In the Group Coaching meeting held via Zoom on December 15th, our featured guest was Dr, Bret Scher, a board-certified cardiologist, lipidoligst, personal trainer, and life coach from San Diego California, He is the chief medical officer for Diet Doctor and is the author of Your Best Health Ever.

Discussion:

• Diet Doctor is a great resource with a team of professionals and experts that create outstanding content for the site. Diet Doctor accepts no funding from commercial industries, Diet Doctor has helped many with their health and nutrition journey through the reliable and trustworthy content they create. Diet Doctor is continuing to improve and add content every year.
• The Copenhagen study showed that an LDL of 140 was associated with the least amount of death, but most cardiologists would like their patients’ LDL under 70. Dr. Scher believes most cardiologists assume a lower LDL means a small reduction in cardiovascular disease, but the data does not show a lower LDL means improved longevity, healthspan, or decrease in mortality.
• CIMT and CAC imaging tests are great tools used to measure plaque and calcium in the arteries for anyone, especially if worried about cholesterol numbers. These testd can be monitored over time to track progression or regression. Getting these tests done early can get a baseline to follow over time.
• If you do have a calcium score, the best thing to do is not worry about reversing the score but implementing a positive lifestyle intervention and stopping the progression of the score, because it’s hard to tell if the calcium is from damage or repair, so stopping the progression is the most important.
• Dr. Scher recommends staying with the same labs when monitoring your bloodwork for consistency. Some labs use different techniques and may show different values. If making lifestyle choices like diet and exercise, Dr. Scher thinks knowing LDL particle size tests are more important and telling than LDL-C. Glucose, A1c, insulin, and CRP are also great tests.
• Diet Doctor is planning on refining their content and adding more resources in 2021, currently one of Dr. Scher’s favorite aspects of the website is the cooking videos, which are fun and really show how easy making some of the recipes really are.

You can find more about Dr. Bret Scher and his work here  https://www.dietdoctor.com/authors/dr-bret-scher