Ok. So you googled heart disease or some other phrase for whatever reason for yourself or for someone you care about and the Track Your Plaque (TYP) program website came up in the search.
If you’re like I was (in late August of 2007) you’ve already spent time on some other sites dealing with coronary artery disease (CAD) and you weren’t that impressed. Sure, there are some sites that talk about the fact that you should improve your diet, the list of supplements you take, and/or your exercise program.
But then you came across the TYP website or maybe Dr. Davis’ HeartScanBlog and they just “feel” different to you. There are some audacious claims being made at both sites about dramatic positive changes in actual risk and risk factors related to CAD. But this Dr. Davis character sometimes goes on rants about how bad things are vis-a-vis CAD and you’re thinking to yourself “it can’t be this bad can it?” And some of his suggestions sure seem extreme.
“Give up wheat? Is he kidding?” Well, no, he’s not.
If you’ve gone through something like these stages and still, ready or not, you’re thinking now that you’d like to move forward as quickly as possible to follow the TYP program, I’ve written this post for you.
Below the fold, I sketch the steps related to lipoprotein blood testing that will jumpstart your Track Your Plaque program.
(image courtesy of nsc.org)
After I discovered the Track Your Plaque (TYP) program, I struggled to figure out how to get the right and best blood testing done for several weeks. If I knew then what I know now, here are the steps I would take without thinking about it and which are consistent with the TYP program.
When I first posted this same set of steps at the HeartScan blog back in October of 2007, Dr. Davis responded as follows:
wccaguy,
Excellent points about vit D and practical ways to get this done.
In short, the steps outlined below are consistent with Dr. Davis’ view of what you need to do.
First things first… It all begins with a Heart Scan. This post is about blood testing but you’ll need to get a Heart Scan done too. Don’t forget!
Ok. Steps for getting the blood testing done quickly.
1) Go to LipoScience.com and order the NMR test from LabSafe. Here’s the link for ordering the blood test. Dr. Davis, in multiple forum or blog posts, has stated that he prefers the LipoScience NMR above the other two blood tests he mentions in his post. The NMR test ran about $100 when I ordered it. You’ll get the paperwork or a phone call in a couple days with a list of blood draw centers in your area.
When you order the NMR test, BE SURE to add the LipoProtein(a) (aka LP(a)) test to your order.
2) Go to the Life Extension Foundation website and order a Vitamin D test.
The two LipoScience tests and the LEF Vitamin D test can be done at LabCorp drawing centers. So, if you order them at the same time and wait a week to get all the paperwork you can get all the blood drawn in a single lab visit. So, there, about $200 outside of insurance reimbursement, boom, done… in a week…
Ok… That’s all well and good but now you’re thinking to yourself… “I need a Doctor’s evaluation just like Dr. Davis has recommended in this blog post.”
Well, I think Dr. Davis has significantly UNDERSTATED the value of joining his Track Your Plaque program for what, $40 for the first 3 months and $19 for every quarter after that?
Once you join the TYP program, you get access to the TYP forum. Once you get your blood test results a week or so after the blood draw then you post those results (anonymously) to the forum and ask for advice about what to do. Forum members who know what they’re talking about (because they’ve been following Dr. Davis’ work for a while) will provide you with feedback about what your numbers mean and what you need to do and can do about them.
Since I became a member, Dr. Davis has personally answered each post also unless the post didn’t really require a reply. Usually he replies within 24-48 hours. Can you get an appointment with any doctor more qualified than he is to provide feedback in less time? Well, no, you can’t. And then, when you have follow up questions, you can post those questions and get solid answers from other members or from Dr. Davis… about blood testing, heartscans, supplements, diet, etc.
At the time of writing this post, I suppose you could ask for a personalized report from him for $75 as well. My impression is that it wouldn’t say much more than what he would say to you anyway in the forum.
From the forum, you’ll often be referred to one or more of dozens of special reports Dr. Davis has written on the most critical issues related to coronary artery disease, including all the most harmful results you may learn of through the blood testing you got done.
One of the most important things about the forum is this: Forum members, who have been doing the TYP program for a while, often post their 1 year results. It’s incredibly inspiring to read about folks reducing their coronary plaque measured by CT heart scans and improving their blood lipoprotein numbers.
So, 20 days, start to finish, less than $250 outside of insurance reimbursement, boom, you’re armed with the information you need to move forward.
7 to 10 days from initial blood draw ordering to getting the blood draw done. 7 to 10 days from blood draw to receiving your results and getting world-class feedback from Dr. Davis and TYP members under his tutelage on your specific numbers that you post anonymously.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Sorry for the off-topic comment. The tool that I was talking about in one of my previous comments a few weeks earlier is almost usable. If you have time, please take a look at it at my blog (http://recoverytrail.com/) . Im trying to import my test reports which I get it from mt lab as a PDF in to the application. I was wondering what format do you get your test report from your lab. Is it in electronic format at all? I could tweak the app to import your format directly, if that is useful to you.
-cheers,
neelesh
May 18th, 2008 at 5:19 am
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