Vitamin D--A coronary risk factor

27. May 2006 William Davis (1)
Look up "coronary risk factors" in any text and you'll find high cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, and high blood pressure listed. You won't find deficiency of vitamin D listed.

Ask 99% of physicians if a deficiency of vitamin D is a coronary risk factor and you'll get rolling eyes and a sigh.

Yet, in the Track Your Plaque experience, vitamin D is emerging as a very important factor in coronary plaque development. We have observed that there are a substantial number of people whose lipids and lipoproteins are not abnormal enough to fully explain their heart scan score. In other words, there seems to be something else necessary to satisfactorily explain the magnitude of coronary plaque.

I believe that severe vitamin D deficiency is at least one of the most important factors. We've seen many people with blood levels of vitamin in the range of severe deficiency (<20 ng/ml of 25-OH-Vitamin D3) yet bland lipids and lipoproteins.

Correcting vitamin D blood levels to 50 ng/ml also seems to be among the required factors in stopping coronary plaque growth, or stopping your heart scan score from increasing.

Keep your eye on this extremely important and exciting issue. Sadly, it won't be propelled into the media like the conversation about cholesterol or high-tech procedures, since no company stands to profit from it. But you and I don't have to play that game.

Cholesterol is dead!

26. May 2006 William Davis (0)
I saw a patient in the office yesterday. He came to me for an opinion regarding his high heart scan score of 525, putting him in the 90th percentile (5% annual risk of heart attack).

His doctor had been puzzled because his LDL cholesterols had ranged from 110 to 131 mg--actually below average. (The average LDL for the U.S. is 132 mg.) Likewise, HDL was a favorable 63 mg.

Lipoprotein analysis told the story loud and clear. His LDL particle number, a far more precise measure of LDL, was 2448 nmol/l. This means that his true LDL was more like 240-250 mg! (You can get a sense for what the true LDL is from LDL particle number by dropping the last digit: 2448 becomes 244.) Conventional LDL was therefore inaccurate by over 100 mg.

He also had a severe small LDL particle pattern. The cause of his coronary plaque was a large excess of small LDL particles. LDL cholesterol (and total cholesterol, likewise) didn't even hint at this pattern. Nor did his favorable HDL.

Think of LDL particle number as an actual count of LDL particles per volume, e.g., number of particles per cc of blood. This makes it easier to conceptualize. LDL particle number is the measure you get when you have an NMR lipoprotein profile, our preferred method of lipoprotein testing. If this is unavailable to you, apoprotein B is a reasonable second choice, though not as accurate in my view. More info on NMR is available at their website, www.lipoprofile.com.

How to make a $1 million in cardiology

26. May 2006 William Davis (0)
Want to make a $1,000,000 as a cardiologist in the next year? It's easy. All you have to do is:

1) Perform heart catheterizations or other procedures on anybody you can, even if it's not necessary. Perform them even if the patient has no symptoms and the stress test is normal.

2) Perform heart catheterizations if the patient is too timid or ill-informed to object.

3) Insert coronary stents in blockages, even when they're minor and it's not necessary.

4) Turn every heart procedure into a revenue-producing stream by looking for other profit opportunties, such as minor kidney artery blockages.

5) Heart disease is frightening. Scare the heck out of patients by exagerrating the dangers so they'll go through testing and procedures gratefully.


Sound absurd? Well, it would be if these weren't all true.

These are real examples, as awful as it sounds. I've witnessed all these behaviors. Not just occasionally, but with regularity.

Just today, I encountered a colleague who performs heart catheterizations routinely (up to several per day) when any symptom is present and the stress test is entirely normal. This is grossly inappropriate.

Your protection is being better-informed and avoid being sucked into the vast and frightening cardiovascular machine of revenue-yielding procedures. Part of your protection is to get a CT heart scan, then engage in a program of heart disease prevention.

Doctor, do I have lipoprotein (a)?

25. May 2006 William Davis (0)
I met Joyce today for a 2nd opinion. She told me about this conversation she'd had with her cardiologist:

"Doctor, do you think I could have lipoprotein (a)? I read about how it can cause heart attacks even when cholesterol is controlled."

"What does it matter? Even if you have it, there's nothing we can do about it. There's no treatment for it."

Joyce was understandably groping for some means to prevent her coronary disease from causing more danger. At 56, she'd already survived a heart attack that resulted in two stents to her left anterior descending. Around 9 months later, she received a 3rd stent to another artery.

Her doctor had put her on Pravachol and said that was enough. "We know that cholesterol causes heart disease and the Pravachol reduces it. Why do we need to know anything more?"

So Joyce came to me for another view. I explained to her that there are, in fact, several ways to deal with lipoprotein(a). It is, without a doubt, among the more difficult patterns to manage--but not impossible. In fact, we have a growing list of participants in the Track Your Plaque program who have stopped or reduced their heart scan scores.

I continue to be horrified at the level of ignorance that prevails among my colleagues, the cardiologists, and the primary care community. If your doctor gives you advice like this, get a new doctor.

Is it mainstream or alternative?

24. May 2006 William Davis (0)
A question I get about once a week: "Is your program a kind of alternative medicine?"

Our program for control and reversal of coronary plaque using CT heart scans applies an eclectic panel of tools to achieve its goals. We use high-tech methods like lipoprotein analysis and CT heart scans; nutritional supplements like fish oil, vitamin D, and l-arginine; diet strategies and "functional foods" (using foods as a therapeutic tool); and conventional medication.

I don't consider this approach "alternative" in the sense that it uses unmeasurable or spiritual strategies. But I don't consider it mainstream, either, since current mainstream practice of heart disease prevention is far less rigorous with far less satisfactory results.

I think I can sum up the Track Your Plaque approach by saying that we use tools that work. Our measure of success is whether or not your heart scan score is stopped or reduced--that's hard to fudge. You can call it what you will, but I call it the best program for heart disease prevention I know of, alternative or mainstream.

Want to see someone turn diabetic?

24. May 2006 William Davis (0)
If you want to witness the transformation of someone into a pre-diabetic or diabetic, put them on a low fat diet.

Dr. Dean Ornish's program, detailed in his books, Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversal of Heart Disease and Eat More, Weigh Less , are woefully outdated in 2006. Yet the low fat notion continues to show up in the consciousness of people I talk to about heart disease reversal.

"I'm already on a low fat diet. Do you think my heart scan score has reversed?"

Highly unlikely. What Dr. Ornish (as a non-cardiologist, by the way) failed to recognize is that what he did manage to reverse in a small number of people is something called "endothelial dysfunction", but he did not reverse or shrink coronary plaque.

Given the limitations of technology when the Ornish concept got its start, it appeared as if reversal was obtained. In reality, all his approach accomplished was a relaxation in tone of abnormally constricted arteries, thus giving the appearance of reversal. Increased artery tone, or endothelial dysfunction, is extremely common when atherosclerotic plaque is present.

Any cardiologist will tell you that there are many ways to reverse endothelial dysfunction: exercise, weight loss, cholesterol drugs, drugs for high blood pressure, fish oil, hormonal therapy, vitamin C, l-arginine, etc. There is nothing special about a low fat diet.

In fact, Track Your Plaque followers will recognize that a low fat diet is, in fact, potentially harmful, particularly when low HDL or small LDL is part of your pattern.

Let's bury the outdated ideas of the Ornish low fat diet once and for all. It doesn't work. All it may do is confuse you and set you back from your real coronary plaque reversal program.

Inulin: A fiber for weight loss

23. May 2006 William Davis (10)
Here's an interesting product that seems to be gaining some popularity for weight loss: Inulin.

Not to be confused with "insulin", with which it is completely unrelated, inulin is a naturally-occurring plant fiber. It's found in broccoli, asparagus, celery, etc. Like beta-glucan from oats or pectin, inulin is a so-called soluble fiber, a fiber that assumes a gel-like consistency when exposed to water.

Inulin has the effect of increasing satiety, or the sensation of fullness. This cuts your craving for foods. I've tried it recently and I prefer it over glucomannan, another soluble fiber for satiety.

The people at Stonyfield Farms have been adding inulin to their yogurts from some time. The nutritionist at the company tells me that there's 2-3 grams of inulin per 6 ounce container of their yogurt.

You can also find inulin as a supplement that you can add to foods, available from some health food stores and online supplement companies. I came across a neat product called Fiber Choice that's now being distributed widely throughout the U.S. I tried their Weight Management version. It was a delicous strawberry taste. The label says take two chewable tablets twice a day, but I found that two tablets three times a day somewhat better. It's best taken around 30-60 minutes prior to each meal and it causes you to be fuller with less food. One caution: It'll cause loads of gas, especially in the beginning. For that reason, you might try starting with a smaller dose, or start on the weekends when you have the option of some privacy!

More info on the Fiber Choice product can be found at their website, http://www.fiberchoice.com.

Disclaimer: I have no relationship with the manufacturer of this product. I'm simply passing on some thoughts on my experience with this interesting possibility for weight loss.

Will you recognize the truth when you see it?

23. May 2006 William Davis (0)
Do you ever wonder that, if the truth were given to you, that you'd recognize it as such? Or would you dismiss it as just another bunch of nonsense?

After all, you and I live in the Information Age. It means that we have access to mountains of information like never before in human history. But it also means that the truth is often drowned out by an avalanche of mis-truths, sales pitches and marketing, and just plain nonsense.

This struck me the other day when I was talking to a patient.

64 years old with a high heart scan score placing her at significant risk, she looked confused. I'd just described the multitude of causes of coronary plaque that we'd uncovered. The heart scan alone had been a shocker.

"I don't understand. My doctor told me that I had nothing to worry about. I've known him for years and he knows me really well. He did a stress test. That was fine. I don't get all this other stuff you're telling me--lipoprotein whatever..."

Despite my efforts to help her gain an understanding of our intensive approach, she just became increasingly more frustrated. "I just don't think I can do this."

That's the last I've heard from her. As far as I know, she's returned to the comfort of her family doctor who has reassured her over the years. And perhaps there's some good in that. But I do fear for the day when, unexpectedly, she suffers some catastrophe that we told her was coming sooner or later unless real preventive efforts were started.

You could say that she failed to recognize the truth when it was given to her-- boldly, unadorned, and with far greater scientific certainty than the casual reassurances she was accustomed to. But, unfortunately, that's all that some people want.

Don't neglect the basics in your heart disease reversal program

23. May 2006 William Davis (0)
Carl loved new ideas and novel approaches. You could tell by the sheer number of nutritional supplements he took. His list had grown to 18 different supplements over the past two years.

Carl came to me for coronary plaque regression. Lipoprotein analysis did uncover several previously unsuspected abnormalties, most notably small LDL particles and lipoprotein(a). In addition, Carl's LDL cholesterol ranged between 111 mg-156 mg and he was clearly hypertensive, with systolic blood pressures consistently around 150-160. (Recall that people with Lp(a) are more prone to hypertension.)

Carl was more than willing to have his lipoprotein(a) reduced. We did so with niacin and testosterone and the level dropped to near zero. Likewise, we corrected his small LDL pattern with niacin, fish oil, and a reduction in processed carbohydrates.

But Carl really resisted doing much about his LDL cholesterol and high blood pressure. I got the sense that these "boring" issues simply didn't interest him. After all, LDL cholesterol and blood pressure were the stuff of TV commercials and the popular conversation propagated by drug companies.

Carl's follow-up heart scan, however, finally persuaded him: a 24% increase in one year, likely due to the neglect of the basic issues.

I liken Carl's case to being like the teenager with a new car who polishes the paint to a bright finish, puts new wheels and tires on it, spruces up the interior with various doodads--but then fails to change the oil. Sometimes it's the most basic issues that can diminish your success.

Issues like LDL cholesterol and high blood pressure aren't the most glamorous, but they do count in your coronary plaque control program.

Is your doctor a hospital employee?

21. May 2006 William Davis (0)
There's a disturbing trend that's growing--silently but rapidly.

In Milwaukee, three hospital systems compete for the local health care dollar. To gain more control over revenues and the routing of patients, the hospitals are aggressively hiring physicians to work for them. I've witnessed many of my cardiology colleagues, primary care doctors, and a substantial number of procedural specialists enticed by the offers made by hospital employers.

This phenomenon is not unique to Milwaukee but is being used in many, perhaps most, major cities in the U.S.

This means that physicians are employees of the hospital. That way, employee-physicians are obliged to use only the hospital system that employs them. In the old days, your doctor could use any hospital he/she desired, depending on the quality, location, facilities, etc. Now, many physician-employees are given no choice but to use the hospital that pays their salary.

That by itself is not necessarily bad. But combine salary with incentives for bringing in patients for hospitalization and procedures--that the rub. In other words, physician-employees are incentivized to generate more revenue for the system, just as employees in many other industries.

If you're a salesman for an insurance company, your job is to bring in more business. If you're a worker on an auto production line, you're expected to meet certain quotas. These same principles are now being applied to many physicians.

How does this affect you? Well, if your physician--especially procedure-driven specialists like cardiologists, general surgeons, orthopedists, etc.--is a hospital employee, BEWARE! Do you really need that procedure, or is your doctor suggesting you have a procedure because it will add to his track record?

Prevention? In this model of health care, why bother? It certainly doesn't pay for a hospital to keep you well. Then why should your physician-employee?

Be careful who you're dealing with. If your physician is a hospital-employee, don't bet on getting preventive care. It's more likely you're that just a future source of revenue when it's time for your bypass operation, hip replacement, carotid endarterectomy, etc.

What more powerful argument is there for increased self-empowerment and information for health care consumers?
All posts by william-davis

Heart disease reversal is getting easier and easier

28. April 2006 William Davis (0)
I've recently observed that more and more of our patients on the Track Your Plaque program seem to be stopping or reducing their heart scan scores. And they're doing it faster, in less time, and with larger drops in score.

I'm not entirely sure why the sudden surge in success. However, I do wonder if adding therapeutic levels of vitamin D--at least in our generally sun-deprived Wisconsin participants--is responsible. However, we've also gotten a lot smarter on how to correct the parameters that seems to have outsized effects on plaque growth, especially small LDL.

Yesterday alone, we had two people we added to our list of successes. One, an attorney, stopped his score in one year, with no change (compared to the expected increase of 30%). Another, a woman from the northeast, dropped her score 10% in one year. Her story is remarkable for beginning at a score >1000. In general, the higher your starting score, the longer it takes to stop or reduce it.

These are just two examples. It seems to be happening at an accelerating pace.

I can only hope that our surge in success (not 100%--yet!) will continue. But, every week, we're adding more and more people to our list of success stories.

A used car lot on every street corner

28. April 2006 William Davis (0)
Imagine that, every day, a parade of used-car salesmen knock on your front door to sell you a special "deal". Day in, day out they knock, expecting you to hear about their offers openly.

Is there any doubt about their intentions or motives? Of course not. They're just trying to profit from selling you a car.

That's how it is in a medical office nowadays. Drug representatives, 5, 6, or more each and every day, promoting drugs. Except that the profits from drugs are far greater than a used automobile, and there's a third party involved in the transaction: you.

Today, a pushy representative came to my office. My staff and I tried to tell him that I was not interested in speaking to him. But he proved such a nuisance that I finally came out to tell him that I objected to the idea of drug reps just hanging around trying to hawk their wares.

He blurted, "Doctor, do you have patients with angina? Our new drug, ranolazine, is perfect. Forget about nitroglycerin, beta blockers, and all that. Here's the latest study proving it's better." He tried to shove a reprint of the study at me.

Getting to the bottom line, I asked, "What does it cost the patient?"

"Well, the co-pay is between $40 and $60. We're not yet well covered by insurance, so it'll cost patients around $200 a month."

Need I say more? Here's a drug that does little more than help relieve anginal chest pains. It doesn't reverse coronary plaque. It won't avoid heart attack, death, or procedures. It just modestly cuts back on the frequency of chest pain. And all for the cost of a single heart scan--a heart scan that could have prevented the entire cascade of symptoms/procedures/medication/hospitalization etc.

Hospitals, drug companies, medical device manufacturers. They're all businesses that thrive on your doctor's failure to detect and control your coronary plaque. Sometimes, even your doctor is part of this conspiracy to squeeze dollars out of human disease. Don't fall for it.

Heart disease reversal at age 77

28. April 2006 William Davis (0)
I met Agnes 18 months ago after she underwent a heart scan that revealed a scary score of over 1100. Although in her mid-70s, this was still a very high score. (Recall that a score this high carries a risk for heart attack and death of 25% per year.) Poor Agnes was a wreck over this unexpected result. "I can't sleep, I can't stop thinking about it!"

She'd undergone the scan because her 44-year old son had a heart scan score of 2200! Unfortunately, he ended up with a bypass operation for very severe disease.

Despite having been seeing a cardiologist in Boston for the last 8 years for a murmur, we uncovered multiple hidden lipoprotein patterns, many of which she shared with her son. Her most notable abnormalities were a low HDL and small LDL. Nearly 100% of all LDL particles were, in fact, small. This pattern also caused her LDL cholesterol to be underestimated by over 40%.

18 months on the Track Your Plaque program and Agnes came into town to get a repeat scan. Her score was 10.2% lower. She'd learned to live with the idea that she had hidden heart disease missed by her doctor and cardiologist for many years. But knowledge of the substantial reversal she'd achieved in the 18 months on the program gave Agnes tremendous peace of mind.

Agnes left the office with a big smile.

If you need a reason to quit smoking...

26. April 2006 William Davis (0)
If you've read Track Your Plaque, you already know my feelings about smoking and coronary plaque. Smoke, and you will lose the battle for control over coronary plaque growth--it will grow and grow until catastrophe strikes.

Nonetheless, this is not sufficiently motivating for some people.

If you need more motivation to quit smoking, just take a look at your heart scan sometime, accompanied by either one of the doctors or technicians at the scan center you choose. After you've had an opportunity to look at your coronary arteries, take a look at the lungs. The heart is in the middle and the lungs are the two large black areas on either side of the heart. (They're not really black; that's just the way the images are color-coded.)

Smokers will see large cavities in their lungs--literally, half-inch to one-inch wide holes that contain only air. Many of them. These represent remnants of lung tissue, digested away and now useless from the damage incurred through smoking.

Non-smokers should see uniform lung tissue without such cavities.

What surprised me early on in my heart scan experience was how little smoking exposure was required to generate these cavities. A 40-year old, for instance, who smoked a half-pack per day for 10 years would have them. Heavier smokers, of course, showed far more extensive cavities.

Officially, these cavities are called "emphysematous blebs", meaning the scars of the lung disease, emphysema.

When I've pointed out these cavities or emphysematous blebs to patients, 9 out of 10 times they immediately become non-smokers. Commonly, they'd exclaim, "I had no idea I was really damaging my lungs!" Most admitted that they were awaiting some bona fide evidence that they were truly doing some harm to their bodies. Well, that's it.

Give it a try if you're struggling.

Vitamin D for winter blues?

25. April 2006 William Davis (0)
Winter is now over and spring is in the air, even in Wisconsin.

In this part of the country, winter blues are commonplace. Sometimes called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) when it's severe enough to cause functional impairment, feelings of fatigue, lack of motivation, or the blues are very frequent when days are short and sunlight is in short supply.

I've been seeing many people in the last several weeks who were advised to add vitamin D to their program last fall. Christopher's experience was typical.

"You know, since you told me to take vitamin D, I didn't get sad and tired like I do every winter. This is the first time I can remember that happening. I didn't sleep as much and I didn't get that feeling of always being overwhelmed."

I've felt it myself this past winter. I think there's some real truth to this effect.

Dr. Bruce Hollis has published a small experience in treating people with SAD with vitamin D and showed measurable improvement in depression. (One recent study in older women failed to show any effect, however, when small doses of vitamin D of 800 units were administered. In my experience, this dose doesn't even come close to normalizing blood vitamin D levels.)

The best source for in-depth information on vitamin D is Dr. John Cannell's website, www.vitaminDcouncil.com. If you've read Dr. Cannell's discussion on the Track Your Plaque website, you know that he is an articulate spokesman for the benefits of vitamin D replacement. He also persuasively argues that vitamin D deficiency is rampant in northern climates and in people who don't get frequent sun exposure. Interestingly, we now have two studies of populations in Florida and one in Hawaii, both of which showed substantial percentages of people even in these tropical climates to be deficient in vitamin D (around 50% in Hawaii and 30% in Florida).

The dose we've used with much success is 2000 units per day in females, 3000 units per day in males. This yields normal blood levels of around 50 ng/dl in around 80-90% of people. Occasional people will require more, some less. The best way to do it is to check a baseline blood level and a level on therapy to determine the adequacy of your dose.

Dr. Cannell will tell you that it's very important to have your doctor check the right test: 25-OH-vitamin D3, not 1,25-diOH-vitamin D3. These are two very different tests of two different compounds.

In the Track Your Plaque program, we use vitamin D to reduce pre-diabetic tendencies, reduce blood pressure (vitamin D is an inhibitor of the pressure-raising hormone renin), shut down inflammation, and gain better control over coronary plaque (mechanism uncertain). In the process, you will sharply reduce risk of osteoporosis, colon and prostate cancer.

And maybe you'll be brighter when the winter blues come around again.

$4 per gallon gas is good for your health!

24. April 2006 William Davis (0)
Gasoline is now approaching $4 per gallon in some parts of the U.S. But there's a silver lining in this dark cloud. In fact, I see this as a positive for your health.

How can higher gas prices possbily be good for health?

Imagine this trend continues: Fuel prices climb higher and higher. Driving your car will become increasingly more costly. What will be the fall-out?

Well, there will be a number of implications. But among the developments will be a broad impetus towards rejecting fuel-based sources of transportation. This may come as a shock to you, but humans legs were meant for walking!

Remember way back when, Mom would say "We need some milk"? In 1953, you wouldn't get in your car and zip to and from the supermarket. Instead, you would walk a quarter-mile, half-mile or more to the store. And you would carry your bags back. You might walk a mile or two to school and back. In 2006, this seems incomprehensible.

Higher fuel prices will prompt a gradual return to 1953--As transportation costs climb, your town may try and make it easier to walk as an alternative means of getting places.
Imagine that it was easy to walk three blocks to the grocery store, produce stand, work or school, walk along pleasant paths on the weekend, stroll to the home of friends. Drive or walk? Leave the car in the garage and save you and your family hundreds of dollars a month in gas bills.

In a few years, given the current fuel cost trends, there won't be a choice. But it will be in your favor for health.

Another Ornish casualty

23. April 2006 William Davis (0)
Barry's lipoproteins were nearly all corrected to perfection: LDL 64 mg, HDL 57 mg, triglycerides 45 mg. He was approaching the Track Your Plaque goal of 60/60/60, the levels we find tip the scales heavily in your favor for achieving plaque reversal.

But one problem still prominently persisted: small LDL. Of Barry's 64 mg of total LSL, 90% of his LDL were small.

Barry was already on niacin (Slo-Niacin; Upsher Smith)1000 mg per day and fish oil, 4000 mg per day, both of which contribute to correction of this pattern. He had added occasional raw almonds and oat bran to his daily habits, both of which also help suppress small LDL. "I thought you told me that small LDL should go away if I did all this!" he lamented in frustration.

We probed Barry's diet choices more closely. "I eat really healthy foods, just like an Ornish program." Uh oh.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"For breakfast, I have two slices of whole wheat toast--no butter or margarine, of course! I'll have Shredded Wheat with skim milk. That's it. My typical lunch is low-fat turkey--no mayonnaise!--on whole wheat. I'll add some low-fat whole wheat crackers or pretzels. That's pretty much my habit."

"How about dinner?"

"Dinner varies a lot. I'll usually have a low-fat meat like chicken or turkey, never beef, a vegetable, and a potato. I love rolls but I try to make them whole wheat. I don't use gravy. I love ice cream, so I've been having low-fat frozen yogurt instead. I guess that's about it."

Barry had indeed been counseled on how we approach nutrition. We, of course, do not endorse the low-fat approach of the Ornish program. Low saturated and hydrogenated fat, yes, but not the super-strict low-fat, "all fat is bad" approach of Dr. Dean Ornish.

Barry's diet is typical of someone on a low-fat restriction. When I asked him why he was eating this way, he admitted that he'd seen Dr. Ornish on a TV program in which he persuasively proclaimed that he reversed heart disease in his patients over the past nearly 20 years using this low-fat approach.

That explained it. Barry's nearly pure carbohydrate diet was triggering high blood sugar responses after meals, causing his insulin to skyrocket and magnifying the small LDL pattern.

I advised Barry to dramatically reduce his carbohydates like breads, pretzels, low-fat yogurt, crackers, etc. Instead, he could increase his lean proteins like eggs, egg whites, Egg Beaters, raw nuts and seeds, low-fat (yes, low-fat!) dairy products like yogurt and cottage cheese (both high protein), and healthy oils.

I've seen this happen with many people over the years: A severe low-fat restriction becomes a high-carbohydate diet. It's not uncommon for many people to have more than 70% of calories from carbohydrates on these programs.

The low-fat approach worked in the era of high-fat diets in the 1980s. In 2006, where convenience foods made with carbohydrates, especially wheat, predominate and pack 80% of supermarket shelves, low-fat is now a distorted nutritional mistake that leads to problems like Barry's uncontrolled small LDL, and often pre-diabetic or overt diabetes.

Should you take Plavix?

22. April 2006 William Davis (2)
A question I get fairly frequently nowadays is, "Should I take Plavix?"

For the few of you who've managed to miss the mass advertising campaign for this drug on TV, USA Today, etc., Plavix is a platelet-blocking drug, known chemically as clopidogrel, that "thins" the blood and helps prevent blood clot formation in coronary arteries and carotid arteries, thus potentially reducing heart attack and stroke risk.

What if you have a heart scan score of, say, 450--should you take Plavix?

In general, no. First of all, aspirin and Plavix (generally taken together, since the effect of Plavix is incremental to that of aspirin) only block blood clot formation. They have no effect whatsoever on the rate of plaque growth. Aspirin and Plavix will neither slow it or increase it.

What they do is when a plaque ruptures like a little volcano and exposes its internal contents (inflammatory cells, fat, etc.--like a raw wound), a blood clot forms on top of the ruptured surface. If the clot is big enough, it can occlude the vessel and causes heart attack. Or, if it's a carotid artery, debris from the clot can break off and find its way headward to the artery controlling your speech or memory center. Aspirin and Plavix simply help inhibit clot formation once a plaque ruptures. That's it.

Interestingly, if you view any of Sanofi Aventis' commercials for Plavix, you'd think they came up with a cure for heart disease. It ain't true.

When is Plavix helpful? It's clearly an advantage after someone receives a coronary stent, drug-coated or uncoated;, after coronary bypass, particularly if certain metal punch devices are used to create the grafts in the aorta; and during and after heart attack. These are all situations in which blood clot formation is a forceful process. Blocking it helps.

In general, in asymptomatic people with positive heart scan scores at any level, we do not recommend taking Plavix. The Plavix people are extremely aggressive pushing their drug (hang around any medical office and see!) and, I believe, have gone overboard in promoting its benefits. Rarely, in someone with a very high heart scan score, say 2000 or more, we'll use Plavix for a period of a few months until lipids/lipoproteins and other risk measures are addressed, just as an added safety measure. But, in general, the great majority of people with some heart scan score or another do not receive it and I don't believe that they should.

As always, look beyond the marketing. The purpose of marketing is to increase profits, not to educate.

Dr. Ornish goofed

21. April 2006 William Davis (1)
"I don't think I need the Track Your Plaque program. I've been doing the Ornish program, so I think that my plaque has already regressed."

So proclaimed Bruce, a recent patient I saw in consultation. Having suffered a heart attack three years earlier, he was thoroughly convinced that he was now cured following the Ornish program.


Indeed, back in the 1980s, many of us existed on greasy, high-fat diets of cheeseburgers, French fries, fried chicken, plenty of butter or margarine, mayonnaise, and the like.

Along came Dr. Dean Ornish, who wrote a book called "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease: The Only System Scientifically Proven to Reverse Heart Disease Without Drugs or Surgery". This book struck a chord during this era and has been a hot-seller ever since it was published.

Does it work? In my experience, no, it does not.

Dr. Ornish claimed that sharply curtailing fat intake reverses heart disease. Closer to the truth is that, in people who start with high fat intakes, a low-fat restriction is indeed an improvement. This will lead to a modest improvement in blood flow in the coronary arteries due to a phenomenon called "endothelial dysfunction." This means that arteries will dilate modestly when specific changes are made. Thus, you will see minimal improvements in the measures he used (stress testing with nuclear imaging.)

What it does not mean is that plaque has regressed, certainly not "reversed".

In fact, our experience (over 10 years ago, when we first used the Ornish approach) was that the majaority of people did worse on this low-fat program: HDL dropped, triglycerides increased, blood sugar increased, inflammatory measures like C-reactive protein increased. Some people even magnified diabetic or pre-diabetic patterns.

It's almost certain that Bruce has not reversed his coronary plaque. In fact, I would bet that his plaque has grown substantially. Bruce started three years earlier from a diet high in unhealthy fats. If the expected rate of coronary plaque growth is 30% per year, perhaps he slowed it--to 20% or so. Since he didn't have a heart scan score at the time of his heart attack, we'll never know if he truly did reduce the quantity of coronary plaque he had.

But when I met him on his Ornish program, Bruce showed disturbing patterns that included an HDL cholesterol of 38 mg, 70% of all LDL particles were small, triglycerides measured 209 mg, and C-reactive protein was high at 2.8 mg/l. In other words, Bruce's plaque causes were far from corrected. Perhaps they were worse.

The Ornish program, despite it's ambitious claims, has outlived its usefulness. In 2006, it is an antiquated relic of a time past when lifestyle habits and technology were different.

Warning: This product may contain wheat!

20. April 2006 William Davis (0)
Jerry experienced a peculiar sensation in his chest one evening while watching TV with his wife and kids. He squirmed in his chair and experienced a little breathelessness. But he kept it to himself and didn't say anything to his wife.

Fortunately, the feeling passed. But it concerned Jerry enough that he called a local heart scan center and scheduled a CT heart scan.* Minutes later, Jerry had a heart scan score of 112. At 46 years old, this placed him in the 90th percentile compared to other men in his age group.

Jerry came to my office for consultation. Among the first steps we took was to perform lipoprotein testing. Jerry showed striking abnormalities that included an HDL cholesterol of 38 mg, triglycerides of 210 mg, an unimpressive LDL of 133 mg but comprised of 99% small LDL, and excessive IDL (meaning that he was unable to clear dietary fats after eating).

At 5 feet 10 inches, Jerry weighed 190 lbs. He showed a slight excess bulge at the tummy, but hardly obese.

Jerry's history was remarkable, however, for the amount of carbohydrates he ate. "I'm addicted to bread. I love it! If I smell a loaf of fresh baked bread, I sometimes eat the whole loaf!"

Jerry also admitted to over-indulging in bagels (whole wheat), pretzels, low-fat snack chips, Raisin Bran cereal, Cheerios, and noodles. In fact, many days he'd have 5 or 6 servings of any of these foods. He also complained of an extraordinary amount of bowel gas and cramping. "Sometimes, I'm afraid to go to a group function. I might embarass myself."

I suggested an experiment: For a 4 week period, completely eliminate wheat-containing products--breads, pretzels, breakfast cereals, pasta, etc. In their place, increase intake of protein foods like eggs, raw almonds and walnuts, low-fat yogurt, cottage cheese, chicken, fish, and use healthy oils (olive, canola, grapeseed, flaxseed) more liberally.

Just four weeks later, Jerry came to the office a new man: 8 lbs lighter, brighter, with bursts of energy he hadn't had in years. And no gas!

Lesson: Wheat-based carbohydrates can be the culprit behind many lipoprotein patterns, especially low HDL, high triglycerides, small LDL, and others. Wheat can also be responsible for a myriad of abdominal symptoms, even joint pains and rashes. In its most extreme form, it's called "celiac disease". But experiences like Jerry's are quite common--not as obvious and dramatic as full-blown celliac disease, but smouldering and destructive, nonetheless.

Track Your Plaque expert, Dr. Loren Cordain of Colorado State University, tells us that, in his reconstruction of the history of human illness, there was an extraodinary surge in disease just about the time when humans began cultivating wheat around 8000 B.C. (Track Your Plaque members: Read Dr. Cordain's fascinating interview at http://www.cureality.com/library/fl_04-005cordaininterview.asp.)

Do you need to eliminate wheat products entirely from your diet? It's something to think about, particularly if you share any of the difficulties that Jerry had.


*In general, I do not recommend heart scanning as a self-prescribed tool for chest pain or other symptoms. Symptoms should always be discussed with your doctor.
The Anti-AGEing Diet

The Anti-AGEing Diet

22. October 2010 William Davis (36)
Advanced Glycation End-products, AGEs, are a diverse collection of compounds that have been associated with endothelial dysfunction, cataracts, kidney disease, and atherosclerosis in both animal models and human studies. Not all involve glycation nor glucose, but the catch-all name has stuck.

There are a number of actively-held theories of aging, such as the idea that aging is the result of accumulated products of oxidative injury; a genetically pre-programmed script of declining hormones and other phenomena; genetic "mis-reading" that results in disordered gene expression, debris, and uncontrolled cell proliferation (e.g., cancer); among others.

One of the fascinating theories of aging is, cutely, the AGEing theory of aging, i.e., the accumulation of AGE debris in various tissues. Such AGEs have been recovered in lenses from the eyes, atherosclerotic plaque in arteries, kidney and liver tissue, even brain tissue of people with Alzheimer's dementia. AGEs perform no known useful physiologic function: They are relatively inert once formed (especially polymeric AGEs), they do not participate in communication, they make no contribution of significance. They simply gum up the works--debris. (AGEs are to health as the USDA food pyramid is to dietary advice: material for the junkyard.)

There are two general ways to develop AGEs:

1) Endogenous--High blood glucose (any blood sugar above 100 mg/dl) will permit glycation of the various proteins of the body. The higher the blood glucose, the more glycation will proceed. Glycation also occurs at low velocity at blood glucose levels below 100 mg/dl, though this would therefore represent the "normal," expected rate of glycation. Endogenous glycation explains why people with diabetes appear to age and develop all the phenomena of aging faster than non-diabetics (kidney disease, eye diseases, atherosclerosis, dementia, etc.). Hemoglobin A1c, HbA1c, is a readily-obtainable blood test that can show how enthusiastically you have been glycating proteins (hemoglobin, in this case) over the last 2 to 3 months.

A low-carbohydrate diet is the nutritional path that limits endogenous glycation leading to AGE formation. Restricting the most obnoxious carbohydrates, the ones that increase blood sugar the most, such as wheat, cornstarch, rice starch, potato starch, tapioca starch, and sucrose, will limit endogenous AGE formation.

2) Exogenous--AGEs (here especially is where the "AGE" label is misleading, since many other reactions besides glycation lead to such compounds) are formed with cooking at high temperatures, especially meats and animal products. Therefore, a rare steak will have far less than a well-done steak. A thoroughly baked piece of salmon will have greater AGE content than sashimi.

The forms of cooking that increase AGE content the most: roasting,deep-frying, and barbecuing. Temperatures of 350 degrees Fahrenheit and greater increase AGE formation.

Therefore, cooking foods at lower temperature (e.g., baking, sauteeing, or boiling), eating meats rare whenever possible (not chicken or pork, of course), eating raw foods whenever possible (e.g., nuts) are all strategies that limit exogenous AGE exposure. And minimize or avoid butter use, if we are to believe the data that suggest that it contains the highest exogenous AGE content of any known food.

If we connect the dots and limit exposure to both endogenous and exogenous AGEs, we will therefore not trigger this collection of debris that is likely associated with disease and aging. So following a low-AGE diet may also be an anti-aging strategy.

The New Track Your Plaque Diet, soon to be released on the Track Your Plaque website, has incorporated strategies to limit both endogenous as well as exogenous AGEs.
Tags :

Comments (36) -

  • August

    10/22/2010 4:04:38 PM |

    I could see this might be a problem if gut health was compromised; exogenous AGEs would then have a pathway to get into our tissues.  Assuming someone is on a low carbohydrate paleolithic style diet, what evidence is there that the exogenous AGEs do anything other than merely pass through the digestive system?

  • Tyler

    10/22/2010 5:02:07 PM |

    Hi August, I echo the same question. Is there any research on exogenous AGE's absorbing in to our bodies?

  • Davide

    10/22/2010 5:21:48 PM |

    Dr. Davis,

    Are palm oils/hydrogenated oils a significant source of AGE's like butter?

  • Anonymous

    10/22/2010 5:55:23 PM |

    What about clarified butter (ghee)?

  • Martin Levac

    10/22/2010 6:36:40 PM |

    Dr. Davis, now you're delving into the unknown with your suggestion of an anti-AGE diet. You don't know. You're suggesting we eat that diet but you haven't any data to support such a suggestion. Don't do like they did with saturated fat. Think of the alternative we adopted then that brought us here. Think of the alternative we will adopt now that will bring us who knows where.

    If the advice of the day is to avoid AGEs in food, what kind of food will we eat then? Since meat contains a boatload of AGEs, that's out but what will replace it, soy? See how your advice is already turning on itself?

    Stick to what works on the TYP program as a good doctor should and leave the speculation to the speculators.

  • Anonymous

    10/22/2010 7:11:25 PM |

    Martin, there have been numerous studies connecting the association of AGEs with various health issues. There is nothing novel or or new about this.

    Avoiding AGEs doesn't mean you can't eat meat. All you have to do is eat good fresh meat and don't over cook it until it is well done or overbrowned. If you like your meat chared and well done, then you may have to make a sacrifice.

    Yes even properly prepared meat has some AGEs in it. But no one food or diet is perfect. You just do the best you can and try to avoid the big mistakes. Just my opinion for what it is worth.

  • Anonymous

    10/22/2010 7:49:52 PM |

    Doc - with regards to exogenous AGEs, it sounds like this could be the new cholesterol-is-bad-for-you theory. My apologies if I have overlooked something in your post, but I don't see any logical argument leading to the conclusion that exogenous AGEs affect your health. Your previous post on butter also makes you sound like an alarmist. Of course, if you have a diet coming up, this is understandable.

    Frown

  • Anonymous

    10/22/2010 8:02:14 PM |

    what do stomach acid and bile do to ingested ages?? ...and the rest of the digestive process? sss

  • Joel

    10/22/2010 9:46:44 PM |

    One of the primary AGE components of milk products is pyrraline:

    Glycation in food and metabolic transit of dietary
    AGEs

    Here are some quotes from this study:

    "Given the data for pyrraline excretion, it
    can be concluded that dietary pyrraline is nearly completely
    released and resorbed during digestion, followed by rapid
    elimination via the kidneys, thus leading to nearly complete
    recovery of dietary pyrraline in the urine. This indicates that,
    in contrast with Amadori products, of which only up to 5%
    are recovered in the urine [24,25], pyrraline obviously is not
    metabolized within the body."

    "Above all, however,
    it has to be realized that the term ‘AGE’ comprises a large
    number of individual amino acid derivatives, of which only a
    minority have been identified and quantified either in foods
    or in vivo."

  • Joel

    10/22/2010 9:56:29 PM |

    Now that everyone is speculating in the last two posts, is it possible that some AGEs are much more harmful than others? (As the previous study indicates?)

    Are we distinguishing the types of AGEs when we measure them? (Or are we lumping them all together like what was done with cholesterol?)

    Are food derived AGEs eaten as part of a meal less harmful then analogues produced in a lab and fed in isolation? (Like most AGE studies I've read?)

    Again, if butter is as bad as these measurements indicate, why hasn't it been identified epidemiologically as such a bad food? Those with the highest butter consumption tend to be the healthiest (although I suppose because it displaces margarine).

    I can understand why all AGEs might be harmful to someone with compromised kidneys, but I agree with Martin Levac that we're really delving into the unknown.

    "Martin, there have been numerous studies connecting the association of AGEs with various health issues. There is nothing novel or or new about this."

    Please give us a study. This sort of broad statement is hard to counter argue otherwise!

  • Nancy

    10/22/2010 10:35:39 PM |

    I'm not really convinced AGEs you eat are a problem. But if you're enamored of low temperature cooking, looking into Sous Vide cooking. It yields delicious results by cooking at much lower temperatures than normal.

  • Ned Kock

    10/23/2010 12:26:20 AM |

    Speaking of endogenous AGEs, caused by high blood glucose levels, here is an interesting factoid - blood glucose levels in birds are very high yet their HbA1c levels are low:

    http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2010/10/blood-glucose-levels-in-birds-are-high.html

    There are a few possible reasons for this. One of the most interesting mechanisms is vitamin C synthesis. Not only is vitamin C a powerful antioxidant, but it also has the ability to reversibly bind to proteins at the sites where glycation would occur.

  • Michael Barker

    10/23/2010 2:30:23 PM |

    All humans cook food and have done so for thousands of years. This is natural for us. If you've ever cooked meat on a camp fire, you know that the some of the meat becomes very crisp. Paleo people didn't have temperature gauges so I'm very sure there were plenty of exogenous AGE's. In fact, I would suggest, since these pieces of foods tend to taste very good to humans that they are an important piece of our nutrition not the opposite.

  • Geoffrey Levens

    10/24/2010 1:17:10 AM |

    "High blood glucose (any blood sugar above 100 mg/dl) will permit glycation"

    I would love to know some research that backs this claim. I have seen it numerous times but have not been able to find any research that specifically deals with it.  Also, just guessing, but I would bet that damage occurs at considerably lower blood sugar levels for those eating a conventional, nutrient sparse diet as compared to those replete w/ vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients etc who eat a diet containing very large amounts of "real food" particularly non-starchy vegetables

  • Jonathan

    10/24/2010 1:19:54 PM |

    Has anyone ever taken an A1C of a grain-feed cow?  Maybe that high AGE butter was from a diabetic cow!

  • Lori Miller

    10/24/2010 2:48:42 PM |

    I don't know if AGEs are harmful either, but a pressure cooker is great for low-temperature cooking. It's also much faster and keeps in the juices better than oven roasting.

  • Lori Miller

    10/24/2010 4:32:39 PM |

    Re: sausage (from the last post), the list of ingredients from the chorizo I eat is pork, water, salt, paprika, spices and garlic powder. "No nitrates, MSG, preservatives, sugar or soy," reads the label. I don't understand why this is worse than any other meat.

  • Anonymous

    10/25/2010 1:09:48 AM |

    Sausage could be a problem because,

    1)The meat is ground up so more of the surface area was exposed to oxygen. More of the meat is oxidized.

    2)Sausage unlike unground cuts of meat must be cooked through because of bacterial contamination. The more you cook meat the more you get AGEs.

    3)Some sausages as with hot dogs are pre cooked. Then you cook them again. This should also increase AGEs.

  • Dr. William Davis

    10/25/2010 2:42:03 AM |

    There are indeed studies that 1) measure serum levels of AGEs in humans after consumption of exogenous sources, and 2) relate AGE levels to biologic effect, e.g., endothelial response.

    There is no question that the exogenous AGE conversation requires more exploration. I've followed this conversation for some years, but I believe it is gathering real momentum and looks and feels like a genuinely meaningful issue.

    We need more info, no doubt. The notion of endogenous AGEs already fits quite nicely into our observations of the benefits of a low-carb diet. But  exogenous AGEs have potential for taking us one step farther in crafting an ideal diet. Recall that the "Paleo" approach is one reconstructed to mimic ancient behaviors, not necessarily one to achieve a new set of modern goals, such as reversal of coronary disease or osteoporosis.

  • Peter

    10/25/2010 11:25:03 AM |

    It's clear that in the US we eat lots of carbs and get lots of heart disease and diabetes.  But there are lots of traditional cultures that eat even higher percentages of carbs (cassava, beans, rice and others) but that don't get those diseases.  How does the AGE theory explain that?

  • LeenaS

    10/25/2010 12:58:51 PM |

    Dear Dr Davis,

    I know your opinion against butter, but disagree, based on a lifelong experience, as a skin chronic healed by milkfats and (land)animal fats.

    For the first 40 years of my life I was never free of allergic reactions and imflammated skin symptoms. Raw food helped not, vegetables and salads helped not, and the official healthy lifestyle helped not either. 10 years ago, when the stsart of Zonish lowcarb (much like your style) finally helped me incredibly much... Yet my skin has healed fully only after I switched to very, very buttery and egg-yolky diet close to Jan Kwasniewski.

    I live far up North, but have no symptoms of vitamin D deficiency, in spite of not eating the pills and not having much sun for the better part of the year. Furthermore, I cannot eat fish, and do no longer supplement with fish oil either, due to problems induced by it. Yet my skin has never been as good as now, fully without irritation or other symptoms. And unlike my frends and colleagues, I no longer seem to catch seasonal colds, either.

    So far the only thing I can blame for the last few years of well-being is increased use of milkfat and non-muscle parts of animals (fat, marrow, liver and skin collagen). Of these the milkfats make up a major part of the daily calories, often more than 50 E%.

    I'm interested to hear your thought on possible causes, which make this butter strategy work the best of all that we've ever tried; both for myself and for others in our family Smile

    With regards,
    LeenaS

  • Steve Cooksey

    10/25/2010 2:50:34 PM |

    I am a Type 2 Diabetic with normal blood sugar who takes -0- drugs and -0- insulin.

    I experienced tremendous benefits from going low carb primal. I won't detail them here but I have not been sick in 20 mos.

    This summer I performed a one week dairy fast (I'd been off milk for almost a year) and then added back butter.

    Butter was very inflammatory. I no longer eat it. Clarified butter or Ghee and Cheese are not inflammatory and I eat it occasionally.

    So for me, I agree with butter.

  • Lori Miller

    10/25/2010 9:47:14 PM |

    Anonymous, thanks for the info on sausage. I buy raw sausage and I'm careful to avoid over-cooking any meat, mostly because it gets like shoe leather.

    Another question: is cream high in AGEs? Does the churning action required for butter contribute to oxidation or AGEs?

  • Anonymous

    10/25/2010 11:43:50 PM |

    What's the consensus on carnosine ? I've read some articles claiming it helps with AGE factors.

  • Martin Levac

    10/26/2010 8:47:46 AM |

    Dr. Davis, it's fine to have data on a diet that contains AGEs, but where's the data on a diet that avoids AGEs? Where is the justification for adopting such a diet? Avoiding something leads to adopting something else. What will that be? You can't predict. Nobody can predict. This is the danger of advising to avoid something just like that was the danger of advising to avoid saturated fat and pretty much all animal fat altogether in one big swoop.

    If we can't eat fat, we must eat sugar. There's no other alternative. If we can't eat meat, we must eat some other form of protein. What will that be, soy, wheat, any other grain, legumes? If we can't eat meat, we must eat some other form of those essential nutrients like B12 and EFAs. But where can we get such a high quality source of those nutrients but in animal flesh? The quick answer is nowhere.

    When you advise to avoid AGEs without giving us a safety threshold, the safe course is to avoid all AGEs, not just a little bit. When you give a safety threshold, it doesn't matter because the substance has been declared bad entirely anyway so the safe course is the same.

    We can see this with animal fat and pretty much any kind of fat. Fat is bad, so any fat is bad, so less fat is good or better, but no fat is best. That's how it works in spite of having some form of safety threshold we can abide by like say 10g of saturated fat per day maximum. Why is that? The safety threshold is declared as a maximum with no minimum.

    So tell us Dr. Davis, what is the maximum and the minimum amount of AGEs you advise we eat? But more relevant to the discussion, how can we find out exactly how much AGEs is in the food we eat every day so that we can make an informed decision on exactly how much AGEs we eat every day? Is there a tool that will allow me to find that out? The point is that even if you give us a precise number on how much AGEs we can and cannot eat, we can't even control how much AGEs we eat. Accordingly, the best course of action is to avoid all AGEs and not just a little bit just to be safe because the contention is that lots of AGEs is worse than none.

    With endogenous AGEs production due to high blood glucose and other simple sugars like fructose, the problem is much simpler. That's because this AGEs aspect of sugars is merely the last installment of How Sugars Kill Us Slowly. We already know that sugars kill us slowly and we already know just how much of it will do it and how long it will take and etc. But until you find out exactly how much exogenous AGEs we must avoid and exactly how much we can get away with and how to measure the AGEs in the food we eat, this problem will remain unresolved and unresolvable.

    In other words, the best course of action with exogenous AGEs is to just ignore them outright. After all, we've been ignoring them outright for the past couple million years without so much trouble.

  • Fred Hahn

    10/26/2010 4:52:57 PM |

    Bill,

    Butter is high in AGEs? Wow - why? What about Ghee?

    Do you know what the AGEs are in smoked meats like smoked trout?

    Does the canning process increases ages as in canned wild caught salmon?

  • Dr. William Davis

    10/27/2010 1:47:27 AM |

    Hi, Fred-

    I believe that smoked fish tend to be moderately high in exogenous AGEs.

    One of the difficulties with quantification of AGEs in foods is we have limited data on the AGE content of various foods. It's not like grams fats or carbohydrates listed in plain sight on the label.

    I find the AGE conversation a fascinating new potential insight into helping us decide how to best manage food choices, as well as food preparation.

    As with all new ideas, it will cause upheaval in preconceived notions.

  • Poisonguy

    10/27/2010 7:34:44 AM |

    Given some of the previous blog posts, the largest preconceived notion might be yours toward butter. So, it's no big deal if you aren't up to the challenge of defending what you posted. That's okay. Trying to be coy about it, not so much.

  • Anna

    10/28/2010 7:28:18 PM |

    Count me as a skeptic on this one.

  • Anonymous

    10/29/2010 3:54:56 PM |

    Very good review on AGEs. Dr. Davis is 100% right to be concerned.

    http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/65A/9/963.full#ref-109

  • blogblog

    10/30/2010 12:31:18 PM |

    People are confusing exogeneous AGEs which are generally harmless compared to the dangerous endogenous AGEs.

    Endogenous AGEs are created by proteins in our bodies reacting with reducing sugars.  Practically the only sources of dietary reducing sugars are fructose (table sugar, HFCS) and  cooked starches. The obvious solution is to eat far more meat and butter and drastically reduce carbohydrates.

    Humans have been eating cooked food for 1.8 million years and are very well adapted to them. The novel foods in the human diet are large quantities of plant proteins, starches and sugars.

    I'm surprised you think kale and spinach are so wonderful. Renowned toxicologist Dr Bruce Ames says that there are considerable amounts of natural toxins and carcinogens present in all food plants.
    http://www.fortfreedom.org/n16.htm

    Any potential benefits from eating kale is likely to be due to hormesis.

    In fact there is absolutely nil direct scientific evidence that eating fruit and vegetable has any health benefits whatseover. The benefits of vegetables have only been found in a few poorly designed population studies. Any observed 'benefits' of eating vegetables are probably just due to confounding variables - people who eat vegetables smoke less, drink less alcohol, are more active and eat less sugar and junk foods.

  • Apra -- The Shaman

    10/30/2010 4:35:41 PM |

    Gary Taubes is skeptical of the claims about exogenous AGES

    http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/36758/17729/gary-taubes

  • blogblog

    10/31/2010 8:12:44 AM |

    Hi Apra,

    In 'The Diet Delusion' Gary Taubes says that the natural diet of humans is almost purely carnivore with a few berries. Taubes studied physics at Harvard and aerospace engineering at Stanford before becoming a journalist. Because he was properly trained in using rigorous scientific methods he can readily see the flaws in nutrition research.

  • Ed

    11/16/2010 3:06:38 AM |

    I've read the sole paper that lists butter as a high-AGE food: "Advanced Glycoxidation End Products in Commonly Consumed Foods" (2004, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, via Google Scholar cache).

    The data is in Table 1, which refers to "foods prepared by standard cooking methods" (these include frying), but the table says nothing specific about how the butter was processed. I am willing to bet that the butter in question had been treated at high temperature (maybe used in frying).

    Consider these values:

    Milk, cow, whole .... 0.05 kU/mL
    Butter .............. 265 kU/g

    Expecting high AGEs in uncooked butter -- over 5000 times the level in milk! -- would make little sense.

    Would you consider revising your post in light of this?

  • Mary McNeill

    8/5/2012 4:10:37 PM |

    The data table lists butter as 100 gm serving, or over 3 ounces (23,000 - 26,000).  In the serving size database, the amount of AGEs normalize a bit, at 1100 - 1300.  I wish they had done organic vs commercial butters, but maybe next time we can see that data.  No surprise on pan fried bacon at 91,577 for 3 ounces and 11,905 for the serving size (2 slices is the norm).   As with all foods, moderation.  And thank you for your blog - it is very informative!

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