Heart Cipher

You’ll recall that 4 to 6 weeks ago, I described a discussion going on at the WebMD heart.org forum about Coronary Artery Disease, Coronary Artery Calcium Scanning, and dramatic reductions in cardiac events in patients.

Among the things Dr. William Davis of TrackYourPlaque.com and the HeartScanBlog mentioned in that thread is that, in his cardiology practice, optimal Vitamin D levels were essential to coronary plaque regression.

At least one other doctor questioned Dr. Davis about it because there haven’t been significant studies showing Vitamin D level to be critical. No single other doctor at the WebMD forum spoke up and seconded Dr. D.’s point about Vitamin D.

Well, things will be different from this point forward now that the journal Circulation has just published an online version of a study showing that Vitamin D deficiency “may adversely affect the cardiovascular system.”

The study conclusion also states that

further clinical and experimental studies may be warranted to determine whether correction of vitamin D deficiency could contribute to the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

What do you think? Should I wait another 2 to 5 years for these additional studies to be completed and published or should I supplement with Vitamin D3 now? More generally, is it any wonder why an increasing number of informed lay persons take Dr. Davis more seriously than they take their own doctor? He is years ahead of where most of his colleagues are when it comes to understanding the requirements for coronary plaque regression.

The study abstract follows the jump…

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Gary Taubes, author of the bestselling book Good Calories, Bad Calories, gave a lecture at the University of California at Berkeley in late November 2007 entitled The Quality of Calories: What Makes Us Fat and Why Nobody Seems to Care.

The lecture is now available for viewing online by clicking the title of the lecture above.

If you haven’t taken a look at his book or you’re having a hard time finding time to get through all it’s depth, this lecture is a tremendous introduction to Gary’s message.

The lecture is 1 hour and 49 minutes long. You’ll need the Real Player plug-in to view it.

This is a Must See video for those wanting to understand more about recent diet theory history. You’ll need to sit through more sophisticated science than I’m capable of understanding or explaining from about 1/2 way through to 3/4 of the way through, but I think it’s well worth sitting through it so you get the gist of the fundamental questions Gary is asking.

A hat tip to Dr. Michael Eades at ProteinPower.com for the link.

Physicians think differently about coronary artery disease (CAD) than we patients do. We’re mostly thinking in terms of our own actual risk or risk factors.

Evidently, the best physicians need to think in terms of what’s best for all their patients. I realized recently that it might be useful to try to understand CAD management issues from the point of view of the physician.

Dr. William Blanchet recently made an informative post at the WebMD forum along these lines and I’ve excerpted his entire post there below. I think his post speaks for itself and makes it clear that there are some incredibly good doctors out there. There are a couple of points and a question that I wanted to put on the table first, however. I missed his point entirely for a good while and it’s an important point so please indulge me for a moment.

• A hole in the boat is not someone like me who already clearly has CAD. I am part of the population that has already burst a hole in the boat and is now floating around in it.

• Be clear that YOU are potentially one of the holes in the boat if you currently have no symptoms of CAD.

• Notice that Dr. Blanchet is an ardent believer in Coronary Artery Calcium Score imaging to discover holes in the boat.

• When it comes to CAD, are YOUR doctors “bailers” or “caulkers”?

I’m going to get out the yellow pages and try to find a caulker close to where I live. Let’s see, that’s spelled C–a–u–l…

Without further introduction, I give you Billy “TheCaulker” Blanchet.

(images courtesy of auxodept.org and Boulder Community Hospital)

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I’m beginning to get worried.

I feel myself being pulled into a cult led by Dr. William Davis , MD, FACC, of TrackYourPlaque.com. The pull is getting stronger by the week and I haven’t been able to reason my way out of it.

I have only myself to blame for this. I had been searching for something different, something better to deal with my coronary artery disease (CAD). I knew I wasn’t getting the “latest and greatest” treatment ideas from my HMO. So, every year or two for the last 9 years I would spend a day googling and browsing around to see what was up.

I didn’t have a clear view of what the thing I was looking for would look like. Thinking about that search now, I guess I believed that I’d know it when I saw it.

And then back in late August of 2007, I hit the google link for Track Your Plaque (TYP). I must have spent 4 to 5 hours browsing that site and then Dr. Davis’ HeartScanBlog that day. Truth is, I was relatively certain even that first day that TYP was the thing I’d been looking for.

And now, three months later, I got back my standard lipid panel blood test results…

(images courtesy of Amazon.com and the HeartScanBlog)

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In my last post I wrote about a fracas going on over at a forum site for doctors.

I’ve had to toss my blog content calendar out the window because of what I’ve been reading over at the Club webMD’s TheHeart.org forum.

Drs. William Blanchet and William Davis have been explaining to other cardiologists there how cardiac events have been “reduced by 90%” and “essentially eliminated” among their medical practice patients.

What’s really amazing is the fact that they hadn’t really been aware of each other much before this last week. Dr. Blanchet was vaguely aware of the Track Your Plaque program but hadn’t seen or heard of Dr. Davis’ HeartScan blog (which I think is a must read). Dr. Davis hadn’t heard of Dr. Blanchet and when he first read one of his posts he joked about maybe he had written it himself.

They’re playing the game with their patients lives in the same way.

Following this thread has been incredibly encouraging because what’s clear is that these two doctors, who are more positive about what can be done about coronary artery disease than anyone else, are clearly the masters of the literature and have the most empathy for the risks and plight of their patients.

The best metaphor for the thread content I can think of is the kind of basketball game that the Harlem Globetrotters play. You’ve seen the Harlem Globetrotters right? The team of superior basketball players playing against a team composed of mediocre players. You have to see it to believe it.

(post images courtesy of 24sec.net)

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