Dr. Jeffrey Dach on the Track Your Plaque program

10. July 2008 William Davis (5)
Dr. Jeffrey Dach posted a great piece on his blog, Bioidentical Hormone Blog , about his perspective on the Track Your Plaque program.

It's worth reading even for those familiar with the program, just to see a slightly different perspective. He also included many great graphics to illustrate his points.

CAT Coronary Calcium Scoring, Reversing Heart Disease












Also, see Dr. Dach's Heart Disease: Part 2, for some novel thoughts.
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Comments (5) -

  • Jenny

    7/10/2008 2:59:00 PM |

    I would be very interested to know what you think of what he has to say about glutathione, which in my quick look at his web sites, leaped out at me.  As a fairly new TYP member, I don't recall coming across any discussion of it on TYP in what I've read so far, though I may have just overlooked it.

  • ethyl d

    7/10/2008 4:52:00 PM |

    Thanks for the link to Dr. Dach. Good stuff there.

  • Anonymous

    7/10/2008 7:26:00 PM |

    Dr. Dach's blog also references Nutrasal's phoschol product ... is it beneficial or a hoax? It might be akin to chelation therapy not supported by Dr Davis... but it's hard to resist the claim that phoschol returns cholesterol from plaques to the liver to be processed.

  • buy jeans

    11/3/2010 10:22:36 PM |

    So iodine deficiency in early 20th century America was a big problem. How to solve this enormous public health problem in a large nation without television, few radios, no internet, with a largely rural and often illiterate population?

  • kamagra

    4/25/2011 4:37:26 PM |

    I've been reading a lot of articles about Dr. Jeffrey Dach... and I think he is one of the best exponents in this kind of programs, it's all about perspectives and his points has been shaping my thoughts.

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The origins of heart catheterization: Part I

The origins of heart catheterization: Part I

12. March 2008 William Davis (2)
The modern era of heart disease care was born from an accident, quirky personalities, and even a little daring.

The notion of heart catheterization to visualize the human heart began rather ignominiously in 1929 at the Auguste-Viktoria Hospital in Eberswalde, Germany, a technological backwater of the day. Inspired by descriptions of a French physician who inserted a tube into the jugular vein of a horse and felt transmitted heart impulses outside the body, Dr. Werner Forssmann, an eager 25-year old physician-in-training, was intent on proving that access to the human heart could be safely gained through a surface blood vessel. No one knew if passing a catheter into the human heart would be safe, or whether it would become tangled in the heart’s chambers and cause it to stop beating. On voicing his intentions, Forssmann was ordered by superiors not to proceed. But he was determined to settle the question, especially since his ambitions captured the interest of nurse Gerda Ditzen, who willingly even offered to become the first human subject of his little experiment.

Secretly gathering the necessary supplies, he made his first attempt in private. After applying a local anesthetic, he used a scalpel to make an incision in his left elbow. He then inserted a hollow tube, a catheter intended for the bladder, into the vein exposed under the skin. After passing the catheter 14 inches into his arm, however, he experienced cold feet and pulled it out.

One week later, Forssman regained his resolve and repeated the process. Nurse Ditzen begged to be the subject, but Forssmann, in order to allow himself to be the first subject, tricked her into being strapped down and proceeded to work on himself while she helplessly watched. After stanching the oozing blood from the wound, he threaded the catheter slowly and painfully into the cephalic vein, up through the bicep, past the shoulder and subclavian vein, then down towards the heart. He knew that simply nudging the rubber catheter forward would be sufficient to direct it to the heart, since all veins of the body lead there. With the catheter buried 25 inches into his body, Forssmann untied the fuming Ditzen. Both then ran to the hospital’s basement x-ray department and injected x-ray dye into the catheter, yielding an image of the right side of his heart, the first made in a living human.



Thus, the very first catheterization of the heart was performed.



An x-ray image was made to document the accomplishment. Upon hearing of the experiment, Forssmann was promptly fired by superiors for his brazen act of self-experimentation. Deflated, Forssmann abandoned his experimentation and went on to practice urology. He became a member of the Nazi party in World War II Germany and served in the German army. Though condemned as crazy by some, physicians in Europe and the U.S., after hearing of his experience, furthered the effort and continued to explore the potential of the technique. Forssmann himself was never invited to speak of his experiences outside of Germany, as he had been labeled a Nazi.

Many years after his furtive experiments, the once intrepid Dr. Forssmann was living a quiet life practicing small town medicine. He received an unexpected phone call informing him that he was one of three physicians chosen to receive the 1956 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his pioneering work performing the world’s first heart catheterization, along with Drs. André Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards, both of whom had furthered Forssmann’s early work. Forssmann remarked to a reporter that he felt like a village pastor who was made a cardinal.

Strange, but true.


Copyright 2008 William Davis, MD
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Comments (2) -

  • Anonymous

    3/12/2008 10:32:00 AM |

    You have to love the Germans.

  • buy jeans

    11/3/2010 12:26:31 PM |

    One week later, Forssman regained his resolve and repeated the process. Nurse Ditzen begged to be the subject, but Forssmann, in order to allow himself to be the first subject, tricked her into being strapped down and proceeded to work on himself while she helplessly watched.

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15. January 2011 William Davis (13)
Jeanne enjoyed her Christmas holidays. She especially liked sharing the cookies she made for her grandchildren, sneaking 2 or 3 every day over a couple of weeks. On top of this, she enjoyed the Christmas candy, egg nog, leftover stuffing and cranberry sauce, topped off with a night of nutritional debauchery on New Year's Eve.

Lipid panel in October:

Total cholesterol 146 mg/dl
LDL cholesterol 72 mg/dl
HDL cholesterol 64 mg/dl
Triglycerides 49 mg/dl

Lipid panel in early January:

Total cholesterol 229 mg/dl
LDL cholesterol 141 mg/dl
HDL cholesterol 59 mg/dl
Triglycerides 147 mg/dl


I call the holidays The Annual Wheat and Sugar Frenzy. It's the carbohydrates, especially those from products made of wheat and sucrose, that caused the marked shifts in Jeanne's lipid patterns. Let's take each parameter apart:

--Triglycerides go up due to de novo lipogenesis, liver conversion of carbohydrates into triglycerides. Triglycerides enter the bloodstream as VLDL particles which, in turn, interact with LDL and HDL.

--LDL goes up because carbohydrate exposure increases VLDL, followed by conversion to LDL. The triglyceride-rich LDL created is converted to small LDL particles. Had we measured small LDL changes in Jeanne, we likely would have measured something like an increase (by NMR) from 800 nmol/L to 1600 nmol/L, a carbohydrate effect.

--The increased VLDL also makes HDL triglyceride-rich, cause more rapid degradation of HDL particles. (It also makes them smaller, like LDL.) Given sufficient time (a few more months), HDL would drop into the 40's.

--Total cholesterol changes reflect the composite of the above numbers. (Total cholesterol = LDL cholesterol + HDL cholesterol + Trig/5) (Note that, as HDL drops, so will total cholesterol; that's why this value is worthless and should be ignored.)

So don't be surprised by the above distortions after a period of carbohydrate indulgence. Although your unwitting primary care doc will see such changes as opportunity for Lipitor, it is nothing more than the cascade of effects from a carbohydrate-driven distortion of lipoproteins.
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Comments (13) -

  • Michaelf

    1/15/2011 2:59:27 PM |

    Why so many lipid panels?

    Doesn't cholesterol naturally ebb and flow?  Or does it only ebb and flow when we feed it?

    For my taste the second panel is better, other than the HDL.  I'd say she did a good job getting her Cholesterol up over the holidays....

    One of the highlighted lines in my Taubes book is the piece about the lower the cholesterol the higher the incidence of cancer.  Correlation I know but wasnt all the science about cholesterol a well choreographed dance around correlation.

    My father was a cancer patient and a heart patient.  He "naturally" had cholesterol in the 150-160 range and was sick his whole life.  

    IMHO that womans cholesterol is doing what it does to save her life.  Rising to wrangle up the garbage she's dumping down her throat.  

    My fathers never rose to combat the garbage he was dumping down his throat.  What are your thoughts on that?

    If this stuff happens as you say, a fairly simple pattern, then why the differences?

  • Brent

    1/15/2011 3:22:09 PM |

    Dr. Davis - This is off topic for this particular post, but I want to suggest the next blog post for you.  

    First, cudos for keeping this blog informational only, without a hint of commercialism in in.  However, I and perhaps others who read it have seriously considered contacting your office for an appointment to become patients, even though we live in other parts of the country.

    Would you consider posting a topic on the blog of how this could work?  My thoughts are to have necessary tests done in advance of a visit, so that things which normally take 2-3 visits could be accomplished in one. Is a list of these things something that could be determined by a phone interview with your office staff when the appointment is being made?  Can your office arrange for heart scans to be done in Milwaukee in the AM for a PM appointment with you?

    Important question: Is a heart scan at a closer facility (Still 3 hours away) & track your plaque membership (not yet done because I've not had a scan yet) just as good as a visit to your office once a year or would I get additional benefits becoming a patient? i.e., can you rely on scan scoring done by others if I wanted your opinion on the results?

  • Lori Miller

    1/15/2011 4:38:56 PM |

    Two other things all those carbs will do to susceptible people is give them bloating and acid reflux. The posts on that subject have been my two most popular over the past month.

    Re: cholesterol, mine is 140. The total didn't change much when I cut way back on the carbs, but the ratio of HDL:LDL improved. If I'm sick or riddled with cancer, I'm afraid it's escaped my notice. My liver must be making all I need.

  • Anna

    1/15/2011 5:16:45 PM |

    I don't miss the cookies, overly sweet eggnog, and Christmas candy at all, since I revised my diet in early 2004.  I don't gain holiday weight anymore; in fact, some years I lose a couple pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years.

    When I celebrate during the holidays with food, I do indulge (if you can call it, that because my indulgences tend to be nutrient-dense and very satisfying, too) with rich paté, lovely artisan cheeses, fish roe (caviar) and deviled eggs, fresh veggie slices, and bacon-wrapped scallops and shrimp, etc.  I make egg nog that isn't nearly so sweet as well as super easy homemade truffles with very dark chocolate, which has just a small amount of sugar.

  • revelo

    1/15/2011 5:21:24 PM |

    I eat a high carb diet (60% typically, lots of oats, beans, potatoes) and just got back my first test result:

    Cholesterol, Total   152
    Triglycerides         39
    HDL Cholesterol       70
    VLDL Cholesterol calc  8
    LDL Cholesterol calc  74

    I'm lean (16% body fat according to my electronic scale, 12% according to a formula I found on the internet) and get plenty of moderate exercise (yoga and walking). So it appears all those carbs are NOT turning to Triglycerides in me.

    Rather, when I eat carbs, the glucose goes into the muscles. After I finish my last meal for for the day, the body gradually burns off this stored glucose so that the muscles are mostly depleted by the next morning, when I break my nightly fast. Isn't this how the body is supposed to work? I have to disagree with this notion that the muscles can only store a couple of hundred grams of glucose. I think that amount of glucose that can be stored increases in lean people who exercise and routinely eat large amounts of carbs.

  • Michaelfgu

    1/15/2011 5:33:52 PM |

    Brent, You have been reading my mind! Yes, Dr Davis please tell us how best this could best be accomplished as per Brent's comment!

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    1/15/2011 7:05:52 PM |

    Bit over simplified; unless holiday indulgences (prior to patient's Jan. lab test) were made rich tasting without using any fat &/or cholesterol content
    (and wasn't over eating, nor lazing around).

    Clinic patients are presumably often already suffering with metabolic syndrome. An absolute admonishment is going to become rote patient visit after patient visit.

    Is a prevention strategy for everyone, or just the sedentary and geneticly pre-disposed? One's adult health may be doing well with a contrary diet. By middle age Doc's restrictions might be a pre-emptive strategy for countering metabolic changes to come.

  • shutchings

    1/15/2011 8:26:23 PM |

    So if Jeanne returns to restricting sugar and flour from her diet in January, her profile improves.  Did she leave lasting damage?  Is the risk only that disease will develop during her holiday relapse?

  • Dr. William Davis

    1/15/2011 10:26:20 PM |

    Anna--

    I love the gourmet-bent you've taken with your diet. That's a great direction to go.


    Brent and Michael--

    You can call my office at 414-456-1123 to arrange an out-of-town visit. Alternatively, call the same number to arrange a video teleconference to review lipoproteins or your coronary prevention program. (Video teleconference is not covered by insurance, however.)

  • Anonymous

    1/15/2011 10:54:00 PM |

    I treat so much cholesterol in my patients with bio-identical hormone therapy in addition to nutritional biochemistry / blood test to help rebuild the adrenals and help the body convert the excess cholesterol into the LDL and then into the next hormone called pregnenolone. Most people who have high cholesterol have silent adrenal dysfunctions/ burn out / PTSD whereby the cholesterol does'nt convert into the next hormone.
    Most MD's won't look to check the adrenal and sex hormones in conjunction with and cholesterol test.
    What an oversight eh !

  • Marc

    1/16/2011 7:57:03 PM |

    I used to have very lows trigs (35-45 range), I start eating high fat low carb & 6 month later my trig went up to 79.

    Carbs = elevated trigs??
    Not for me.

      My lowest trigs were in my vegetarian days eating whole wheat, oats, beans etc...when I started upping the fats & meat my trigs went up (even when cutting down wheat, which I dont eat it anymore)

    Could you provide an answer to this mr Davis?

  • Sophie

    1/24/2011 10:49:24 AM |

    I agree that holidays is a season to increase weight gain. Uncontrollable eating can risk our health. There is no any guarantee how long can our body take the cholesterol we're feeding. So proper self-discipline is needed. Low carbohydrate diet is the best diet for those who want to lose weight especially for diabetic people.

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Calling all super-duper weight losers!

Calling all super-duper weight losers!

9. July 2011 William Davis (12)





Have you lost at least 1/2 your weight, e.g., 300 lbs down to 150 lbs? If you have, I have a major national magazine editor looking to talk to you.

If you have gone wheat-free and/or followed the dietary advice offered here in The Heart Scan Blog or through the Track Your Plaque program and would be willing to share your story, please let me know by commenting below. While losing half your body weight is not necessarily a requirement for health, it makes an incredibly inspiring story for others.

If we use your story, I will set aside a copy of my soon-to-be-released book, Wheat Belly.

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Comments (12) -

  • John Phillip

    7/9/2011 3:48:38 PM |

    Hi Dr. Davis:

    I have been a follower of your blog for a number of years now.  It ha been an inspiration as i have fought to regain my health over the past 9 years.

    After suffering a mild MI in 2002 and being diagnosed as diabetic, I was placed on the standard allopathic protocol of statins, Ace inhibitors/beta blockers and low-fat diet. Needless to say, they didn't help me.  I did manage to lose weight, but blood sugar and blood pressure remained problematic.

    In 2005, I realized from doing extensive research on sites such as yours that eliminating all refined carbs, sugars and trans fats was the key to my success. I have lost 180 pounds and maintain a weight of 165 lbs. with a height of 6' 1". I am 53 years old, and definitely feel younger than I was in my 30's.

    I supplement with fish oil and DHA, vitamin D and a number of other nutrients to provide a baseline of building blocks to help my cells regenerate and avoid chronic disease. Eliminating wheat is the most significant element in regaining my health and dramatically lowering risk form a second heart attack.

    I would enjoy discussing my journey, and thank you for all your dedicated work.

  • NoGlutenEver

    7/10/2011 9:45:59 PM |

    Any updated information on heartscans in people who've already had a bypass, a 4x bypass?  Would a scan yield any useful info?

  • Justin Willoughby

    7/11/2011 8:08:11 PM |

    I am new to your website, and I am interested in it. I once weighed 800 pounds, and am now down to 215 pounds. You can check my website for more information. www.justinwilloughby.com

  • Dr. William Davis

    7/12/2011 12:24:42 PM |

    Hi, John--

    Fabulous results!
    Could you provide contact info here: http://typ.trackyourplaque.com/contact.aspx
    I appreciate your help on this. It will make a fascinating story!

  • Dr. William Davis

    7/12/2011 12:26:45 PM |

    Hi, Justin--

    Incredible!
    However, I am looking for stories in which elimination of wheat was the principal strategy. Is this what you did to lose the 600 lbs (!!!)?

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    7/14/2011 4:40:07 AM |

    All I get is "500 Internal Server Error" when try to comment.

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    7/14/2011 4:43:40 AM |

    Web site server is no good at all ... previous thread rejected my comments more than twice on several days, so I tried this thread and post came right through.
    Doc - you are not getting your moneys worth despite your page looking pretty .

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    7/14/2011 4:53:20 AM |

    Just went back to previous thread to try and post since see 2 above went through and got the same "server error"  boot a couple of minutes after my 2 above. Something not working right here.

  • Dr. William Davis

    7/15/2011 1:48:11 PM |

    Sorry, Might. Still working out glitches.
    I will discuss with IT people.

  • Felix Jaber

    7/17/2011 7:49:41 PM |

    Dr. Davis
    I have been batling weight for my whole life and by the age of 45 I weighted 290 lbs and was a heavy drinker until I quited drinking and started exercising with a low fat mid protein and high carb diet and due to the fact that I stoped drinking I started to loose weight also as the weight droped I exerciced more till the point that I started to train for a half Ironman there is where the fat lost stoped and I plateaued at 230 lbs and no matter how hard I trained I couldnt lose more and aproaching the half Ironman I even gained weight so shortly after finishing the race my coach sugested me to visit your blog and sent me the link of your post on wheat belly,
    that was like the turning poin of my life and shortly I was following your advices and trying to live a more primal life and practically becoming a caveman the results I lost 60 more pounds and gained a vitality like I have never experienced today after 6 more half Ironman races and 1 full Ironman I try to live wheat free and visit regularly your blog not to mention that I follow most of your blog roll!!!
    Everytime that I find myself eating wheat I feel terrible my inmune function suffers and I almost get sick I say almost as I haven't get sick in almost 2 yers that I have been following a mostly primal life and as I feel a sickness coming I just get back to being wheat free and low carb all around!!

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