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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!
Yet another Track Your Plaque success
story!
Heart scan score drops 10% in one year.
Also in this issue:
You have no business having a heart attack!
Review the new additions to the Track Your Plaque
Frequently Asked Questions
Track Your Plaque Members:
Another Track Your Plaque success story—Heart scan
score drops 10% in one year!
John’s family history alone was enough to make you
cringe.
His father died suddenly when he was 52 years old. John’s brother, a
smoker, suffered his first heart attack at age 28 (!!) followed by a
bypass operation at age 32. On his father’s side, several uncles and
grandparents shared similar stories. Few survived past their mid 50s.
So it was that John finally shored up enough courage to get a heart scan
on his 52nd birthday. His score: 159.3, placing him in the 85th
percentile (3% per year risk of heart attack). At first, John was
shocked that his score wasn’t higher. But John’s doctor thankfully had
the knowledge and peace of mind to point him in the right direction. He
enrolled him in the Track Your Plaque program.
One of the first issues we had to deal with was John’s marked
pre-diabetic patterns. Particularly concerning was his small LDL
pattern. Even though John’s LDL cholesterol was only a modest 119 mg/dl,
60% of all LDL particles were small. In addition, both blood sugar and
insulin levels were high, indicative of developing diabetes.
John worked two jobs as a baker, baking cookies, breads, and other flour
products. He loved his work—but he also loved eating his own cooking. As
a result, John had gradually gained around 30 pounds over the last 18
years of his baking career. This needed to change.
John converted to the Track Your Plaque program diet and increased his
intake of lean proteins like low-fat yogurt and cottage cheese, raw
nuts, and more fish; chose healthy oils; and sharply curtailed
indulgence in processed carbohydrates, including his own baked products.
John struggled to squeeze exercise into his day between his two jobs. So
he decided to walk to each of his jobs, adding up to a total of around 4
miles per day.
Over a year’s time, John succeeded in losing only a few pounds but
noticed a gradual diminution of his abdominal girth. Likewise, he
gradually pulled his lipids and finally lipoproteins (particularly small
LDL) into line.
A second heart scan provided cause for celebration: a score of 144—10%
less than his original score.
Only then did John finally show the tears he’d been holding back for the
many years since his father had died suddenly. John revealed that one of
his great regrets in life was that he had been unable to help his father
or say goodbye. John’s success in reducing his heart scan score brought
a flood of relief. It also compelled John to teach the same lessons to
the rest of his family—his siblings and children, nieces and nephews—to
spare them all from the fate of his father.
You have no business having a heart attack!
In this day and age of CT heart scans and a prevention
program like Track Your Plaque, heart attack should be darn near
eliminated.
Yet heart attacks continue to strike with alarming frequency all around
us.
Why would someone still have a heart attack even though these powerful
tools are available? Several reasons:
- Ignorance—If you haven’t yet heard about heart scans, you won’t know
if you’ve got hidden coronary plaque. Or, if you don’t have access to
information on what to do once you’ve had a scan. This unfortunate
situation persists. Emergency rooms are filled with people like this.
Physician ignorance is also a big problem here.
- Neglect—Having the right information but not using it. You can lead a
horse to water…This is simply foolhardy.
But you’re reading this newsletter. You therefore must not be ignorant
nor are you neglectful.
Follow a conventional program of heart attack prevention—low-fat diet,
exercise, cholesterol drugs—and you’ve modestly reduced your risk.
By following the most effective program available anywhere in the
world—the Track Your Plaque program—you’ll reduce your risk
dramatically. For many, you will not only have reduced risk, you will
have eliminated it.
Recent FAQ’s
Should I have a heart scan if I’m having chest pain?
No, absolutely not. The only time a heart scan is
helpful to diagnose the cause behind chest pain is when it’s part of a
larger evaluation that includes, for instance, an EKG, stress test, and
other conventional tests.
The problem is that your heart scan is not a provocative test. A stress
test allows the provocation of chest pain and other associated phenomena
and permits your doctor to associate cause with effect (chest pain).
A heart scan with IV contrast—also known as CT coronary angiography and
64-slice heart scan (a misnomer)—may be more helpful to diagnose the
cause of chest pain. This should also only be performed under the
direction of your physician.
The difficulty with the symptom of chest (or arm, shoulder, neck pain
etc.) is that there are many potential causes, such as gastrointestinal
disorders, esophagitis, lung problems, pericardial diseases, as well as
angina and heart pain.
Track Your Plaque is all about empowerment in heart disease prevention.
But chest pain remains an issue best handled by your doctor.
Can I reduce my heart scan score with only diet and
exercise?
Yes, you can—but only in exceptional instances.
Craig T. is an example. After learning of his heart scan score of 589 at
age 51, Craig went hog wild on a weight loss program. On his own, he
eliminated all processed carbohydrates, snacks, and fried foods, and
adhered to a diet that was almost exclusively salads, vegetables, and
lean proteins. He exercised for 90 minutes, 6 days a week. He used
minimal supplements, primarily a low-dose of fish oil and a
multivitamin.
100 lbs later, his lipoproteins reflected only a residual mildly
elevated small LDL particle pattern. Everything else looked fabulous. A
second heart scan disclosed a score of 581—essentially no change.
That’s quite an accomplishment, considering that most people’s scores
increase 30% per year. And Craig did it with diet and exercise alone.
However, most people simply don’t obtain the dramatic effects that Craig
did. How many people do you know who’ve lost 100 lbs? Losing this much
weight is no guarantee that your plaque will stop growing, though it
sure did pack a punch in Craig’s case.
The great majority of people need to do it all: modify diet, exercise
and correct lipoprotein patterns through selective use of supplements
and medication.
Copyright 2006, Track Your Plaque
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