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Sunday Evening Update Dr. William Davis


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#1 Mind

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Posted 09 September 2008 - 10:07 PM


You don't want to miss the Sunday Evening Update this Sunday September 14th. Get the inside scoop on the latest in heart health and heart disease prevention with Dr. William Davis of the Heart Scan Resource Center.

Program begins at 5pm central, 6pm eastern, 22:00 GMT.

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Edited by Mind, 09 November 2011 - 08:53 PM.


#2 lunarsolarpower

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Posted 10 September 2008 - 07:36 AM

CT heart scans and radiation: The real story is one area I'm curious about. Obviously the pure EBT machines subject the patient to somewhat lower levels of radiation than spiral CT. However I suspect no one is going to recommend that a healthy 20 year old with no risk factors have this testing. At what point and with what risk factors does the value of having the scan become great enough for someone with the longevity expectations of those who frequent this board to begin "tracking their plaque?"

I suspect diagnostic tools such as this could have great benefit for efforts such as Michael Rose's SENS-E and the rejuvenation MPrize.

#3 Mind

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Posted 10 September 2008 - 10:25 PM

Great question Lunar!

Here is some info from one of his recent blog posts:

If you have a heart attack and land in the hospital where, invariably, you will have a heart procedure. Or, if you get a stent or coronary bypass operation, sometime before your discharge from the hospital, a well-meaning hospital staff dietitian will provide instruction in the American Heart Association (AHA) diet.

Does this diet reduce the risk of heart disease?

The answer depends on where you start. If you begin with a conventional American diet that is enormously influenced by convenience, food manufacturers like Nabisco, General Mills, Quaker Oats, ADM, and Cargill, or food distributors like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, then the American Heart Association diet is indeed an improvement. But just a small one. If LDL cholesterol is the yardstick, the average reduction in LDL is between 10 and 15 mg/dl. This is the same amount of change you’d experience by adding 1 tablespoon of oat bran to your diet. Hardly worth boasting about. HDL, triglycerides, blood glucose, and body weight do not change.

The diet could be substantially better. After all, it’s become common knowledge that other diets, such as the so-called Mediterranean diet, the South Beach Diet, and similar broad projects result in far greater changes than the AHA diet dispensed by your hospital and cardiologist. These diets more effectively reduce LDL, raise HDL, reduce triglycerides, reduce C-reactive protein, reduce blood pressure. Diets like South Beach also yield substantial weight loss and reversal of diabetic tendencies, with the magnitude of benefit dependent on the amount of weight lost.

Why this stubborn adherence to the outdated concepts articulated in the AHA diet? Cardiologists would argue that insufficient data has been generated to permit widespread application of these diets. They also differ on whether they really work. Of course, the majority remain ignorant and dismiss them as fad diets.


He is tough on carbs...finally someone talking some sense.

#4 Mind

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Posted 11 September 2008 - 07:39 PM

Another good read from Dr. Davis about the adoption of new technology and the doctor/patient dynamic.

In 1910, taking a person's blood pressure was considered revolutionary, a high-tech practice that was of uncertain benefit.

Dr. Harvey Cushing of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore had observed a blood pressure device while traveling in Europe, developed by Dr. Sciopione Riva-Rocci. Cushing brought this new technology back with him to the U.S. and promptly promoted its use, convinced that this insight into gauging the forcefulness of blood pressure would yield useful clinical insights.

But, in 1910, practicing physicians rejected this new technology, preferring to use their well-established and widely practiced technique of pulse palpation (feeling the pulse), skeptical that the new tool added value. Medical practice of the day was rich with descriptions of the strength and character of the pulse: pulsus parvus et tardus (the slow rising pulse of aortic valve stenosis), the dicrotic notch of aortic valve closure transmitted to the pulse, the "water-hammer" pulse of aortic valve insufficiency.

Over the next 20 years, however, the medical community finally gave way to the new technique, although only physicians were allowed to use blood pressure devices, as nurses were regarded as incapable of mastering the skills required to perform the procedure properly.

Stethoscopes were also gaining in popularity in the early 20th century, but were also the exclusive province of physicians trained in their use. Nurses were not allowed to use stethoscopes until the 1960s. Even then, nurses were not allowed to call them "stethoscopes," but "nurse-o-scopes" or "assistoscopes," and the nurses' version of the device was manufactured to look different to avoid confusion with the "real" doctor's tool.

And just half a century ago, if you wanted to look at a medical textbook, you would have to go to the library and ask for special permission. The librarian would lower her glasses and look you up and down to determine whether or not you were some kind of pervert. Only then might you be granted permission to peer into the pictures of organs and naked bodies.

Such has been the spirit of medicine for centuries: Medicine and its practices are meant to be secret, the insider knowledge of a privileged few.

Fast forward to 2008: The Information Age has overturned the rules of privileged information. Now you have access to the same information as I do, the same information available to practicing physicians. The playing field has been levelled.

Curiously, while information access has advanced at an instantaneous digital pace, attitudes in medicine continue to evolve at the traditional analog crawl. Many of my colleagues continue to be dismayed at the new public access to health information, belittle patients for excessive curiosity about their health, lament the erosion of their healthcare-directing authority. And while new concepts race ahead as we race towards a wiki-like collective growth in healthcare knowledge, physicians are still mired by their reluctance to abdicate their once-lofty positions as chief holders of secrets.

I believe that this is part of the reason why family doctors and cardiologists have been slow to adopt technologies like heart scans and self-empowering programs like Track Your Plaque: processes that take heart disease prevention away from the hands of physicians and place more control into the hands of the people.

Imagine the horror felt by physicians in 1935 of a young upstart nurse boldly trying to use a stethoscope to take a patient's blood pressure. You can imagine the internal horror now being felt as you and I dare to take control over heart disease and deny them the chance to put in four stents, three bypass grafts, then direct our future health habits.

But technology has a way of marching on. It will encounter resistance, bumps, and blind-alleys, but it will go on.


I see the same trend with the current restrictions over personal genetic testing. Some states (California and New York) want to control citizen's access their own genetic information. I think their attempts to limit this fundamental freedom will eventually fail.

#5 Mind

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Posted 13 September 2008 - 02:07 AM

I you will not be able to attend the live show and ask questions, please present your question for Dr. Davis here in the forums.
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#6 Mind

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Posted 14 September 2008 - 01:14 AM

I spoke with Dr. Davis today and he is anxious to discuss the best health and nutrition practices with regards to heart health and also general philosophies surrounding life extension.

If you have read his blog in the past you know he is a big proponent of the South Beach/Atkins/Ketogenic type diet and is a warrior against bad carbs.

#7 Mind

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Posted 14 September 2008 - 05:48 PM

Any detailed questions about exercise and diet as it relates to heart health would be greatly appreciated.

#8 Mind

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Posted 14 September 2008 - 08:54 PM

Starting in about 1 hour...5pm central, 6pm eastern, 22:00 GMT.

#9 Mind

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Posted 14 September 2008 - 08:56 PM

Tune in to the Sunday Evening Update here and participate in the discussion

#10 Mind

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Posted 14 September 2008 - 09:52 PM

starting in a few minutes.

#11 Mind

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Posted 15 September 2008 - 04:32 PM

Dr. Davis was a wonderful guest and there was a big turnout. Many in the audience asked great questions. The audio was clear and Dr. Davis spoke for about 50 minutes on many topics revolving around diet, supplements, and heart disease. He doesn't think cholesterol ratios mean anything with regards to heart disease and is a big proponent of supplementing with vitamin D3.

The Davis interview is the newest video in the Ustream archive (check here) and the interview portion starts about 10 minutes in.

#12 Johan

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Posted 15 September 2008 - 04:56 PM

Well, he did think that LDL cholesterol matters, right? I didn't quite catch his consensus on that.

#13 Mind

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Posted 15 September 2008 - 06:27 PM

I would have to go back and listen again to get his exact statement on LDL.

#14 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 15 September 2008 - 06:31 PM

Well, anyone that does listen and take notes, please post them here for those of us who come to ImmInst to learn but don't have all the time to do everything we wish ;)

#15 Mind

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Posted 15 September 2008 - 06:51 PM

One thing that stuck out in my mind is the method he uses to get people to consume fewer carbs. The easiest way he has found is to eliminate all wheat products (pretend as if you were allergic to wheat). He is upset about all the advertising about "getting your whole grains", and eating whole grain bread, and eating whole grain bagels. What he was getting at is even though wheat bread is better for you than white bread, you are still getting too many carbs by consuming cereal, bread, pasta, what-not, throughout the day. Eliminating wheat gets rid of most of the carbs, except those from sweets like candy and ice cream (and potatoes I suppose).

#16 lunarsolarpower

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Posted 20 September 2008 - 09:13 AM

Thanks Mind and Dr. Davis for the very informative chat. I learned quite a bit about this very important topic. After listening I had to do a bit of thinking though. Dr. Davis recommends cutting out wheat entirely and pretty much getting rid of corn and the other grains (I assume this includes rice) leaving only a small amount of oats in that food group. However he also didn't sound like he promotes meat-eating.

I had to scratch my head to figure out how to hold the food that is left together. Even a tortilla is made of wheat or corn and contains some carbs. I finally hit on the idea of using salad as the matrix or substrate for delivering the other ingredients of this type of diet. I'm way too addicted to my grains to take the whole plunge but I figure I can easily do one meal a day and start making a difference. Tonight I went to the store and bought the following items to get me started:

Bagged salad
Sunflower seeds
Pine nuts
Parmesan cheese
Bacobits
Green pepper
Black olives
Alfalfa sprouts
Broccoli
Carrots
Eggs (to be hard-boiled)


I still plan on getting some cheese and veggie deli slices as well as some walnuts and pecans to add to the mix. I already have salad dressings. My plan is to have everything cut up and ready to go in a multi-section tupperware container in my refrigerator. Then when it's time to eat I can just pour out some salad, grab whatever I feel like from the container, and eat. Did I mention I don't have much time to prepare food these days?

Here my notes from the talk:

Vitamin D
Desirable blood level: 60-70 ng/ml
Average male requires 6000 units/day
Average female requires 5000 units/day
Dr. William Davis takes 10,000 iu per day

EBT heart scan = 4 chest x-rays = mammogram
multi-detector device = 8-10 chest x-rays

CT chest angiography = 100 chest x-ray equivalent


One more thing I should add: Dr. Davis has found that when people go cold-turkey on the wheat and carbs that they feel mentally "slow" for about 5 days and that he's not aware of any way to get around this. The up side is that after this passes the metabolism adjusts and you feel fine. However it doesn't sound like the kind of thing you'd want to try on a test week or when getting ready to run a marathon.

Edited by lunarsolarpower, 20 September 2008 - 09:33 AM.


#17 Mind

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Posted 20 September 2008 - 03:51 PM

The tough part about the low carb diet (or at least getting most of your carbs from veggies) is that it takes some preparation time. So many of the hi-carb foods are packaged and prepared to eat, pre-cooked, and what-not. If you have a tight time schedule, it is easy to just grab some fast food or throw some stuff in the microwave.

#18 Johan

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Posted 20 September 2008 - 05:01 PM

In my experience, replacing brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, etc. with vegetables gets a bit more expensive. That might not be an issue for some, but for students (like me) who are on a relatively tight budget, price does become an issue at some point. I still get quite a bit of my carbs from veggies, and I have only one meal with grains during the entire day, but I still have to use a little rice and pasta (of the healthier varieties) to avoid huge food costs.

Now if there only was a cheap, readily available veggie to replace that with, I'd be very happy. But so far, I haven't found any.

Edited by Johan, 20 September 2008 - 05:03 PM.


#19 Mind

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Posted 20 September 2008 - 06:35 PM

If you are keeping your calories down (I think you are), then you don't have to worry as much about the carbs. What is much worse is people who eat above the normal amount of calories and most of the calories come from carbs.

#20 Johan

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Posted 20 September 2008 - 06:42 PM

You're right, I am keeping calories down. And it's only about 150-200 kcal/day anyway.
But still, if possible, eliminating grains entirely would be nice.
On a side note, I pay more for food now that I'm practicing CR than back when I didn't, even though I eat less of it. Health costs, huh. :-D

Edited by Johan, 20 September 2008 - 06:45 PM.


#21 lunarsolarpower

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Posted 20 September 2008 - 07:50 PM

Health costs, huh. :-D


It's much cheaper than the alternative.

Personally I'm quite a cheapskate but I've long considered food to be my "luxury" and won't compromise (much) when shopping for it. I'd rather eat quality food than drive a nice car or wear expensive clothes. Someday I'd like to invent a robotic greenhouse that could supply fresh from the vine food year-round.

Edited by lunarsolarpower, 20 September 2008 - 07:52 PM.


#22 Mind

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Posted 09 November 2011 - 08:54 PM

Dr. Davis has come out with a new book - Wheat Belly. I think I will contact him again for another possible interview.
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