00:00:00
I reversed 20 years of arterial plaque.
00:00:08
For years, I was eating the wrong diet.
00:00:11
When I actually got tested,
I was emotionally annihilated.
00:00:15
Despite my efforts,
I still developed cardiovascular plaque.
00:00:20
I truly believe that
what I did can be done by
00:00:23
many people.
00:00:24
Not everyone can reverse plaque,
00:00:26
but almost everybody can stabilize it
and decrease your risk of a heart attack.
00:00:32
Take the vast majority of
that risk right off the table.
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This is what I did.
00:00:37
This is my story of how I
reversed my arterial plaque.
00:00:42
This video is about how I found plaque
00:00:45
in my own arteries and
what I did to reverse it.
00:00:48
I hope my story can help you
identify whether you have plaque...
00:00:53
and what you can do to minimize it.
00:00:55
I'll cover the dietary,
lifestyle supplements,
00:00:59
and medication changes
00:01:00
I did after I found out that I had plaque.
00:01:04
You'll see both my actual CiMT
studies showing the presence
00:01:09
and then the reversal of plaque
00:01:11
in my arteries.
00:01:12
Stay until the end,
00:01:13
and I'll show you how my
latest numbers turned out.
00:01:18
We'll also show medical lab tests
00:01:20
demonstrating the exact
cause of the problem,
00:01:23
and then blood tests that show
00:01:26
what reversed that plaque.
00:01:28
Spoiler alert.
00:01:29
I'm like most of us.
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Aging took a toll on my insulin receptors.
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Remember,
00:01:35
growing old is just not for sissies.
00:01:38
At the end of the video,
I'll share a confession with you.
00:01:43
It's about an unpopular choice
I've made to manage my plaque,
00:01:47
and I've already caught a lot of grief.
00:01:50
Here's what happened.
00:01:52
At age 57, I thought I was healthy...
00:01:55
I've been a prevention doc for
00:01:57
over 40 years.
00:01:58
About four decades.
00:02:00
I ran the preventive medicine
program at Johns Hopkins.
00:02:04
So I taught the doctors at Johns Hopkins,
00:02:07
and
00:02:07
that's arguably the number one
preventive medicine program
00:02:12
in the world
00:02:14
as far as prevention was concerned.
00:02:16
I also practiced what I preached,
and that was all about lifestyle
00:02:21
and no medications.
00:02:24
Low fat dietary guidelines were the
standard at that point in time...
00:02:29
Nobody questioned it
00:02:31
at that time,
00:02:32
we were just discovering
that cholesterol in the diet
00:02:36
might not be the cause
00:02:38
of cholesterol in the artery walls.
00:02:41
So as that concept turned around,
00:02:44
it was turning towards calories.
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Since fat was the most calorie dense,
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fat must be the biggest problem.
00:02:53
That was the logic, anyway.
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I believed it at that time
00:02:58
and for decades.
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Not anymore.
00:03:01
But that's a different story for later.
00:03:05
Back to those
00:03:06
previous decades of my lifestyle.
00:03:09
I overachieved in the
cardio exercise space.
00:03:12
I ran half marathons, sometimes more than
00:03:15
every week.
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I ran a dozen full marathons.
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By age 55,
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I was not only against medication,
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but also against supplements.
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To me,
supplements at that point where just
00:03:31
expensive urine.
00:03:33
But something happened.
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At age 54,
I should have paid a lot more attention.
00:03:40
During a routine screening,
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I noticed my blood
pressure was 130 over 90
00:03:46
and it didn't come back down.
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I didn't like it,
00:03:50
but I finally agreed to take
medication to lower my blood pressure.
00:03:55
I retired...
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yet again.
00:03:57
Ive retired a few times
00:03:59
and started looking for something to do.
00:04:01
A mutual friend introduced me
to Brad Bale and Amy Dunene.
00:04:05
Brad and Amy teach their own
form of preventive medicine...
00:04:09
I read their book beat
the Heart Attack Gene,
00:04:12
which opened the door to two
other perspectives for me.
00:04:16
First,
00:04:17
it made me question the standard
model of heart disease focused on...
00:04:23
ldl
00:04:23
cholesterol or
00:04:24
bad cholesterol.
00:04:26
Like most of us,
of course,
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I knew that diabetes caused heart disease.
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But I had no clue
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just how common
00:04:35
prediabetes is.
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And also,
like most docs,
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I didn't know how to diagnose it.
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And like most docs,
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I really had no clue
that metabolic disease...
00:04:49
causes most chronic diseases...
00:04:52
and even most of what many of us call
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normal aging.
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The second perspective I got from
reading Brad and Amy's book was
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test
00:05:03
don't guess.
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Coming from Hopkins,
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I'd always been focused more
on William Osler's advice on
00:05:10
history...
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Listening to the patient,
getting focused on Brad and Amy,
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and thinking about
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tests don't guess gave me a
whole different perspective.
00:05:20
I began to realize that
patients listen to lab tests
00:05:24
when they won't...
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often listen to their doctor.
00:05:28
So Brad and Amy invited
me to their next event...
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They were training doctors in Las Vegas.
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I joined them there.
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Some vendors were providing a
free screening test called CIMT...
00:05:41
It was a quick test,
literally less than five minutes.
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Safe, there is no radiation, and
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inexpensive.
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The routine price was
between two and $300.
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That test, again, is called the CImt.
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It stands for carotid
intima media thickness test.
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It's an ultrasound of your neck with
a special measurement technology
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component.
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It's used to measure plaque
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instead of what most tests,
like the stress tests do,
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measuring blood flow.
00:06:13
So why looking at the neck,
the carotid instead of the heart?
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Plaque formation is due
to metabolic issues.
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Metabolism.
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Metabolism is the same all over your body.
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So if you have plaque in one artery bin,
you have it in all the others.
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But here's the key...
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CIMT doesn't focus on blood flow.
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It focuses on plaque and more importantly,
the type of plaque.
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Again,
that's why cardiac stress tests,
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which measure blood flow,
do not predict
00:06:48
heart attacks.
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Back to the story.
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So I took the CiMT test
expecting to see no plaque
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I was wrong.
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Look at this chart.
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This was 2015,
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and you can see my name and two pictures,
my right and left carotid arteries.
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What really impacted me here
was the number next to it,
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1.209 mm on the right side and 1.215 mm
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on the left side.
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Now, what does that mean?
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This is an artery, and it has many layers.
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Let's focus on two of these layers.
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The one in the middle is called the media.
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It's made mostly of muscle.
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It allows the artery to expand like
one of those expanding garden hoses.
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Then you have the inner
layer of the artery wall,
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the intima...
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It deals with the essential
metabolic functions of the vessel,
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like dropping off oxygen and
picking up cellular waste materials.
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Guess where plaque builds up?
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No, not on the inside, but between...
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those two layers,
the intima and the mediaev.
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Thats why they call this
test the carotid intima media
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thickness test.
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The ideal thickness is 1 mm or less.
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Any time you go over that,
its considered a significant...
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plaque.
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Some more conservative researchers
dont count plaque until it reaches 1.3
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millimeter
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thickness.
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Now,
00:08:26
it took me time to realize
that despite all of my
00:08:31
healthy habits,
00:08:32
I had still developed
cardiovascular plaque.
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That was a gut punch.
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At first,
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I felt like all that work,
that discipline to stay healthy,
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was wasted...
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I felt like
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maybe I should have just let myself go,
eat all I wanted,
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lie on the couch,
watch tv,
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be lazy,
eat nachos,
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etcetera,
etcetera,
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etcetera.
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It took me weeks to emotionally
wrap my head around the other side.
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If I still had plaque with
my focus on prevention,
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what shape would I have been in
00:09:12
if I had not taken care of my body?
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It slowly dawned on me that I could
already have had a heart attack.
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I could even
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already be dead.
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It doesn't take much plaque
to cause a heart attack.
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Now,
00:09:29
here's another thing
that changed my life...
00:09:33
Right here,
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you can see even though
my average IMT was below
00:09:38
1 still had more plaque than
the average 57 year old,
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I actually had the arteries
of a 73 year old...
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And that's when I started to think,
I've got to change
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something,
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or
00:09:52
I could die.
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I lived in Lexington,
Kentucky at the time...
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Each Saturday morning,
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I ran my half marathon through
some of the most beautiful
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horse country in the world.
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I remember starting the Saturday
morning after discovering my plaque.
00:10:12
It occurred to me that
if I had a heart attack
00:10:16
out there in those horse farms,
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it would be hours before my
00:10:21
body was found, cold
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and lifeless.
00:10:24
Pardon the drama,
00:10:26
but those fears are
normal for someone that's
00:10:29
first recognized their mortality
00:10:32
and often
00:10:33
from finding the first time
00:10:35
your own
00:10:36
cardiovascular...
00:10:37
risk.
00:10:39
Then I finally composed myself and
realized I'm a professional in this space.
00:10:45
I know more about it than most...
00:10:47
And I needed to listen to my own medicine.
00:10:50
For example,
exercise,
00:10:52
like jogging,
doesn't cause heart attacks...
00:10:55
And I needed to move on.
00:10:57
So that's what I did.
00:11:00
When I returned home from that run,
I decided to make a few changes...
00:11:05
I did a few more tests.
00:11:07
I did multiple tests.
00:11:09
But the most important was an
oral glucose tolerance test.
00:11:13
These next three sentences are the three
most important sentences in this video.
00:11:20
If you hear nothing else, at least
00:11:23
hear this.
00:11:24
My blood sugar peaked over 160.
00:11:27
That meant I had enough
prediabetes to cause cardiovascular
00:11:32
plaque.
00:11:33
Let me repeat.
00:11:34
My blood sugars peaked...
00:11:37
at greater than 160,
00:11:38
indicating enough
prediabetes to cause plaque
00:11:42
and heart disease risk.
00:11:45
So
00:11:45
you remember those changes
I committed to make?
00:11:50
One of them was, and the biggest one was
00:11:53
I switched from a low fat diet...
00:11:56
to a low carb diet.
00:11:58
My biggest change
00:12:00
out of all of them
00:12:01
was switching
00:12:02
from a low fat diet
00:12:04
to a low carb diet.
00:12:06
And today
00:12:07
I've tested multiple diets
ranging from carnivore to vegan
00:12:12
to paleo
00:12:13
ketavore and everything in between.
00:12:16
But all were
00:12:17
on the low carb side.
00:12:20
Now
00:12:20
I'm doing even keto.
00:12:22
I'm ketotic about five days a week.
00:12:25
I've been fat adapted for about
00:12:28
ten years.
00:12:29
These days, I blow acetone
00:12:31
in the range of between five
and 20 parts per million.
00:12:35
Again, five days a week.
00:12:37
So if you didn't get that,
let me say it differently.
00:12:41
I'm ketotic.
00:12:42
Most days I'm burning fat.
00:12:44
No matter which diet
00:12:46
I'm on,
00:12:46
I just don't eat enough carbs
to change that part of my diet.
00:12:51
No matter which diet I
try vegan or carnivore.
00:12:56
I especially
00:12:57
avoid processed carbs and grain products.
00:13:02
Let me show you the progress.
00:13:05
This is the biggest
progress I've ever made.
00:13:10
In about one year, I was able to reduce
00:13:14
my average CIMT
00:13:15
from 0.88
00:13:16
to 0.67
00:13:17
mm.
00:13:17
That was one year reduced my
average CIMT intima media thickness
00:13:24
from 0.88 to 0.67...
00:13:25
mm.
00:13:26
Now, let me explain what that means.
00:13:29
If you look at the image right here,
00:13:32
it means that I was able to
reverse my arterial age from 73
00:13:36
to 52 years.
00:13:37
In one year, I was able to reverse about
00:13:41
20 years of worth of
arterial plaque deposition.
00:13:45
Now,
00:13:45
how did this happen?
00:13:48
Let's go back and talk about what does,
quote plaque reversal
00:13:53
actually
00:13:54
mean
00:13:55
when you reverse plaque you're
not necessarily taking
00:13:59
calcium out of the artery...
00:14:01
It doesn't even mean taking
cholesterol out of the artery,
00:14:06
necessarily.
00:14:07
Here's what you're doing.
00:14:09
What you are doing is taking
the inflammatory liquid,
00:14:13
the swelling and pus
00:14:14
out of the plaque.
00:14:16
So it's like you're deflating
a balloon or a tire...
00:14:20
It will decrease the size of
the plaque and the size of
00:14:24
the intima media thickness.
00:14:27
Loss of inflammation
00:14:29
makes plaque shrink.
00:14:31
Calcium deposits are just biomarkers.
00:14:34
They're biomarkers of
decreasing inflammation.
00:14:37
But
00:14:38
not everything is sunshine and rainbows.
00:14:41
I still had plaque.
00:14:42
Take a look at another CIMT from 2019.
00:14:46
You can read the description of the CIMT
in different areas of the carotid artery
00:14:52
here in the comments.
00:14:54
My right carotid bulb says 1.3
00:14:56
again
00:14:57
in millimeters, and the letter H.
00:15:00
H stands for heterogeneous.
00:15:02
Heterogeneous...
00:15:03
This sounds geeky,
but hang in there for a minute.
00:15:06
It's essential.
00:15:08
You'll see why...
00:15:09
you've seen the word heterogeneous.
00:15:11
Heterogeneous means mixed, just like
00:15:15
homogeneous means
00:15:16
consistent...
00:15:17
Heterogeneous plaque is a mixture
of soft and calcified plaque.
00:15:23
How calcified?..
00:15:24
Well,
00:15:25
it's actually mostly calcified,
as you can see
00:15:29
in the white in the image right here.
00:15:32
Soft,
00:15:33
hardened and mixed plaque is
classified by the amount of calcium
00:15:39
embedded in that plaque.
00:15:41
Nuplaque is homogeneous,
00:15:44
soft, and deadly.
00:15:45
It can squeeze into the bloodstream
00:15:48
where the inflammatory goo causes clots.
00:15:51
The clots cause the problem,
not the plaque itself.
00:15:56
The inflammatory liquid is basically pus.
00:15:59
Soft plaques have a very thin cap
00:16:02
near the entom.
00:16:04
It doesn't even have to be
00:16:07
big, just
00:16:07
soft.
00:16:08
As the body heals the plaque,
00:16:10
it calcifies.
00:16:12
This is an example of heterogeneous,
partially calcified plaque...
00:16:17
You can see
00:16:18
it has some calcium, which is good.
00:16:21
Calcium,
in this case,
00:16:23
helps with the healing
and scarring process.
00:16:27
It's a biomarker of plaque stability.
00:16:31
Now, here, this is
00:16:32
not the healthiest calcification...
00:16:35
Calcium is all over the place.
00:16:37
It's not organized and it's
surrounded by a lot of hot liquid,
00:16:42
like
00:16:43
islands of hot liquid
00:16:45
and calcium.
00:16:46
This plaque can still
rupture if the cap is thin.
00:16:51
This is calcified plaque.
00:16:53
The calcium is well organized
00:16:55
and it has a thick captain.
00:16:58
It won't break.
00:16:59
It's stable.
00:17:00
It won't cause a heart attack
00:17:03
or a stroke.
00:17:04
Removing inflammation or reversing plaque
00:17:08
causes more
00:17:09
stable plaque and less or no
00:17:12
soft plaque.
00:17:13
The best goal is to
have no plaque at all...
00:17:17
But most of us develop plaque as we age
00:17:20
into insulin resistance.
00:17:22
When we do,
00:17:24
heres what to do...
00:17:25
Stabilize that plaque
00:17:27
and
00:17:27
keep it stable...
00:17:29
So...
00:17:29
what did I do
00:17:30
to reverse my plaque?
00:17:32
Remember when I said I came back from
that first long run after finding
00:17:38
out my plaque and I decided
to change a few things?
00:17:42
I changed the way I
00:17:43
as I said,
I went from low fat to low carb.
00:17:47
I changed the way I exercise.
00:17:49
I changed my mind on supplements...
00:17:52
I changed the way I slept.
00:17:55
And yes, I even started medications.
00:17:59
Some
00:18:00
of these changes,
00:18:01
like medications and
supplements were helpful...
00:18:05
but far less important than lifestyle.
00:18:08
That's been proven time
and time and time again.
00:18:12
Lifestyle is
00:18:13
king.
00:18:14
The most important change...
00:18:17
for most people is weight loss...
00:18:20
At 510,
00:18:20
I weighed about 157 pounds, so
00:18:23
I didn't have much opportunity there...
00:18:26
I did lose five to ten
pounds and that did help...
00:18:31
I also traded in marathon level distances
00:18:34
for a lot more hit and
resistance training,
00:18:38
especially...
00:18:39
in the legs...
00:18:40
Metabolically active, strong
00:18:43
legs are the most effective internal
safety valve against rising blood sugar.
00:18:50
I started taking supplements.
00:18:52
I started with vitamin D three
00:18:55
5000 international units
00:18:57
and niacin 2000 milligrams a day,
mostly because I had some hdl issues...
00:19:03
I've updated that list to my current
00:19:06
needs
00:19:07
and now I'm taking
00:19:09
vitamin D three 5000
international units a day,
00:19:13
k2...
00:19:14
400 micrograms a day with an
additional tablespoon of natto,
00:19:19
lcitrulline,
magnesium,
00:19:21
l threonate,
magnesium chloride,
00:19:24
kialic garlic
00:19:25
and I'm also eating
00:19:27
taking more natto.
00:19:28
Let me tell you where I am now.
00:19:31
This is my latest CIMT from December
00:19:34
2023.
00:19:35
This cIMT is from cardio risk.
00:19:38
Cardiorisk has world class
CIMT quality processes.
00:19:42
As you can see in my left carotid artery,
00:19:46
I still did not develop
more significant plaque.
00:19:50
It stayed mostly below
00:19:52
1.2 mm...
00:19:53
on my right side.
00:19:55
That plaque I had from the beginning
00:19:58
is still
00:19:59
1.3.
00:20:00
It's still
00:20:01
stable
00:20:02
or heterogeneous.
00:20:04
Let's take a closer look
at that obnoxious plaque.
00:20:09
As you can see in the image,
it's very white.
00:20:13
That's calcium...
00:20:15
It's mainly calcified.
00:20:17
Again, it's stable.
00:20:19
I was 66 years old when I did
this test in December of 2023.
00:20:24
My arterial age is now.
00:20:27
Drum roll please.
00:20:29
My arteries are still back at
the healthy level of 58 years old
00:20:34
and I'm still way below
the average for my age...
00:20:39
Now, regarding labs, we talked about those
00:20:42
early on.
00:20:43
I've had low hdl for most of my life.
00:20:46
I've actually
00:20:47
increased my hdl
00:20:49
when I went low carb.
00:20:51
I did that even though I was aging.
00:20:54
And most of the time,
people age and decrease their hdl.
00:20:59
Now, why is that important?..
00:21:01
Low hdl is a very
00:21:02
strong warning sign of
unhealthy carb metabolism,
00:21:07
meaning that ive
00:21:08
probably had subpar carb metabolism
00:21:11
even when I was much, much younger.
00:21:14
In other words, probably bad genetics.
00:21:17
Getting those carbs out of my
diet has helped my metabolism,
00:21:22
as shown in lipid or cholesterol
profiles and fractionation.
00:21:27
Now, what am I doing at this point?
00:21:30
First and foremost,
I keep my body fat down.
00:21:33
I've had two Dexa scans.
00:21:36
Here are the images.
00:21:38
My body fat stays around 20%.
00:21:41
That's equivalent to an 18 year old.
00:21:44
The average 18 year old.
00:21:46
My visceral fat stays
around a half a pound
00:21:50
to a pound.
00:21:51
That's also
00:21:52
very healthy for an older man like me.
00:21:56
And it's not incredibly easy either.
00:21:59
But after decades of watching my body fat,
it's not that difficult either.
00:22:05
By the way, I have ice cream twice weekly.
00:22:08
As you can see,
my diet is usually,
00:22:11
but not always,
lightly to moderately ketotic.
00:22:15
Even with the ice cream,
I never had positive
00:22:19
urinary ketones until recently.
00:22:21
Recently I went on a five pound water fast
00:22:25
and
00:22:26
really got very ketotic urine
strips of but ive always known,
00:22:31
or over the past couple of
years ive known that im ketotic
00:22:35
because of breath ketones.
00:22:37
I exhale about ten parts
per million acetone
00:22:41
most days.
00:22:42
Yes, acetone...
00:22:43
finger polish removal,
stuff that chemical.
00:22:46
And yes,
your body makes it when its burning fat.
00:22:50
Urinary ketones are far
more challenging to see.
00:22:54
If
00:22:54
one,
you've been fat adapted for a long time
00:22:58
and two,
you remain mildly to moderately ketotic...
00:23:02
Both of those descriptions fit me.
00:23:05
I've been managing my carbs
00:23:08
at this point for over a decade.
00:23:11
I also work out regularly and hard.
00:23:14
I do hit
00:23:15
and re hit
00:23:16
high intensity interval training.
00:23:18
As you see on the screen,
I'm not just jogging,
00:23:22
I am sprinting uphill.
00:23:24
I followed Sean Amara's
uphill sprinting advice...
00:23:28
long before I'd ever
heard of Sean Amara...
00:23:32
These uphill sprints are
00:23:33
also aggressive for a 67 year old man.
00:23:37
I do multiple types of
00:23:39
muscle training,
00:23:40
especially
00:23:41
in my legs.
00:23:42
Strong,
00:23:43
metabolically active leg muscles
are our best safety valve against
00:23:49
rising blood sugar,
00:23:50
and I do this work
multiple times each week.
00:23:54
It takes discipline,
but whether it's diet or exercise,
00:23:58
the hardest part is actually
00:24:00
making that change and making the change
00:24:03
stick.
00:24:04
So
00:24:05
if you're sitting there and thinking,
00:24:08
everybody knows that you
should get a stress test
00:24:12
and then a stent and then just be
done with it instead of all of this
00:24:17
hill sprints and diet management.
00:24:20
If youre thinking that,
be aware that I wrote a whole book
00:24:25
on why stress tests dont
predict heart attacks
00:24:29
and stents
00:24:30
dont prevent them.
00:24:32
The calcium score
00:24:33
is more well known and its
harder to mess up than a CIMT.
00:24:37
But calcium scores dont
tell you everything.
00:24:41
In fact,
00:24:42
they dont tell you the
most important thing.
00:24:46
They dont tell you
anything about soft plaque.
00:24:50
Also,
00:24:50
a high calcium score can mean
either unhealthy calcification
00:24:55
or healthy calcification.
00:24:57
So it has its limits...
00:24:59
I do recommend it to find out if
you have plaque for the first time,
00:25:04
but even a score of zero is
00:25:06
no guarantee.
00:25:08
There are plenty of people that
have had heart attacks with a zero
00:25:13
calcium scores.
00:25:14
After watching this video,
you may understand
00:25:17
why.
00:25:18
If not, we'll cover that in another video.
00:25:22
Lastly, the new kid on the block
00:25:24
CT angiogram with AI
artificial intelligence.
00:25:28
I'm a big fan.
00:25:30
It can show both soft and calcified
plaque with a lot of detail...
00:25:35
However,
00:25:36
it has some downsides.
00:25:38
It's more expensive,
00:25:40
it is invasive somewhat,
and with the wrong interpretation.
00:25:45
It can also put you through the process
00:25:49
of getting an unnecessary
00:25:51
stent or bypassed.
00:25:53
I chose CIMT because
00:25:55
despite its challenges, it's the only
00:25:58
quick, non invasive, inexpensive way
00:26:01
to identify
00:26:03
soften plaque.
00:26:04
Again, soft plaque is the key.
00:26:07
You're right if you think the lack
of radiation is an advantage too.
00:26:13
It is.
00:26:13
The other ones all have
00:26:15
radiation, but
00:26:16
I don't think the radiation from a CT
angiogram or clearly a calcium score
00:26:22
is significant if you're dealing
with cardiovascular disease risk.
00:26:27
I do plan to get a CT angiogram
with AI analysis at some point.
00:26:31
As we said,
it's expensive,
00:26:33
time consuming,
requires
00:26:35
radioactive diet.
00:26:37
I just keep putting it off because...
00:26:40
the only reason I really need to do it,
a CT angiogram,
00:26:44
is to provide it to my viewers on YouTube.
00:26:47
And I obviously like you guys a lot, but
00:26:51
CT angiogram is a headache.
00:26:53
We've yet to talk
00:26:54
that much about what caused all this.
00:26:58
In short,
I belong to those 52% of us over age 18
00:27:02
with prediabetes.
00:27:03
And guess what?
00:27:04
Within a couple more years,
00:27:07
my insulin receptors continued to age
into a state of full type two diabetes.
00:27:13
Now, I took all the risk off the table.
00:27:16
I'm not worried about it.
00:27:18
Again, I took the risk off the table.
00:27:20
Many people like
00:27:22
Jason Fong,
00:27:23
Eric Westman would say,
I think they would say
00:27:26
I cured
00:27:27
my diabetes.
00:27:28
In other words, I don't eat carbs.
00:27:30
I don't eat enough carbs
to cause a problem.
00:27:34
Now,
00:27:34
I also told you early on that I
was going to give you a confession.
00:27:40
The next thing is going
to create controversy.
00:27:43
It already has.
00:27:45
I've gotten hater comments
00:27:47
from some of the most prominent content
00:27:50
creators
00:27:51
and viewers...
00:27:52
in this space.
00:27:53
But be patient
00:27:55
with me.
00:27:56
Cutting carbs was not the
very first thing I did.
00:27:59
I didn't even know I had
prediabetes for the first few weeks.
00:28:04
The very first thing I did
00:28:06
was to take a medication
00:28:08
and guess what type
00:28:10
it was?
00:28:11
A statin
00:28:11
by the name of simvastatin.
00:28:13
It was low dose...
00:28:15
and I wasn't trying to beat
down my LDL cholesterol.
00:28:18
In fact, LDL cholesterol was very low...
00:28:21
And if you're about to click away,
just hear me out for a second.
00:28:26
Yes,
00:28:26
I know statins are associated
with significant problems.
00:28:31
And yes,
00:28:31
big pharma has made
more than a ton of money
00:28:35
from statins.
00:28:36
But here's the problem.
00:28:39
It's mainly used at higher doses
00:28:41
and it's mostly used to
beat down LDL cholesterol.
00:28:46
Everybody beats up on statins
00:28:48
and they beat up on me
00:28:50
for saying
00:28:51
that I use them.
00:28:52
So what is the purpose of a statin?
00:28:55
Is it, like
00:28:56
most people think,
to decrease cholesterol?
00:29:00
No,
I don't use statins to lower cholesterol.
00:29:04
So why did I take it?
00:29:06
The evidence is clear that
low dose statins can decrease
00:29:10
cardiovascular inflammation.
00:29:12
I only use low dose statins myself
00:29:15
or for my patients who choose statins...
00:29:18
And I only recommend either
rosuvastatin or pitavastatin,
00:29:23
the generics...
00:29:24
I actually switched from
simvastatin to prevastatin.
00:29:28
And even now
00:29:29
I take a low dose rosuvastatin...
00:29:31
five milligrams
00:29:32
two or three times per week...
00:29:35
Also, you don't have to take it every day,
00:29:38
especially the ones like
rosuvastatin with a longer half life.
00:29:43
Now,
00:29:43
this sometimes needs to be
clarified and I get comments like
00:29:48
here is a video from Doctor
Breuer selling statins.
00:29:52
I'm not selling statins.
00:29:54
This video's not sponsored.
00:29:56
The reality is, statins can't help.
00:29:59
But they're not central
to plaque management.
00:30:02
They get way too much focus.
00:30:05
They're simply an adjunct
to lowering cardiovascular
00:30:09
inflammation,
00:30:11
not
00:30:11
ldl.
00:30:13
I also took baby aspirin.
00:30:14
There is risk of bleeding,
00:30:16
but it has been proven to
decrease the risk of heart attacks
00:30:21
by not developing clots...
00:30:23
Baby aspirin is also not for everybody.
00:30:26
I only recommend it when
there is evidence of plaque.
00:30:30
Anyhow, let's move on...
00:30:32
Multiple studies plus just plain
old logic have shown multiple times.
00:30:38
Prescription medications
00:30:41
cannot come
00:30:42
anywhere close
00:30:44
to lifestyle.
00:30:45
You cannot out prescribe
00:30:47
or even out supplement
00:30:49
a lifestyle.
00:30:50
And the most important
part of lifestyle is
00:30:54
eating habits.
00:30:55
Supplements are far more popular
than prescription medications.
00:31:00
There are times in my
practice when over half
00:31:04
of my patients have
chosen zero medications.
00:31:08
And not only am I okay with that,
I'm very impressed with it.
00:31:13
If you're wondering about ldl
00:31:15
recently
00:31:16
or my ldl, I've got another story there.
00:31:20
Recently,
when I transitioned from low carb
00:31:23
to a keto diet, my ldl increased from 55
00:31:27
to 110.
00:31:28
I'd always had low LDL...
00:31:30
and then the next month up to 180.
00:31:33
Additionally,
00:31:34
even though I'm still
technically diabetic,
00:31:38
my triglycerides,
a one c and insulin
00:31:41
are as low as they can be.
00:31:43
They're very, very
00:31:44
low...
00:31:45
And I have a healthy hdl cholesterol.
00:31:48
So if youve made it this far,
thank you for your interest.
00:31:53
Im retired, sort of.
00:31:54
Yes,
I love travel and golf,
00:31:57
but I love having an impact
00:31:59
far more.
00:32:00
People tell us all the time
that were saving lives every
00:32:03
day with this information
00:32:05
and we believe them.
00:32:07
Theres no travel or leisure
activity that can ever match
00:32:10
saving a life.
00:32:12
If youd like more information,
00:32:14
let me suggest
00:32:15
this video.
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