The Shock of Death
How I Reversed My Clogged Arteries in 3 Months
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
King David Psalm 90:12
My friend Rob Thompson, 58, passed away suddenly from a heart attack while on his elliptical trainer at home in San Francisco on February 10, 2025. His wife, a physician, asked everyone at his memorial on March 9 to get a Calcium CT heart scan. I got mine done on May 5, 2025. A few days later, I looked at my results. A shocking score of 500 indicated severe atherosclerosis, clogging of my heart arteries. On June 17, I underwent a Cleerly CT angiogram, which revealed multi-vessel plaques obstructing multiple vessels: 77%, 55%, 45%, 29%, 25%, and many others. This was absolutely shocking to me because just earlier this year, I felt great. I thought I was in the best shape of my life, and my heart was in excellent shape.
Death by heart disease is the #1 killer in North America and #1 globally. Cancer is fast rising to eclipse it in developed nations. 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will get this disease.
Heart disease will manifest in males starting at age 40 and heart attacks in the early 60s.
Females will manifest heart disease in their 50s and heart attacks in their early 70s due to the protective effects of estrogen and menstruation. This disease will affect you or someone you know and may already be occurring silently within you. The first appearance for those who harbour this disease is death by heart attack.
Making a Life Decision to Change
No disease that can be treated by diet should be treated with any other means.
Maimonides
The morning after I read my results, on May 9, I started on a 10% low-fat vegan diet, eliminating all oils, nuts, and any vegetables high in saturated fats like avocados and coconuts.
On August 19, I did a CT Heartflow to measure the blood flow of my coronary arteries as well as my 3-month bloodwork. I also had a Carotid Intima Media Test (CIMT) to assess the thickness of my carotid arteries in my neck, which serves as an indirect measure of plaque. A year prior, my right carotid had a thickness of 1.8mm and my left 1.6mm. This indicated severe atherosclerosis, worse than that of a normal 85-year-old. The ultrasound tech told me I had a lot of plaque, more than normal, but I didn't take it too seriously.
The day before the CIMT, I did a modified exercise stress test for athletes at UBC Sports Cardiology. The last three minutes of the 12-minute period were extremely hard. I do weekly 80 km bike rides up hills and mountains, and gran fondos of 122 km from Vancouver to Whistler at average speeds of 31 km/hr, and yet I was surprised how hard the last minute of this stress test was. My cardiologist said I passed, and he cleared me for no limits on exercise. Whew! I had no symptoms at all from my clogged arteries… yet. I kept him for an extra half hour, peppering him with questions and sharing my hypothesis on how to reverse all plaque, including my 77% blockage.
Full Reversal of My Plaques
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.
Ezekiel 36:26
I received the results of my CIMT, which showed 0.86mm in my right carotid and 0.83mm in my left, with no plaque visible. This is high normal for a 55-year-old, which is how old I will be in just 3 weeks. So, a drastic decrease in vascular age from worse than an 85-year-old to normal for a 55-year-old in just three months! And no plaque visualized!
Even the best studies with high-dose statins show only 0.01mm to 0.03mm changes in 12 to 36 months. These drug studies are among the few that achieved a slight reversal, in the hundredths of mm, a reversal that most studies fail to demonstrate, even when comparing to controls that show a 0.01 to 0.03mm increase in thickness per year.
Pomegranate juice, in a small study of 10 non-randomized people vs control, however, showed a remarkable 13-30% decrease in thickness in 12 to 36 months, whereas controls increased 9% in thickness. It also decreases systolic blood pressure by 8 mmHg. How is it possible that pomegranate juice can reverse atherosclerosis better than even the best drugs?
The Power of Healing Food
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.
Hippocrates
I realized the answer with my first hypothesis that drugs manage symptoms and numbers, but do not do much to treat root causes and tap the healing power of the human body and immune system. I began by postulating from fundamental health and body principles how to enable the body to heal itself, much like a fractured bone, which can heal in just 6 to 12 weeks, provided it is in a cast and, in the case of a compound fracture, supported by pins and screws. The cast and pins don't heal; they only prevent further damage so that the body can heal the fracture. So I set about pondering what the cast for my fractured arteries and my fractured retina. I was diagnosed with wet macular degeneration in May 2020, which I believe to have common root causes with my heart vessel disease.
If I set the right cast for my blood vessels and optimized my lifestyle, that is my diet, exercise, fasting and sleep, I could achieve amazing healing in just a few months and certainly under a year. So while I am amazed and delighted at my almost miraculous CIMT results, I am not too surprised.
Amazing Blood (Results)
For the life of the flesh is in the blood.
Leviticus 17:11
Then I received my bloodwork. I had already remarkably halved my LDL cholesterol from May at 168 mg/dL (4.34mM) to 84 (2.17mM) in just five weeks and then 75 (1.9mM) in 8 weeks. Now it has declined to just 61 (1.58mM) in 3 months, a 64% decrease! My goal is to get it to the low 40s by year's end so my HDL can pull lipids out of my plaque to reduce them in size, including the calcified plaques.
My other hypothesis was that if I were to have a higher level of HDL (the lipoprotein that carries cholesterol from tissues and arteries back to the liver) than LDL (the lipoprotein that carries cholesterol from the liver to tissues and arteries), then HDL would pull the lipids and cholesterol from my arterial plaque.
My LDL was 168 and HDL 60 just three months ago and now my HDL was stable at 62 and my LDL had dropped to 61.HDL was now higher than LDL. Wow!
This would mean that instead of adding to my existing plaques by LDL, the HDL would now export cholesterol out of my plaques to reduce them. I knew this was possible because my friend Raz has an astonishingly high HDL of 129 and LDL of 84. He increased his HDL by 30 in just a couple of months by fasting three days twice over a 5 week period and walking and swimming daily. I was now in plaque regression chemistry. Now my exercise regimen and weekly fasting strategy will work even better.
A few more specific markers for heart disease are Apolipoprotein B (ApoB) which measures this protein in all lipids that can induce atherosclerotic plaque and lipoprotein a (lpa), which is mostly determined by genetics and not modifiable by diet and lifestyle.
My ApoB dropped from 75 to 45 (40% decrease) and my lipoprotein a dropped from 40 to 25, an astounding 37.5% decrease in just two months! These results astounded me. They confirmed that these were better than a high-dose statin drug that all my doctor friends advised me to go on right away.
And lp(a) is not supposed to be modifiable by lifestyle, and even niacin and the most potent targeted drugs reduce this modestly in the 10-20% range, but they have side effects. My only side effect was that I lost 12 pounds in 3 months. In the past week, I ate double portions and gained back 5 pounds. I went from 146 lbs to 133.4 lbs and am now at 138 lbs. I am fitter, stronger and now 'clearer' than three months prior.
I am greatly looking forward to my results in the next three months. Studies show that the most amazing results are frontloaded in the beginning and then improvements decline, but I am thinking that now that my body chemistry is cholesterol efflux from my plaques, I will continue to get great results in the coming year.
I am fully expecting 100% blood flow in all my coronaries within two years. Now, I am even wondering if I can heal my wet macular degeneration and perhaps even my tinnitus (ringing in the ears), which I am postulating is an issue due to atherosclerosis in the vessels going to the ear. The smaller the blood vessel, the greater the impact plaques will have.
Size and Shape Matters For Life
We mold clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that makes it useful.
Laozi, Tao Te Ching 11
Carotid arteries in the neck are 6-7mm.
Coronary arteries are 3-4 mm, and smaller branches are 1.5-3 mm.
My biggest block in my diagonal artery is 2.5-3mm, so quite large and prominent for a branch. CT shows it is actually larger than my left anterior descending artery, which is one of the three big coronary arteries. So the 77% obstruction in my diagonal is very significant!
The carotids can heal faster due to the laminar shear stress from exercise when the conditions are right to reduce plaque (low LDL, low apoB, low lp(a) and high HDL). They are larger and straighter. I think of it like pressure washing my clogged arteries, which will revive the inner lining of my arteries, the endothelial cells, to produce nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is the magical gas that dilates and strengthens the arterial walls. I deduced that my optimal heart rate to induce such pulsatile intermittent (1-5 minutes) laminar shear stress to activate the endothelial cells is 130-160 beats per minute (bpm).
So, when I exercise now, I do high-intensity interval training, repeating this 10-20 times. This involves 3-5 minutes of high intensity, followed by a period of rest when I let my heart rate drop back to 100 for a few minutes, and then repeat. It's like water chipping away at rock. I have 300 cubic metres of plaque, comprising 200 cubic metres of hard calcified plaque, which is safer as it won't burst and cause heart attacks, and 100 cubic metres of soft lipid plaque, which is easier to remove.
The worst kind of plaque is low attenuation plaque, which causes heart attacks when it bursts and clots the entire vessel. I only have 0.1% of this risky plaque, so I exercise very prescriptively to remove all the dangerous and soft plaque. That would reduce 33% of my plaque. This reduction yields greater blood flow because the soft plaques sit within the lumen of the vessel, whereas most of the calcified hard plaque is located in the wall of the blood vessel and does not obstruct the lumen. The volume area increase for blood flow is exponential as I reduce the soft plaque.
Doing the Impossible
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Once I have accomplished this, I will think from first principles about how to possibly reduce the calcified plaques, which everyone is telling me is impossible. I am asking God for wisdom in this. I believe this is possible when I think about bones becoming osteoporotic via osteoclasts, so why not calcified plaques that generally shouldn't be there but formed to protect us from harm when the endothelial cells of our blood vessels were damaged due to oxidized, inflammatory foods, heated oils, high blood pressure, smoking, alcohol, stress, etc. I believe a combination of high HDL and low LDL with high natural Vitamin K2 (takes calcium out of tissues and into bones and teeth) from foods like natto and frequent laminar sheer stress plus autophagy via fasting could possibly do it. Let's see in the coming year or two.
It's incredible to me that what took decades to build up and make plaque can be reversed by food, exercise and fasting in a matter of months to years.
Heal Thyself Physician
The best physician is also a philosopher.
Galen
I am an avid reader of the Bible. These days, I am reading the books of Kings and Chronicles. One king, King Asa, was a very great and good king, but late in the 39th year of his reign of Judah, he had a severe disease in his feet. "Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians." Then he died in the 41st year of his reign. I pondered this. How much must he have suffered. How much he must have relied on the physicians. But he did not enquire or seek the Lord in his illness. I am a physician myself. The proverb, "Heal thyself, physician," comes to mind. Can I heal myself? Can drugs heal me? Can a stent heal me? These will delay or slow down the progress of the disease or give me more years but they will not heal me.
All of my physician friends were saying what I contemplated doing was impossible. One older doctor friend, Dr. Barron, out of genuine concern, came to convince me to get a stent, just as he had, and go on statins and baby aspirin. I presented him with my CIMT and CT Heart Flow results, which showed 0.75 effective blood flow in my 77% obstructed Diagonal branch. Additionally, I highlighted the significant decreases in my lipids and low inflammatory markers, including an hsCRP of 0.2 and all other cardiac-specific inflammation markers, all of which were remarkably low.
I had decided when I received my diagnosis that I would dedicate my heart to seek the Lord's wisdom and His guidance in all things and glorify the Lord with all my healings.
When he saw my remarkable results and progress in just three months, he said he would like to learn more and do what I am doing.
Healing Myself to Heal Others
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
Rumi
I have a 90-year-old father with high blood pressure: 180/80. A year ago when I measured it, it was 220/120, a hypertensive emergency. I asked him what he was eating and drinking, and found out he was adding a tablespoon of salt to his water 4-5 times a day. I wondered whether I should bring him to the ER or get a prescription right away.
I decided to remove the salt from his drinks first and monitor him. It came down over the next month to 170/85. I then asked him to skip a meal in the morning, as he had gained a lot of weight, particularly around his abdomen. He was perhaps 30 pounds over ideal weight. He lost about 16 pounds. But his blood pressure remained high. I got my brother to bring him to his doctor to get a prescription for hypertension, but he has been resistant. He is about to start a new bp med.
I asked him if he wanted to try my healing reversal protocol, but my prescription is food, exercise and fasting. I explained to him the principles of how food can not only reduce blood pressure but also heal the blood vessels to naturally expand again. Exercise would enhance this, and fasting would accelerate this.
I explained why fasting, starting with limiting the same meals within a time window of 8 hours, will have the same effects as a BP drug, which is what he had.
He had a stroke in 2014, which left his right side paralyzed for a month. I found two food supplements that were miraculously able to help him regain 80% of his mobility. The rehab doctor said that this was impossible, and he was a miracle: green tea tablets and Smooth (omega 3s from anchovies and sardines).
So I knew he had blood vessel disease, and high blood pressure was a byproduct of a malfunctioning endothelial cell layer. Now that he is 90, his blood vessels are like steel pipes and are unable to dilate effectively. BP meds are not going to be able to cure his high blood pressure and underlying root causes.
Simple Healing Meals
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food
I gave him my morning breakfast of steel-cut oatmeal with chia seeds, ground flax seeds, berries, natto, some greens, beans, fermented black garlic, all neatly displayed on top like dressings. I also added some seaweed (nori) that had no oil or salt. I added some aurum mineral salt. This is my advanced breakfast.
The easy breakfast version would be:
Steel-cut oatmeal (boil under low heat for 20 minutes) topped with
1 tablespoon of chia seeds and 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds
Berries (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries) / sliced apples/grapes
Greens such as arugula or salad mix
Pinch of quality mineral salt
He mixed it up, ate, and said he could eat this for breakfast. The taste was decent. The berries give it that flavour. I also added 5 tablets which contain spirulina, chlorella (algae) and green tea powder, which can reduce LDL by 20% and the steelcut oatmeal with chia/flax another 20% plus the greens, beans and berries another 10%. That's how I cut my LDL in half in 5 weeks, and ten of those days I was travelling in Korea when I couldn't fully adhere to my prescribed food diet.
Then I gave him the choice: my food diet prescription or the new blood pressure medication. He had a dry cough as a side effect of his first ACE inhibitor BP med. He chose my food diet. So I gave him half a grapefruit.
Consuming one red grapefruit daily can decrease LDL levels by up to 20% (with caution when taken with statins, as it increases the statin's duration in the body) and triglycerides by 17% over 30 days in patients with hyperlipidemia. White/blond grapefruit had half these results, so opt for red, whole, organic grapefruits. I eat half to one a day.
Then a cup of green tea, then 50 ml of pomegranate juice (later I will either add beet juice or beetroot powder to accelerate lowering of his bp).
On my biking days, I add 2-3 slices of ancient grain sourdough bread topped with balsamic vinegar, sliced apples and salad greens, like open-faced sandwiches.
My lunches are:
Salad greens, topped with
Berries, apples or oranges
Beans (lentils, black, kidney) for protein or
Chilli with beans
+ Sourdough bread with balsamic vinegar.
My dinners are:
Whole-grain pastas (no white flour) with low-fat tomato sauce or
Whole rice (brown rice) (no white rice) with
Variety of vegetables
Fermented foods
Variety of fruit
Variety of beans
It's so simple that I can even make my own meals.
I'm also going to help Fred, a 71-year-old church friend, reverse his long-standing diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and obesity, which requires multiple drugs. I believe I can help reverse all his comorbid diseases in three months, and it might take longer, by six months. I have been simplifying my Heart Reversal Protocol to make it easier to implement, as my version is the Advanced Protocol. I am excited to start experimenting to see such results in others. I believe both my 90-year-old father and Fred are at high risk for a cardiovascular event in the next 3-5 years, so I want to help reverse their diseases.
Reflection
Have you pondered the wisdom of medicine that prescribes medication to fix your symptoms and labs, but not the root causes?
Dr. Kevin Ham
Why do people develop insulin resistance and eventually diabetes as they get into their twilight years, when this disease was almost non-existent when our food supply was more 'normal'?
The same goes for atherosclerotic heart disease, autoimmune disease, cancers and allergies.
Life-Changing Question
What disease might be silent inside of me before it becomes outwardly apparent?
If modern day disease is chronic and only manifests itself when it clogs arteries 70% or more, or when it is over a billion cells (0.5 cm on CT scans) for cancer, shouldn't we examine what we eat, how we eat, how we move and exercise and how we give our bodies rest through not eating all the time, having peace of mind and good sleep?
Next week—
Why Triple Therapy of Food, Exercise and Fasting (Rest) Resets You Rapidly
How to change your health paradigm through health principles
See you next Thursday!
Appendix
Foods that decrease LDL cholesterol.
Imagine just having 10 of these in your meals. That would be 50-60% reduction in LDL.
The other side of the coin is that you get efficient healing if you remove the foods that increased your LDL in the first place. Ie. heated oils, transfats, refined sugars, any foods that spike your blood glucose, too much saturated fats, unfiltered coffee…
Subscribe to my Compounding Wisdom newsletter and start transforming your life.
