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

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?

King--

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

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.

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 ?

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.

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important, and as much knowledge that we can have as possible is a good thing, but it would seem that this book is now out of date as there's very little in it on vitamin D....in fact it isn't even in the index !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

Hi
I've seen many posts like this, but all of them seem a bit ambiguous about whether small LDL is related to BG spikes or an independent effect of carbohidrates.
Say, someone that eats that 180g of pasta but BG stays under 100 will still produce tons of small LDL?

Amen!

My big problem with GI or GL was fructose. It does not raise blood sugar but it does attack the liver.

If 6 measly ounces of whole wheat pasta sends your blood sugar over 120, much less to 200, you're probably seriously ill. But you talk about it like it's impossible to lower blood glucose levels to a set number of carbohydrates. That's not true at all. It's easy actually, and there's so much more complexity to this overall issue that posts like these are aggravating. I've even gotten to the point where I could eat double that glycemic load without my blood sugar spiking above 75.

Yeah, GI and GL are best for diabetics and others with strong insulin resistance. Although I agree that foods without GI values should be the basis of our diets (meats, most vegetables), if you have strong insulin sensitivity you'll probably be just fine with some roots, dairy, fruit, and nuts.

perfect one.

Several points:

Isn't there a pretty big difference between raising your blood sugar to 120 mg/dl after a meal, as opposed to 200?

The American Association of Clinical Endoctrinologists suggests an upper limit of 140 mg/dl two-hour postprandial blood glucose.  The International Diabetes Federation has the same figure.

In contrast, 200 is usually considered a symptom of full-blown diabetes.  So it would really seem to depend on which figure we are talking about.

I personally find the glycemic load a helpful piece of data.    Almost all fruits and vegetables have some kind of glycemic load.   Spinach, for example, consists of 56% carbohydrate, 14% fat, and 30% protein.  But a 10 oz. bag only has a glycemic load of 4, vs. 14 for  piece of white bread.  (Granted, you're only getting 65 calories of energy from all that spinach.)

Regarding whole wheat pasta: perhaps different websites give different glycemic load values. Nutritiondata.com gives a value of 16 for a full cup of cooked whole wheat elbow noodles, vs. the 29 you quoted.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5769/2

I find it helpful to know I can cut the glycemic load of that pasta from 16 to 8 just by eating a half-cup instead of a cup (though in fact I rarely eat pasta at all.)  The glycemic load deals with real effects of quantifiable portions of food, and as such is an interesting piece of the puzzle. But, as you have wisely pointed out many times, checking your own blood sugar is the best way to understand what is really going on...with you.

Yes it will still produce tons of small LDL.....two different issues.....carbohydrate effect LDL particle size tremendously....I can attest to this first hand......while the high BG levels have a whole host of other bad effects related to damaging cells at the core and thus disease ramifications, insulin issues, etc.

Hi Dr. Davis.

It is worth noting that there is a huge gap between glycemic loads of refined and unrefined carbohydrate-rich foods:

http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2010/04/huge-gap-between-glycemic-loads-of.html

Very nicely said.  I mean it.  Maybe I'll use it in my practice.

Hi, Lance--

I understand your concerns. However, I am less concerned with what the "official" organizations tell us is normal or abnormal, and more concerned with levels in which glycation develops.

Glycation develops in a continuous fashion with blood glucose: The higher it is, the more glycation results . . . starting in the "normal" range fasting and postprandial.

5/15/10  6:35 p.m. PDT

Matt Stone, just went to your website and got attacked by Malware.

"I've even gotten to the point where I could eat double that glycemic load without my blood sugar spiking above 75."

There's a guy in India who claims he can live on nothing but air too.

The reasons sucrose has such a "good" GI is cause it's half fructose.  Fructose doesn't convert to glucose so doesn't raise bg.  It is cleared from the blood by the liver which converts it to triglycerides.  So it raises serum triglycerides at least for a while.  It eventually gets cleared from the blood by adipose.

Bread, potatoes, other starchy foods... starch is long chains of glucose, so it raises bg.  But if you have a normal system and can handle bg, you burn it as fuel instead of having fat floating in your blood until it gets deposited around your belly.  So for those without bg problems, the worse GI foods are better for health!  

for those who DO have bg issues, the GI and GL are useless.  You don't care what happens to some average group of people, but what happens to YOUR bg.  This is what is useful whether you have diabetes or not: http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/new.php

DHEA has many benefits which include anti-obesity , anti-diabetes and Anti-Autoimmune Disease . Dhea dosage should be limited to 25 and 150 mg’s daily.

If you've never had a blood level and your doctor refuses to obtain one, 25 mg per day is a reasonable dose (10-15 mg in women 40-50 years old). It's always best to discuss your supplement use, particularly agents like DHEA, with your doctor.

Absolutely incredible!  What a perverted system!  

I was speechless with my mouth open when my new cardiologist looked at me and wondered aloud why the previous cardiologist had installed a pacemaker!  Installed supposedly for bradycardia (keep my heart rate from dropping below 60) but the new cardiologist questioned the diagnosis (shaking his head all the while)!  I'll tell ya why -- $65,000.  I have a nice computer installed in me!  

On my last visit to the previous cardiologist he did not know how my pacemaker worked -- incredible as it may seem!  He said that it was set to prevent my heart rate from dropping below 60 AND going above 130.  I told him that I often achieved heart rates higher than 130 during exercise.  To clarify I asked him three times.  He said I must be mistaken because it was not possible.  Huh?  He had an assistant call me the next day to explain how the pacemaker worked.  Yup.  He was mistaken.  Unbelievable.  I never returned.

It was shortly thereafter that I discovered the Track Your Plaque program!!  Thank the Good Lord!

slimjohn

Dr. Davis, thank you for the heads up on this unconscionable trend in cardiology.

I shudder to think of the numbers of patients who either through ignorance, or timidity, may undergo life-altering procedures. Every surgery has an inherent risk, does it not?  We don't live in a "Marcus Welby" world anymore, so why are people still so uninformed, and so intimidated by doctors?  This just mystifies me...

I bought two additional copies of _Track Your Plaque_ again today.  At least I will have them on hand to give to people I know who find themselves on the slippery slope of cardiology (which seems to happen all too frequently these days).

Yes, I know, it's like trying to put Starbucks out of business... one cup at a time!  [laugh!]  Anyway, I can at least be personally responsible for educating a few people I care about on their alternatives, and especially on the TYP alternative to invasive cardiology nostrums.

Thank you!

Terri
madcook
in Houston, TX

I can still remember when my grandfather had a "heart attack" all those years ago.  And yet today with what I've learned here I'm not sure if he did have a heart attack.    

10 years ago, one morning before work grandma calls to say that granddad has collapsed, will I run over?  I suspected what had occurred, granddad was a life long pipe smoker and he loved his steak and potatoes.  When I got there, granddad had recovered, he was awake, sitting up rubbing a sore head from the fall.  He wasn't having breathing problems but I said to him I'm calling 911.  I didn't want to take a chance of loosing him like we had Stan.  A year before an employee at the company named Stan had died of a sudden heart attack while preparing Christmas decorations at home.  

The ambulance comes, I followed behind in my car, we get to the emergency room, and a nurse begins a series of tests.  I remember when the testing was over the nurse said in what I thought was a sarcastic tone, "yeah your granddad had a heart attack, it's a good thing you called." I thought that was strange.  

At the time I was working in the health food industry.  And while there I used to receive many magazines and news letters about health care.  I always have loved reading and pretty much read what ever health magazine that came my way.  There was one doctors news letter in particular, Dr. Julian Whitaker (sp), that constantly wrote about the dangers of cardiac care in America.  He wrote about the unnecessary procedures that were going on, lack of preventive care in cardiology, etc.  I didn't know what to make of Whitaker's news letter, he was the only one I knew writing such things about doctors and hospitals. Was he saying such things to sell his vitamin line?  At the time I suspected that might be the case.  

Basically though I knew that for my grandfather's sake it would be best to be on my guard - not to be taken if I could avoid it.  

Granddad was wheeled up to a room upstairs to await a visit from a Cardiologist.  While there I meet with the new nurse looking after him.  I don't remember the exact words she said, but remember she seemed to be indicating that she didn't think granddad needed to be there.  She didn't come out and say that, but that was my impression.  More strangeness. She ended our talk with "I should keep my mouth shut."  Wow, I thought, OK.  

By this time granddad was scared.  He had been hooked up to a heart rate monitor and he had been told that when ever his heart rate was too high an alarm bell would go off and a nurse would check on him.  And it was a loud alarm bell - I heard it and nurses came running in a panic when it went off.  At the time I was a jogger, and I got to looking at the alarm setting and saw that the alarm went off at 10 beats higher than his resting heart rate.  It doesn't take much effort to raise the heart rate 10 beats higher.  Just rolling over in bed should do it I imagine.  Was the heart rate monitor alarm and panicked nurses for show, I thought?    

Later that afternoon a cardiologist stopped by, along with the nurse that seemed to have doubts.  He immediately recommends bypass surgery, scheduled for the next day.  I spoke up and said I have some questions for the doctor.  The nurse next to him seemed to perk up, smiled.  I didn't know enough of what to ask, other than the basic of "are you sure granddad needs bypass surgery?"  "are there alternative treatments, granddad is in his late 70s?"  I remember asking a few more questions, the last one being can the surgery be done with the heart still beating so that loss of blood to the brain does not occur?  I had read about what Fanatic Cook wrote about our former President a week ago in one of Whitaker's news letters.  The nurse by this point seemed to loose interest.  The doctor was smooth and reassuring in his answers.  Granddad spoke up and said he wanted the surgery, he was concerned.  And that sealed the deal.  

He didn't get any rest all night as the heart rate alarm bell kept going off.  After the surgery there were no alarm bells.

Thank you for your sad story, though wonderfully told.

Please clarify something: Where did the heart catheterization fit into this? This is always performed before any conversation about bypass surgery can proceed.

If no catheterization was performed and bypass was recommended, then we've got a full-fledged scam on our hands, one worth investigating further.

Events are fuzzy after 10 years, but I believe one of the tests done was catherization.  I remember a dye test was done to look for blockages.