Recent studies like CANTOS have raised the idea that colchicine could decrease plaque inflammation. Colchicine is an old, inexpensive anti-inflammatory medication.

Basically, there are several studies now looking this. One study has shown a decrease in plaque volume by LAPV (Low Attenuation Plaque Volume) studies. It's been termed as "intriguing" by experts such as Paul Ridker, MD at Harvard, that has focused on cv inflammation for years. Ridker was the Principle Investigator of the CANTOS trial that was announced in June 2017. The CANTOS trial created excitement and surprise in the global cardiology community, despite the fact that this has been known for over a decade.

This video covers the most common and important process for pulling LDL out of the artery wall. HDL. There is a brief review of other methods: autophagy and inflammation. Autophagy comes from the roots auto, meaning self, and phage, meaning to eat. Autophagy is really more important on the cellular level. It is a major contributor to health. If you're obese, you're not giving your body much chance to using autophagy.

Inflammation is another way the body attempts to get LDL out of the artery wall. Unfortunately, it is the most common cause of heart attack, stroke, and dementia. Immune cells release enzymes that digest and liquefy the fats. This liquified, or inflamed plaque, if it gets back into the bloodstream, causes clots. These clots are the cause of heart attack and stroke. Microscopic, constantly repetitive clots are not noticed - until the process continues for decades. This is the cause of dementia and heart failure.

HDL is the major healthy way of removing plaque from artery walls. As a practicing prevention doc, I see this all the time. You can see it easily, though. Go to the FRAMINGHAM or NHANES studies. They show clear data indicating this. For example, if your LDL is all the way up at 220, you can still have less heart attack and stroke risk than someone at an LDL of 100. How? if your HDL is 65 instead of 25. So, again, HDL is very cardio-protective. We'll talk in other videos about how to encourage HDL.

Dr. Christopher E Ramsden is a dietary researcher at the US NIH.

In April 2017, he published a re-analysis of the MN Coronary Experiment.

This was a rare dietary study, in that it was a randomized clinical trial. They controlled the diet of 9423 men and women nursing home and mental hospital patients.

Corn oil and polyunsaturated margarine were substituted for the current standards of animal fat.

Study groups did indeed have 13.8% lower cholesterol. Random probability less than 1 in 1000.

However, those in that same study group with lower cholesterol were at 22% higher risk of dying, mostly from heart attack and stroke. Random probability is also less than 1 in 1000.

I actually gained 10 pounds on a low-carb diet. I come from a family with a bad family culture around food. My father was my height (5'10") and at times over 350 pounds. There were other problems with my family food culture. I have my own personal issues. My birth weight was 10.5 pounds. And my own peak weight was 185 pounds. I was plant-based for 30 years. However, during most of that time, I ate A LOT of plant carb sources, like grains, carrots, and juices.

Based on that background, I developed a "license to eat" over the past 6-12 months. After a couple of years of 6/1 intermittent fasting, and adding low carb, then Mimicked Fasting - I struggled to keep my weight up to 150 pounds. After having a couple of hypoglycemic episodes, I relaxed several of my food limits. I added some things I've never eaten before, like garnishes with cheese and even bacon. I porked up quickly. Then after gaining 10 pounds, I confirmed what I'd suspected for years: I have atrial fib.

As we get older, it's hard maintaining low blood sugars and balancing that against hypoglycemic episodes. One way to do that is by stopping meds, like Metformin. I have stopped metformin when I go through caloric restriction episodes now. They told me to do that. I ignored it at my own peril.

I also go through a few rules for eating out at restaurants, like 1. limit myself to salads, salmon, and egg white omelets; and 2. there are A LOT of foods served by restaurants that you just can't eat.

Type 1 Diabetes isn't supposed to happen much after age 15. After age 30, it's considered rare - or nonexistent. That's just not true. This article shows that the incidence of Type 1 diabetes is just as common as ages 16-30 and almost as common as 0-15.

The Human Genome Project .gov site shows the first description of the Human Methylome. What is a methylome? It is the epigenetic control of genes by methylation.

Epigenetics is the control of gene expression through non-DNA methods. It actually controls access to the 3 billion base pair sequence. It's like controlling the spools on which a large wire is wound. Methylation is usually (but not always) on the CG base pairs. Methylation involves cell differentiation during the development of the embryo. So, again, controlling genetic expression through the epigenetic process METHYLATION could result in the development of stem cells from differentiated cells.

So, ways of longevity, like Valter Longo's Mimicked Fasting, Nir Barzilai's TAME study, and David Sinclair's NMN are all ways of jump-starting or rekindling the expression of genes that were active when we had younger, more active metabolism. Examples including mTOR, AMPK, SIRT-1.

So, again, theoretically, if we can control methylation, we can control aging. (I don't, however, think that will happen any time soon.)

The atria add about 10-20% to heart function by adding volume to the ventricles right before they contract. Atrial fibrillation, therefore, decreases heart function by about 15-20%. It can decrease heart function much more than that, though. This happens when the ventricular response gets too high. Ventricular responses should be less than 100 bpm (beats per minute), and not cause symptoms such as dizziness. The AV node (atrioventricular node) is the gatekeeper between the atria and the ventricles. If the AV response rate is too rapid, and the patient is having PAROXYSMAL (occasional episodes of) atrial fib, then we can use what's called "the pill in the pocket" technique. We prescribe a beta-blocker. It shows the ventricular response rate to atrial fib. And it's not something the patient has to take every day.

This was the most upbeat of the Annals Alzheimer's Meta-Analyses Meta Analyses. And it wasn't incredibly upbeat. It basically shows that cognitive training DOES IMPROVE PERFORMANCE, but only in the areas trained. Little to no data to show that overall cognitive impairment is improved.

Again, the meta-analysis was great. Excellent study techniques. But you can't "make a silk purse of a sow's ear". In other words, the Alzheimer's prevention research, original studies, just have not been done. There is insufficient focus on insulin resistance, long-term follow-up, and multi-system approach.

NOVARTIS is continuing to go for an indication for its new drug Ilaris ( canakinumab), a new injectable anti-inflammation drug given every 3 months. Paul Ridker met with Novartis' Ilaris team in south Florida a few weeks ago. He's following HsCRP or C Reactive Protein. He's published many times over the past 20 years re: measuring cv risk or heart attack/ stroke risk using HsCRP. Use Google Scholar and the keywords Paul Ridker and CRP to see many publications in this area.

The problems with serious infections still occur. See the Ilaris website for instructions on avoiding consequences of infections such as Tb, HIV, and hep C and B.

And, there is still the cost issue. In my 2nd video, I covered an article describing the $200,000/year cost of this medication. I have now found coupons on Drugs.com for injections bringing the cost to $80,000/year. This is getting interesting!

It's still less expensive - and safer - to prevent your heart attack, stroke, cancer the old-fashioned way - lose weight, don't smoke, exercise, eat right!