Mike Mutzel from High Intensity Health visited our office for a chat. Here is a summary of our conversation:
After nearly 11 years of consulting in the functional medicine space, doctors still ask me (Mike) how to lower cholesterol. “What supplements lower cholesterol?” they often ask. As you’ll hear, insulin and glucose imbalances are primary drivers of heart disease. A leader in this space, Jeffry Gerber, MD, has tested post-meal glucose AND insulin levels in over 3000 patients.
In this interview we discuss how the metabolic signature created from blood sugar and insulin imbalance promotes inflammation and oxidative stress. Dr. Gerber also discusses how advanced cholesterol tests, like lipoprotein particle analysis – often touted to be much better than standard tests – are just associations. If you’re concerned about heart disease, periodic cardiovascular imaging is another important tool. We discuss many other topics.
In our office, we perform standard and advanced lipid testing including total cholesterol, LDL-C, HDL-C, triglycerides, LDL-P, small-LDL-P, sdLDL, ApoB, particle size, and markers of cardiovascular inflammation and oxidative stress. There are several companies who perform these tests including Liposcience NMR, Berkeley Heart Lab, Atherotech VAP, Health Diagnostics Lab HDL, and Cleveland Heart Lab inflammatory testing. We also perform or order cardiovascular imaging studies including carotid intima media thickness (C-IMT), carotid doppler, and EBCT heart calcium scores. Questioning the predictive role of Carotid Intima-media Thickness. Carotid Intima-media Thickness testing.
6
Read more about heart calcium scores. The Coronary Artery Calcium (CAC) score, determined through a CAC test, is a non-invasive imaging test that uses computed tomography (CT) to detect the presence of calcium within the coronary arteries. This calcium is a marker for atherosclerosis, the buildup of plaques in arteries, which is a significant risk factor for heart disease. The score ranges from 0 (no evidence of coronary artery disease) to over 400, indicating severe calcification. A higher CAC score correlates with a higher risk of future cardiovascular events like heart attacks. The test is quick, usually taking less than 15 minutes, and involves minimal radiation exposure, making it a useful tool for assessing heart disease risk beyond traditional risk factors like cholesterol levels or blood pressure.
