"Expanded indications for implantable defibrillators"

19. May 2006 William Davis (0)
So reads the headline on a magazine I received recently (along with thousands of my colleagues) from a major hospital system.

It goes on to say: "In January 2005, indications for implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) were substantially broadened [emphasis ours] to include most patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) of 35% or less. This change translates into a 2- to 3-fold increase in the number of Medicare beneficiariries eligible for ICDs."

Ka-ching!!! Hear the money piling up in the bank?

The device manufacturers are constantly churning data and lobbying for reimbursement to expand the use of their devices to more and more people. Defibrillators in particularly are generally a $25,000 to $50,000 opportunity for the device manufacturer alone, not counting the costs incurred at the hospital for implantation.

Beware. As reimbursement for stents and other procedures diminishes, expect a sudden "demand" for more and more people to get implantable defibrillators. Better yet, stay away from the whole issue by preventing your heart attack.
Tags :

Add comment

Loading
The wisdom of the masses

The wisdom of the masses

1. May 2007 William Davis (0)
My sister sent me these quotes:



"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."

Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962


"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."

Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929


"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."

Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre, France


"Everything that can be invented has been invented."

Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899



No doubt, conventional wisdom can often be laughably (tragically?) wrong. The problem is that, as absurd as all the above sentiments seem to us now and in retrospect, they represented the view of many people years ago. These views were held by many, including many people in positions of power and decision-making responsibility.

A more relevant but nonetheless laughable and widely held belief in 2007: coronary heart disease should be treated with hospital procedures.

Why is a disease that requires 30 years to develop treated only at the final moments with a procedure? Do you only change your car's oil when the engine is on its last legs? Or, do periodic, relatively effortless oil changes during the life of the car make better sense?

I witness just how brainwashed the public has become with this crazed notion when I meet someone socially at, say a fundraiser or cocktail party. When they ask what I do, I tell them I'm a cardiologist. The invariable response: "Oh, what hospital do you work out of?"

I tell them I don't, that I take care of the majority of heart disease right from the office. 99% of the time I get a puzzled look. If we had comic bubbles above our heads revealing our internal thoughts, it would read "Yeah, right. What a kook."

The notion that coronary heart disease is something that is manageable with simple tools for the majority of us in the early stages is entirely foreign to almost everybody. The hospitals and the medical industry have so succeeded in dazzling the public with images of staff in scrubs, rushing from emergency to emergency, lights flashing, scalpels flying. . . how can you possibly accomplish this at home or anywhere outside of the high-tech world of the hospital?

Well, I'm a cardiologist and I do it every day. We all need a figurative dose of electroshock therapy to shake ourselves of this crazy notion.
Tags :

Add comment

Loading
Dr. Nancy Sniderman, heart scans on Today Show

Dr. Nancy Sniderman, heart scans on Today Show

5. February 2009 William Davis (6)
While shaving this morning, I caught the report by NBC medical expert, Dr. Nancy Sniderman, about her coronary plaque and CT coronary angiogram.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy




Those of you in the Track Your Plaque program or who follow The Heart Scan Blog know that we should tell Dr. Sniderman and her doctor that:

She has done virtually nothing that will stop an increasing heart scan score! In fact, Dr. Sniderman is now following the "prevention program" that is eerily reminiscent of Tim Russert's program! We all know how that turned out.

It is pure folly to believe that a combination of Lipitor, exercise, and a "healthy diet" (usually meaning a low-fat diet--yes, the diet that promotes heart disease) will stop the otherwise relentless increase in heart scan score.

Dr. Sniderman, please consider:

1) Having the real causes of your coronary plaque identified. (It is highly unlikely to be just LDL cholesterol, though the drug industry is thrilled that you believe this.)

2) Ask yourself (or, if your doctor knew what she was doing, ask her): Why do I have heart disease? LDL cholesterol is insufficient reason--virtually nobody I know has high LDL cholesterol as the sole cause. LDL cholesterol is, at most, one reason among many others, but is insufficient as a sole cause.

3) What is your vitamin D status? Crucial!

4) What is your thyroid status?

5) Fish oil--a must!

6) Do you have lipoprotein(a)? Small LDL?

Just addressing the items on the above checklist would put you on a far more confident path to stop your heart scan score from increasing.

If you were to repeat your heart scan score, my prediction: Your score will be higher by 18-24% per year.
Tags :

Comments (6) -

  • dotslady

    2/5/2009 12:37:00 AM |

    I just finished cringing at today's Today Show w/Dr. Nancy S., and ran to see what you'd have to say.  Thank you for saying what you did (my LDL is higher than expected range and my Lp(a) is low).  I've watched and cringed before though (Gardisil vaccine for one): she touts mainstream's mantra, and is a great messenger/advertiser (subtle and not-so-subtle) for GE, parent company of NBC and maker of CT scanners.

  • Anonymous

    2/5/2009 2:12:00 PM |

    I am so disappointed with Dr. Snyderman... she seems like such a nice woman. I think the interview was like a piece of Swiss cheese... full of holes (of information).  She has heart disease "because she ate too many cheeseburgers as a teenager"? Oh really...

    It's been two years (!) since her CTA and she's not had symptoms like shortness of breath, so therefore she's better???  Oh, that's right... she's on a statin and eating better, so naturally she's better.  No proof there, but she's better...

    OMG, how can such a bright woman, and a physician, too,  face her coronary artery disease with the equivalent of blinders and an eye patch?

    It is tragic enough that her heart disease most likely has progressed with this standard treatment, but she also has a wide following who trust her advice... and they will likely think what she is doing is enough to reverse (and she did use the word "reverse") this type of heart disease!  It isn't enough, and she gave inadequate and poorly informed advice to millions of people. What a shame... a real opportunity missed.

    So while Nancy Snyderman, M.D. is smiling, downing a statin, and wearing a Red Dress on Friday... I will be employing a host of TYP strategies ... and scheduling my next advanced lipoprofile analysis!  Real knowledge is powerful!

    Thank you for Track Your Plaque and your spot on Blog, Dr. Davis!

    madcook

  • renegadediabetic

    2/5/2009 9:21:00 PM |

    She's obviously not much of a medical correspondant.  If she were, she would dig up the data showing statins provide no benefit to women.

    She's probably right about blaming the cheeseburgers she ate as a teenager, but for different reasons.  It's the white flour buns, not the meat & cheese.

  • David

    2/6/2009 12:56:00 AM |

    Speaking of heart scans, here's a negative article about them put out on today's NaturalNews.com newsletter: http://www.naturalnews.com/025535.html

    It's frustrating, because NaturalNews.com has at least some good info (it's a real mixed bag), and a lot of people follow the stuff put out by that site. How many people are going to get turned off to CT scans because of this article, and suffer drastic results because of it?

    David

  • Dr. William Davis

    2/6/2009 3:13:00 AM |

    Hi, David--

    While I'm glad that the media is highlighting the excessive exposure of CT coronary angiograms, they are confusing these high-radiation tests with low-radiation heart scans.

    We can only continue to try and educate everyone, including the media, on the important differences.

  • David

    2/6/2009 4:26:00 AM |

    Well, in all fairness they do point out in the NaturalNews article that they're referring to the CT angiograms, but it still seems a bit misleading because they never really mention it in contrast to the safer, lower radiation scan. So it's likely that anyone reading that article without a trained eye will simply lump all CT scans together and write them all off as unsafe. It's unfortunate.

Add comment

Loading
What if your lipoproteins are perfect?

What if your lipoproteins are perfect?

16. June 2006 William Davis (0)


Sandy is a 56-year old woman--fit, slender, physically active, with no bad habits. A retired teacher, she has time to devote to her health. She bikes several days per week, mountain bikes, walks, and takes fitness classes. In short, she's the picture of perfect health.

Her heart scan score was not terribly impressive: 41. However, at her age, this modest score placed her in the 77th percentile. This suggested a heart attack risk of around 2-3% per year.

So we measured Sandy's lipoproteins. They were shockingly normal. In fact, Sandy is among the very rare person with absolutely no small LDL particles. All other patterns were just as favorable, including an HDL in the 80s.

This may seem like good news, but I find it disturbing. People are often initially upset by seeing multiple abnormal lipoprotein patterns. But lipoprotein abnormalities are the tools that we use to gain control over coronary plaque.

So what do we do when there are no abnormalities?

There are several issues to consider:

1) Your heart scan score reflects the sum total of your life up until that point. What if you were 20 lbs heavier 10 years earlier and your lipoproteins were abnormal during that period? Or you smoked until age 45 and quit? As helpful as they are, lipoproteins and related patterns are only a snapshot in time, unlike the heart scan score.

2) You have a vitamin D deficiency. This is unusual as a sole cause of coronary plaque. Much more commonly, it is a co-conspirator.

3) The heart scan is wrong--highly unlikely. Heart scans are actually quite easy, straightforward tests. (The only time this tends to happen is when scoring that appears in the circumflex coronary artery is actually in the nearby mitral valve. This really occurs only when there's very minimal calcium in the valve.)

4) There's a yet unidentified source of risk. Probably very rare but conceivable. For instance, there's an emerging sense that phopholipid patterns may prove to be coronary risks. One clinically available measure that we've not found very useful is phospholipase A2, known by the proprietary name "PLAC" test. (See http://www.plactest.com for more information from the manufacturer/distributor of the test.) But there's probably lots of others that may prove useful in future.

How often does it happen that someone fails to show any identifiable source for their coronary plaque? I can count the number of instances on two fingers--very unusual. (Thank goodness!)

Sandy's case is therefore quite unique. How should we approach her coronary plaque? In this unusual circumstance, lacking a cause, we tend to introduce therapies that may regress plaque independent of any measurable lipoprotein parameters. But that's a whole new conversation.
Tags :

Add comment

Loading
Orange Cream Cookies

Orange Cream Cookies

5. March 2012 William Davis (5)
If you loved Creamsicles as a kid, you'll love these Orange Cream Cookies. (Sorry, no photo: We ate them up before I realized we hadn't taken the photo. And, worse, we did it twice!)

Ingredients:
2 cups almond meal
2 tablespoons coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup golden raisins
½ cup chopped pecans
Sweetener equivalent to 1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons finely-grated orange rind
1 large egg
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
½ cup whipping cream (or coconut milk)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Combine almond meal, coconut flour, baking soda, salt, raisins, pecans, sweetener and orange zest in bowl and mix.

In separate bowl, whisk egg, then add coconut oil, whipping cream, vanilla extract and mix together. Pour wet mix into dry and blend by hand thoroughly.

Spoon onto parchment paper-lined baking pan (or oiled pan) and flatten with spoon to ½-¾ inch thickness. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick withdraws dry.
Tags :

Comments (5) -

  • Jana Miller

    3/5/2012 2:33:26 AM |

    Love your book, blog and everything you stand for. Just wish I could get my mother in law and sister in law on board. My husband has lost 35 pounds since eating primal and cutting out almost all the wheat. We are at 90% and working on the last 10 %.

    So the only thing I get tripped up on in your recipes is the sweetener. We use liquid stevia in our coffee but I see no way to determine how much would be equivalent to one cup of sweetener. Do you have a particular brand you could recommend so I can start trying some of these recipes?
    Jana

  • Dr. William Davis

    3/6/2012 3:49:56 AM |

    I think the key, Jana, is to pick your sweetener of choice, then get familiar with its characteristics and stick with it.

    My favorite: KAL liquid stevia that a friend introduced to me. SweetLeaf stevia powder is a good product, made with inulin, as well as Trader Joe''s powdered stevia, likewise made with inulin. Truvia is a good product, though costly. If you can find it, bulk erythritol is a good product. All differ in quantity to use to equal the sweetness of sugar.

  • Ginny

    5/29/2012 6:18:38 PM |

    Looks like a great recipe Dr. Davis! I plan to try it.  I may even have a picture for you, if I can keep from eating them all first.  Smile  I appreciate your work.

  • Ginny

    5/29/2012 8:33:55 PM |

    I made them.  They were wonderful! Take a look: http://ginnyslowcarbkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/05/orange-cream-cookies.html  Thanks!

  • Dr. Davis

    6/1/2012 12:59:51 AM |

    Thanks, Ginny!

Add comment

Loading