Dr Ford Brewer - PrevMed

For over 25 years now, oral pathogens have been suggested as a root cause of cardiovascular disease. Since then, solid evidence was lacking to support this theory. More recently, 2016 Level A evidence has shown that oral pathogens do indeed cause CVD. Here is how to identify if you have those oral pathogens and how to get them treated.

This is a video re: personal denial of insulin resistance. I review 3 cases. All three are medical professionals. All 3 are respected lecturers in heart attack and stroke risk management. All 3 have given lectures on the information in the book Beat The Heart Attack Gene.

The 1st individual has actually had blood sugar values over 200. As I told the individual, that's one standard definition of full-blown diabetes. This individual, however, recently had normal OGTT and Kraft insulin surveys. That's the major confusion point in this case. It's related to the fact that pancreatic insulin function is cyclical. That's actually what creates the irony of the Agatston calcium score. Think through the logic. Let's humor me on a couple of statements and then review the conclusion. The first statement is that IR is the most common cause of inflammation. The second is that calcification of plaque is stabilization. If both of those are true, then pancreatic IR goes through cycles of inflammation and stabilization. When's the last time you heard someone discuss that? Or acknowledge that when they were discussing fasting glucose, HgA1c, OGTT, or Kraft insulin survey results? They don't.

The 2nd patient is a dentist leader in the field of oral-systemic health. He'd discussed his case with me a couple of times. When I told him I suspected IR, he was clear that he didn't have it. He'd seen Brad as a patient and was clear that he didn't have it. Then he shared his exam and lab results. He had had it for years.

The 3rd patient is a doc that does this for a living as well. He also saw Brad as a patient. He also was clearly told he had insulin resistance. He also didn't get it.

The 3rd patient was me. If I refused to acknowledge my own insulin resistance for years, what about you?

In JACC, Oct 2017, (Jl of the American College of Cardiology), there was a beginning of a series on colchicine and heart attack/stroke prevention. This focus on cardiovascular inflammation (CV) inflammation was started again in June of 2017. It was tripped off by the announcement of the CANTOS trial by Paul Ridker.

I review the cellular view of plaque inflammation. Then I talk about colchicine. Colchicine was first recorded as a treatment for arthritis, rheumatism, which is caused by similar inflammation of the joints. I review the Clinical Trials.gov site on the COLCOT study, an upcoming trial using colchicine.

A very well-informed patient asked me to compare my position to that of Dr. David Diamond on statins, as done on STEM Episode #41.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpZIX...

He calls Ancel Keys a bully and blames him for 50 years of wrong dietary advice. I think David D is right. No argument. I just did a series on this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua3ZL...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRxUC...

Dr. Diamond says LDL is NOT the biggest risk. This is another area where I agree 100%.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5-r2...

He says statins have risks. I agree with that. I have a lot of videos on that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaoCY...

Diamond quotes Paul Ridker MD at Harvard in saying our standards overestimate the risk of LDL. I Agree. LDL is nothing in terms of risk compared to low HDL, or the big one- diabetes.

Dr. Diamond knows that the exception is a genetic condition call Familial Hypercholesterolemia. We agree here as well.

He says the genetic test for statin value is not very practical. We agree here as well.

We also agree that lifestyle is far more important than drugs.

Here's where we part company. Even the beginning part I agree. He says that ABSOLUTE RISK is totally different from RELATIVE RISK. He says he's offended that the JUPITER study reports RELATIVE RISK, rather than ABSOLUTE RISK. The PI of this study has been quoted many times by Dr. Diamond - it's Paul Ridker.

I quote others on this issue. Here's the problem; RELATIVE RISK only translates to absolute risk if the incidence of the disease is high. In JUPITER, it was 50 yo apparently healthy men (and healthy 60 yo women). Dr. Diamond and I also agree on this: I don't recommend a statin for 50 yo men with no apparent risk - no plaque, no calcium in their arteries, no cv inflammation. But for a 67 yo with IR, cv inflammation, hypertension, (many with a positive history of an event)

- we have a totally different story.

Is there a benefit to self-monitoring blood glucose for Type 2 diabetics who don't use insulin? Will the ADA recommendations help us learn to better manage our insulin resistance and diabetes?

About John Lorscheider - John is a frequent contributor. He’s also a PrevMed patient. Like most of us, John’s family and personal history include significant cardiovascular risk.

John came from a technical background and spent his entire career in providing engineered fluid process systems and equipment to industry, as well as performing root cause failure analyses for his customers.

His own study and research made it clear he wasn’t getting the whole story about prevention from his docs. They just didn’t know. So he’s been in several roles of running prevention medical groups to help further the science.

MBSR (or Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor emeritus of medicine at U Mass medical school. He was born in NYC in 1944. He trained in Buddhist philosophy and techniques with Philip Kapleau, Thicht Nat Han, and Seungsan.

He took mindfulness out of its Buddhist context and put it in a medical scientific context. He labeled it MBSR or Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.

The military has been a major client of MBSR, and not just for therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It's even been used for "operational effectiveness". That obviously sparked a debate in the primary pacificist Buddhist mindfulness community.

Mindfulness is used in MBSR has become so popular that it's been called "McMindfulness". A Google Scholar search for MBSR has gone from 22,000 results to over 300,000. Add the terms "depression" and "anxiety" and it approaches half a million.

In an upcoming video, I'll cover one of those studies, the Mindful Student study, published in Lancet recently.

Over half of adults in California have insulin resistance. Insulin resistance and diabetes are the major causes of cv inflammation and therefore heart attack, stroke, and dementia. If you're over 60 yo, you're more likely than not insulin resistant. So, if you think you won't be touched by this problem - reconsider that.

What's the difference between Type 1 DM and Type 2? And why is Type 1 an issue? Type 1 is far more severe. And the following study shows that Type 1 Diabetes happens just as often in people 30-49 years as it does in younger people.

Since Type 2 is so common, most adult-onset Type 1 cases are misdiagnosed early on as Type 2.

C Peptide is the key to differentiating between Type 1 and Type 2 DM. When the insulin protein is made by the cell, the amino acid sequence is cleaved into 3 sequential components: the A chain, B chain, and the C peptide. The A and B chains are bound together, and the C peptide is cleaved away and eventually destroyed.

The absence of fasting C Peptide is therefore used to diagnose Type 1 DM. If there is no fasting C Peptide, there is no insulin being made. THAT is Type 1 DM - little to no production of C peptide. Type 1 patients will need insulin. Lifestyle alone will not help. And they can get into blood sugar levels of 300 and much higher very quickly.

UCLA recently published a study indicating over half of Californians are prediabetic. Other sources indicate that 90% of us with prediabetes are totally unaware. Insulin resistance is the #1 cause of cardiovascular inflammation. CV inflammation is, in fact, the #1 cause of heart attack, stroke, and dementia - the biggest killers and disablers.

The Freestyle Libre by Abbott is now available. It provides continuous glucose monitoring. It also provides graphs, long duration of readouts, and analysis of ranges.

This is my first application of this breakthrough device. It's simple, easy, and painless.

Reo52 suggested I do a video on sulforaphane. It was great advice! Sulforaphane is one of the isothiocyanates (like glucoraphanin). These are phytochemicals ( plant molecules) that contain sulfur. They have strong anti-cancer properties. There has actually been excellent research in NATURE and CANCER RESEARCH investigating the biochemical mechanisms. Although it's not completely understood, there are indicators re: gene amplification, anti-inflammatory mechanisms. It not only prevents cancers but is being used in treating them. There is even good research indicating that it may be one of the few possible treatments for autism spectrum disorder.

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.