Former president Bill Clinton's recent surgery brought renewed attention to heart disease and its impact on men. Research shows about one in every three men can expect to develop heart disease before age 60. But just as in President Clinton's case, even when you seem healthy, you may not be.

Marc Greene has had an unhealthy relationship with food for as long as he can remember. He says: "I had a terrible diet. When we'd go out to eat, I'd eat the bread, the appetizer, the food, the salad, the dessert, and I'd just walk out, and I used to judge probably how good a meal was by how much I would eat."

All that bad eating eventually led to high cholesterol, and now Greene has the beginning stages of heart disease -- a disease doctors say kills more than any other.

"If you are a betting person, you are going to bet that you are going to die from heart disease, and you will win every time, almost, except you will be dead." says metabolic cardiologist Robert Superko, M.D., of Fuqua Heart Center/Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta.

Fortunately, newer technology is allowing men to get diagnosed sooner. Greene underwent a 10-minute EBCT scan, which detects even small amounts of calcium deposits on artery walls.

Cardiologist Pradip Jamnadas, M.D., of Cardiovascular Interventions in Orlando, Fla., says, "They encourage patients to find out, find out before you get into trouble, do you or don't you have a problem? Perhaps you have high blood pressure and cholesterol problems, and you really want to know whether you, in fact, you have coronary disease or not, the body scan image can tell you that."

Dr. Superko uses another method, cardiac fingerprinting. It breaks down cholesterol into 12 different components including seven LDLs -- the so-called bad cholesterol.

"Three of those types are large, and they are not very dangerous at all. Four of them are very small. They are really dangerous because they weasel their way into your artery much faster," Dr. Superko says. He also looks for a gene that predisposes a person to heart disease. "You can have the gene, but you take care of yourself, and the gene's quiet. Have the gene, do something bad like smoke, gain weight, don't exercise, gene turns on, you have a problem."

For those who already have the disease and have chest pain, researchers are studying adult stem cells as a way to help. Doctors take the cells from a patient's own bone marrow and inject them into the heart to form new blood vessels.

Cardiologist Douglas W. Losordo, M.D., of Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine in, Boston, says the treatment looks hopeful. "Several of the patients have actually experienced a significant reduction in their symptoms, so they're having fewer chest pains. Some have actually even stopped having chest pain."

Doctors say the new stem cell therapy is performed without the need for surgery and is meant to help the sickest of heart disease patients first. About 5,000 doctors around the country use the sophisticated cardiac fingerprinting tests.

Drew Voight
4-Men