Track Your Plaque data abstract

10. April 2008 William Davis (7)
An extraordinary thing happened about 2 1/2 years ago.

While we have been following the Track Your Plaque program for coronary plaque regression for nearly 10 years, about 2 1/2 years ago we witnessed an extraordinary surge in success--bigger, faster, and more frequent drops in heart scan scores.

Up until then, we did witness significant reversal of coronary plaque by heart scan scores. We were planning to publish the data to validate this approach, but then . . .

Heart scan scores starting dropping not just 2%, or 8% . . . but 24%, 30%, 50% and more. Why? I attribute the surge in success to the addition of vitamin D.

Unfortunately, it also meant that the preceding 8 or so years of data lacked experience with supplementing vitamin D. The hundreds of participants in the Track Your Plaque program had not, until then, included vitamin D in their program.

So I decided to start from scratch (from the standpoint of data collection, not for the participants). That also meant that the preceding years of experience went unreported, though even that data far exceeded the results of what is achieved in conventional heart disease prevention.

Thus, the data I presented at the Experimental Biology Proceedings (FASEB 2008) in San Diego this week included only experiences in the group of participants that included vitamin D in their program, with data collected until mid-2007. The number of experiences is therefore modest.

However, the Track Your Plaque experience, as reported, far exceeds any prior experience in coronary plaque regression.

The full abstract will be published in the Track Your Plaque website.


Copyright 2008 William Davis, MD
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Comments (7) -

  • vin

    4/10/2008 3:45:00 PM |

    Could vitamin D be the magic bullet that cures heart disease? Not such good news for drug companies but good for everyone else.

  • King

    4/11/2008 3:42:00 AM |

    Are the >= & <= symbols correct in the data article?  (target fasting lipid values of: LDL cholesterol >= 60 mg/dl, HDL <= 60 mg/dl and triglycerides of >= 60 mg/dl and a serum level of 25-OH-vitamin D3 of <= 50 ng/ml)  Are they reversed from previous discussions or am I mis-reading them?

  • Dr. William Davis

    4/11/2008 11:54:00 AM |

    King--

    Thanks for catching that. The symobols are all indeed reversed. The abstract, curiously, was not submitted that way.

  • Bob

    4/11/2008 2:31:00 PM |

    I also noticed that Susie Rockway also did the following study:

    Short-term Changes in Lipoprotein Subclasses and C-reactive Protein Levels with the Low Carbohydrate and Low-Fat Diets
    Christy C Tangney, Colene Renee Stoernell and Susie W Rockway

    If I understood correctly, a low-carb diet appeared to be beneficial in reducing small LDL.

  • Anonymous

    4/12/2008 1:14:00 AM |

    Dr. Davis I know you answer very few of the comments anymore but I was just wondering if Dr. Agatston ha seen your findings and why is he still saying to this day that there is no such thing as calcium score reversal ?

  • Dr. William Davis

    4/12/2008 2:43:00 AM |

    You're right!

    Our full findings in the same group of people is due to be published in a journal this summer. I will forward it to Dr. Agatston.

  • Anne

    4/12/2008 12:31:00 PM |

    Dear Dr Davis

    I would love to read the full abstract of this. I bought the 'Track your Plaque' book just two months ago and had a heart scan which revealed that I did not have any coronary vascular calcification. I'm pleased I have the 'Track your Plaque' book as I feel that preventative medicine is important, and as much knowledge that we can have as possible is a good thing, but it would seem that this book is now out of date as there's very little in it on vitamin D....in fact it isn't even in the index ! Still, I do not feel I can justify the additional expense of becoming a Track Your Plaque member just to read the full abstract and I can't see any other reason for me joining. Will you be publishing this abstract anywhere else ? Or will you at least write more about the importance of vitamin D on your blog sometime ? I entered how much I took in your survey !

    with kind regards,
    Anne

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More on ASTEROID

More on ASTEROID

16. April 2008 William Davis (3)
Since we are on the topic of the ASTEROID trial and rosuvastatin, I'd make one more point before I start to sound like I'm plugging this drug (which I definitely am not).

In an informative Roundtable Discussion (open to subscribers to the American Journal of Cardiology; sorry) amongst Dr. Steve Nissen, principal investigator behind ASTEROID; and Drs. Vincent Friedewald, Christie Ballantyne, P. Shah, and William Roberts, Dr. Nissen made some interesting comments:


Dr. Shah: In ASTEROID, was the magnitude of atheroma volume change seen across different levels of LDL-C and HDL-C?

Dr. Nissen: No. There was no plaque regression seen in the 17 persons with LDL-Cs >/= 100 mg/dl, and there was little change in persons with LDL-Cs of 70 to 100 mg/dl. Only in persons with LDLs less than or equal to 70 mg/dl was there significant regression. The study was not powered to look for an HDL-C(which increased by 14.7%)-raising effect.



Interesting. In other words, ASTEROID, in a fairly internally consistent way, suggests that the lower the LDL is reduced, the more likely plaque regression is obtained. This is consistent with the Track Your Plaque experience, in which we've advocated reducing (calculated) LDL cholesterol to 60 mg/dl for the past several years.

Unfortunately, the message that the ASTEROID Trial sponsors, AstraZeneca, as well as the roundtable discussion panel (later in the discussion) try to make is that there is something magical about Crestor, that it yields benefits superior to other statin agents or other means of reducing LDL.

I disagree with this message. In the Track Your Plaque experience, we do aim for a similar LDL target. But we also employ a number of other strategies. We have also succeeded in regressing plaque without use of any statin drugs (though, admittedly, many people do require statin drugs to obtain LDLs in this range). We also witness magnitudes of reversal that often far exceed that seen in ASTEROID.

The Rountable Discussion is unfortunately tainted, as is the ASTEROID Trial itself, with deep drug industry financial involvement of the Roundtable participants. In fact, the discussion begins with a listing of the financial disclosures of the participants, a listing that occupies a full column of a two-column page. The potential biases of the participants doesn't necessarily invalidate the arguments, but to me suggests that participants are more likely to argue in favor of the sponsor's drug, or that participants were chosen because of these biases.

Why bother to even mention the ASTEROID Trial in a venue (the Heart Scan Blog, that is) that purports to seek unvarnished, unbiased truth in coronary plaque reversal? Because useful information can sometimes be found in unlikely places. Just like the four-year old child who blurts out an unexpected pearl of wisdom, so it can happen with the gobbledy-gook that emerges from the drug industry.

Every once in a while, they are worth paying attention to.
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Comments (3) -

  • Naruwan

    4/19/2008 11:54:00 AM |

    Dr. Davis, your readers may be interested to listen to a recent BBC Radio 4 program which takes a close look at some impressive-sounding figures obtained from statin drug trials and shows how they are in fact not in the least bit impressive (e.g. a reduction in mortality from 3 in 600 people to 2 in 600 being hyped by statin manufacturers as being an over 33% reduction! Brings to mind Disraeli's adage about damned lies and statistics.

    The take home message is that statins appear to be hugely over-subscribed - the UK is gaining on the US in this regard - and statins are of no benefit for 99% of people taking them for primary prevention of heart disease.

    You can listen to the program online using the BBC Real Player at this link. Click Listen Live at the top right of the screen.

  • Naruwan

    4/19/2008 12:11:00 PM |

    My apologies, it appears that the BBC radio 4 program (The Investigation) about statins is no longer available. I think the show's transcript will be made available in due course.

    If anyone would like me to send them the mp3 file of the show (shhh, don't tell the BBC!), please leave a comment here. It's a worthwhile listen.

  • Anonymous

    8/22/2008 8:41:00 PM |

    I would like to know how long one can expect to lengthen their life by taking a statin How many actual years does it add to your life and what about the risk of cancer from taking statins over a 20-30 year period?

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