Sitting in the waiting room of my Keto-friendly cardiologist. Last time I saw him was in mid August weighing 235 pounds. Weighed in at 187 today.
Had lost 20 pounds before August visit on low carb. He urged me to read more on low carb and fasting. I did so. I’ve lost 48 since then.
Will update later. He’s smiling now …
You interest me strangely, Jeeves. Who is this keto-friendly cardiologist and how did he become such?
Let me know if he has a TV in the waiting room. Mine plays a lot of stories talking about how saturated fat is dangerous.
BP 125/74
FBG 83
HR 52
Weight fully clothed after hydrating: 191 (187 buck neckid at home)
He once said he is tired of treating symptoms and not healing people. He says it has to be nutritional and that the low carb anecdotal evidence is too much to ignore.
He has also become a workout warrior.
But still believes in meds for heart. Closely watches inflammation. I had a heart attack 15 years ago and thinks some statins are warranted. I disagree. We will see what he thinks now.
Sittin’ on the exam table … waiting again.
125/74? No white coat syndrome? Mine’s always much higher than when I test at home.
Wonder if South LA it’s too far to travel from South AR for my father in law to go to your doc… That’s awesome!
Finally have time to reply. Computer woes needed to be addressed. No little issue to solve.
Had to have an annual echo cardiogram to go with my appointment and he said it looked unchanged, which is good, ejection fractions at or more than 50 percent. Good for someone who had a heart attack 15 years ago.
Weight loss (-48 since last visit in August, -68 overall) impressed cardiologist a lot. Even though he believes in low carb, intermittent fasting, etc., he was not prepared for my success and the fact that I was in hour 91 of a 4-day Extended Fast. He also admitted to the fact he was not abreast of the latest findings on the successes of Keto and EF. He is now ordering The Obesity Code to get caught up.
It must have impressed him because he took me off my statin (cholesterol) and my flecainide (anti arrhythmia) drugs and advised me to cut my beta blocker (blood pressure) pills in half when fasting so as to help prevent light-headedness. Also can reduce my dose of Ecotrin (asprin).
We had a good, long chat about nutrition studies and he echoed what many of us say here, that studies are often guided toward the researchers’ hypothesis and goal, and too often skew the findings. He now looks a lot more closely at nutrition research. He had also heard about autophagy but had not delved into its latest findings about it perhaps helping to heal scarred cardiac muscle.
He also advised me to look further into weight lifting but to start slowly and listen to my body.
I have been seeing the same cardiologist since 1995 and he had always been pro-meds until the past couple of years when he says he saw that none of his patients were getting much better. He was just treating the same symptoms and not curing them. He then himself got into working out and saw his own benefits. Thus he is now gobbling up as much nutrition information as possible and really likes the results being shown by low carb eating. He was amazed I was keeping my daily carbs below 20 (total) and fasting upward of 5 days.
But he’s not perfect. He wants me to keep my extended fasting days to 3 because of possible strain on my heart at age 68. (I’ll see that goes. My best weight loss is in Day 4.)
Is there any evidence that fasting causes heart strain? I don’t keep up with fasting research…figure someone on the board knows, though.
I really don’t know for sure, perhaps he is just being overly cautious. Age and history probably a factor.
But I do remember reading on these forums that if you have had heart problems in the past that it is wise to be cautious with extended fasting. You put yourself at risk anytime you flirt with dehydration or electrolyte imbalances – both of which can be detrimental to your heart.
I’ve never had a problem at 4 and 5 days with my heart but continual light-headedness can be a nuisance and in turn can be cardio related. Still a lot of mystery out there. And one of the reasons people who go on prolonged EF are told to do so under medical supervision.
If anyone has a link to EF and heart health, I’d sure appreciate it.
That makes sense. But I’m sure you’re careful with both and now that you can reduce your beta-blockers, maybe the light-headedness will improve?
Correct, he even said I could cut my beta blocker in half when doing an EF. Nice to have a flexible cardio doc.
There is some evidence beta blockers prevent or reduce autophagy. Unfortunately, it’ll take me a while to find this, as “autophagy” also has a different meaning in cardiology (we think of autophagy as being good, as we’re getting rid of “bad” cells and creating new ones; in cardiology, however, they are afraid of heart cells dying).
So, you may improve your autophagy by reducing your beta blocker.
On the other hand, I’ve been cutting my beta blockers in half, and can’t tell any difference in morning blood pressure level.
I so want some autophagy. I suspect that my beta blocker will be the last med he cuts. My next visit will be my last with him as he is retiring. I’m on the hunt for a dr that better understands the role of nutrition in overall health.
Thanks for the info, I am always looking for more practical knowledge around health and nutrition.
BTW just recently my daily BP (morning, evening) is going down and is cycling (pulsing) between 110’s and 130’s or 120’s each other day for sistolic. Diastolic is very good.
I went cold turkey on all my meds Jan 23, 2018, 2.5 months after going Keto. My A1c had gone below 6 (from 7.9), BP was 110/70 (from 135/90).
So I nix’d Metformin, Lisinopril HCTZ, baby aspirin. Cold Turkey.
Never looked back.
But then, I have not had an MI.
