Throw away total cholesterol!

17. May 2006 William Davis (1)
Richard's total cholesterol without treatment was 186 mg/dl. "That's great!" his doctor declared, referring to the conventional dictum that total cholesterols less than 200 carry low risk. Several fingersticks in a mall kiosk set up by a local hospital to check total cholesterols confirmed Richard's low number.

But after Richard's unexpected hospitalization and two stents for severe coronary blockages, he demanded better answers.

Tragically, the answer was there all along: Despite a "favorable" total cholesterol, his HDL ("good") cholesterol was a miserable 32 mg (ideal >60 mg).

Total cholesterol is actually the sum total of HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, with a contribution from triglycerides. That's why a low total cholesterol can conceal a low HDL.

This situation is quite common. And low HDL is accompanied by a constellation of other undesirable causes of heart disease, most notably small LDL.

Don't accept total cholesterol as your sole measure of risk. It's nearly worthless. If you live in Bangladesh or a third world country, well perhaps that's the best you can get. But if you live in the U.S. or developed world, it's absurd to rely on total cholesterol.

Smart Start not so smart

15. May 2006 William Davis (2)



Kellogg's has crafted a campaign to support the American Heart Association featuring acress Sela Ward. Her attractive face, familiar to many TV and movie viewers, does add a comforting face to their efforts.

What's in this cereal made by the manufacturers of Pop-Tarts, Cheez-It, Rice Krispies, and Chips Deluxe cookies?

There are, indeed, some healthy ingredients: oat bran, potassium; you can even get a version made with soy protein. But there's sugar listed as the second ingredient. High-fructose corn syrup is also listed prominently. (Remember this issue? High-fructose corn syrup causes overwhelming sugar cravings, causes your triglycerides to skyrocket, and is probably among the principal food ingredients that make you obese.)

Upon detailed questioning of my patients struggling to lose weight, this and products like it are often among the "healthy" foods they've gravitated towards. We spend a great deal of time dissuading them of this idea.

A one-cup serving of Smart Start is low in fat (1 gram) but contains 43 grams of carbohydates, of which there are 14 grams of sugar. There are a meager 3 grams of fiber. To me, this sounds like a cupcake.

The Kellogg's people are exceptionally clever marketers. Partner with the American Heart Association and movie stars? Brilliant!

You should trust food manufacturer advertising about as much as you trust drug manufacturer advertising, which is to say not at all.

Kellogg's sold $10 billion dollars of food products last year. They are the world's leading producer of breakfast cereals. They are a leading producer of convenience foods: cookies, crackers, cereal bars, and frozen waffles under the brands Keebler, Pop-Tarts, Eggo, Cheez-It, Nutri-Grain, Rice Krispies, Famous Amos, and Kashi.

Can they cash in on healthy trends? They'll certainly try.

Does anybody have a normal vitamin D level?

15. May 2006 William Davis (0)
We now routinely check everyone's vitamin D blood level at the start of the program. (The measure to obtain is 25-OH-Vitamin D3. This is not to be confused with 1,25-OH2-vitamin D3, which is a kidney function measure.)

Of the 10 people with levels drawn today, none were even close to normal levels (which we define as 50 ng/ml)--not a single one.

The majority were in the range of severe deficiency (<20 ng/ml). Only two had levels in the 30s. None had higher. (Remember: I'm talking about people in Wisconsin, a terribly sunlight-deprived area much of the year. This might not apply quite as vigorously to Florida residents or others in sun-exposed regions.)

Curiously, I've also seen several people this week who had extraordinary quantities of coronary plaque on their heart scans (scores >1000), all of whom had extremely low vitamin D levels. One of these people had fairly unimpressive lipoproteins, with very minimal abnormalities identified. (This is quite unusual, by the way.) It makes you wonder if a profound deficiency of vitamin D is sufficient to act on its own as an instigator of coronary plaque.

The more we examine the issue of vitamin D deficiency, the more fascinating it gets. I suspect we've just scratched the surface and there's a lot more to learn about this tremendously interesting nutrient. Nonetheless, with what we're seeing in our experience, I'm urging everyone to get a blood vitamin D level.

Don't believe your LDL cholesterol!

14. May 2006 William Davis (0)
Harry's case is typical. For years, his doctor told him his LDL cholesterol of 123 mg was okay. But a heart scan score of 490 (90th percentile at age 52) made him question just where his coronary plaque came from.

Lipoprotein analysis told a very different story: His LDL particle number was 2400 nmol, meaning his trueLDL was more like 240 mg, nearly double the value of LDL obtained through his doctor. Harry had other sources of risk, too, but the LDL particle number was a clear stand-out.

Why does this happen? How can LDL cholesterol be so terribly inaccurate?

LDL cholesterols obtained in virtually all labs are not measured, they're calculated. The calculation was developed in the 1960s by Dr. Friedewald at the National Institutes of Health and therefore goes by his name (the Friedewald calculation). Dr. Friedewald derived this simple calculation to permit doctors across the U.S. to obtain LDL cholesterols, which were technically difficult to measure in those days by using measured HDL, total cholesterol and triglycerides.

Doctors were told that the only time that the Friedewald calculated LDL was inaccurate was when triglycerides exceeded 400 mg. So most family practitioners and internists still believe that calculated LDL's are, for the most part, quite accurate.

Nothing could be further from the truth. When LDL's are actually meaured, you find that LDL is rarely accurate. In fact, in our experience, inaccuracy of 30-50% is the rule, sometimes 100%. The one telltale hint that calculated LDL is wrong is when HDL is <50 mg--that's nearly everybody.

So what's your LDL? You won't really know unless it's measured. Our preferred method is NMR (LipoScience) LDL particle number, probably the most accurate of all. Second best: apoprotein B, direct measured LDL, and non-HDL. (We'll cover this issue much more extensively in an upcoming report on the www.cureality.com website in an extensive Special Report.)

Are you the exception?

14. May 2006 William Davis (0)

I read about 40 heart scans this morning. In the stack was a 41-year old man with a heart scan score of 841.

That's terribly high for anyone, let alone a 41-year old person. He's lucky to find out about this before catastrophe strikes.

People like this worry me. In general, we advise men to consider a heart scan age 40 and older; women 50 and older. If there's anything exceptional about your family history or your own history, then you might notch these numbers down another 5-10 years. For instance, if your Dad had a heart attack at age 43, you might consider a scan at age 35. Or, if you've had diabetes for several years and you're a 42-year old woman, you might think about a scan. (Men tend to develop measurable plaque by heart scans 10 years before women.)

There are no hard and fast rules. It's unusual for a male to have a score >0 before age 40. Likewise, it's very uncommon for a woman to have a score >0 before age 50. But there are occasional exceptions--but they can be very important exceptions.

Our 41-year old man with the score of 841, for instance, probably had a high score since his mid-30s. I've seen several women without any obvious risk factors with scores in the several hundred range in their early 40s.

My rule: When in doubt, opt for safety. Every day, I still read about people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s dying of heart attacks. It shouldn't happen.

When in doubt, get the heart scan. The most you'll lose is the cost of the scan and a modest exposure to radiation. If your score is zero, you know you're safe for the next 5 or more years. But if you have an exceptional score at a young age, take preventive action.

Self-empowerment in health: The new wave in health care

12. May 2006 William Davis (0)
Track Your Plaque is just one facet of the broad and powerful emerging wave of self-empowerment in health.

Hospitals, drug and device manufacturers, and the medical establishment don't like this idea. People managing their own health? That's ridiculous! Dangerous! But mostly unprofitable.

Self-empowerment means having easy access to simple, safe, and inexpensive diagnostic tests like heart scans, carotid scans, bone densitometry (for osteoporosis), cholesterol tests, abdominal ultrasound, even brain scans (e.g., CT or MRI) for people with a family history of brain aneurysm.

Opponents of this idea worry about the "false-positives" that come about with broad testing, i.e, detection of abnormalities that are artifactual. Our experience is that false-positives are only an occasional problem with any test. Instead, we find that most people have many true-positives. In CT heart scanning, for example, we find many unsuspected enlarged aortas (potential future aneurysms), valve disorders, and aortic calcium. These are all important in a preventive program. Unfortunately, your doctor's definition of false-positive often means that no corrective procedure or operation is required.

Other evidence that self-empowerment in health is growing:

--The nutritional supplement movement. What better example of power in managing your own health is there than the fabulous array of nutritional supplements available?

--Medications moving to over-the-counter status. Gradually, more and more medications are trickling into availability for you to obtain without a doctor's prescription.

--What I call "retail imaging", i.e. screening ultrasound, heart scans, full body scans, etc. that are available in most states without a doctor's order.

--The Internet. The rapidity and depth of information available on the Internet today is mind-boggling. It will fuel the self-empowerment movement by providing sophisticated information to the health care consumer previously available only through your physician.

--High-deductible health insurance plans. If health care consumers will bear more and more of the costs of health care, they will seize greater responsibility for early identification and prevention to minimize long-term costs.

There are more. But the movement is powerful and broad--and unstoppable. Let the establishment with vested interests in preserving the status quo fuss and complain, just like horse and buggy manufacturers did in the early 1900's when the autmobile came along.

Vitamin D deficiency is rampant

12. May 2006 William Davis (0)
Today alone I've seen several people with severe deficiencies of vitamin D.

We're now checking everyone's blood vitamin D level at the start of the program. The measure that most accurately reflects your vitamin D status is 25-OH-vitamin D3. This is very confusing to many physicians, who traditionally have thought of 1,25-di-Hydroxy vitamin D3 as the standard test to measure. What they're failing to recognize is that this second measure is a kidney product, not a reflection of vitamin D status.

Using 25-OH-vitamin D3, several people today alone had levels of <10 ng/ml, clearly in the category of severe deficiency (generally regarded as <20ng/ml).

The majority of people we see in the office are Wisconsin residents. It's no wonder they're deficient. Although it's mid-May, we've seen the sun only a handful of days this year. And most of the days have been too chilly to wear short sleeves and shorts to permit sufficient surface area for UV exposure.

Living in a sunny climate, however, is no guarantee that you have sufficient blood vitamin D levels. Two recent studies have shown that 30-50% of the residents of sunny southern Florida and Hawaii are also deficient. (Why, I'm not sure.)

Although our experience thus far is anecdotal in several hundred people, my impression is that people who have normal blood levels of vitamin D (we regard normal as 45-50 ng/ml) have a far easier time of halting or regressing coronary plaque.

Vitamin D is among the most exciting nutritional tools we've come across in a long time. The conversation is making the media, which impresses me tremendously, given the fact that nobody stands to profit financially to any significant degree through vitamin D supplementation.

For a wonderful collection of discussions on vitamin D, go to Dr. John Cannell's website, www.vitaminDcouncil.com. You'll find a huge quantity of scientific background and conversation on the whole idea. I believe you will be thoroughly impressed with just how powerful the argument in favor of vitamin D has become.

What if wheat products were illegal?

11. May 2006 William Davis (3)
Imagine if anything made of wheat were illegal: bread, bagels, crackers, pasta, pretzels, donuts, Shredded Wheat cereal, Raisin Bran, pastry, cookies, cakes, cupcakes. . . Your grocery store would then be unable to carry any of these products.

How empty would the grocery store shelves be?

There would be very little. The stores would be filled instead with vegetables and fruits, meats, and dairy products. But aisle after aisle would be empty. There'd be no cereal aisle. There'd be no snack chip aisle. The ordinarily overcrowded bread shelves wouldn't be there.

Bakery? Nope, not there either. Pasta and noodles? Empty. How about cakes and pastries? Also gone.

Getting the picture? American groceries are dominated by wheat products. What would happen to your health and the health of your family if wheat were abruptly removed from your choices? Would you be less healthy?

No. In fact, your health would be hugely improved. You'd lose a significant quantity of weight. Extraordinary numbers of people would lose diabetic or pre-diabetic tendencies. Feelings of sluggishness, sleepiness, and moodiness would dissolve. Blood pressure would be reduced. The incidence of cancer, skin disease, and inflammatory diseases would plumet.

From a plaque control perspective, your HDL cholesterol would rise, triglycerides drop. Small LDL would improve dramatically.

The message: Slash wheat products from your diet. Yes, you'll miss the smell and taste of freshly baked bread. But you'll do it for many more healthy years. And you may do it without a 14 inch scar in your chest.

The sobering tale of small LDL

10. May 2006 William Davis (0)
Every day, I learn to respect small LDL more and more.

Small LDL particles, and its evil partner, low HDL, is among the most common reasons why someone fails to fully gain control of coronary plaque and heart disease risk.

Just yesterday, I saw a slender businessman (6 feet 1 inch in height, 186 lb.) whose small pattern persisted despite niacin, fish oil, oat bran, and raw almonds. We generally think of small LDL as an overweight person's pattern, but in some people the genetics are quite powerful and it can be expressed even in slender people.

The solution: More physical activity and exercise; cut back on processed carbohydrates, particularly wheat products like breads, pasta, crackers, breakfast cereals; think about magnesium (see our two recent reports on magnesium on the www.cureality.com membership website, the latest report to be posted this week); be sure sleep is adequate (gauge this by whether you're energetic during the day and don't fall asleep watching TV or movies). Lack of sufficient physical activity in people with sedentary jobs is probably among the most common reason the small LDL pattern persists.

Ignore small LDL and it can be like a hidden cancer in your body, growing and metastasizing (not literally, of course), fueling coronary plaque growth. Be sure your doctor assesses whether you have small LDL if you hope to gain control of your coronary risk.

Burn off the fat

9. May 2006 William Davis (0)

If you've ever wondered just how many calories you're burning with various activities like yard work, driving, climbing stairs, etc. go to this great website that will calculate it for you: http://www.caloriecontrol.org/exercalc.html.

Here are some examples:


Dancing for 30 minutes(fast, e.g., tango): 193 calories
Yoga for 30 minutes: 204 calories
Washing the car for 30 minutes: 173 calories
Vacuuming for 30 minutes: 88 calories

(All are for a 170 lb person.)

As you see, physical activity does not necessarily have to consist of exercise. It doesn't require fancy equipment or expensive outfits. But it does require you to keep moving. Sedentary work is among the most common reasons I see in my patients for failing to control weight and its associated lipoprotein patterns, like low HDL and small LDL.

If your work is sedentary, then a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity per day is necessary to begin to correct weight-related patterns. If you gauge by calories burned, then a useful goal is 500 calories per day in physical activity--at a minimum.
Triglyceride buster

Triglyceride buster

16. June 2009 William Davis (24)
Two weeks ago, Daniel started with a triglyceride level of 3100 mg/dl, a dangerous level that had potential to damage his pancreas. The inflammatory injury incurred could leave him with type I diabetes and inability to digest foods, since the insulin-producing capacity and the enzyme producing capacity of the pancreas are lost.

Daniel added 3600 mg of omega-3s per day. Within 10 days, his triglycerides dropped nearly 2000 mg to just over 1100 mg/dl--still too high, but an incredible start.

The power of omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil to reduce triglycerides is illustrated most graphically by people with a condition called "familial hypertriglyceridemia" that is responsible for triglyceride levels of 500, 1000, even several thousand milligrams. That's what Daniel has. Given appropriate doses of omega-3s, triglycerides drop hundreds, even thousands, of milligrams.

No question: Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil are the best tool available for reduction of triglycerides. The effect is dose-dependent, i.e., the more you take, the greater the triglyceride reduction.

How omega-3s exerts this effect is unclear, though there is evidence to suggest that omega-3s suppress several nuclear receptors involved in triglyceride (VLDL) production and increase the expression or activity of the enzyme lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme that clears triglycerides from the blood.

I am continually surprised at the number of people with high triglycerides who are still treated with a fibrate drug, like Tricor, or a statin drug, when fish oil--widely available, essentially free of side-effects, with a proven cardiovascular risk-reducing track record--should clearly be the first choice by a long stretch.

Among its many benefits, omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil also:

Reduce matrix metalloproteinases (MMP)--Two fractions of MMPs, MMP-2 and MMP-9, are inflammatory enzymes present in atherosclerotic plaque that are suspected to trigger plaque "rupture." Omega-3s have been shown to reduce both forms of MMP.

Block uptake of lipids in the artery wall--Suggested by a study in mice.

Modify postprandial responses--In the first few hours after eating (the "postprandial" period), a flood of digestive byproducts of a meal are present in the bloodstream. While research exploring postprandial effects is still in its infancy, it is clear that omega-3 fatty acids have the capacity to favorably modify postprandial patterns. One common surrogate measure for postprandial abnormalities is intermediate-density lipoprotein, or IDL, that we obtain in fasting blood through lipoprotein panels like NMR and VAP. With sufficient omega-3s alone, IDL is completely eliminated.

Unfortunately, most of my colleagues, if they even think to use omega-3s, choose to use the prescription form, Lovaza. Indeed, several representatives from AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical outfit now distributing this miserably overpriced product, frequently barge their way into my office poking fun at our use of nutritional supplements instead of the prescription Lovaza. "But insurance covers it in most cases!" they plead. "And your patients will know that they're getting the real product, not some fake. And they'll have to take fewer capsules!"

I never use Lovaza to reduce triglycerides, even in familial hypertriglyceridemia--the FDA-approved indication for Lovaza--and have not yet seen any failures, only successes.
Tags :

Comments (24) -

  • Sifter

    6/16/2009 3:43:12 PM |

    I am extremely skeptical of drug company boasts, but I do wonder if they have a point here.... since supplements are not regulated at all, how DO you know you're getting the right omega-3 and the right dosage? they could give you sugar and arsenic... how could you know?

  • mike V

    6/16/2009 4:06:00 PM |

    Hi Doc:
    Two questions please:

    1  It's well known that cutting carbohydrates also lowers trigs. significantly.
    Do you consider increasing omega 3s your primary attack?

    2 In this case is controlling omega 6/omega 3 ratio an issue, as it is in controlling inflammation?

    Thanks

    Mike V

  • Anonymous

    6/16/2009 5:06:06 PM |

    "But insurance covers it in most cases!"

    I wonder how much of the rise in health care costs can be attributed to this mentality? Why use a cheap, effective, non-patentable alternative when you can get something more expensive "for free" through your insurance? I think insurance coverage has had the unintended effect of causing health care to cost more and more since there's been ready money from insurers to cover the costs.

  • Frank Hagan

    6/16/2009 5:37:15 PM |

    Interesting ... I lowered by triglycerides from 344 to 106 mg/l in 6 weeks, but I'm not sure what the mechanism actually was.  I had been taking 1500mg of niacin per day for quite a while with little effect, but started a low carb diet (<30 grams of carbs per day) and taking 1600 mg of EPA in fish oil per day.  Within 6 weeks my test results showed the decrease.  

    I've heard both low carb diets and fish oil help lower triglycerides.  I'm hesitant to change anything ... thinking perhaps that its a "magical mix" of approaches that is working.

  • Venkat

    6/16/2009 9:03:13 PM |

    Thanks for the article Dr. By the way, does the fish oil increase Uric acid in (certain) individuals?

    In my case, I noticed that when I started on fish oil capsules, Uric acid jumped from 5.5 to 8.0 and hence the concern.

    Thanks

    Venkat

  • Anonymous

    6/16/2009 9:56:39 PM |

    We face similar ridicule from specialists. They not only get upset with us for managing our own patients (cardiology wants referrals for high cholesterol, psychiatry wants us to refer to them our average depressed patient, GI wants referrals for initial GERD) but they also very quickly dismiss our efforts to manage patients using generic medications and Vitamin D. We are family physicians. We MANAGE patients.

    A rheumatologist stopped by our office the other day to meet our providers.

    I witnessed his introduction to each provider (so I heard the same speech 5 times) and each time, the second or third sentence began with a list of 2-3 new drugs that the FDA just approved for treatment of XYZ condition, which he is already incorporating into his practice.

    After allowing him the courtesy to make his case, two of our providers questioned his experience with Vit D. His tone turned sour (as did the conversation) and he very quickly rushed through D (commenting that the results of managing D are "mixed" and "the jury is still out on that").

    He specifically asked how we manage patients who fail bisphosphonate therapy, to which one doc replied, "I haven't written for a bisphosphonate in almost 18 months, so I can't say that I've had any patients recently that fail a therapy I haven't put them on. I manage their osteo_____ by cranking up their D level. It's great! I've seen several patients with T-scores that increase 6-8%! Patients go from losing bone to making bone! We didn’t just slow their bone degeneration; we actually made new bone! With the bisphosphonates, you're preventing a natural process from occurring, plus the half life of at least 10 years doesn't sit well with most patients."

    To which the specialist replied, "oh sure. Which is why each patient must go on a drug holiday after 5 years."

    DRUG HOLIDAY? I'd never heard such a term.

    My doc went onto discuss how his patients have been very successfully treated for many types of arthritis without the use of prescription drugs.

    The conversation got especially tense when the specialist questioned how a patient could be “ethically” treated for osteo____ without the use of FDA approved pharmaceuticals.

    Needless to say, the specialist concluded with a comment about how we could stand around and argue medicine all day but he would appreciate more referrals from us.

    Yikes.

    (He also mentioned on more than one occasion how he can see our patients same day. A same day rheumatology referral? I'm struggling to picture a rheumatology referral that would require same day access.....

    He is also only 1 of 2 rheumatologists within 50 miles....and he has same day access and has been in the area for more than 2 years? Leads me to believe that maybe those services are becoming less needed due to D. Just a thought.)

    -JL

  • Ricardo.

    6/17/2009 12:15:33 AM |

    Low carb, low glycemic index, also help reduce tryglicerides:

    http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/131/10/2772S.pdf
    http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/reprint/85/9/3085.pdf
    http://www.ebmonline.org/cgi/reprint/225/3/178.pdf

  • Anonymous

    6/17/2009 1:01:35 AM |

    That is such a typical specialist reaction to the hormone D issue.  I experience this frequently.

    BTW, Lovaza is marketed by GSK, not AZ.

  • Anonymous

    6/17/2009 1:04:09 AM |

    In the migraine world, the concept of a "drug holiday" is pretty common. It isn't fun - you avoid all meds but it helps avoid rebound or medication overuse headaches.

  • Dr. William Davis

    6/17/2009 2:23:26 AM |

    JL--
    Thanks for your great story! Tell us more.


    Anonymous--

    GSK, AZ--Can you tell the difference? I certainly cannot.

    Their representatives are the same smiling-to-your-face, can-I-please-my-supervisor-and-make-my-bonus? sorts of people after one thing: their own career advancement--whether or not health is served.

  • Richard A.

    6/17/2009 5:38:42 AM |

    Here is an interesting letter to congress from a former drug rep--

    http://aging.senate.gov/events/hr190sa.pdf

  • Nameless

    6/17/2009 3:47:46 PM |

    I ran across a forum for drug reps, while randomly searching for info on a specific drug --

    http://www.cafepharma.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=3

    Their practices are scary and they basically come across, for lack of a better term, as evil. Sell their drug, whatever it takes.

  • Anonymous

    6/18/2009 2:32:27 PM |

    I really appreciate this blog but seriously, some times it just scares me into a semi-anxiety attack.
    ( Oh where oh where is my valium, LOL)
    TY Dr. Davis and all who provide such great information.  Keep up the good work!

  • homertobias

    6/18/2009 3:35:00 PM |

    Yes, and everyone wants the free samples.....So the beat goes on.  Doctors are well aware of the tactics that are being used. Most feel that perhaps their colleagues may fall for drug rep tactics.  Doctors underestimate their own vulnerability.  These days the most a drug rep can provide is a free take out lunch for the staff, free pens or a cup of coffee. Most docs don't realize that some drug reps and most of their supervisors make more money than the doctors do!  No wonder lovaza is so expensive.

  • Anonymous

    9/11/2009 2:11:40 AM |

    My trigs roller coastered between 300 and 650.  I was on extreme diets, statins, and Lovaza.  Nothing touched it.  My cardiologist blamed it on genes and said there's nothing much more we can do.  The LAST time I visted him, we argued about it to the point he finally agreed to run a series of blood tests.  Hypothyroidism...  I've been on thyroid medicine for about 5 months and the last two cholesterol screens came back normal in ALL aspects!
    Rich

  • trinkwasser

    10/2/2009 12:03:29 PM |

    Result! Send him to read this blog!

    Yes there are stories of woeful undertreatment of thyroid. My current doctors are very proactive on it - a pleasant change - and report finding problems quite often, increasing with age and female gender but present in others as well.

    This should be a relatively low incidence area - high selenium soil content and iodine from seafood - but there is a large (active) elderly population which might slant the numbers the other way - but they don't have comparative information from other areas to check due to diagnostic bias.

  • dave

    10/28/2009 4:02:26 PM |

    i have high triglycerides too.  i learned a lot from this website:
    http://loweryourtriglycerides.blogspot.com/

  • LarryAJ

    1/17/2010 7:33:26 PM |

    Thanks Dr. Davis for your blog and efforts to make people healthy. I think you will find this blog (if you haven't seen it) by Dr. Mike Eades very interesting as it fits right in with your "Triglyceride buster" blog.

    Four patients who changed my life. (blog by Dr. Eades)

  • Anonymous

    3/19/2010 4:12:51 PM |

    Things are looking up.  This was posted on the CafePharma Board yesterday.
    "Not to burst your bubble, but there are 120,000 reps out of work. Don't bother. Even people with GREAT credentials are finding nothing. Companies will continue to cut back. Access is harder than ever. The only reps that do well with getting even 2 minutes of time have some HOT sample with excellent formulary coverage. Device reps bust their ass and work from 6 am to 7 pm, 5 and even 6 days a week. I am hospital and leave at 6 am to 8 am and come home at 6 pm, on the road from 2 to 5 hours a day. It takes me 30 phone calls/emails to get ONE apppointment and when I show up, I better provide something valuable to the HCP or they will NEVER see me again. Hence, I spend my weekends studying and preparing for work. If I was under age 40, I would go back to school for a tech or nursing degree."

  • Donald

    6/27/2010 5:13:15 PM |

    Being a nurse, I never thought I would see this day. Actual doctors (Dr. Davis and others) promoting alternative therapies that are really not alternative but wholistic in nature. I am just beginning my own journey with self directed preventive care and cannot say enough about the fantastic information available. Looking forward to seeing how this develops. So far my weight has dropped 35 pounds, triglycerides reduced from 323  to 151 and this is just the beginning.

  • Anonymous

    7/2/2010 5:43:43 PM |

    Well I have heard plenty of stories about Omega-3's I have looked into them all including Lovaza and found that only one stands up to the test that truly helps triglycerides to be lowered. OceanBlueProfessional.com has their Omega-3 2100 product that has such a high potency of omega-3 if you take the suggested dosage it really works I take it every day and recommend it to everyone I know.

  • Generic Cialis

    9/23/2010 8:51:39 PM |

    My father has a high level of Triglyceride, and we are all worried about him, I know he takes Omega-3 but I believe he should increase the dose.

  • buy jeans

    11/2/2010 7:43:19 PM |

    I am continually surprised at the number of people with high triglycerides who are still treated with a fibrate drug, like Tricor, or a statin drug, when fish oil--widely available, essentially free of side-effects, with a proven cardiovascular risk-reducing track record--should clearly be the first choice by a long stretch.

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