The following is a testimony by BigLou from the Track Your Plaque forum.

"I'm new here on the Track Your Plaque forum, but I can offer a personal perspective to the start of this thread. I thought I was in perfect health, and was running 3 miles every morning. At the age of 47 I dropped dead finishing a morning job. Sudden death. The local hospital had just started "Code Ice". My temperature was brought down close to freezing. I was in a coma for a week. Regaining consciousness I went straight into open heart surgery with a quadruple bypass. Four coronary arteries were 90+ blocked, one 100%.

I survived, thankfully. And within 6 months was as active as before. I vowed to fight whatever made me predisposed. I have a family history of heart disease. I embraced Ornish's diet with discipline. Heavy into whole grains, fat under 10%, vegan. Two years following the CABG, echo and stress were off and my cardiologist wanted to do a heart cath. Results: 2 of the bypassed grafts have 50% stenosis. That is only 2 years! It made me angry. I did everything right in terms of diet and exercise. I embraced the Ornish diet religiously. And obviously, for me, it didn't work out, which is the adventure that led me to join this forum.

Since then, did more testing. I'm Apo E3/4, with high Lp(a) and hypothyroid. I am still trying to find the right diet that works for me, and started testing every 90 days. Even this forum is confusing in terms of diet because of the Apo E3/4. I don't know if the 3/4, as opposed to the straight E4, means saturated fat is not as significant an issue, and haven't found a thread here that really differentiates it. But what I can say is that, in my case, following Ornish's fat free diet did not stop heart disease and it progressed very rapidly.

I am still trying to figure out which diet is appropriate for me. I am fit, active, and only 49. But this month was also diagnosed as being impaired glucose tolerant, which made no sense as I normally associate pre-diabetes with obesity and poor diet, neither of which applies. "

I wish the best health,
Kent