Participants are taught about healthy eating habits, relaxation techniques and exercise. Instead of the standard cholesterol-lowering medications called statins, they take supplements such as fish oil and red yeast rice, a natural substance with statinlike effects.
About 2,200 people have taken the course, and, according to a 2006 trial, it was at least as effective as standard therapy in lowering cholesterol, and far more effective in weight reduction.
The research also showed Becker that people lost ground in the months after the program ended. So he plans to add a formal support group, lasting at least a year, to keep participants "on the right path."
Still, insurers generally don't pay the cost - $300 to $350 - and few physicians know about the program.
"It's been a labor of love," says Becker, a trim man of 54 with short, gray hair. "I haven't made much money on it.
"In the higher echelons of some of the health systems and the insurance companies, it hasn't quite reached through that you can save money on prevention" of heart disease, he says. "They're much more receptive on smoking cessation because it's easier to document."
With mild exasperation barely peeking through, he leaned over the desk in his Flourtown office and rattled off some percentages: 78, 23, 22, 40 and 3.
Seventy-eight is the percentage of nonsmokers in the United States. Twenty-three percent follow a careful diet along the lines of the low-fat Mediterranean diet that Becker espouses. Twenty-two percent exercise regularly, and 40 percent are not overweight.
Just 3 percent fall into all four groups, Becker says, "and if you look at that 3 percent, the incidence of heart disease is almost nil. If we could even take that 3 percent and get it to 4 percent," that would be a substantial achievement.
