Green coffee bean extract in AGF Factor I

7. June 2012 William Davis (16)
Track Your Plaque's new and proprietary formulation, AGF Factor I, is designed to to support a program to achieve low levels of endogenous glycation.

Endogenous glycation, discussed at length in a recent Track Your Plaque Special Report, makes LDL particles (especially small LDL particles) more prone to oxidation and thereby more atherogenic, i.e., more likely to contribute to atherosclerotic plaque. Endogenous glycation also exerts unhealthy effects on long-lived proteins in the body, such as the proteins in the lenses of your eyes (cataracts), the lining of arteries (hypertension), and the cartilage cells of joints (brittle cartilage and arthritis).

Endogenous glycation is reduced by slashing carbohydrates in the diet, especially the most offensive carbohydrates of all, the amylopectin A of wheat, sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup and other fructose sources. Endogenous glycation can also be blocked by using blockers of the glycation reaction, such as benfotiamine (lipid-soluble thiamine), pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (a form of vitamin B6 with greater glycation blocking effect), and chlorogenic acid from green coffee beans, all components of AGF Factor I, which also contains Portulaca oleracea (Portusana), or purslane, for reduction of glucose.

Green coffee bean extract, and thereby chlorogenic acid, is receiving increased attention, most recently due to a study demonstrating substantial weight loss with 750-1050 mg green coffee bean extract, providing approximately 325-500 mg chlorogenic acid per day. Participants lost 15.4 pounds over 8 weeks at the higher dose (500 mg chlorogenic acid per day), while participants lost 8.8 pounds over 8 weeks at the lower dose (325 mg chlorogenic acid per day).

AGF Factor I was not formulated for weight loss but, taken twice or three times per day, does indeed mimic the dose of chlorogenic acid from green coffee bean extract used in the weight loss study. If you wish to take advantage of this application of chlorogenic acid/green coffee bean extract, while also maximizing protection from endogenous glycation, our AGF Factor I is one excellent choice to do so.
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Comments (16) -

  • Susan

    6/8/2012 1:11:38 PM |

    Thank you, Dr. Davis,
    Do you know what the mechanism is that would explain the weight loss? Is there caffeine in the green coffee extract? If yes, would it be sufficient to explain weight loss?
    Susan

  • Dr. Davis

    6/9/2012 12:52:08 PM |

    There is no caffeine, Susan.

    The mechanism is unknown, though at least part of the effect may be due to a reduction in formation of endogenous products of glycation.

  • Gene K

    6/9/2012 10:43:45 PM |

    Dr Davis,
    To those with APOE-4 who still rely on statins (Crestor) to control their smLDL, would you advise to try the green coffee bean extract instead?

  • Susan

    6/11/2012 12:40:14 PM |

    I just bought some green coffee extract from GNC. For 200 mg chlorogenic acid, the label said there was "no more than 16 mg. caffeine," (whatever that means)! I am going to try it and will report back if I get skinny or not. Smile

  • johnny

    6/12/2012 2:26:27 PM |

    Hi Dr.Davis,
    Does the green coffee bean extract need to be taken with meals?
    Thanks!

  • jaxrph

    6/14/2012 1:53:55 PM |

    With the B vitamins Is this safe to take post-intracoronary stent?

  • Dr. Davis

    6/15/2012 5:09:10 PM |

    I have no reason to believe that the components in this preparation pose any risk, Jax.

    I'm not convinced that the folates (NOT in this preparation) are truly a risk, either.

  • Dr. Davis

    6/15/2012 5:09:29 PM |

    No, but it might blunt any minimal nausea that arises.

  • Dr. Davis

    6/15/2012 5:10:52 PM |

    Hi, Gene--

    No, I don' think so.

    You could make a case for either chlorogenic acid/green coffee bean extract or the AGF Factor I to block glycation of small LDL particles, however.

  • Gene K

    6/17/2012 2:17:50 AM |

    Dr Davis,

    I think I didn't word my question clearly.

    I wonder whether it is worthwhile for APOE-4 patients to consider the AGF Factor I supplement as a replacement for statins to control smLDL while staying on a strict low-carb diet.

    Thank you.

  • Gene K

    6/19/2012 2:45:33 PM |

    Dr Davis, I take my question back. I reread your answer and now I understand that oxidation and glycation are two separate processes, and the supplement in question may help block glycation from AGEs. Oxidation of LDL particles, on the other hand, can be controlled with a low-carb diet. Is my interpretation correct?

    Thank you.

  • Dr. Davis

    6/20/2012 6:48:36 PM |

    I believe it is, Gene.

    Oxidation is a complex multi-faceted phenomenon. If we are looking for methods to inhibit or minimize oxidation that involve natural methods, not ingesting oxidized foods is a big factor. Not having particles prone to glycation, and thereby oxidation, is another.

  • Ms Martin

    7/23/2012 5:58:44 PM |

    i was just prescribed simvastatin, I believe 20mg per dose...is it safe to take green tea extract with this medicine?

  • RPF

    7/24/2012 5:46:50 PM |

    Is green coffee extract a blood thinner?

  • Green Coffee Bean Extract to Lose Weight | My Weight Loss Journey

    9/4/2012 3:35:31 PM |

    [...] quit taking it.  Check out this link for more information or to purchase Green Coffee Bean Extract.Green coffee bean extract seems to be a supplement that can make weight loss a lot easier.  Accordi... is coffee in its rawest, purest form, before roasting takes place. The unroasted beans of coffea [...]

  • Kay Belvin

    10/20/2012 12:37:28 AM |

    Is it safe to take green coffee extract with Simvastatin 40 Mg. and also is the extract a blood thinner as I take Warfarin?

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The origins of heart catheterization: Part II

The origins of heart catheterization: Part II

13. March 2008 William Davis (0)
On the afternoon of October 30th, 1958, nearly 30 years after Werner Forssmann’s fumbling attempts, Dr. Mason Sones, a 5 foot 5 inch, plain-talking, cuss-every-few-words, cigarette-wielding radiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, was performing a routine angiogram of a patient’s aorta (the large vessel emerging from the heart) in a dark basement laboratory. (In Sones’ day, imaging methods remained primitive, disease diagnosis relying more than anything else on the physician’s powers of observation and crude diagnostic procedures. Abdominal pain was assessed with exploratory laparotomy, headaches with air injected into the brain and nervous system (“pneumoencephalography”), an excruciatingly painful ordeal. Being able to track the course of x-ray dye injected into specific internal organs, whether liver, biliary tree, aorta, lungs, or coronary arteries, represented a huge advance in diagnostic tools for human disease.)

In 1958, no one had yet injected dye directly into the coronary artery of a living human.


Just as the dye injector was triggered, Dr. Sones’ eyes widened in horror when the black and white monitor showed that the catheter had inadvertently jumped into the right coronary artery. The injection pump, already triggered to release its load, proceeded to pump 30 cc of X-ray dye straight into the artery. (Modern techniques usually require only 5–10 cc of dye.) Dr. Sones recounts the incident:

“It was late in the day and we were tired. I hit the switch to rev up the x-ray generator so I could see. As the picture came on, I could see that the damn catheter was in the guy’s right coronary artery. And there I was, down in the hole [a recess to shield him from radiation]. I yelled, “Pull it out! Pull it out!”*? By that time, about 30 cc of the dye had gone into the coronary artery. I climbed out of the hole and I grabbed a knife. I thought that his heart would fibrillate and I would have to open his chest and shock his heart. [In Sones’ day, modern CPR hadn’t yet been developed as a method of resuscitation.] But he didn’t fibrillate—his heart stopped. I demanded he cough. He coughed three times and his heart began to beat again. I knew at once that if the heart could tolerate 30 cc of dye, we would be able to safely inject small amounts directly into the coronary artery. I knew that night that we would have a tool to define the anatomic nature of coronary disease.”


*An observer, Dr. Julio Sosa, reported that Dr. Sones, in his shock, also blurted, “We’ve killed him!” After all, conventional wisdom of that era, based on observations from dye injections into the coronary arteries of dogs, was that injecting x-ray dye into human coronary arteries would result in immediate death from the electrical imbalance provoked in heart muscle momentarily deprived of oxygen-carrying blood.

Thus it was established that it was indeed possible to directly inject x-ray dye into human coronary arteries and reveal its internal contours. That’s not to say that the x-ray dyes of 1958 were innocuous. Far from it. In addition to briefly interrupting heart rhythm, as happened with Sones’ first accidental attempt, the dyes used then typically caused dizziness and the sudden urge to vomit. During the first 30 years of direct coronary catheterizations, it was common for hospital staff to run to the patient’s side, bucket in hand to catch the inevitable vomit, once the heart was jump-started by coughing.

Not surprisingly, Dr. Sones’ discovery set off both an avalanche of criticism and bold predictions of how the new technique might change the course of diagnosis in heart disease.

Over the subsequent weeks and months, Dr. Sones proceeded to purposefully insert catheters into coronary arteries and create angiograms that revealed the extent of coronary atherosclerosis. He learned how to fashion new catheter shapes to facilitate access to the arteries. Sones developed an impressive experience in the new technique. For the first time, clear images of the coronary arteries were routinely obtainable for the confident diagnosis of coronary atherosclerosis before death. Dr. Sones became an unlikely celebrity in Cleveland, entertaining physicians from around the world eager to learn about his methods, politicians and celebrities, even Middle Eastern nobility complete with bodyguards and food testers.

Dr. Sones continued to work in Cleveland, furthering the techniques of heart catheterization after his fortuitous error. He died of lung cancer in 1985, 17 years after his discovery.

Thus was born the modern age of heart catheterization.

Today, over 10,000 heart procedures are performed in the U.S. every day, 365 days a year, the vast majority of which involve heart catheterization or begin with a heart catheterization. Dr. Sones' fortuitous blunder was followed by 30 years of productive refinement and development before the blatant excesses of this technique really began to be exploited.


Copyright 2008 William Davis, MD
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