MCG and Lifestyle Medicine

Lifestyle Medicine is rooted in the notion that the first frontier in healthcare is simply to live in a healthy way. Ideally, Lifestyle, including nutrition, sleep hygiene, rest, relaxation, exercise, prayer and meditation and healthy relationships are all part of the picture. That should be 80% of what makes up “health,” and for the remaining 20% you might sometimes need a doctor. Our biggest problem as a society in this area is that we have too many unhealthy habits, and often misuse (and overuse) medicine to suppress the symptoms, which is what ends up in the end in ER-medicine. People find out they have Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), when they have a heart attack and have a stent put in, or something similar.

Premier Heart’s Multifunction CardioGram^TM (MCG) is a new test which captures the functioning of the entire cardiometabolic system, amazingly with a technology that is similar to EKG, but uses just two leads, not twelve, and in the background, via massive computing resources in a datacenter, it performs an incredibly extensive modeling of the functioning of the entire cardiometabolic system, and is capable of detecting with precision an accurate diagnosis and prognosis for heart disease, but also detect other dysfunctions, such as pre-diabetes, diabetes, and some cancers, and more. On 3/13/2024 I ended up being recorded speaking to a nursing organization. It was a bit improvisational, for I was not expecting it, but it covers the main points.

The Main Points

• MCG is a functional test, not a structural test. It captures the entire cardiometabolic system.
• MCG excels at conclusive (ca. 95% accurate) diagnostics and prognostics of the entire cardiometabolic system and enables early detection of emerging problems.
• The center of gravity for cardiac care will now shift to primary care, with the emphasis being on prevention and lifestyle changes.
• Referrals will now go from the cardiologists back to lifestyle medicine, and from primary care, referrals will be accompanied by an absolutely conclusive diagnosis, making most legacy tests obsolete, for they do not add any worthwhile data, and mostly have low accuracy – EKG, angiograms, Stress tests and the like.
• Japan is a decade ahead of us with adopting this testing technology, and Keio University in Tokyo, which could be considered an equivalent to Harvard Medical or the Cleveland Clinic in the US, has long since begun to standardize on this test, using two machines on each floor.
• The availability of this test is especially important for vulnerable populations, like South East Asians (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), who typically have smaller diameter bloodvessels. In those communities the first heart attacks are in the early forties, and sometimes late 30’s. The organization Our Health, based at MIT and Harvard, has already demonstrated that lifestyle can eliminate this 20-year disadvantage in CAD by lifestyle. Early detection makes all the difference, and MCG can do it. Routine testing in those communities should start in the late 20’s or at the latest at age 30, while lifestyle changes can largely prevent problems.
• Misdiagnoses of heart problems are a frequent occurrence, but MCG can sort them out time and again. Damar Hamlin was one case in point, and a group around him is working on mobile clinics for sports venues, equipped with the MCG test.
• The test can be administered in a clinic, but also by the bedside, for it is based on a portable computer, with just two leads. It takes 10 minutes laying down.
• Clarification: MCG does 82-second recordings repeated five times continuously. Then, assuming adequate broadband coverage, the system reports back in seconds after that.
• Clarification: Highmark’s local coverage policy states that they will pay four times a year, quarterly on average, it is just that certain legacy tests are not reimbursable within six months after an MCG.