Track Your Plaque is the revolutionary approach that shows you how heart scans and the latest medical and natural treatments can be combined to create the most powerful heart attack prevention program available!

Another Track Your Plaque success story! After two years and despite several difficult patterns, Don achieved a dramatic regression of coronary plaque using the Track Your Plaque approach.

Also, Track Your Plaque Members: Visit the website for a new article on Lipoprotein(a): What it is, why it's important, and why you need to know if you've got it!

Also read our update: High-dose Lipitor® fails to stop increase in heart scan score. There is a growing movement among cardiologists to use high doses of the statin cholesterol-reducing drugs and claim that regression will be achieved. Is this true? We talk about why it does not and why.

Another Track Your Plaque success story—but it wasn’t easy!

If having a “type A” personality were truly a requirement to have heart disease, then Don would certainly not qualify. Laid back and easy going would be more appropriate to describe his personality. Retired from banking since age 55, Don was thoroughly enjoying his retirement years with his wife, traveling and helping various charitable and church groups with his financial expertise.

Don’s first encounter with heart issues dates back 12 years, when he had undergone a heart catheterization for an abnormal stress test. The catheterization showed scattered 30–40% blockages, but none severe enough to justify balloon angioplasty (pre-stent era) or bypass surgery. Don’s doctor prescribed a cholesterol drug for a high LDL cholesterol of 195 mg/dl. Some fatigue during exercise prompted Don’s doctor to have him undergo another stress test. Again it was abnormal, but very abnormal this time. This led to insertion of two stents in his right coronary artery.

Don consigned himself to his fate. After all, his father had a heart attack at age 63. Don felt that he was just living out his genetic heritage. Fortunately, Don’s wife, a savvy nurse, felt that more could be done. That’s when she prodded him to enroll in the Track Your Plaque program.

Because Don had two stents in his right coronary artery, the other arteries could be scored but the right coronary artery had to be excluded. His score:562. (High, but imagine how high it’d be if we included the right coronary!)

When Don started the Track Your Plaque program, he was taking Zocor® 20 mg. His lipoproteins (NMR) showed:

• LDL cholesterol 122 mg/dl
• LDL particle number 1349 nmol/l
• Small LDL comprised 60% of all LDL particles
• HDL 49 mg/dl
• Triglycerides 80 mg/dl
• A moderate excess of intermediate-density lipoprotein (IDL)
• High lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) of 67.3 mg/dl
• High C-reactive protein (CRP) of 2.4 mg/l

(Only abnormal values are shown.)

It was clear that Don had some very profound abnormal patterns, some genetic (Lp(a)). Zocor® alone would have been a recipe for disaster.

(Don also proved to have a borderline high blood sugar that ran in the 108–112 mg/dl range (desirable <100) along with a high insulin level. This suggested that at least part of the cause of Don’s small LDL, lowish HDL, and high CRP was pre-diabetes or “insulin resistance”. This was addressed with increased exercise, modest weight reduction, and dramatic change in food choices away from processed carbohydrates.)

Over the ensuing months, Don’s program came to include:

• Lipitor® 40 mg, Zetia® 10 mg—Don’s LDL and LDL particle number proved very difficult to reduce to our targets and “big guns” were required. Don also used CoEnzyme Q10, 100 mg, because of some minimal muscle aches from the statin drug. Of course, Don also made liberal use of our recommended LDL-reducing nutritional adjuncts, like oat bran, raw almonds and walnuts, and Benecol®.
• Don’s Lp(a) proved exceptionally difficult to reduce and required a combination of Niacin (Niaspan®) 2000 mg; testosterone cream, 50 mg twice daily applied topically; l-carnitine, 2000 mg per day.
• Fish oil—4000 mg
• Vitamin D—2000 units per day

Don’s small LDL and somewhat low HDL responded to the niacin. Don was asked to gravitate away from processed carbohydrates in his diet like breads, chips, breakfast cereals, and sweets, and weigh his diet more in favor of lean proteins (baked chicken, turkey, fish; low-fat yogurt and cottage cheese; egg whites; raw nuts and seeds), vegetables, and healthy oils.

Don accommodated his life to all these changes. His one weakness: weight gain. Over a period of two years, he gained a total of 8 lbs. Surprisingly, however, the pre-diabetic tendency he originally displayed never progressed, and in fact improved, likely due to changes in food choices away from processed carbohydrates.

Basic lipid nor lipoproteins never quite reached perfection. His last round of lipids on the program showed an LDL cholesterol of 61 mg/dl (our target: 60 mg/dl or less), HDL of only 45 mg/dl (our target: 60 mg/dl or greater), triglycerides of 63 mg/dl (our target: 60 mg/dl or less). Lipoprotein analysis showed that small LDL and IDL improved though never quite disappeared. Lp(a) proved especially difficult, even on the three-part treatment program, ranging from 32–45 mg/dl.

Nonetheless, a repeat heart scan score two years into these efforts: 446—a reduction of more than 20%!

Editor’s note:

Don’s story is an enlightening tale of success using the Track Your Plaque approach. But, in Don’s case, it wasn’t easy!

His Lp(a) proved exceptionally difficult to reduce, and even with reducing LDL cholesterol to rock bottom numbers and three treatments (niacin, testosterone, and l-carnitine) Lp(a) never fully came into line.

Don also struggled with weight. Thankfully, it was never reflected in any deterioration in his pre-diabetic patterns. (By the way, Don’s weight gain was likely due to excessive portion sizes in his meals and, despite Don’s enthusiasm for exercise, his retirement lifestyle was otherwise sedentary. Thus, the weight gain over two years.)

Despite the imperfections in Don’s program, he achieved a substantial reduction in coronary plaque. If Don can maintain the pace of his program, he will complete conquer heart disease—with no more procedures, bypass operations, heart attacks, strokes, defibrillators, etc. Let the hospitals derive revenues elsewhere!

It would have been interesting to know precisely how Don’s life would have played out following the conventional approach. We would predict that several stents and/or bypass operations were in the stars, followed by stroke, high blood pressure, and diabetes. There’d be reliance on hospitals and procedures. Heart attacks that impair heart muscle commonly lead to defibrillator placement. And not everything goes smoothly. No more nice vacations with his wife, disruption of their plans, and certainly a shortening of his life.

Some may read Don’s story and say, “That’s too much!” Given the alternative, however, Don frequently thanks us for having changed the course of his life.

New on the Member website in March 2006:

Choose foods that can help you lose weight

If you struggle with losing weight, you’re not alone! And it’s not just cosmetic. Weight loss has substantial implications for your plaque-control program. Losing weight can help seize control of small LDL, low HDL, and other patterns. Among your weight loss efforts, choosing the right foods—ones that can actually help you lose weight—can tip the scales in your favor.

Depression and heart disease: How these two seemingly unrelated conditions are really intimately intertwined

The complex interplay between heart disease risk and emotions impact on your plaque control efforts. Read Dr. Davis’ exhaustive discussion of this important yet neglected topic.

Copyright 2006, Track Your Plaque