Amen. As someone diagnosed with heart diease in the last few weeks, I have a lot to learn, and your materials appear a healthy and informative way to approach the topic.

Your comment “have a longer lasting durability than a stent which could buy you a couple of years before your next procedure or heart castarophe” blew my socks off! Almost two years ago I had what was called a minor heart attack resulting in a stent. Unlike the profile you describe though (ie “free and easy life…”), I was always a keen exerciser and was careful with my diet (no meat for example) … and now even more so, following many of the regimens you recommend. So maybe my chances are better than “a couple of years”. What’s your view?

Yes, you are not the average patient after angioplasty.

Most remain miserably trapped in the American lifestyle and/or victims  of the Heart Association's mis-guided diet and lifestyle recommendations.

For every one person like you, there are hundreds of people who either don't care enough to make a difference in their lives, or follow the unwise advice from conventional sources.

I appreciated your quick reply. I'm wondering from your treatment experience just how long you would say a stent is expected to last trouble free, for those who are generally fit, and abide by the 'track your plaque' lifestyle. Or perhaps you know of a source that has such information.

I'm afraid that the Track Your Plaque program has dramatic effects on the inhibiting growth of plaque in coronary arteries, not necessarily in an area with a stent, which is subject to a whole new set of rules.

Unfortunately, there is NO health program that has any effect on growth of tissue in stents in the first year or two, thus drug-coated stents and the like.

The statin or Apo A1 milano reversal studies showed regression by IVUS.  Regression as cited on this site refers to a score from a scan.  What is the correlation between the calcium scores and plaque volume as measured by IVUS.  

While I agree with almost everything you popularize on your site and believe in the lifestyle changes I am not sure the world will accept this without a double blind trial of lifestyle changes you espouse and with endpoints measured by both hard events and indirect measures such as IVUS.

You are absolutely right. There are no data comparing the effects of IVUS vs. CT heart scan scores.

It can be done, obviously, but the logistical difficulties would be considerable. I have done nearly a thousand intracoronary ultrasound procedures. They are invasive procedures that carry real risk. CT heart scans are like an EKG--simple, virtually no risk. Each test would have to be done twice: once at the beginning, and then again at the end of a treatment program.

Dr Davis
I am confused. In one blog (about Mel) you are concerned his 799 score poses a real threat but in another blog ( about Grady ) his high (1000+score)
is brought down 17% and he has little to fear,
according to you.
Wouldn't Grady with a still higher score than Mel
be at a real threat also.
Thanks
Gene Mc

That's absolutely right.

When you are tracking heart scan scores, it's the relative change, not the absolute score, that assumes prime importance. I blogged about this phenomenon some time back in I wrote about this phemonenon in a previous Blog: When is a heart scan score of 400 better than 200?  at http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/
2006_09_01_archive.html. (I know, I've got to organize these posts better.)

Because it's your way to stack the odds enormously in your favor of 1) surviving the appearance of symptoms, 2) avoiding the prospect of heart procedures, which are not as clean and easy as they often seem, 3) have a longer lasting durability than a stent which could buy you a couple of years before your next procedure or heart catastrophe, and 4) it's the right thing to do for the sake of the huge societal cost of heart disease.

There are  thousands of websites which provides information  about  
how is angioplasty done.
But dilseindia is one  of the websites where one can get good info about the  angioplasty.

I stopped eating wheat when I read Gary Taubes's book Good Calories, Bad Calories.  However, I haven't noticed any changes.  My blood sugar is still a little high, and my weight is about the same.  Could you cite a study that shows that blood sugar and weight often go down when you stop eating wheat.

Yes, yes!  Great post!  However, I think there is a huge mssing link here, and that is the source of wheat.  Sure, wheat (or gluten in many cases) causes problems.  I totally agree.  But my theory is that people who drop weight and improve their health by eliminating wheat were not eating the ocassional slice of home-made sourdough.  Nope.  I'd be willing to bet that most of the "wheat" elimination that leads to a better lipid profile and decreased body fat is from the elimination of packaged and processed foods like cereals, bars, crackers, store breads and buns, and other snack foods.

Avoiding wheat due to a sensitivity or allergy is one thing.  But gorging oneself on processed foods and so-called healthy whole grain products only to later marvel at the results of a "wheat" elimination diet is a bit ridiculous.

Eat from the earth.  And if for you that means no wheat, then great!  Just don't go eating all that "gluten free" stuff.  One can still eat a ton of junk without eating wheat.

I love that you're pursuing this matter.   It's not just wheat, though.  It's all the gluten grains related to wheat: barley, rye, spelt, kamut, etc.  In those of us sensitive to gluten, even the tiny bits of gluten in most processed foods cause problems.  So do oats, even gluten-free oats, in some Celiacs.

Keep up the anti-wheat campaign, but please add the other gluten grains to your target.

Dr. Davis,
I started the gluten-free diet 2 months ago after reading all your blogs. The one thing I did not think it would influence is thyroid. You stated so confidently that it influences Hashimotos, I wondered how you came to that knowledge---articles, research, personal observation?
For 8 years my TPO antibodies have been very high in 700-800 range even with meds and good T4, T3 numbers. All tests came back negative for celiac although with high IGA. I have never been able to get Hashimotos numbers down, so would love to know how/where you heard about this. I will report back if after being wheat free my IGA and TPO numbers go down.
Warmly,  Catherine

Fantastic post.


I have been looking into a lower wheat (or gluten?) diet for a bit now, and recently purchased The Paleo Diet for Athletes. As soon as a finish In Defense of Food, that is next on my list.

A quick question if you have a second. Maybe you can simply directly me to a page with the answer, as I have not been able to clearly find it.

Is the key avoiding grains as a group, or would eating gluten free products be partially sufficient?

Do you have any references you could post for those claims?

In answer to several questions to clarify what I mean by "wheat":

1) For celiac disease or marked wheat sensitivity, including "wheat addiction," all grains that immunologically cross-react with wheat should be eliminated--barley, spelt, oats.

2) For those with extreme carbohydrate sensitivity--meaning diabetics, pre-diabetics, or marked small LDL, then even spelt, bulghur, sorghum, quinoa, barley, etc. can present excessive carbohydrate loads.

For everyone else, I believe that these whole grains can play a role.

Re: references. Just go to Pubmed.gov and enter your relevant search terms. It's quite easy.

It's hard for me to separate out the effects of wheat, gluten, flour, grains, carbs.  

Probably, nobody really knows yet., which is what it's like in 2009: lots of clues but nothing definitve.

My wife has hashimoto's thyroiditis, and cutting out the gluten has led to tremendous improvements. Her T3 and T4 levels are back to normal, and her anti-thyroid antibodies dropped significantly, to nearly undetectable. And she feels normal, not cold and lethargic.

I am not convinced that all people with Hashimoto's benefit from cutting out gluten - some studies showed only about 30% to 50% of the group improved (but many people show amazing improvement). A change of diet should be the first thing tried IMO. It was not something the endocrinologist discussed. When my wife asked if there were any dietary or lifestyle changes that might help, she was told there were none.

Hi, Jonathan--

Yes, wheat exposure probably requires years to trigger the Hashimoto's reaction. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, the precise trigger and "dose" or duration required is not well sorted out.

I find the statement “don’t go eating all that ‘gluten free’ stuff” rather silly – the implication being that it’s full of junk.  Most of the gluten free food I’ve found is wonderfully free of the usual high-fructose corn syrup and the like.  It’s a real blessing, to be quite frank.  And by the way, all my food comes from Earth.

Dr. D, correct me if I am wrong but quinoa is not a grain (it's a seed) and should not be grouped with wheat, spelt, barley, etc.

My understanding is that its impact on the body is significantly more positive compared to grains.

I have both gluten sensitivity and insulin resistance. Gluten free means I avoid wheat(includes spelt, kamut and other related grains), barley and rye. Oats are available that are certified gluten free. Removing gluten eliminated my GERD, gas and bloating, improved my neuropathy, lifted my depression, stopped my joint pain and the list goes on.

When I discovered my blood sugar issues, I dropped all the gluten free grains that caused spikes in blood glucose. OK, I have not found a grain that does not spike my blood sugar so I am now grain free. The only problem I noticed when eating the GF grains was the blood sugar effect.

Gluten/wheat and carbs/sugar are two separate issues for me.

Is it full of soy?  That's junk.

Peter, you probably have to reduce your carbs to see improvement in your blood sugar levels.

To clarify: My point was that most products tha are labeled as "gluten free" are processed, and largely a part of the food industry's marketing tactics.  They are not there for your health, but rather to make profits.

You can buy gluten free cookies, cereal, and other snack foods.  These foods are far from being close to the earth, and IMHO, not to be a regular part of a healthful diet.

The sentiment is valuable, but I worry about hyperbole.  If an individual cuts out 1000 calories a day of wheat-related foods (a generous estimate), and doesn't replace those calories with any other foods, then they would lose about 2 pounds a weeks, not 10 or 15.

I agree with Anon., who on the 15th wrote it's about reducing calories.

1lb fat = 3,500 cals; hence 2lbs/week is practical weight loss. Getting fat does not happen overnight, or a week for that matter so why would anyone expect to loose weight magically within a week.

If by not eating wheat you get there, I say go for it. For me, I feel much better since doing mega-dose K2/D3/B3/C which I learned here on the Heatscanblog and I will be forever grateful for those who aid Dr Davis in sharing their knowledge such as Ted Hutchinson who takes the time to post links to scientific papers supporting the cause of improved heart health.

Question - how about rice? Is it just as bad?

I take wheat grass tablets from Pines.  I have stopped eating wheat and reduced all grain consumption dramatically.  However, I still take the wheat grass tablets.  Is wheat grass a problem, like wheat?

Well I acquiesce in but I contemplate the list inform should have more info then it has.

Again a gentle post. Thanks your also pen-friend

I think there is a huge missing link here, and that is the source of wheat.

I just bookmarked your blog and will come back in the future. Keep up your great job, I hope you have a nice day!

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Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I'll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.



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I study carried out in China proved conclusively that wheat was the major cause of heart attacks. I am quite sad to read these reports because I love bread. The question is that do I love it to death?

This is generally a wonderful website i should say,I enjoyed reading your articles. This is truly a great read for me. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work.


Education

I'm new here but looking for answers on systemic inflammation.
Can eliminating wheat or gluten reduce the inflammation in my system?

Hey Dr. Williams,
My mom stumbled across this article a year ago in attempt to help me explain some unusal blood work and severe contipation issues that the gastro doc called IBS after a negative celiac test. At the time my c-reactive protein was elevated, my T4 was elevated, I was chronically tired, cold intolerant, constant constipation, stabbing pain in my abdomen (hurt to touch my toes and put shoes on),had eczema, and mood swings. More then ten years ago I had thought I was a celiac and had gone wheat free, went to a gastro doc but was told it was just IBS and now looking back my symptoms were worse after I began to eat wheat again.
So, I have now been wheat free for a year now because of your article!.... my constipation has been reduced dramatically (no more miralax everyday) and my eczema only flares when I have accidently eaten something with wheat in it!
Here's my delima now.. I thought that being wheat free for a year would change the unusal blood work, but I just got results back and my c-reactive protein has elevated slightly more, my T4 has elevated more, but the strange thing is my TSH is on the higher end too. Hashimoto's usually has high T4 and low TSH, plus all my symptoms are that of someone with a hypothyroid.  I'm still chronically tired, cold, and getting more moody. Any ideas?