HEARThrive - Module 1A - Advanced Blood Secrets

Module 1A contains some supplementary material about advanced testing for heart disease. Dr. Philip Ovadia is a heart surgeon that operates on patients (like me and my twin) who need bypass surgery. He certainly recognizes that we need delve in deeper and look beyond cholesterol and statin drugs to help predict our risk of cardiovascular disease.

No one can really say for sure what caused your heart disease or how you're going to fix it. Looking into advanced blood testing could produce answers.

In the next 4 videos Malcolm and Myron's advanced cardiometabolic testing done by SpectraCell will be described in detail. In this first video, we illustrate our Pre-diabetes risk factors. Fasting insulin, a key test, which doctors rarely request, is included in this panel. Pre-diabetes, often unrecognized due to poor testing, is a major condition that correlates to heart disease risk. You'll see 6 tests here and learn what each test means and the optimal reference range for each test.

This video also appears in HEARThrive Module 1 but It is included here again as it provides continuity in this discussion. Although a basic lipid panel is not particularly predictive for risk of heart disease, it does include measurements of triglycerides and HDL that are worth looking at closely. A doctor might say Myron, who takes a statin drug, is better off because he has lower cholesterol than Malcolm. But triglycerides and HDL paint a different picture, as demonstrated in this video.

Most health experts agree that a component of heart disease is chronic inflammation in the body. That's why SpectraCell includes vascular inflammation biomarkers in their cardiometabolic panel. Most of these are described in Module 1 of HEARThrive and in this video you will see how the values compare between me and my twin.

SpectraCell provides an advanced assessment of cholesterol. Cholesterol is transported inside lipoprotein particles in your bloodstream. Measuring and understanding these particle values is important. Malcolm does not take a statin drug (to lower cholesterol) but his twin brother does. Although some of Myron's advanced lipid values appear to be better controlled, there are some surprising differences in the twin's lipoprotein particle numbers. Several dietary and lifestyle suggestions are given that can improve poor lipoprotein profiles.

After Malcolm transitioned to a very low carb, animal-based diet in 2018, his cholesterol values (especially total cholesterol and LDL) skyrocketed upwards. Dave Feldman has studied this phenomenon and has tracked hundreds of people who, like Malcolm, follow this pattern. Malcolm's twin brother has not changed his diet and therefore his cholesterol values remain at levels that most people would call "good." Despite the now huge increase in Malcolm's total cholesterol and LDL values (July 2019), you will be surprised, maybe shocked to see which twin has the healthier lipid profile based on 3 different studies illustrated in this video. It comes down to having optimal triglyceride and HDL values (NOT LOW CHOLESTEROL).

Diet is a controversial topic but there are some important factors to learn in the next module that illustrate how diet impacts heart disease.