Quadruple Bypass at age 34! Susan's FH Experience

Learn how to predict & prevent heart attack & stroke:

Learn how to reduce & reverse arterial plaque:
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ABOUT THIS VIDEO: Susan has FH - Familial Hypercholesterolemia. She has a classic story:
chest pain at age 34 - the doc said it was the flu & sent her home;
returned in a couple of days demanding a work-up; cholesterol was over 600;
quadruple bypass;
15 years later - another bypass;
significant improvement with lifestyle changes.

Susan appeared on a 5 minute video earlier. This is a more detailed version of her story.

ABOUT DR. BREWER
Dr. Brewer started as an Emergency Doctor. After seeing too many preventable heart attacks, he went to Johns Hopkins to learn Preventive Medicine. While there, he went on the run the post-graduate training program (residency) in Preventive Medicine. From there, he made a career of practicing and managing preventive medicine and primary care clinics. His later role in this area was Chief Medical Officer for Premise, which has close to 1,000 primary care/prevention clinics. He was also the Chief Medical Officer for MDLIVE, the second largest telemedicine company. More recently, he founded PrevMed, a heart attack, and stroke prevention clinic.

At PrevMed, we focus on heart attack, stroke, and cognitive decline. We serve patients who have already experienced an event as well as those who have not developed a diagnosis or event. Dr. Brewer provides services via telemedicine or in person if you're in the Lexington, KY area. We find a lot of undiagnosed Pre-Diabetes or Insulin Resistance. Treating unrecognized risk factors like Pre-Diabetes allows reduction of risk and prevention of disease.

[sapelesteve]

Excellent video! So glad that she changed her lifestyle & is doing well. This video should be required viewing for every med student. A medical history like that is worth hearing & remembering. As a retired chiropractor, and having had my own heart problems, this video is pure gold! Thanks for posting this Dr. Brewer & for doing what you do! Glad that I found your channel. Be

[cortezcortez]

WOW! I'm a 51 year old male about 10 months post STEMI and CABGx5..I've posted this here before... not obese, no FH, very active for my entire life and I work in the medical field, never thought anything would catch me off guard, I was wrong. Still shocked actually. Bust this ladies story is something else. I'm glad to see her doing so well. Take care.

[ericphillips]

I just got home from my quintuple bypass surgery and I am 34. Family history is so important. If you have a family history get regular checkups, never think that you are too young. Almost cost me my Life.

[robrae]

So important everyone test for LPa and FC.

[cathysalmost]

Such a interesting post so glad she got the help she needed❤

[kat]

So I am now extremely confused. Thank you so much to Susan, for sharing her story. Her experience, in so many ways, mirrors my Dad's. My grandfather passed at age 39 from a fatal first heart attack, his son, my Dad, had his first bypass in his 40's. At that time, my Dad was diagnosed with FH and I got a blood lipid panel done, showing, for me, at age 23, a total cholesterol of 164. I remember that number. And they told me it was likely I had not inherited FH (50/50 chance of getting it, assuming my Mom didn't also have it). This was in 1983. My Dad went on Lipitor, one of the very first patients to go on Lipitor. My Dad adopted pretty much a Pritikin type of diet. He did great for the next 35ish years, no further events (except as noted below) until a couple of years ago when he had a second bypass at age 80. He is now on Crestor, doing pretty well, actually only semi-retired, still teaching a couple of univ classes. The other event - He has had a pacemaker for several years, it used to only function abt 20% of the time, however last summer he had a complete heart block and a-fib, which he had never had before, had to be shocked in the ER, and now has a new pacemaker which functions 100% of the time. But I don't think? the electrical signalling issues are related to FH? (cld be wrong). I write this to show folks, to echo Susan's wonderful story, what is possible with FH and dietary/drug management. FH is, by no means, an early death sentence. But you have to take it extremely seriously and you cannot fool around. I think everyone should have a lipid panel done in childhood, now that we have effective drug and dietary strategies for FH. FH, if you have it, starts at birth, therefore strategies wld be most helpful, it seems, if they began in childhood. My kids have both had their lipid panels done in early childhood and again in their teenage years, thankfully, neither seems to have inherited FH. If you have early bypasses/heart attacks in your family, my understanding is the only way to know for sure in childhood, before symptoms/clogging process has started, is to test.

But my confusion comes from Susan's diet. My Dad treats dietary fat as if it is a mild form of poison. He rarely has red meat (literally only a couple of times per year) and uses fruit as his primary source of sweets. He never, ever, drinks soft drinks. He will order veggie entrees/sandwiches, if they are available, when we are eating out. He has grapes in his fridge at all times, they are his candy. He has thrived on this diet. Yet, Susan is thriving on a paleo style diet. I am so happy Susan has found a diet which works for her and which she can/will stick to. How can both types of diets work for FH? I don't understand. According to my understanding of the mechanism of this condition, those with most types of FH have a difficult time clearing LDL from their bloodstream, the clearing-receptors in the liver do not function properly. Therefore, how can a paleo diet work well for those with FH? Susan mentioned her primary source of dietary fat is coconut oil. Does Susan also eat cheese, bacon, butter, red meat, heavy cream? Maybe these things are not included in a true paleo diet? If not, this wld be a diet basically of meat and vegetables, no beans, grains, pasta, legumes, is this correct? Does Susan eat fruit, if so, which kind(s)/ how much? It is so interesting and also confusing lol to me how both Susan and my Dad are doing well with FH while following such different diets. Both have lived long lives with FH to become great-grandparents, truly this is a medical miracle for which we should all be grateful :) <3 Many blessings and thanks to Susan for sharing her story and to Dr. Brewer for all he does and for bringing all of this vital information, information is power, to us.

[truckertrow]

Great video..glad your doin well susan....what supplements do you take dr brewer...niacin an what was the other?

[davidgifford]

As a Perfusionist, I’ve seen a few patients as young as 31 for CABG back in 1980s. Their coronary arteries were small and pathologically their disease was diffuse and difficult to operate on. Thankfully this population doesn’t reach the OR these days.

[Lulu-ktgr]

The link of dementia from statins worries me.

[hillwalker]

what was the name of that statin that also serves to help insulin resistance?

[Lulu-ktgr]

Susan - try raw garlic in your salads and garlic in everything else as well! I think it’s very effective.

[danajohnson]

Reduce sources of inflammation such as smoking and diabetes while reducing cholesterol. Her cholesterol only went down fifty points on a plant based diet, LOL. People with out Familial Hypercholesterolemia would be pretty happy with that.

[Lulu-ktgr]

I don’t think a garlic supplement is going to help as much as eating fresh garlic on a regular basis.

[ellenorbjornsdottir]

Can someone with hetero FH be keto without danger?

[Lulu-ktgr]

Smoking is so bad because it causes sticky platelets right?... so garlic and flax oil thin the blood and could turn that around. That’s a connection I’m making right now.

[Nmethyltransferase]

Dang... If I were her, I'd twist my insurance's arm and fight for a PCSK9 inhibitor! And add on rivaroxaban, metformin, and carvedilol. But in the end, the final decision rests with the patient. If she's that strongly opposed to meds, and this is her tolerance for risk, so be it.