Conventional therapy vs. alternative therapy

11. March 2008 William Davis (5)
Rose is a 75-year old woman, mother of four, grandmother of many more.

Rose's story started after a heart attack 18 months ago that resulted in two stents. She was advised to follow an American Heart Association diet and take Lipitor. However, some months later, after her fourth stent, she became disilluioned in the conventional approach to heart disease and sought alternative therapies to help reduce or reverse her heart disease.

She found an alternative health practitioner who advised chelation, antioxidant vitamins for "excessive oxidation," and several homeopathic preparations.

Nothing was said about diet or exercise. Nothing was said about the baked flour products and pastries that occupied at least two meals every day. Nothing was said about the candies she indulged in several times per day, nor the soft drinks. Nothing was said about the wildly fluctuating blood sugars, poorly controlled by an oral diabetes agent. Thirty pounds of weight gain over the past 5 years with no exercise or physical activity? No comment here, too.

In short, Rose was the "graduate" of the conventional approach, as typically offered nationwide thousands of times a week. She was also the recipient of the insight of at least one alternative health practitioner, eager to reject conventional notions of how to achieve heart health.

So I then met her. She was experiencing chest pains every day, several times per day. Blood pressure over 200. At 5 ft, 3 inches, weight: 186 lbs.

Initial laboratory results:

HDL cholesterol 42 mg/dl
LDL 132 mg/dl
Triglycerides 263 mg/dl
Blood sugar 173 mg/dl


You can fill in the rest. In short, Rose was a disaster. Despite the attentions of several professionals from both the conventional as well as alternative camps, she was careening rapidly towards failure. She'd been given various crutches, Band-Aids, and salves, none of which resulted in any possibility of long-term relief from her aggressive disease.

My point: As I've said previously, all we want is truth. We want effective, rational approaches that yield real benefit. A stent? All that provides is temporary restoration of blood flow. Statin agents? They do indeed reduce LDL cholesterol. But what if Rose has 8, 9, or 10 other causes of heart disease unaffected by the statin drug? It will do little or nothing.

Nobody had addressed many of the root causes of Rose's disease: insulin resistance, high triglycerides, inactivity, obesity, hypertension (and identifying the reasons why her blood pressure was so high), vitamin D deficiency (virtually guarantted to be severe), junk foods including the ones known as "whole grains."

My message: Success in heart disease, as well as all aspects of health for that matter, doesn't necessarily have to come from an "alternative" approach, nor a "conventional" approach. It comes from applying what is truly effective, regardless of what label someone applied to it.

I would no sooner trust my health and life to an alternative health practitioner hawking unusual herbs and remedies than I would submit to a heart catheterization, three stents, followed by a statin drug. There's small benefit in both approaches, but none are the best. You've got to look elsewhere for that.


Copyright 2008 William Davis, MD
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Comments (5) -

  • Sue

    3/10/2008 11:19:00 PM |

    I'm really dismayed that the alternative practitioner did not look at diet (most do) but if they did I'm sure they would have recommended the usual low fat. Herbs can be very useful but only if combined with appropriate diet.

  • mike V

    3/10/2008 11:53:00 PM |

    Re: Rose

    Please follow up on Rose's TYP progress from time to time.
    We can find all kinds of studies and other info. Only your blog provides us with real world practical feedback on results with real patients.

    Thanks
    MikeV

  • Danimal

    3/11/2008 12:45:00 AM |

    I hear ya, Dr. Davis. My dad just had his 2nd bypass during an aortic pseudo-aneurism operation. He had a rock the size of my thumb knuckle removed from his aorta, his chest cracked, and still has massive occlusion of his arteries. Still, my RN-having stepmadre insists on him pursuing an AHA-approved low-fat, high-carb diet, and won't even consider putting him on Vitamin D and Niacin. How can you fight against the experts of the AHA?

  • Sravana

    3/11/2008 6:51:00 PM |

    As an alternative healthcare provider (acupuncturist/herbalist), you can BET that I would be talking to her about diet and exercise. I would've taken her BP, and probably sent her to an MD immediately to get that taken care of.

    Now, given that she was a wreck, what kind of exercise program would you put her on? I'm thinking a 20 minute walk every day, at whatever pace she could manage without chest pain - but she's already *having* chest pain! I'm curious how you handle that.

  • Anonymous

    8/31/2008 12:09:00 AM |

    "There is a clear need for a rapid, simple, safe, and sensitive method of determining the type and intensity of inflammation in the gut mucosa in clinical practice. In this study, we have evaluated the potential of a new method, the mucosal patch technique, in patients with and without apparent gut inflammation, as assessed by conventional diagnostic procedures.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15542519

    "In 18 of 20 patients gluten challenge induced neutrophil activation defined as increased [myeloperoxidase] MPO release and increased NO synthesis. Ten of these 20 patients showed a similarly strong inflammatory reaction to CM challenge."

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17302893

    "Molecular chlorine generated by the myeloperoxidase-hydrogen peroxide-chloride system of phagocytes converts low density lipoprotein cholesterol into a family of chlorinated sterols."

    Myeloperoxidase, a heme protein secreted by phagocytes, is a potent catalyst for LDL oxidation in vitro, and active enzyme is present in human atherosclerotic lesions. ... Our observations suggest that Cl2 generation in acidic compartments may constitute one pathway for oxidation of LDL cholesterol in the artery wall.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8798498

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Tim Russert's heart scan score 210. . .in 1998

Tim Russert's heart scan score 210. . .in 1998

18. June 2008 William Davis (10)
Despite the media blathering over how Mr. Russert's tragic death from heart attack could not have been predicted, it turns out that he had undergone a heart scan several years ago.

A New York Times article, A Search for Answers in Russert’s Death, reported:

Given the great strides that have been made in preventing and treating heart disease, what explains Tim Russert’s sudden death last week at 58 from a heart attack?

The answer, at least in part, is that although doctors knew that Mr. Russert, the longtime moderator of “Meet the Press” on NBC, had coronary artery disease and were treating him for it, they did not realize how severe the disease was because he did not have chest pain or other telltale symptoms that would have justified the kind of invasive tests needed to make a definitive diagnosis. In that sense, his case was sadly typical: more than 50 percent of all men who die of coronary heart disease have no previous symptoms, the American Heart Association says.

It is not clear whether Mr. Russert’s death could have been prevented. He was doing nearly all he could to lower his risk. He took blood pressure pills and a statin drug to control his cholesterol, he worked out every day on an exercise bike, and he was trying to lose weight, his doctors said on Monday. And still it was not enough.

“What is surprising,” Dr. Newman said, “is that the severity of the anatomical findings would not be predicted from his clinical situation, the absence of symptoms and his performing at a very high level of exercise.”

Buried deeper in this article, the fact that Mr. Russert had a heart scan score of 210 in 1998 is revealed.

That bit of information is damning. Readers of The Heart Scan Blog know that heart scan scores are expected to grow at a rate of 30% per year. This would put Mr. Russert's heart scan score at 2895 in 2008. But the two doctors providing care for Mr. Russert were advising the conventional treatments: prescribing cholesterol drugs, blood pressure medication, managing blood sugar, and doing periodic stress tests.

Conventional efforts usually slow the progression of heart scan scores to 14-24% per year. Let's assume the rate of increase was only 14% per year. That would put Mr. Russert's 2008 score at 779.

A simple calculation from known information in 1998 clearly, obviously, and inarguably predicted his death. Recall that heart scan scores of 1000 or greater are associated with annual--ANNUAL--risk for heart attack and death of 20-25% if no preventive action is taken. The meager prevention efforts taken by Mr. Russert's doctors did indeed reduce risk modestly, but it did not eliminate risk.

We know that growing plaque is active plaque. Active plaque means rupture-prone plaque. Rupture prone plaque means continuing risk for heart attack and death. Heart attack and death means the approach used in Mr. Russert was a miserable failure.

While the press blathers on about how heart disease is a tragedy, as Mr. Russert's doctors squirm under the fear of criticism, the answers have been right here all alone. It sometimes takes a reminder like Mr. Russert's tragic passing to remind us that tracking plaque is a enormously useful, potentially lifesaving approach to coronary heart disease.

Who needs to go next? Matt Lauer, Oprah, Jay Leno, some other media personality? Someone close to you? Can this all happen right beneath the nose of your doctor, even your cardiologist?

I don't need to remind readers of The Heart Scan Blog that heart disease is 1) measurable, 2) trackable, 3) predictable. Mr. Russert's future was clear as long ago as 1998. Every year that passed, his future became clearer and clearer, yet his doctors fumbled miserably.



Copyright 2008 William Davis, MD
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Comments (10) -

  • Richard A.

    6/18/2008 4:51:00 AM |

    "He also had a dangerous combination of other risk factors: high triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood, and a low level of HDL, the “good cholesterol” that can help the body get rid of the bad cholesterol that can damage arteries."

    I wonder if he was taking fish oil supplements to try to drive down his triglycerides and niacin to prop up his HDL?

  • Anonymous

    6/18/2008 5:36:00 AM |

    I had a 234 score in 2005 and a 419 score in 2007 - if it wasn't for resources like TYP - I wouldn't have pushed my Dr with questions about Vit D and CQ 10 and Fish Oil...  sit waiting for the next scan to see if things are under control (now - small LDL-P 123 nmol/L).

    Just think if Tim R had the time to do a bit of research himself and found TYP - but that is what your physicans should be doing for you.... growing... learning... but as an engineer, I know the spectrum of people calling themselves engineers is a large spectrum... so it is with MDs.

    Thanks for what you do Dr D.

    Dave

  • Dr. William Davis

    6/18/2008 11:53:00 AM |

    Yes. Fish oil alone could have cut his risk of sudden cardiac death by 45%. It would have cost him all of $3 per month.

  • Anonymous

    6/18/2008 3:09:00 PM |

    I have been wondering if the trans-Atlantic flight several days before his death could have had something to do with it...

  • Anonymous

    6/18/2008 5:08:00 PM |

    Dr Davis I just wonder what you think of this Dr. Mehmet(?) Oz who keeps popoing up on television and writing books talking about the same old stuff, low fat, high carbs blah blah blah . . . I think since Mr. Russerts death I've seen him on tv 3 times and NOT ONCE has he mentioned calcium scoring, vitamin D, fish oil . . .

  • Anonymous

    6/19/2008 3:45:00 AM |

    What a tragedy.  All week long I have been asking myself how such a smart man could be so uninformed about his own health?

    With all the resources at Mr. Russert's disposal, I would think he could have easily learned more about his condition, and the measures he might have taken to save himself.  [Then too, he might have also come across the Track Your Plaque website... or the book.]  Instead, he was apparently greatly trusting of his internist and cardiologist, and perhaps thought he was receiving optimal medical management... and nothing more could be done?

    Beyond that, I wonder about his Vitamin D status, and whether he was dehydrated from the long flight back from Europe?  I also wonder if the emotional stresses (good and bad) of a quick trip to Europe, his son's graduation from college, and having recently placed his beloved father into a care home, on top of what could only be termed a stressful and grueling work life (no matter how much he may have loved it) might have lead his body to the tipping point on that day.   I suppose we are unlikely to have these answers under the circumstances.

    R.I.P. Mr. Russert, but shame, shame, shame on your physicians, IMO they really let you down.

    Thanks for this truthful blog, an antidote to all the media nonsense and C.Y.A. I have seen in the past few days.

    Terri
    madcook

  • sschein

    6/23/2008 5:36:00 PM |

    My wife has been to Dr. Michael Newman the internist for Tim Russert.  I don't think she is going back.  I had Angioplasty about 10 years ago with stents put in my right and left artery.  Since then I have the thallium stress test every year, take 1500 mg's of niaspan a day, Lipitor, a blood pressure lowering drug, and aspirin.  Both my cardiologist, and my internist state that a heart scan would not do me any good, and my cardiologist stated that the heart scan would simply confuse the issues.  Are they right? Would the heart scan harm me?  If so, how?

  • Anonymous

    6/25/2008 5:18:00 PM |

    In response to the comment by sschein, I'm not sure it's such a great idea to have a thallium stress test every year.  You should probably investigate the possibility of a CT-angiogram.  

    I am not a doctor so I don't want you to think I'm defending them, but there's only so much that a doctor can do in the office visit environment.  It's really up to the patient to do the research and decide on what he believes is the best course of treatment for him or herself and then try to bring the doctor around to his point.  In my own case I refuse to have a thallium stress test and have finally decided to have a 320 slice CT-angiogram when I go to Boston next month.  My cardiologist may not agree that it's the choice he'd choose, but he's going along with it.  Quite simply they don't have the time to convince the patient one way or the other.  We really don't know all the details about Tim Russert's care.  If he had his own private physician who tended only to him or who was consulted extensively I'd probably expect better.  As just one patient (admittedly a famous one) I'm not sure how much you can expect from a doctor.  If he suggests a stress test or an angiogram and you think better of the idea, it's up to the patient to chart his own course.

    Andy (the164club) TYP member

  • Jeffrey Dach MD

    7/1/2008 11:38:00 AM |

    Tim Russert and George Carlin

    Two beloved American celebrities have succumbed to heart disease before their time.  The national response has been disappointment in a medical system that could allow this to happen.  What could have been done differently to save the lives of both Tim and George, to avoid this fatal outcome?

    To read more...Saving Tim Russert and George Carlin by Jeffrey Dach MD


    Jeffrey Dach MD
    4700 Sheridan Suite T
    Hollywood FL 33021
    my web site

  • buy jeans

    11/3/2010 6:54:38 PM |

    A simple calculation from known information in 1998 clearly, obviously, and inarguably predicted his death. Recall that heart scan scores of 1000 or greater are associated with annual--ANNUAL--risk for heart attack and death of 20-25% if no preventive action is taken. The meager prevention efforts taken by Mr. Russert's doctors did indeed reduce risk modestly, but it did not eliminate risk.

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