I am an MD and a board certified cardiologist with over 25 years of experience taking care of thousands of patients.
Your assessment of ‘critical thinking’ is somewhat flawed, IMO. And I am saddened to see you have gotten rather poor medical advice and needed to seek out alternate treatment that you believe is superior. One should always 'challenge assumptions and ‘reason through logic’ to appropriate conclusions. The problem is with #3…diversified opinions. That is not evidence based and is totally unsupported. Opinion is simply that-opinion.
The literature is quite clear and I’m not going to recite it for you. I’m disappointed that I must come back to this thread to again dispel misinformation perpetuated by one with no real evidence. You even said your N=1. That is a unique observation, not a study. You can eat whatever you want and be happy with that behavior. Your numbers are part of your risk profile. Good luck with that.
One does not ‘challenge the lipid hypothesis’ because you don’t believe it. You do it by conducting studies to prove alternate theories. You should discuss your concerns with your doctors and really should refrain from giving advice you are not trained to give. Septal thickening has nothing to do with CAD, BTW…apples and oranges…not the same type of problem. Resolution of one problem does not mitigate risk elsewhere…
I have had so many patients who have no other reason for their CAD and want an explanation for why they developed ischemic heart disease and often an elevated LDL is the only explanation. Sometimes it is one of the major contributors. We treat the best we can based on the evidence we have and that does evolve and change with time.
You did say a few thing correctly. Diabetes is a driver for risk of CAD. In fact, it is considered a ‘risk equivalent’ for ischemic heart disease or CAD. We treat it very similarly. Also, CAD is truly multifactorial-smoking/sedentary lifestyle/diet/family history/DM/age etc all can play a role. And an appropriate diet is truly very important.
One other thing we know a great deal about and that is how heart attacks happen. That is from atherosclerotic plaque rupture. If you don’t have plaque, you are at very low risk for CAD events-ie myocardial infarct (MI) and sudden cardiac death (SCD).
The treatment for known CAD/plaque/ischemic CAD is statin and aspirin in 2021. Secondary statin therapy is simply not in doubt.
I will not comment on other md opinions. You can decide for yourself, but please, please don’t give medical advice.