Sunday, March 9, 2008

Seeing is not believing

I met a friend in college named Rick (well, of course, not real name but close enough). He was the son of a wealthy soda-pop executive and looked like a blond god-like Richard Gere.

Since childhood, Rick had an optic nerve disorder that left his vision narrowed to a field within only 2-4 inches of his eyes. His sense of humor and empathy were intense. And he could tell what mood we were in by just a few cues like a voice inflection or how we stood. Rick wasn't born with amazing senses of smell, taste, touch and hearing. These were honed skills. With a change in sight, his other routes for perception became super-trained to function at highly optimized abilities. Way above and beyond normal.

When someone engages in a TYP-styled lifestyle and adjunctive therapy, plaque-damage is overridden through optimization of multiple routes for plaque-regression and eradication. We all have the ability to be whole and complete. Our bodies do have the resources and capacity to heal. Don't believe? Read about the TYP successes. Many people share achievements on the forum with (mild) pride--it's not necessarily an easy task. Wonderful outcomes happen all the time.

Although small dense atherogenic LDL numbers are reduced in nearly all cases, the most reliable index for plaque eradication is demonstrated on heart scans. Seeing how healthy the manner one lives and seeing wonderful lab measurements are not necessarily adequate. Seeing is not believing. Just like lumps and bumps (polyps), plaque is hidden and undetectable by the naked eye. Scanning ... truly is believing. Scans are not done frequently (in similar fashion to cancer preventive screening tools, i.e., mammograms or sigmoids). Yet they are the only tool and metric that conveniently and easily assesses the presence of plaque (and inexpensively as well).

Europeans are perhaps more advanced than the U. S. for using heart scan screenings to reduce unnecessary death, disability and damage from heart disease.

Non-invasive screening for coronary artery disease: calcium scoring http://heart.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/93/12/1620

Cardiac computed tomography: indications, applications, limitations, and training requirements http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/ehm544v1

Hailing from the UK: http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/abstract/50/23/2218
Determinants of Progression of Coronary Artery Calcification in Type 2 Diabetes: Role of Glycemic Control and Inflammatory/Vascular Calcification Markers

Ok... let's give the U.S. some credit now!! In addition to Dr. Davis, here is another luminary endorsement of scans for screening:

http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/abstract/49/19/1918 Noninvasive Screening for Coronary Atherosclerosis and Silent Ischemia in Asymptomatic Type 2 Diabetic Patients: Is it Appropriate and Cost-Effective? George A. Beller, MD, MACC, Cardiovascular Division,Department of Medicine, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, Virginia.

And another physician (in primary care, no less--say YAHHH for the primary care in the deep trenches) who experienced virtually no cardiovascular events in his primary care practice in Colorado (no CAD surgeries, no cabgs (bypass operations), no stents, no PTCAs, no MIs, no deaths):

Dr. William Blanchet, MD http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/531622

2 comments:

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Christopher said...

Any chance of seeing any of those "50 shades of fucked up"? ;)