small LDL particles. This pattern often does indeed respond to weight loss and/or niacin. However, it occasionally persists despite these efforts. We then will ask the patient to continue to restrict the re-introduction of wheat products, though it is allowed after Phase I in South Beach. In other words, for this specific and sometimes difficult to control lipoprotein pattern, a spedific modification of the off-the-shelf South Beach program is sometimes necessary. Of course, the diet is created to suit everybody. Lipoprotein analysis permits detailed insight into your patterns and it's only to be expected that specific modifications might be needed.

But, as written, you can do quite well in your plaque control program by sticking to South Beach.

Be patient with niacin

19. January 2007 William Davis (0)
Mel's HDL started at 37 mg/dl one year ago. Mel had several other abnormal lipoprotein patterns along with his HDL (inc. small LDL and Lp(a)), but HDL was clearly a crucial factor in his panel.

With a heart scan score of 1166, we needed to raise Mel's HDL to the Track Your Plaque target of 60 mg/dl. So Mel started niacin, our number one method to raise HDL, in addition to reducing his exposure to wheat products and other high glycemic index foods; increasing his physical activity; trying to reduce his excess tummy fat; fish oil; dark chocolate (2 oz per day) and red wine (1-2 glasses per day, preferably dark French reds). The form of niacin we often choose is SloNiacin (Upsher Smith), available over-the-counter for about $12-14 per 100 tablets.

Mel started out with niacin 500 mg per day at dinner, increased to 1000 mg at dinner after four weeks. Although this is usually too soon to reassess HDL, Mel insisted. His HDL 41 mg/dl. Mel's disappointment was palpable. He was the usual type A personality: he wanted his HDL higher--now! So Mel insisted that we increase niacin to 1500 mg per day. (We never go higher than this if low HDL or small LDL is the indication for niacin; only when Lp(a) is present do we go higher.)

Six months into this process, HDL: 45 mg/dl. Still a sluggish response.

One year later, HDL: 68 mg/dl. Finally!

That is typical for niacin, as well as combination of lifestyle changes Mel made. None of them result in an immediate rise in HDL; all take months to 1-2 years to exert full HDL-raising effect.

Think of HDL as the 82-year old grandma who takes a long time to cross the street-she does get there!

Note: Doses of niacin >500 mg per day should be taken with medical supervision.

Can vitamin D be a SOLE risk factor?

18. January 2007 William Davis (6)
Here's a crazy question. It occurred to me as I was talking to Drew, a slender, active 54-year old dentist with no bad habits including no smoking.

Drew's heart scan score was 222. His lipoprotein analysis mostly revealed a lot of nothing, which is unusual. The only pattern that showed up was a modestly high LDL of 122 mg/dl with a very slight excess of small LDL. That's it. I would not be satisfied that these were sufficient cause for Drew's level of coronary plaque.

Drew's 25-OH-vitamin D3 level: 15 ng/ml--severe deficiency--despite the fact that his doctor had suggested that he take a vitamin D2 preparation. In other words, Drew had been profoundly deficient, probably for years.

Given the unimpressive cholesterol and lipoprotein values, could vitamin D serve as a trigger for coronary plaque all by itself?

I don't have an answer and know of nobody else who does. However, my opinion is that vitamin D is indeed a potent risk that can cause heart disease as a sole risk factor.

Perhaps it's another piece of circumstantial evidence suggesting that vitamin D has an enormous influence on health, including coronary plaque. Interestingly, the only other health problem Drew has had is prostate cancer, treated a few years ago with prostate removal and radiation. Good evidence suggests that vitamin D deficiency escalates risk of prostate cancer substantially.

By the way, I've seen people taking vitamin D2 preparations, called "ergocalciferol," who are every bit as deficient as those who take no vitamin D at all. Avoid D2 or ergocalciferol preparations: they're worthless.

Does fish oil raise LDL cholesterol?

17. January 2007 William Davis (1)
Katie had an LDL (conventionally calculated) of 87 mg/dl, HDL of 48 mg/dl.

She added fish oil, 6000 mg per day. Three months later her LDL was 118 mg/dl, HDL 54 mg/dl. In other words, LDL increased by 31 mg. What gives?

Several studies have, indeed, shown that fish oil raises LDL cholesterol, usually by 5-10 mg/dl. Occasionally, it may be as much as 20-30.

Unfortunately, many physicians often assume that it's the (minor) cholesterol content of fish oil capsules, or some vague, undesirable effect of fish oil. It's nothing of the kind.

Since we based Katie's program on (NMR) lipoprotein analysis, not conventional lipids (HDL, calculated LDL, triglycerides, total cholesterol), I knew that Katie also had a severe excess of intermediate-density lipoprotein, or IDL, and very-low density lipoproteins, VLDL. This signifies that after a meal, dietary fats persist for 12, 24,or more hours. Fish oil is a very effective method to clear IDL and VLDL, though sometimes it also causes a shift of some IDL and VLDL into the LDL class. Thus, the apparent increase in LDL.

Another contributor: Conventional LDL is a calculated value, not measured. The calculation for LDL is thrown off by any reduction in HDL or rise in triglycerides. In Katie's case, the rise in HDL from 48 to 54 means that calculated LDL is becoming more accurate and rising towards the true measured value. At the start, Katie's true measured LDL was 122 mg/dl, 35 mg higher than the calculated value. Calculated LDL is therefore approximating measured LDL more accurately as HDL rises.

The most important lesson to learn is that, if LDL rises significantly on fish oil and you haven't had lipoproteins formally measured, there may have been a substantial postprandial abnormality like IDL that was unrecognized.

Heart disease is everywhere

16. January 2007 William Davis (0)
If you ever need convincing that heart disease is everywhere, you should do what I do: subscribe to Google Alerts and have them forward news anytime the search phrase "heart attack" crosses the web. (Just go to Google, click on "more" to the right of the search bar, and follow the links.)


Some recent samples:


Workmates resuscitate driver after heart attack

A woman coal mine truck driver had a heart attack and required resuscitation with a defibrillator 3 times on the way to the hospital.





Heart attack kills groom at reception
A 34-year old man died during his wedding reception, leaving behind his 26-year old new wife.






Heart attack ruled as cause of crash

An Alabama man drove his pick-up truck into oncoming traffic while suffering a heart attack.






Heart-attack victim to return to Hamburg stage


Country music artist, Michael Harding, suffered a heart attack and cardiac arrest during a performance. He is apparently recovered and returning to the stage.



That's just a sample from the last two days. While you and I are carry on a conversation on reversal of heart disease, our neighbors and friends drop over every day. Even though I witness successful heart disease reversal routinely, the rest of the world is not participating.

Pass it on: Coronary disease is identifiable, preventable, controllable, and reversible.