Paleo Diet - Heart Health Success Story!

          Heart disease runs in my father's side of the family.  My grandfather has had a heart attack or two, and it seems all the males in that lineage have high cholesterol.  I probably wouldn't like my numbers, but I'm too busy refusing doctors attempts to check.

          However, there is some good news.  My father, after being put on a statin a few years ago, finally decided to come around and give my wacky Paleo/Track Your Plaque diet ideas a shot.  It took some tweaking and more than a few long phone calls, but he has had a pretty good handle on the diet for the last few months.

Week's Reflections - 1/7/12

          The first week of the new year is in the books!  I am excited to celebrate by heading on vacation next week.  Don't worry, I'll still post a few updates.


1.) New Track Your Plaque Article

          I like this article, because it's a very succinct and to the point summation of the reasoning behind the Track Your Plaque low carb diet.  Dr. Davis briefly describes the phenomena he sees with a low carb vs a low fat diet, through the lens of a cardiologist mainly concerned with heart disease.  His article is backed by many years of clinical experience managing the diet and heart health of his patients.  At the end, he also suggests that avoiding wheat in particular can also cause people to benefit in several non-heart related ways.  He doesn't break any new ground here, but I appreciate it for being short and concise and easy to understand with or without medical training.

Vitamin D - Gotta Have It

I am planning to write a post on a supplement every week or two.  I'm actually not a huge fan of large scale supplementation, but I do think there are a few things that are helpful and should be taken, particularly in certain situations.  I also think there are a few that should definitely not be taken, and I'm equally excited to write about those.

The first on the list is vitamin D, which might be my favorite supplement.  It's a close fight between Vitamin D and fish oil, but I think I have to give vitamin D the edge.  The funny thing about Vitamin D is that it technically isn't - or shouldn't be - a supplement.  We actually produce vitamin D - vitamin D3, cholecalciferol - in our skin.  The precursor 7-dehydrocholesterol reacts with ultraviolet light - specifically UVB light - to form vitamin D (for the biochemists among us, there is a step in between, as precholecalciferol is formed first) (1).  Basically, we produce vitamin D from sunlight.

Links - The Go Tos

          Here are some of my favorite sites to visit.  There will be more links in future posts, but these are the ones I am most likely to visit on a given day.


1.) The Heart Scan Blog

          Dr. William Davis is a preventional cardiologist.  If you want nutritional advice to prevent heart disease, you cannot find a better source than this.  I actually enjoyed his blog so much, that shortly after discovering it, I read it in its entirety from back to front.  It was really interesting to watch his suggestions evolve and become refined over that time.  The nutritional guidelines begin with the elimination of wheat products and continue on to expected staples such as Vitamin D and fish oil, but he also has other suggestions specifically related to different lipoprotein patterns.  I also enjoy the fact that he attributes his thinking and reasoning to scientific studies and clinical experience rather than deduction from the paleo idea.  As a resource, his blog is phenomenal.