You know, you work so hard to inform people about dealing with issues like plaque and calcium and then you stumble across this crap.
I found this on WrongDiagnosis.com. Have these people no shame? This is pure, unadulterated BS! Perhaps they should change the name of the site to just plain Wrong.com.
I wish there was a nutrient that was 100% effective in flushing rogue con artists away!
Sheesh!
HeartHawk
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Give Me a Freakin' Break: Need I say More?
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4 comments:
I am very sold on Dr Davis's approach. I have had a scan, and push his program. I have a couple of questions I can't answer that he has not yet replied to. Perhaps you could help.
First, from a Doctor friend of mine: "Most of the widely used diagnostic tests have been studied with respect to their Specificity, Sensitivity, positive and negative predictive value, etc. We know how to use them, and we know how to interpret the information they provide. Last I read, there is not enough correlation between the amount of calcium present in the walls of the coronary arteries, and the degree of coronary sclerosis. Maybe in time there will be enough convincing data - but for now, it is wrong to blame the slowness of the acceptance of the test by the medical community solely on financial interest."
Second, from another friend:
"I had the EBT test and showed a calcium score of 950. An angiogram showed no blockage. Go figure. The Doc thinks the calcium is in between the artery walls with the lumen free."
Henry:
Hope I can help.
Regarding your friend the doctor, he is dead wrong. There is now irrefutable evidence that calcium scoring is the best predictor of heart attack. Try these links on for more info.
AHA Statement
SHAPE Statement
JAMA Statement
St. Francis Heart Study
The list goes on and on and is in the hundreds. It is instructive to note that many docs still cling to and and cite the hopelessly outdated American College of Cardiology statement issued in 2000. What are they afraid of?
I agree that money is not sole factor but, sadly, it is still a large factor that drives this thing and the willingness of many docs to bury their heads in the sand because of it. The evidence for calcium scoring as a preventive measure is irrefutable. Unfortunately, traditional medicine picked the wrong horse (intervention instead of prevention) and now refuses to dismount. It takes a lot of procedures to pay for those shiny new cath labs and the lifestyles they afford many docs.
The best and only argument there is for interventionalists is that they serve the few who cannot be treated or are just unlucky and the crowd of misinformed lemmings who follow interventionalists over the cliff.
Trust me, if I am so unfortunate as to have a heart attack I want a cath lab nearby and a damn good interventionalist. But that is like saying I want a nearby fire house with well-trained firefighters. I still don't do stupid things that are fire hazards simply because the firefighters are really good and really fast at putting out fires!
Regarding the 950 score everybody is right. Calcium does not pretend to measure blockages. At first, heart disease grows outward and remodels the artery in a way that does not encroach upon the lumen. This is called the "Glagov Effect." It is not until the end stages of heart disease that the disease invades the lumen. Once again, heart attacks are not about narrowed arteries. Heart attacks occur due to clots forming at the site of plaque ruptures without regard to narrowing. Keep in mind that over 90% of heart attacks occur in arteries without significant narrowing. That is why stress tests and angiograms are useless for detecting anything but advanced disease.
Regards,
HH
Mr. Fielding,
It's fantastic you've discovered Track Your Plaque! Hopefully we'll see you on the forum :)
Be aware many European nations already are considering EBT scans as standard in identifying plaque.
See posts here and some abstracts:
http://drbganimalpharm.blogspot.com/search/label/EBT
To me it is quite outrageous to spend BILLIONS on cancer screening (and BILLIONS on fancy chemo and gene-therapeutics) and little for prevention of the #1 and #3 killers of Americans, heart disease and strokes, respectively. Cancer does NOT kill as many Americans as EBT-detectable p-l-a-q-u-e and inflammation.
When I turn 40, I'll be required to submit to a mammagram. There is no apparent cancer in my family history.
My family hx as well as nearly EVERY AMERICAN AND HIS/HER ENTIRE PHYLOGENETIC TREE includes heart attacks (#1) and strokes (#3).
What is wrong with this picture?
What is wrong with the comments made like the un-informed physicians you bothered to spend time consulting?
Is there time for a 'trickle up effect' in the U.S. when the Europeans and Germans already get it? What is 'blocking' progressive ideas which will save countless, MILLIONS of lives, at academic centers and 'prestigious' medical journals?
Do you know how hard it is for academics to publish articles pronouncing 'low carb' diets as heart healthy? Nearly impossible even when they have impeccable pedigrees at Harvard!
-G
Hearthawk, I just posted a comment on hypothyroid treatment on an older thread because that's where I surfed into your site. Find it on:
Hypothyroidism and Heart Disease: Round 2
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