Fat and fiber composition of nuts

30. November 2008 William Davis (16)


From Mukuddem-Petersen J, Oosthuizen1 W, Jerling JC. J Nutr 2005.



If you haven't yet done so, adding raw nuts to your health program yields a broad panel of health benefits.

Contrary to conventional advice, nuts can be eaten in unlimited quantities. Provided they are raw--unroasted, unsalted (since salting only accompanies roasted nuts), not roasted in unhealthy oils like hydrogenated cottonseed or soybean (very common)--they do not make you fat, regardless of the quantity consumed. Beer nuts, honey-roasted nuts, mixed nuts roasted in unhealthy oils with salt added are either fattening or exert other unhealthy effects (e.g., hypertension, rise in Lp(a), and cancer from the hydrogenated fats).

Some notable observations from the chart:

--Hazelnuts and macadamians are the richest in monounsaturates
--Walnuts are the richest in the omega-6 linoleic acid, while also richest in the "omega-3" linolenic acid.
--From a fat composition standpoint, raw cashews and dry roasted peanuts aren't so bad.
--Pistachios figure pretty favorably in this analysis, rich in monounsaturates.
--Coconuts are unusually rich in saturated fat, though about half is lauric acid--an issue for future conversation.



Here's a listing of the fiber composition of nuts per 1 oz serving (about a handful):

Almonds (24 nuts) 3.5 g
Brazilnuts, dried (6-8 nuts) 2.1 g
Cashew nuts, dry roasted, with salt added (18 nuts) 0.9 g
Hazelnuts or filberts 2.7 g
Macadamia nuts, dry roasted, with salt added (10-12 nuts) 2.3 g
Mixed nuts, dry roasted, with peanuts, with salt added 2.6 g
Peanuts, all types, dry-roasted, without salt 2.3 g
Pecans (20 halves) 2.7 g
Pine nuts, dried 1.0 g
Pistachio nuts, dry roasted, with salt added (47 nuts) 2.9 g
Walnuts, English (14 halves) 1.9 g

Data courtesy USDA Nutrient Database


Note that almonds are the winners with 3.5 grams fiber per ounce, pistachios a close second. Pine nuts and cashews place last on the fiber content chart.

Not addressed by the charts is protein content of nuts, as well as the low sugar content, all additional beneficial aspects of nuts. Nuts are also a moderate source of magnesium (though seeds like pumpkin and sunflower shine in the magnesium content area).

Rather than micromanage the specific fat and fiber content of your diet, why not get a little of the good of everything on the list and just mix and match the nuts? (Mixed and matched on your own, of course, not a hydrogenated cottonseed oil nut mixture).

Flush-free niacin kills

29. November 2008 William Davis (12)
Here, I re-post a conversation I've posted before, that of the scam product, "no-flush" niacin, also known as "flush-free" niacin.

I find this issue particularly bothersome, since I have a patient or two each and every week who forgets the explicit advice I gave them to avoid these scam products altogether. Despite costing more than conventional niacin, they exert no effect, beneficial or otherwise. Niacin--the real thing--exerts real and substantial beneficial effects. No-flush or flush-free does nothing except drain your wallet. I continue to marvel at the fact that supplement manufacturers persist in selling this product. Ironically, it commands a significant premium over other niacin forms.

They are outright scams that should be avoided altogether.


My former post, No-flush niacin kills:

Gwen was miserable and defeated.

No wonder. After a bypass operation failed just 12 months earlier with closure of 3 out of 4 bypass grafts, she has since undergone 9 heart catheterization procedures and received umpteen stents. She presented to me for an opinion on why she had such aggressive coronary disease (despite Lipitor).

No surprise, several new causes of heart disease were identified, including a very severe small LDL pattern: 100% of LDL particles were small.

Given her stormy procedural history, I urged Gwen to immediately drop all processed carbohydrates from her diet, including any food made from wheat or corn starch. (She and her husband were shocked by this, by the way, since she'd been urged repeatedly to increase her whole grains by the hospital dietitians.) I also urged her to begin to lose the 30 lbs of weight that she'd gained following the hospital dietitians' advice. She also added fish oil at a higher-than-usual dose.

I asked her to add niacin, among our most effective agents for reduction of small LDL particles, not to mention reduction of the likelihood of future cardiovascular events.

Although I instructed Gwen on where and how to obtain niacin, she went to a health food store and bought "no-flush niacin," or inositol hexaniacinate. She was curious why she experienced none of the hot flush I told her about.

When she came back to the office some weeks later to review her treatment program, she told me that chest pains had returned. On questioning her about what she had changed specifically, the problem became clear: She'd been taking no-flush niacin, rather than the Slo-Niacin I had recommended.

What is no-flush niacin? It is inositol hexaniacinate, a molecule that indeed carries six niacin molecules attached to an inositol backbone. Unfortunately, it exerts virtually no effect in humans. It is a scam. Though I love nutritional supplements in general, it pains me to know that supplement distributors and health food stores persist in selling this outright scam product that not only fails to exert any of the benefits of real niacin, it also puts people like Gwen in real danger because of its failure to provide the effects she needed.

So, if niacin saves lives, no-flush niacin in effect could kill you. Avoid this scam like the plague.

No-flush niacin does not work. Period.


Disclosure: I have no financial or other relationship with Upsher Smith, the manufacturer of Slo-Niacin.


Copyright 2008 William Davis, MD

CT coronary angiography is NOT a screening procedure

28. November 2008 William Davis (3)
I've recently had several hospital employees tell me that their hospitals offered CT coronary angiograms without charge to their employees.

Among these hospital employees were several women in their 30s and 40s.

Why would young, asymptomatic, pre-menopausal women be subjected to the equivalent of 100 chest x-rays or 25 mammograms? Is there an imminent, life-threatening, symptomatic problem here?

All of these women were without symptoms, some were serious exercisers.

There is NO rational justification for performing CT coronary angiography, free or not.

What they really want is some low-risk, yet confident means of identifying risk for heart disease. Cholesterol, of course, is a miserable failure in this arena. Framingham risk scoring? Don't make me laugh.

Step in CT coronary angiography. But does CT coronary angiography provide the answers they are looking for?

Well, it provides some of the answers. It does serve to tell each woman whether she "needs" a heart procedure like heart catheterization, stent, or bypass surgery, since the intent of CT angiography is to identify "severe" blockages, sufficient to justify heart procedures.

Pitfalls: Because of the radiation exposure, CT angiography is not a procedure that can be repeated periodically to reassess the status of any abnormal findings. A CT angiogram every year? After just four years, the equivalent of 400 chest x-rays will have been performed, or 100 mammograms. Cancer becomes a very real risk at this point.

CT angiography is also not quantitative. Sure, it can provide a crude estimation of the percent blockage--the value your cardiologist seeks to "justify" a stent. But it does NOT provide a longitudinal (lengthwise) quantification of plaque volume, a measure of total plaque volume that can be tracked over time.

What's a woman to do? Simple: Get the test that, at least in 2008, provides the only means of gauging total lengthwise coronary plaque volume: a simple CT heart scan, a test performed with an equivalent of 4 - 10 chest x-rays, or 1 - 2.5 mammograms.

Perhaps, in future, software and engineering improvements will be made with CT coronary angiography that reduce radiation to tolerable levels and allows the lengthwise volume measurement of plaque. But that's not how it's done today.

The Wheat Deficiency Syndrome

26. November 2008 William Davis (21)
Beware the dreaded Wheat Deficiency Syndrome.

Like any other syndrome, you can recognize this condition by its many tell-tale signs:

--Flat abdomen
--Rapid weight loss
--High energy
--Less mood swings
--Better sleep
--Diminished appetite
--Reduced blood sugar
--Reduced blood pressure
--Reduced small LDL and total LDL
--Increased HDL
--Reduced triglycerides
--Reduced C-reactive protein and other inflammatory measures


Of course, you could choose to cure yourself of this syndrome simply by taking the antidote: foods made with wheat flour, like bread, breakfast cereals, pastas, pretzels, crackers, and muffins.

All the signs of the syndrome will then disappear and you can have back your protuberant abdomen, irrational mood swings, exagerrated appetite, higher blood sugar, etc.

The Framingham Crap Shoot

22. November 2008 William Davis (2)
The Framingham risk score is a risk-assessment tool that has become the basis for heart disease prediction used by practicing physicians.

The Framingham system determines that:

· 35% of the adult population in the U.S., or 70 million, is deemed “low-risk.” Low-risk is defined as the absence of standard risk factors for heart disease; low-risk persons have no more than a 1-in-20 chance (5%) of dying from heart disease in the next 10 years. Physicians are advised by the American Heart Association (AHA) and its experts that no specific effort at risk reduction is necessary.

· 25%, or approximately 50 million, U.S. adults are deemed “high-risk,” based on the presence of 2 or more risk factors. High-risk persons experience a 20%-30% likelihood of heart attack in the next 10 years. People at high-risk are candidates for preventive efforts according to the guidelines set by the Adult Treatment Panel-III (Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults; ATP-III) for cholesterol-reducing statin drug treatment and for “lifestyle-modifying” advice.

· The remaining 40% of the adult population, or 80 million people, are judged “intermediate-risk,” with the likelihood of heart attack between 5-20% over the next 10 years. This group should receive preventive advice and might be considered for statin drug treatment.


Let’s do some arithmetic. By the above scheme, the low-risk population will experience 3,500,000 heart attacks over the next decade, or 350,000 heart attacks per year.

The intermediate-risk population (without preventive treatment) will experience 8,000,000 heart attacks over the 10-year time period, or 800,000 per year.

The high-risk population, the group most likely to receive standard advice on diet, exercise, and be prescribed statin cholesterol drugs, will have their risk reduced by 35% by preventive efforts over the 10-year period. This means that heart attacks over 10 years will be reduced from 12,500,000 to 8,125,000 by standard prevention efforts, or reduced to 812,500 heart attacks per year.

These numbers are no secret. They are well known facts that have simply come to be accepted by the medical community. In other words, the standard approach to heart attack prediction makes the fact that two million people will succumb to cardiovascular events in the next year no mystery. This exercise in prediction is coldly accurate when applied to a large population.

The problem is that this approach cannot reliably distinguish which individuals will have a heart attack from those who will not.

From 100 people chosen at random, for instance, the numbers game played above will not confidently identify who among those 100 will have a heart attack, who will not, who will develop anginal chest pains and end up with stents or bypass surgery, or who will die. We just know that some of them will. Some people at high risk will have a heart attack, some people at intermediate risk will have a heart attack, some people at low risk will have a heart attack.

For any specific individual (like you or me), it’s a crap shoot.

That's why precise individual measurement of cardiovascular risk is required for real risk assessment, not applying broad statistical observations and forcing them to conform to the unique life of a specific individual, particularly risk calculators with as few risk parameters as the Framingham risk score.

At what score should a heart catheterization be performed?

21. November 2008 William Davis (2)
That's easy: NONE.

(Although I've addressed this previously, the question has come up again many times and I thought it'd be worth repeating.)

In other words, no heart scan score--100, 500, 1000, 5000--should lead automatically to procedures in someone who underwent a heart scan but has no symptoms.

This question is a common point of confusion.

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 necessary. This is too high to justify doing heart catheterizations willy-nilly.

Unfortunately, some of 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 automatically prompt a major heart procedure like heart catheterization in a person without symptoms. If a stress test is normal, signifying normal coronary flow (and there are no other abnormal phenomena, such as abnormal left ventricular function), then there is no defensible rationale for heart procedures. Heart procedures like stents and bypass cannot prevent heart attacks in future; they can only restore flow when flow is poor, or stop the heart attack that is about to occur.

However, EVERY heart scan score above zero is a reason to engage in a program of prevention.

"It's genetic"

17. November 2008 William Davis (17)
At 53, Sam had been through the wringer with heart disease. After his first heart attack at age 50, he'd undergone four heart catheterizations, 5 stents, and, most recently, a bypass operation. He came to us to see if there was a better solution.

After hearing Sam's story, I asked,"Did your doctors suggest to you why you had heart disease?"

"Well, they said it was genetic, since my father went through the same thing in his early 50s, though he died after his second heart attack at age 54. They said it was bad luck and nothing could be done about it."

Though Sam's case is more dramatic than most, I hear this argument every day: Risk for heart disease is genetic.

It's true: There are indeed multiple reasons for inheriting causes for coronary heart disease, genes that heighten inflammatory responses, oxidative responses, modify lipoprotein particles, increase blood pressure, etc. There has even been some excitement over developing chromosomal markers for heightened risk.

That's all well and fine, but what can we do about it today?

In practical life, many inherited genetic patterns can be expressed in ways that you and I can identify--and correct. They are not chromosomal markers, but end products of genetic patterns. (Although there are indeed identifiable chromosomal markers, they have not yet led to meaningful treatments to my knowledge.)

These readily identifiable patterns include:

--Lipoprotein(a)--Clearly genetically transmitted, passed from mother or father to each child with a 50% likelihood, then you onto your children if you have it.

--Small LDL--Although small LDL is amplified by high-carbohydrate diets and obesity, it can also occur in slender people who do not indulge in carbohydrates --i.e., a genetic tendency. Or, it can be a combination of poor lifestyle magnifying the genetic tendency for small LDL.

--Low HDL--Particularly the extremes of low HDL below 30 mg/dl. (Although, interestingly, I am seeing more of these people, though not all, respond to vitamin D replacement. Perhaps an important subgroup of low HDL people are really Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) variants.)

--ApoE--Two variants are relevant: ApoE2 and ApoE4. In my experience, it's the E2 that carries far greater significance, though the data are somewhat scanty. ApoE4 people are more sensitive to the fats in their diet (greater rises in LDL with fats; thus, some people advocate a tighter saturated fat restriction with this pattern, though I am not convinced that is the best solution), while ApoE2 people are exceptionally sensitive to carbohydrates, develop extravagant increases in triglycerides, and are very diabetes-prone with even the most minimal weight gain. If two "doses" of the E2 gene are present (homozygotic), then the tendencies are very exagerrated. E4 people are also subject to greater likelihood of Alzheimer's, though it is not a certain risk in a specific individual.

--Postprandial disorders--We use the fasting intermediate-density lipoprotein (IDL) as an easy, obtainable index of the ability to clear after-eating byproducts of meals from the blood. Increased IDL has been related to increased coronary, carotid, and aortic aneurysmal disease.

--Hypertriglyceridemia-i.e., increases in triglycerides, While not all forms of high triglycerides confer risk for atherosclerosis, many do, particularly if associated with IDL, small LDL, increased LDL particle number and/or apoB.


There are more, but you get the point. There are clear-cut genetically-transmitted reasons for greater risk for cardiovascular disease. Some, like lipoprotein(a), yield very high risk. Others, like increased triglycerides, yield mixed levels of risk.

Importantly, all of these patterns--ALL--are identifiable and are treatable. Treatment may not always be the easiest thing, but they are treatable nonetheless. While lipoprotein(a), for instance, is the most difficult pattern to correct in the above list, I remind everyone that our current "record holder" for reversal of plaque and heart scan scores--63% reduction--has lipoprotein(a) that we corrected.

If you've been told that your risk for cardiovascular disease or coronary plaque is "genetic" and thereby uncorrectable and hopeless, run the other direction as fast as you can. Get another opinion from someone willing to take the modest effort to tell you precisely why.

Tim Russert Revisited

16. November 2008 William Davis (7)
A Heart Scan Blog reader brought this piece by Dr. MacDougall to my attention.

Dr. MacDougall created a fictitious posthumous conversation between himself and the late Tim Russert. MacDougall paints a picture of a hardworking, hard-living man who adhered to an overindulgent lifestyle of excessive eating. He concludes that a vegetarian, low-fat diet would have saved his life.

Beyond being disrespectful, I would differ with Dr. MacDougall’s assessment. In fact, I’ve heard an interview with Mr. Russert’s primary care physician in which the doctor claimed that Mr. Russert had been counseled on the need for a low-fat diet and, in fact, adhered to it quite seriously. Far from being an overindulgent, overeating gourmand, he followed the dictates of conventional dietary wisdom according to the American Heart Association. The low-fat diet articulated by Dr. MacDougall is simply a little more strict than that followed by Mr. Russert.

What exactly could Mr. Russert have done to prolong his life? Several basic strategies:

--Added fish oil. This simple strategy alone would have reduced the likelihood of dying suddenly by almost half.

--Eliminated wheat and cornstarch—Mr. Russert developed diabetes in the last few years of his life. By definition, diabetes is an inability to handle sugars and sugar-equivalents. Wheat and cornstarch yield immediate and substantial surges in blood sugar greater than table sugar; elimination causes weight to plummet, blood sugar to drop, and diabetes (at least in its early phases) can be eliminated in many people, particularly those beginning with substantial excess weight.

Just those two strategies alone would more than likely have avoided the tragic death that brought Mr. Russert’s wonderful life and career to an abrupt end.

Of course, he could have even taken his heart health program even further, as we do in the Track Your Plaque program. While the conversation has focused on how to avoid tragic events like sudden cardiac death, why not take it a step farther and ask, "How can coronary plaque be measured, tracked, and reversed?"

In that vein, Mr. Rusert could have restored vitamin D to normal levels; identified all hidden sources of heart disease using lipoprotein testing (though he had small LDL without a doubt, given his generous waist size, HDL of 36 mg/dl and high triglycerides); considered niacin. Simple, yet literally lifesaving efforts, that make reversal much more likely.

Those simple steps, in fact, would have tipped the scales heavily in Mr. Russert’s favor, making a heart attack and/or sudden death from heart disease exceptionally unlikely.

Water: Bottled vs. tap

16. November 2008 William Davis (4)
The Fanatic Cook has a great post discussing the findings of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) on the quality of bottled water.

The full text of the study from the EWG can be viewed here.

They report that "the bottled water industry promotes an image of purity, but comprehensive testing by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) reveals a surprising array of chemical contaminants in every bottled water brand analyzed" . . . After analyzing 10 brands, they conclude that "tests strongly indicate that the purity of bottled water cannot be trusted. Given the industry's refusal to make available data to support their claims of superiority, consumer confidence in the purity of bottled water is simply not justified."

"EWG's study has revealed that bottled water can contain complex mixtures of industrial chemicals never tested for safety, and may be no cleaner than tap water. Given some bottled water company's failure to adhere to the industry's own purity standards, Americans cannot take the quality of bottled water for granted. Indeed, test results like those presented in this study may give many Americans reason enough to reconsider their habit of purchasing bottled water and turn back to the tap."


For these reasons, as well as environmental reasons (plastic bottles filling up dumpsites), I think it is becoming clearer and clearer that bottled water is something we should only use in a pinch, not habitually.

Can CRP be reduced?

13. November 2008 William Davis (17)
The JUPITER study has sparked a lot of discussion about c-reactive protein, or CRP.

If we follow the line of reasoning that prompted this study, reducing CRP may correlate with reduction of cardiovascular events. Thus, in the JUPITER study, Crestor 20 mg per day reduced cardiovascular events by nearly half.

From a CRP perspective, starting values were 4.2 mg/dl in the Crestor group of the trial, 4.3 mg/dl in the placebo group. After 24 months, CRP in the Crestor group was 2.2 mg/dl, 3.5 mg/dl in the placebo group, representing a 37% reduction.

Now, in our Track Your Plaque program--an experience that has yielded the virtual ELIMINATION of cardiovascular events--we aim for a CRP level of 1.0 mg/dl or less, ideally 0.5 mg/dl or less. The majority of people achieve these ambitious levels. In fact, it is a rare person who does not.

How do we achieve dramatic reductions in CRP? We use:

--Weight loss through elimination of wheat and cornstarch--This yields impressive reductions.

--Vitamin D--I have no doubt whatsoever of vitamin D's capacity to exert potent anti-inflammatory effects. I am not entirely sure why this happens (enhanced sensitivity to insulin, reduced expression of tissue inflammatory proteins like matrix metalloproteinase and others, etc.), but the effect is profound.

--Elimination of junk foods--like candies, cookies, pretzels, rice cakes, potato chips, etc.

--Exercise--Amplifies the benefits of diet on CRP reduction.

--Not allowing saturated fats to dominate--Yes, yes, I know. The demonization of saturated fat conversation has been largely replaced by the Taubesian saturated fat has not been confidently linked to heart disease conversation. But controlled feeding studies, in which a single component of diet is manipulated (e.g., saturated vs. monounsaturated vs. polyunsaturated fat) have clearly shown that saturated fats do activate several factors in the inflammatory response.

--Fish oil--Though I am a firm believer in the huge benefits of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation/restoration, the anti-inflammatory effect is modest from a CRP perspective. However, there are anti-inflammatory benefits beyond that of simple CRP (via normalization of eicosanoid metabolism and other pathways).

--Weight loss--A BIG effect. Weight loss drops CRP like a stone. The CRP-reducing effect is especially large if achieved via carbohydrate reduction.

Of course, this is much more complicated than taking a pill. But it is effective to achieve health benefits outside of cardiovascular risk, is enormously useful as part of a weight loss effort, and doesn't cost $1400 per year like Crestor.

In short, if CRP reduction is the goal, it certainly does not have to involve Crestor.
Diet is superior to drugs

Diet is superior to drugs

7. January 2012 William Davis (27)
Might-o’chondri-AL left this wonderful record of his lipoprotein experience in the comments to the last Heart Scan Blog post. It is a great example of what is achievable with diet and a few supplements . . . without drugs.


(A) Jan. 2011 1st ever NMR lipo-protein analysis was done after 4 months of consistent home food prep of pretty low fat (only olive oil and 1 tablespoon coconut oil daily) but plenty of whole wheat and half potatoes:
* LDL # of particles (P) = 1,676 in nmol/L————being a LDL cholesterol (C) reading of 139 mg/dL
* small LDL # P = 1,021 nmol/L —————yikes! you advise smLDL be less than 117 nmol/L
* HDL # of particles = 28.8 umol/L ————–being a HDL C reading of 45 mg/dL
* Triglycerides = 90 mg/dL ————– true, I never struggled with my weight

(B) May 2011 2nd NMR after another 4 months but added in more fat (1 teaspoon highly concentrated fish oil daily, 90% chocolate, handfulls of nuts, more olive oil and kept coconut oil at 1 tablespoon daily for a controlled experiment), added 500 mg Niacin 3 times a day (in stages up to1,500 mg. total daily), 6000 IU daily vitamin D, deliberately cut out all grains except for social politeness and substituted in daily Koji fermented brown rice (rustic Amazake):
** LDL # P……………= 976 nmol/L ——————————– being LDL C of 100 mg/dL
** small LDL # P …. = 96 nmol/L ——————————– nice surprise
** HDL # P ………… = 27.3 umol/L ——————————being an increase to HDL C of 64 mg/dL
** Triglycerides …… = 42 mg/dL ——————————– despite daily carbs over 150 gr. daily

(C) Dec. 2011 3rd NMR after another 7 more months thinking Doc’s advice is worthwhile I added in yet more fat (mainly daily 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, more 90% chocolate), bumped Niacin up to 1,000 mg twice a day (2,000 mg. total daily), cut out the Amazake, kept up the vitamin D adding daily vitamin K & daily ate main mid-day meal out as lunch on spicy Thai & Chinese fish/shrimp/soup/rice meals (my next control):
*** LDL # P ………. = 764 nmol/L ————— being LDL C of 107 mg/dL ( 2x coconut’s saturated fat)
***small LDL # P… = less than 90 nmol/L ——–surprised me NMR can’t count lower
***HDL # P ……… = 41.4 umol/L ——————– being an increase to HDL C of 88 mg/dL
*** Triglycerides ….= 43 mg/dL ——————- daily carbs below ~ 120 gr. & lost too much weight

Isn't that great? Spectacular job, Might!

MIght achieved values that are superior to that achievable with, say, a high-dose statin strategy. Statins only reduce total LDL particles, reducing small LDL in a non-selective way. And, of course, this diet does not cause muscle aches, memory loss, nor liver problems.

Something to consider: As the diet has become so effective, we can reduce our reliance on niacin. In fact, the benefits of niacin diminish substantially, as small LDL is reduced, HDL increased, triglycerides decreased, and postprandial lipoproteins subdued with the diet only.
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Comments (27) -

  • Janknitz

    1/7/2012 6:24:17 PM |

    7 months ago I was dying. I was (still am) morbidly obese. I have GERD, hypertension,  sleep apnea, PCOS/insulin resistance, asthma, chronic back and skeletal pain. I could not walk across the room without severe pain and shortness of breath. I was afraid to do any testing or discuss this with my doctor because I knew that I would be prescribed a bunch of meds (statins, diuretics and BP meds) and sent to kaiser's group nutritional counseling to learn all about how six servings of whole grains and daily exercise would fix everything if I was "compliant".   I am not a compliant person . . .

    I had amazing success with low carb 12 years ago--so successful that I conceived my second child despite PCOS (our first daughter was an in vitro).  But having a baby, working two jobs, and attending a doctoral program at night was a lot to handle, and gradually my diet fell by the wayside.

    Returning to low carb was not as difficult as I imagined. I was still eating wheat and other grains, albeit in very small amounts within my 20 to 30 grams of carbs daily. While I felt better, I was still in a lot of pain and discomfort, still could not exercise.

    I was reading everything I could get my hands on and eventually stumbled upon your blogs and Paleo and primal blogs to.   I decided to cut out grains, even my beloved oats. Even though I love baking bread, I was never a great bread eater, so wheat was actually easier to give up. And since I was already in low carb ketosis, it wasn't physically difficult at all.

    I feel like a 1 ton cement jacket has been removed from my body!  My weightloss has stalled (looks like thyroid or IR is the culprit so I'm working on it) but I feel so energetic that on days I don't have time to exercise I feel restless to get moving. I can walk 2 1/2 miles and all of my chronic pain is gone. GERD is gone, I  haven't had an asthma exacerbation in since last winter, BP is normal. My post prandial blood sugars are good.

    Most of all, LOOK AT THESE LABS!
    Cholesterol  235  
    Triglyceride  71  
    HDL  79  
    Low density lipoprotein calculated  142  

    I know there's more work to be done (I'm going to get those triglycerides below 60!), but this is amazing to me considering I eat all the butter, cream, whole eggs,  animal fat, coconut oil, and olive oil I want.   I eat no grains or sugar, very occasional starchy vegetables, and a small serving of berries daily.  I feel like I have my life back. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  • Jan

    1/7/2012 6:52:31 PM |

    Very interesting stats and the controlled elements show their significance to the lipid profile. Wondering what the rest of your diet looks like. Are you primal or paleo, vegetarian, vegan? Do you drink fresh green juice daily?  Just curious....one concern I would have, in light of all the great things you are doing, eating out everyday with Asian-style foods leaves freshness, preparation, ingredients to someone else. I have found no matter how careful we are in our choice of a restaurant, eating out means eating off! I couldn't do it everyday.  It will be interesting to follow your diet changes and see what happens!  Happy 2012!

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    1/7/2012 11:46:08 PM |

    Hi Jan,
    Context first:  my results may not translate to everyone, since weight is never a real problem as the 1st NMR results coincided with laboratory measured fasting serum blood glucose = 83 mg/dL & HbA1c = 5.4 (for comparison after 3rd NMR  HbA1c = 5.3 & then serum glucose = 88 mg/dL, probably a mild side effect from added high dose fish oil).
    Asian restaurant lunch "specials" were chosen for  offering me a variety of affordable places &  menu variation to eat 7 days a week. It was to deliberately try to determine how well my lab results might hold up when have to partly yield responsibility &  dine in the world at large.
    I  arranged all other meals to be one's that were nutritious,  yet  whose regularity could become factored around if the lab results from 1/2 year of  cheap lunches played havoc with my NMR  (or  glycation indicator HbA1c).  I  precisely wanted to avoid trying to micro-manage an unknown assortment of cooks who might be using a  bit of sugar, cheap cooking oil, starch for thickening &  flour to sometimes crust fish. The lunch meal's standard full cup of cooked white/brown rice was eaten to see if it made any difference to my metabolism (ie: fasting serum glucose).
    I stuck with seafood dishes because I haven't eaten meat/chicken in over 40 years & have always had robust fortitude without those proteins. My breakfast & desert/snack protein preference is low/non-fat dairy casein (fermented milk solids with reduced whey - consistency of a pudding I can add anything to).
    To establish a standard evening meal I found a olive oil based brand hummus to measure out as a known portion to make up into a nightly mixed vegetable salad (no additional bread/rice) that didn't whack my post-prandial blood sugar (tested once every 15 min. like Doc suggests & after 1 hour blood sugar just 2 units higher than pre-meal, with just 1 unit higher after 2nd hour of meal).
    Green juice was not a part of these trials , so can't say if would affect NMR results. My budget for lab tests is empty so I am not experimenting to determine any other diet nuances now.

  • Andrew

    1/9/2012 1:04:15 PM |

    While Niacin is not a drug, 500 mg 3 times a day is excessive.

    Recommend reducing Niacin supplementation to reasonable levels taking with everything else taken into consideration.

  • Jim

    1/9/2012 5:54:03 PM |

    Mit:

    So happy for you. I have recently found this site and been reading the info for a couple months now. Is the NMR that you get from ineedlabs the full NMR (beyond standards lipid test from local doctor) or is it a truncated version? Thank you for mentioning the site! Jim

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    1/9/2012 6:30:07 PM |

    Hi Andrew,
    ? How do  you attribute the rise in HDL those NMR demonstrated ?
    My assessment of my carbohydrate intake during last 1/2 year was certainly not very low carb, but more like moderate . I tried to calculate daily carbs & figure a minimum of  100  to more commonly over 120 gr./day . But ,quite frankly , often as not  more likely at least 150 gr./day since ate couple lunches weekly of spicy asian food that chef's told me they  use some sugar as an ingredient (schechwan fish, 3 flavors fish, half a fortune cookie), starch for  cup of soup thickening& wheat for breading (outer fish crispy)  .
    If I was moderate & not low carb I am at a loss to surmise how  that  made my HDL genetics  now re-programmed to going forward be able to provide me with (say) at least 60 mg/dL  if I cut back to 1,000 mg daily niacin.
    Allow me to recapitulate this data:
    NMR   with  zero (0)  niacin   HDL=45 mg/dL
    next    taking     1,500 mg/d  HDL = 64 mg/dL
    or   lastly           2,000 niacin HDL = 88 mg/dL  ( with no increase in fish oil, nor inc. in vit D supplement)
    You echo Doc in cutting back the niacin & presumably this is to avoid over-taxing the liver - am I correct?
    If  this orientates you opinion after 4 months on 1,500 mg daily Niacin I deliberately tested the standard liver enzymes;  showed  SGOT (AST) =  20 Iu/L & SGPT(ALT) = 17 IU/.  And, let me specify I think liver enzymes should  be checked by anyone regularly taking high  Niacin .
    ? Doesn't it seem that at least 1,500 mg/d Niacin is my individual safe dose ?

  • Jacob

    1/9/2012 10:37:21 PM |

    I'm a 38yo white male who experienced a nearly identical change to Mitochondri'Al's without reducing my carbs at all or changing my exercise routine. I'm taking 2,500mg/day of niacin with no side-effects apart from the flush (which I enjoy). My liver enzymes have remained stable and there has been no appreciable increase in homocysteine. Obviously Dr. Davis has infinitely more experience in this realm, but my suggestion would be to continue with the niacin. 1,500 is definitely a safe dose. Intuitively (and I STRESS "intuitively") I feel that it's better for me to take niacin and eat a moderately low-carb diet than to reduce my carb intake to the vanishingly small amount that Dr. Davis recommends. I have cut out wheat though and most grains. Really would love to reincorporate quinoa Smile

    September 2010
    HDL 39
    LDL 135
    Triglycerides 149
    These values had remained stable for 5 years, remaining unchanged in spite of diet and exercise changes. I won't go into all the VAP and NMR nuances (I've had both tests several times), but all the measures improved VERY dramatically...shifted from pattern B -->A LDL, more than quadrupled the "helpful" form of HDL (8 to 35), essentially eliminated IDL. CRP and Fibrinogen were fine to begin with and remained so after a year.

    November 2011
    HDL 87
    LDL 89
    LDL-P 700
    sdLDL <90
    Triglycerdes 40

    My regime included:
    * 2,500 mg/day nicotinic acid
    * Vitamin K2
    * Lovaza, 2 caps/day (I know Dr. Davis hates Lovaza because of the exorbitant price, but my insurance pays for it and I'm not going to shell out $$$ for a nonprescription fish oil of equivalent dosage)
    * Metformin, 500 mg/day (I'm not remotely diabetic. My NMR IR score was 4. However, I wanted to take it as a general antiaging drug and to offset any possible blood sugar increases from the niacin.)
    * D-3, 4000 mcg (or is it IU?)/day
    * Deplin, 7.5 mg/day (to methylate any extra homocysteine from the niacin and metformin and to provide precursors for monoamine neurotransmitters)
    * TMG (same reason as Deplin)
    * Methyl B12 (same as Deplin and TMG; also I'm vegan and don't get much from my diet)
    * 1 tablespoon extra virgin coconut oil / day
    * I purchased a blood glucose meter and test strips. There's more postprandial fluctuation than I would like to see, but my glycated hemoglobin remains at a respectable 5.1. I'd like to get that down to 4.9.
    * Had the battery of cardiovascular-related genetic tests. I'll only mention one: I'm an ApoE 2/3, meaning that moderate fat intake is indicated (versus low fat for 3/4s and 4/4s).

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    1/9/2012 10:42:21 PM |

    Hi Jim,
    I think  ineedlabs authorized NMR is now sent through the  Labcorp system & so I got whatever Labcorp's NMR details; namely: "LDL-P,  LDL-C,  HDL-P , HDL-C, Triglycerride, Total Cholesterol, small-LDL, LDL size" & also some suggested interpretations Doc says he ignores. Standard old type of lipid test is not  the same as NMR lipo-protein profile , nor  is the  VAP type of lipid test some get.

  • Jacob

    1/9/2012 11:00:15 PM |

    @ Mitochondri'Al

    I had my liver enzymes tested pre-niacin and have repeated the test 7 times. There has been no change. From what I've read it's people taking the extended- and sustained-release formulations who develop liver issues. Immediate-release niacin doesn't seem to affect the liver much.

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    1/10/2012 1:20:11 AM |

    Hi Jacob,
    I daily eat a good cooked handful  (trying to get beyond need to micro-manage all  portions of ingredients)  of low salt canned red beets into my night time hummus salad.  So, maybe that betaine has been enough to neutralize the homocysteine  you just informed me arises from high dose niacin. I have split niacin in 1,000 mg with morning dairy quark & 1,000mg  with evening meal; flushing has long been minor, aside from reddened face I splash with cold water if think anyone will freak out.

    Since you are the first to suggest blood sugar may elevate from taking high dose niacin this is also intriguingly new to me. My understanding is that it is high dose fish oil that Doc's protocol leads to higher blood sugar. When I introduced high dose EPA/DHA fasting serum glucose went from 1st 83 mg/dL  without fish oil after 4 months on fish oil to 88 mg/dL. Of course I  did start fish oil at the same time as  the niacin, but when I kept fish oil constant and varied upward the niacin (from 1,550 to 2,000 daily) for that last 1/2 year  experimentation my fasting serum glucose stayed at 88 mg/dL. Which  implicates fish oil is the controlled factor provoking 3 mg/dL more fasting blood sugar.

    Doc recently trashed the NMR's derivative chat; but  if  other's have noticed the category "IR score" I'll mention lab 1st gave me an "Insulin Resistance Score " (IR) of 45, 2nd test rated an IR score of 4 and then last NMR put me at 1.  But I am inclined to think many other readers may be more prone to overweight & they  may find it extremely helpful to go with Doc's  "very" low carb to see  lab results he aims for them to achieve if their genetics of blood glucose and lipo-protein are not as favorably responsive as mine seem to be.

  • Jacob

    1/10/2012 3:33:50 AM |

    @Mitochondri'Al...

    The hyperglycemic effect of high-dose niacin is very well documented, though in my case I don't think it had much of an effect. Even in diabetics, the consensus seems to be that the benefits of niacin outweight any associated blood sugar increase. Like you, I didn't go into this with a weight issue. I'm ~5 pounds lighter than when I began this regimen (5'10'' 152 pounds now), a change attributable entirely to the Metformin.

    The rise in homocysteine from high-dose niacin has something to with niacin's action depleting the available methyl donors. I don't think beets will provide anything approaching the amount of TMG necessary to methylate excess homocysteine back to methionine (which is a SAM-E precursor...oh happy day). I take about 3,000 mg/day of TMG. It's an inexpensive supplement, and I'd rather be safe than sorry, as homocysteine can make some major mischief over time in the vascular endothelium.

    I didn't know about the fish oil / blood sugar connection.

    FYI, I don't know if you're familiar with the study in which participants taking vitamins A and C with niacin showed a much-reduced--in fact, practically negated--effect of niacin on blood lipis versus those not taking A and C. No further investigation took place, and the mechanism (assuming this finding is valid) remains unknown. As a precautionary measure, I drink my vitamin A - rich green juices and take my C supplements at least a few hours before or after taking niacin.

    BTW, I've read in several places that effects of niacin can become MORE robust over time, which squares with the steady increase in HDL and the HDL-2 subfraction I've observed over the last year, as well as a decreasing LDL value and increase in mean LDL size.

    One anomalous thing I've noticed is that my lp(a) reading on VAP tests has increased from 4 to 17, but the test for lp(a) alone has remained at the minimum value. I had a VAP today and will be getting the lp(a) monoassay on Wednesday. If this strange discrepancy shows up again, I'm going to call Atherotech and LabCorp and ask them what's up. I did recently read a study in which blood samples from one or more patients were sent to Atherotech, Liposcience, Berkeley Heartlab, and one other company; there were striking discrepancies among the reported results from the four labs. Interestingly, of the four, Atherotech's VAP test was the least likely to characterize a patient as having Pattern A LDL; although, now that I think about it, Liposcience (NMR) doesn't even use the Pattern A, AB, B terminology, do they? Anyway, it's fun to share these observations with a group that actually is thinking about this stuff! I've posted all my blood panels to my facebook account along with what I did to achieve the dramatic changes reflected in the data. My friends found it all very interesting but only one has initiated a similar experiment.

  • Jacob

    1/10/2012 3:34:45 AM |

    outweight = outweigh

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    1/10/2012 7:59:56 AM |

    Why Doc's low carb may be more important for some more than others is these after meal events. He's pointed out that high after meal (post-prandial) blood sugar (glucose) are a problem because the liver will make that excess glucose into triglycerides (trigs). Some of us may also trend toward low trigs, despite any  post-prandial  glucose spikes, because of our constellation of genetic quirks in how the sequential triglyceride synthesizing enzymes play out their essential esterifying and hydrolyzing ( enzymes = glycerol-3 phosphate acyl-transferase1, 1-acyl-glycerol-3-phosphate-O-acyl-transfe​rase5 & 9, plus di-acyl-glycerol acyl-transferase2). I should stress that my non-low carb lunches were always followed by me walking around extensively on errands - so any contradiction inferred from my lab results (above)  with Doc's low carb preference may be explained by my immediate use of the post-prandial glucose in real time skeletal muscle activity  & not just my genetics.

    Doc insists excess post-prandial trigs should be avoided because those trigs get cobbled into VLDL cholesterol and sent out from the liver. It is when the VLDL comes back to the liver without giving up most of it's trigs that confuses many people. This is because, in the specific context of post-prandial  VLDL, the molecule that brokers recycling entry into the  liver of that VLDL (whatever it's residual trig load) does so in accord with ApoE. (note: it is  not the same type of dynamic that happens with clearing our LDL.)

    Curiously, it is the isoform variant of ApoE4 which can help get the most VLDL quickest into the liver cells; so ApoE4 individuals are shunting plenty of  VLDL in, for recycling, but at the same time plenty of  ApoE4 is also coming into that liver cell. Conversely, ApoE3 will be relatively slower clearing VLDL out of circulation & ApoE2 conformation is slowest in helping get returning VLDL into liver cells; which means, for ApoE2 there's more of a backlog going on in the blood stream of VLDL (& any of those post-prandial trigs our skeletal muscles didn't take up when trigs circulated by).

    Once an individual VLDL complex is inside a liver cell it is subjected to an initial processing in a specialized compartment  (endo-some) of the cell that naturally lowers the pH in that intra-cellular compartment to break the VLDL complex apart for recycling. In response to that normal processing pH drop the ApoE4 molecule (as opposed to other ApoE isoforms) becomes more fickle; basicly  it's (ApoE4) molecular configuration is vulnerable to undergo changes like become globular gel, truncated in some sectors and open up it's hydro-phobic surfaces. In simple terms this means that re-cycling truncated ApoE4 won't move well in the liver cell's interior fluid matrix and hug the lipids it finds closest there more so than recylcled ApoE3 & ApoE2 does.

    VLDL, thus will shed it's ApoE  and that ApoE will ideally move to another compartment inside the same liver cell to tag up with an HDL that has been taken up by that liver cell. One of the things this does for us is hold that ApoE molecule nearby, but where pH isn't going to drop. In this phase until the ApoE gets incorporated, as a component, into on of two cholesterol components. One is to put the recycled ApoE into fledgeling HDL that then becomes "mature" HDL sent out of the liver into circulation.. The other, less understood function (and purpose of this long explanation) is of stashing our VLDL recycled ApoE temporarily bound close by to an HDL (inside the liver cell) is to take & re-use it  (ApoE) reformulated with a VLDL molecule when the liver needs to send out any post-prandial trigs.

    Doc's paradigm is preventative, meaning avoid lingering high blood glucose (hyper-glycemia) due to excessive single meal carbs and thus put less demand for ApoE to be cycled into trig loaded VLDL that might just come back again & again demanding the liver engage in futility. For those with degrees of ApoE4 variants there is slower teaming up of it to that helpful HDL inside the liver cell that normally pulls ApoE away from the cell's low pH compartment. Explicitly it is HDL itself that activates this key stage; it is an additional specialized function of HDL. I don't know if one aspect of having low blood level's of HDL is from when a person's stuck with high trigs driving them to cobble it (trigs) into VLDL  with ApoE and this stalls too much HDL inside liver cells performing an HDL function in there & not out as circulating.HDL.

    Some theorize that by diverting so much ApoE  into post-prandial trig loaded  VLDL there is then going to be "mature" HDL going out of the liver that doesn't carry the ideal amount of  ApoE  to fully perform a cholesterol pick-up function for the HDL molecule while HDL is out in circulation. And  if one has ApoE4 being recycled, which is relatively slower to get over to any HDL in the liver cell, then the "mature" HDL will also go out with less ApoE to snatch back cholesterol.

    Lost? ....We essentially don't want "fat" (lipid, like trigs) we may have made to build up in the liver. So,  if we can't get all the "fat" lipids we made out of our excess blood sugar (glucose) get sent out  of the liver as trigs tied to VLDL there is a backlog of trigs always hanging around in the liver . And then, because the process of  us making trigs potentially stalls at a transitional molecule involved called di-acyl-glycerol (please note, don't let this long word make you confused now: this is just being two "fats", since "di" =2 in a formation that is one step short of the well known  tri =3 "fats"  formation  of tri-acyl-glycerol , that everybody  calls tri-glyceride for short & I  lazily type as  "trigs" ). Anyway ending simply,  it is this intermediate "fat" lipid of di-acyl-glycerol  subsequently building up in the liver that triggers a cascade  (for geeks: protein kinase C ), which ends up involving  the receptor for insulin in that liver cell. This unwanted downstream phase of bonding to that insulin receptor blunts the next cascade (4 geeks: tyrosine kinase) and  then that step is more directly what contributes to liver insulin resistance over time (ie: insulin comes to liver cell but more & more insulin receptors being kept too busy) . This is the problem played out by  our "fat" lipids in a chain of events that individuals with excessive trigs risk getting stuck with. Doc warns us to  beware of carbs making you synthesize lots of after meal trigs from prolonged high blood glucose which then forces you to put out VLDL (ie: to try to reliably take trig load off your liver). Elsewhere he stated, in accord with current science, that it is post-prandial trigs that are the most insidious trigs.

  • Jacob

    1/10/2012 8:58:03 AM |

    Interesting about the postprandial trigs. I was unaware of their significance. Makes sense, though, given the relatively greater importance of the magnitude of postprandial blood glucose excursions versus fasting levels.

    Your post conjured up images from long-ago courses on enzyme mechanisms, except without the fun electron pushing.

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    1/11/2012 3:44:15 AM |

    2011 Post-prandial trigs relation to cardio-vascular details at the link below will give abstract but click at box where says "The full text is free" in pdf. if inclined.
    http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/cvp/2011/00000009/00000003/art00001
    (titled) "Free Content Assessment and Clinical Relevance of Non-Fasting and Postprandial Triglycerides: An Expert Panel Statement"
    Current Vascular Pharmacology, Volume 9, Number 3, May 2011 , pp. 258-270(13)

  • Taking Charge

    1/11/2012 3:55:46 PM |

    While not directly related to this thread I wanted to get this request out there. I am hoping that  some one can help me find a doctor that is following a similar or the same protocol wtih vitamin K2 etc. and diet as Dr. Davis'.
    I was recently diagnosed with aortic stenosis and am looking for an alternative to valve replacement. I am looking for a cardiologist in the Greater Toronto ON  - Buffalo NY area.
    Thanks in advance for any suggestions given.

  • Galina L.

    1/11/2012 7:14:38 PM |

    @ Might
    Sorry, it my comment is out of tangent, but as a long-time fan of you, I want to share a Russian recipe of a beet salad with you. It contains cooked (or canned) chopped beets, chopped raw onion, chopped  fermented pickles or sauerkraut, some potatoes cooked and cut in small cubes (it is possible to skip), salad is seasoned with mix of brine and olive oil (in Russia an unrefined sunflower oil is used).  Other things may be added like cooked cubed or shredded raw carrots, fresh cucumber ,celery, some herbs, maybe garlic.  It is often consumed instead of a potatoes salad, especially at winter time..

  • Jacob

    1/13/2012 4:50:46 AM |

    The lp(a)  measurement truly puzzles me. When I get the lp(a) monoassay it always comes back <2 (the minimum measurable) , but the VAP is all over the place (up to 17).

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    1/13/2012 3:31:55 PM |

    Hi GalinaL,
    Thank you. Beets' nitrate are converted into nitrite in us to do all kinds of good things, as medical news reports.

  • Gene K

    1/13/2012 6:15:53 PM |

    Galina,
    How about a Russian borscht (a beet soup, for those who are not familiar with it)? We had it at home recently, but I neglected to take my BG after eating, so will do it next time. It is hard to give up beets, but Might's comment about it is encouraging. I also surprised Dr Davis that such dish existed, when I saw him not long ago.

  • Galina L

    1/14/2012 3:32:19 AM |

    Borscht is a cabbage soup , with two main features - first of all it contains beets(obviously), second, very important  secret difference,  that it is seasoned , when it is almost ready,  with the bacon (fatty part) crashed together with some salt and couple garlic gloves. I use mortar and pestle, but it is possible to do crashing between wax paper sheets, plastic sheets, just make sure it looks more or less like a paste. There several recipes,
    here is an example - use broth or  water, may be 3 - 4 cups, bring it to a boil, while water is getting into a  boiling, make sauteed veggies , fist put on a pan chopped carrots (1 big or 2 small) and parsley , then bell pepper, then chopped onions, when onions are ready - add  1 -2 tomatoes. Prepare garlic+bacon paste. Put 1/2 head of shredded cabbage into boiling salted water, when cabbage is almost ready, add sauteed veggies, let is quickly boil, add  the chopped content of one can of beets(beets must be added only after sour ingredient - tomato in that recipe) with the liquid and the paste, then  take it  from the heat, close with a lid.. Taste is better next day. I didn't mention herbs, possible vegetables to add, when to put salt. It taste very good with sour cream, chopped chives, even slice of a lemon in your plate..

    There many variations, important thing - don't let it boil again after it  isready - it will change color and flavor.

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    1/14/2012 4:39:38 AM |

    Hi Jacob,
    Lp(a) is a molecule with an Apo-lipo-protein B100 core like an LDL with protein ApoA bonded on it. The gene LPA encodes for the Apo-lipo-protein A & there are many genetic variations of LPA.

    When the LPA copy # if greater the amount of gene driven expression going on is less. This is apart from  any SNP (polymorphism) of LPA & involves the number of reating domain(s), called  "kringles" (kringle IV domain). Basicly the more kringles the less genetic induced protein to build up into a full Apo-lipo-protein A. In Europeans +/- 60% of the variation in circulating Lp(a) is due to the peculiarity of kringle copy #.

    The SNP variants (of LPA) have more relationship to the way that particular conformation of  Lp(a) might uniquely degrade and give off metabolic by-products that potentially can act against organ tissue promoting enough new blood supply (angio-genesis). If the heart can readily make new blood supply routes that is ideal & thus a specific genetic Lp(a) variant that doesn't stymie angio-genesis is not a cardio-vascular problem  - irregardless of that Lp(a) level.

    You take supplements to restore homocysteine back into methionine. There is a specific LPA polymorphism giving one a SNP allele 4399 methionine (in substitution for the standard isoleucine amino) inclining those people to make +/- 6 times more Lp(a) than otherwise. I don't know if you carry that particular SNP, but if your rise in Lp(a) coincides with your protocol against homocysteine you may (?) be feeding  into
    the LPA4399Met hand . Admittedly far fetched, yet methionine boosting is not always benign for longevity according to some investigators.

    Vitamin A converts to retinoic acid in the body & this may ( ?) be more relevant. The Retinoic acid-related orphan receptor alpha (RORalpha) has 4 different variant iso-forms. It (RORalpha) is found in the nucleus of liver cells and responds to melatonin if you supplement with  melatonin as well.

    Your RORalpha iso-form may also be prone to receiving activation when there is  excess vitamin A's retinoic acid reaching the liver. RORalpha activation gets it's  nuclear response element ( Rev-erba) to bind to DNA & this engages several genes. In other words liver RORalpha up-regulation greatly influences Apo-lipo-proteins A, as well as A"V"(5), & C"III" (3) put out by the liver - among other things (ex: carb processes).

    Which, coincidentally, leads back to heart as per 3rd paragraph above....Hypoxia (oxygen low) also activates RORalpha, and thus Lp(a);  but one's LPA variant iso-form can give an Lp(a) degradation that acts anti(against)-angio-geneic. Then that heart's ability to get alternate blood supply  of oxygen to fall back on is limited; meaning the degree of  hypoxia damage done to any of that heart's cells becomes more problematic. Hypoxia isn't an all at once state of an all over or nothing organ-wide event.

    Cardio-vascular problems are said to be an "inflammation" problem & the more pro-inflammatory Il-6 (interleukin 6) the greater upregulation of Lp(a) going into circulation. Doc expounds his low carb protocol cuts down inflammation marker CRP (C-reactive protein) & Il-6 is a big part of CRP dynamic.  By blunting  Il-6 (or if  fortunately genetically don't make or even receptor  much) there is less Apo-lipo-protein B being made that is an important part of  liver's VLDL formation. Consider, as an example,  that the drug "Mipomersin" acts to block ApoB synthesis with a side effect of lowering Lp(a).

    Unfortunately too, high Il-6 is associated with lots of  triglycerides being made in the liver .  Having high Il-6 instigating lots of ApoB to cobble the excess trigs it (Il-6) provoked into VLDL  favors getting those Il-6 hyped trigs get sent out into circulation. Then too high Il-6 makes for lower rates of liver trig clearance from the trigs brought back by various lipo-proteins. D ue to the inflammatory  settting when the VLDL (with it's remaining load of trigs) comes back to a liver cell for VLDL re-cycling (detailed in earlier comment here)  it can't unload  & clear it's trigs  due to the co-existing high levels of Lp(a).

    In other words,  induced to make lots of Lp(a) overactivated LPA gene means excessive ApoA. Since ApoA can also go where ApoE  can , the  molecule of ApoE that is normally designed to get free from the VLDL risks getting out-competed. Then HDL inside that liver cell doesn't mediate the movement of  stale VLDL's  ApoE as much (because busy with ApoA),  which creates a backlog of  freed ApoE in that  cell's endosome  forcing other returning VLDL ( with it's trigs & ApoE) stalled in a traffic jam.  And that HDL doesn't rush to leave the liver cell because it isn't getting normal ApoE chain of events making it a "mature" HDL; so circulating HDL level is paradoxically lessened despite plenty of  ApoA  around.

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    1/14/2012 6:23:11 AM |

    IL-6 meant by Il-6 (among other proof reading  mistakes )

  • Gene K

    1/14/2012 9:32:24 PM |

    Galina,
    Thank you for this extensive recipe. I am tempted to continue, but it is not my blog. Maybe Dr Davis will find these Russian recipes good for the TYP program...

  • Jacob

    1/16/2012 1:52:02 AM |

    ". There is a specific LPA polymorphism giving one a SNP allele 4399 methionine (in substitution for the standard isoleucine amino) inclining those people to make +/- 6 times more Lp(a) than otherwise. I don’t know if you carry that particular SNP..."

    I don't. I'm 4399 Ile/Ile homozygous.

  • Jacob

    1/16/2012 1:58:50 AM |

    Also LPA-Intron 25: tt homozygous.
    KIF6: 719 Trp/Arg heterozygous :-(  [[I don't want to take statins though]]
    9p21: ag heterozygous at rs10757278 and gc heterozygous at rs1222049 [[I read a recent study indicating that a diet primarily composed of vegetables and fruits (and maybe nuts) almost negates the associated risk here, and that's how I eat. So, fingers crossed.]]

  • Dennis

    1/23/2012 6:47:58 PM |

    While Dr. Davis' website & blogs got me started on the path of getting off the statins, etc (thank you 1000 times!!!)...I believe we are over-thinking this and making it way too complicated.
    Look at it from an evolutionary biology perspective (I just finished Food and Western Disease by Staffan Lindeberg, http://www.amazon.com/Food-Western-Disease-evolutionary-perspective/dp/1405197714) Our metabolic processes developed over the course of millions of years, being optimized by evolution all along the way. We ate meat, eggs, fruit, veges, nuts and did just fine. Then about 10,000 years ago we figured out we could stay put, not follow the wild herds and dig up food as much, and grow our food where we lived. Big problem...the food we decided to grow makes us sick (wheat, corn, rice). Not falling down, vomiting sick, but just a little at a time sick. We get fat, have strokes, heartattacks, high BP, diabetes, cancer, etc... aka Western Disease. But don't all the experts tell us to eat whole grain, and drink milk, and eat cheese, and use olive oil??? That's where the next problem arises...we don't know what we don't know. All the "science" behind good nutrition today is based on studies with many, many flaws. And, our metabolic systems are so enourmously complex, that we don't really understand how it works. If you look at people today, who still maintain a paleolithic diet (hunter / gatherer) you find that they do not suffer from Western Diseases. When they move from their ancestral ways to "modern" diets, they suffer like we do.
    I've gone from a Mediterranean diet to a Paleo diet, lost 15 lbs in 7 wks without changing my exercise routine, stopped taking my statin, am eating less, sleeping better, and feel really good. And this coming from a lifelong semi-hardcore athlete, who at 45 got a stent in a coronary artery, and prescriptions for Plavix and Simvastatin. Two years later i felt like crap and decided it was time to do something different. First stop was DR. Davis' sites, then others. The blood work is coming in mid Feb to establish the first real data points.
    Bottom line...eat what the cave man ate, get plenty of sleep, go outside in the sun, do some strenuous excercise, and quit letting your doctor feed you the Big Pharma line of BS. It's not easy. Nothing worth while is. But, as your body changes, so will your resolve to save your own life!
    //DM9

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