Heart disease is reversible

13. February 2008 William Davis (10)
In a previous post, Take this survey: I double-dare you, I posed a challenge:

Ask your doctor: Is heart disease reversible? Their answer:

1) No. Heart disease is definitely not reversible.

2) Yes, in rare instances, like lightning striking twice.

3) Yes, of course it is! Let's talk about how to do it!

I predicted that few readers of this blog would respond. I also predicted that the few who did would respond with the first answer, Heart disease is definitely not reversible. After all, in nearly all medical practices, the only parameters routinely followed to track risk for heart disease are LDL cholesterol and blood pressure. A measure of the disease itself (i.e., coronary atherosclerotic plaque) is not followed. So how can your doctor actually tell whether heart disease is reversed or not? When I engage in this conversation with colleagues, it goes no farther than rolled eyes or a snort. In my experience, talking about reversal of heart disease is a wasted effort.

To my great surprise, this simple survey received a total of 177 responses. Even more surprising, 122 (69%) of respondents chose number 3, claiming that their doctor said that heart disease is reversible.

Overall results:

1--31 responses (17.5%)

2--24 responses (13.5%)

3--122 responses (69%)


Now wait a minute: Where is the disconnect? Why are doctors saying that heart disease is reversible, yet not following this concept in practice? Contrary to the survey results, I have yet to meet a patient who said their doctor was trying to reverse their heart disease. Of course, this may be a skewed population, but I find it hard to believe that the prevailing view is that heart disease is reversible.

Anyway, this simple survey cannot settle the why or how, nor can it suggest just how prevalent this opinion is.

I am encouraged by these results. If true, it means that the message that heart disease is a reversible process is spreading. It may be make-believe heart disease reversal as preached by Dr. Dean Ornish or claimed by statin drug manufacturers. It may be the hocus-pocus of practices like chelation, or scams like nattokinase. But perhaps the seed of this notion has been planted in the minds of the medical community.

I'd be interested in hearing from the respondents who reported that their doctor said heart disease is reversible. How exactly are they going about achieving reversal?
Tags :

Comments (10) -

  • Anonymous

    2/13/2008 3:33:00 PM |

    "How I voted": After diet, exercise,Lowest Lipitor(1/2 a 10)and 1500 Niacin(high LP a)....my Cardio told me I was the only one of his patients able get to counts so low. And at that level he felt I would have "some chance for a little reversal". HDL70/LDL34/TR32/LPa30. I gave him a "2" because his tone of voice sounded forced to say "some chance" like he wasn't really convinced. Love your blog info....many thanks!

  • JJC

    2/13/2008 3:53:00 PM |

    Dr. Davis,

    I don't think there is a lot of inconsistency. I first got a scan because my Dr. was frustrated with me for not wanting to do the statin and niacin and lisinopril that he thought were needed. So he challenged me to get a heartscan. I'd never heard anything about them before. Once I came back motivated he was delighted. So, the only reason I got a scan was that I had a Dr. who already thought that heart disease was reversible, though to a more limited degree than you have documented.

    Before I got the scan I found your book and site and took your advice on EBT.

    When I talked to the cardiologists in the HMO, the first and supposedly the most flexible one told me that it was not reversible. The others were downhill from there. The primary care Dr's of 4 close friends that I keep bugging on this issue all either deny the usefulness of scans and/or maintain that niacin is useless if you are on a statin. (I guess they don't even read the NYtimes.)

    So, I think you got the responses you did because one way people come to this program is through Drs. that already know a bit more than the average Dr. about these issues. I find it very hard to motivate friends on these issues if their docs are not supportive, even if they have terrible scan scores.

    Best,
    Jim

  • vin

    2/13/2008 4:59:00 PM |

    May be the result is not such a surprise because the question is not answered by a random group.

    Most of the people who read this blog are already aware that heart disease is reversible. Majority with heart problems are not aware and are not told by their doctors that such a possiblity exists.

    It would be interseting to find out what course the "reversible" doctors take to achieve reversal: is it drugs to lower LDL and raise HDL or low fat diet or TYP.

  • Anonymous

    2/13/2008 5:12:00 PM |

    Hello Dr.Davis
    I responded heart disease is reversible because of data that I have read and personal experience on body's ability to heal.

    Also just a thought that your survey results might be weighted because people reading this blog would tend to be better informed. They also must think there are positive results in proactive (and preventive) health management to invest time in reading this blog, etc..

  • Anonymous

    2/13/2008 5:20:00 PM |

    One other thought - it seems that doctors do prescribe activities that they think reverses ( or at least halts) heart disease - such as quit smoking, lose weight, exercise, etc..
    But they aren't paid to educate - they are paid to treat disease (as you have pointed out so many times; there is no money in prevention).
    It seems like we need a new mandatory addition to the public education system.

  • Anonymous

    2/13/2008 9:03:00 PM |

    I am subscribed to the newsfeed of this blog, and try not to skip over anything you post. But perhaps I missed something, because you bashed nattokinase in a few of your recent posts.

    Isn't nattokinase also called natto, which is high in K2? Didn't you post about how it could be promising here:
    http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/food-sources-of-vitamin-k2.html

    Maybe I didn't understand the December post, or maybe you've changed your views on it.

    Well back to this posts theme: my parents dropped in from their motorhome-gypsy trip, and my father told me about his GP, who's a DO, that has him taking the supplements you recommend, as well as on a low-glycemic diet to control his newly diagnosed diabetes.

    His fasting sugars now range between 110-120s without pills or insulin, but he didn't know his cholesterol profile. I'll have to follow up with him via snail mail to ask him about that, now that I have their national forwarding address (it's difficult to finish a conversation with him with interruptions from my mother -- I asked my father his DO/GP's name, but instead I got my mother's doctor's name for her condition, sigh).

    I mentioned K2 to him, so now I'm wondering if I should tell him to forget it.

  • Anonymous

    2/14/2008 1:35:00 PM |

    Hi Doc:
    My cardiologist says that heart disease can be reversed by driving down LDL, pure and simple.  He has no interest in any other numbers.  To accomplish this he prescribes statins, and has not counseled me about any other lifestyle changes.

  • Anonymous

    2/14/2008 5:26:00 PM |

    I agree with what others have said.  The people who would take time to read your blog are better informed and probably seeking out better than average medical advice.  My doctor is very proactive on many things and not just a pill pusher.  In fact I would not continue to visit a doctor that is just pushing pills, surprisingly to me, there still seems to be a lot of people in the country that think that because their doctor has perscribed them something it is totally safe.

  • buy jeans

    11/3/2010 3:15:29 PM |

    Now wait a minute: Where is the disconnect? Why are doctors saying that heart disease is reversible, yet not following this concept in practice? Contrary to the survey results, I have yet to meet a patient who said their doctor was trying to reverse their heart disease. Of course, this may be a skewed population, but I find it hard to believe that the prevailing view is that heart disease is reversible.

  • johndouglas

    11/8/2010 7:54:20 PM |

    I appreciate the concern which is been rose.This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.

    Well, it’s amazing. The miracle has been done. Hat’s off. Well done, as we know that “hard work always pays off”, after a long struggle with sincere effort it’s done.
    --------
    johndouglas

    Cycle Covers Motorhome Facts

Add comment

Loading
Explosive plaque growth

Explosive plaque growth

10. December 2007 William Davis (3)
Every once in a while, we will see someone experience more-than-expected rate of coronary plaque growth, a sudden jump in heart scan scores. I'm talking about increases in score of 50%, even 100%, sometimes despite favorable lipid and lipoprotein patterns.

It's not always easy to pin this phenomenon down, since we often detect it after a year or more on a repeat heart scan. It would be wonderfully insightful to perform heart scans more frequently and track plaque growth more precisely, but of course, radiation exposure is the most important limiting factor, as is cost.

So this list is, admittedly, speculative. It is based on observation, on presumptive associations between events and heart scan scores. But, judging from what we do confidently know about coronary atherosclerotic plaque, I think these observations make physiologic sense.

These are the sorts of increases in heart scan score that can scare the heck out of you, silent yet explosive growth of coronary atherosclerotic plaque that can grow with no warning whatsoever.



Image courtesy Wikipedia and the United States Geological Survey.









Factors which I have observed to possibly be responsible for explosive plaque growth include:

--Overwhelming tragedy such as death of a loved one, financial ruin, divorce. One of my early and catastrophic failures was a young man in his early 40s who, in the space of just a few months, suffered the loss of his mother, a brother, and his mother-in-law, while working a high-stress job. His heart scan score doubled from around 100 to 200 in one year, despite perfect lipoproteins. He had a heart attack shortly after the second score, despite a normal stress test just months earlier. (Pessimism is tragedy's weak cousin, but one that still holds power to corrupt our otherwise best efforts at plaque reversal.)

--Substantial weight gain. In the early years of the Track Your Plaque program, before it was even called "Track Your Plaque," I witnessed a man more than double his score from 1100 to 2400 in 18 months just by allowing himself to gain 40 lbs. (I don't know what became of him. His life apparently suffered other disasters, as well, and we lost track of him.)

--Poorly-controlled diabetes. High blood sugars out of control have yielded explosive growth.

--Kidney disease--However, I am uncertain of how much this overlaps with a deficiency of vitamin D's active form, 1,25-OH-vitamin D3, the form that is often deficient in people with dysfunctional kidneys.

--An inflammatory disease that is out of control, e.g., rheumatoid arthritis.

--This is very speculative, but I've witnessed explosive growth after vaccine administration that yielded strange viral-like symptoms. In this one instance, the man was getting heart scans (on his own) every three to six months and described a severe illness following a vaccine administered in preparation for travel out of the U.S.

--Unrecognized low thyroid function--i.e., hypothyroidism. This is easily corrected with thyroid hormone replacement.


These factors can also be relative and they can be overcome. Look at our current Track Your Plaque reversal record-holder: a 53-year old woman who dropped her heart scan score an amazing 63% despite the loss of a loved one during the 15 months of her program. Despite an overwhelming tragedy, she overcame the potential adverse effects and set a record, probably a record for the entire world.
Tags :

Comments (3) -

  • chcikadeenorth

    12/11/2007 2:54:00 PM |

    thank you, very timely and informative, explains allot of my increase as well.But I am working to become a Low Plague Poster Baby Boomer.

  • Anonymous

    12/11/2007 11:25:00 PM |

    For someone that has explosive plaque, how would you try to treat?  Would lowering matrix metalloproteinase by prescribing doxycycline be an appropriate next step?

  • Dr. Davis

    12/12/2007 3:17:00 AM |

    First, consider correction of the cause.

    Unfortunately, a cause is not always identifiable, at least one you can do something about. Yes, anti-inflammatory strategies against MMP might be useful. Otherwise, there is, with present knowledge, no specific therapy for, say, grief.

Add comment

Loading