Expert profile
Dr. Paul Mason
Sports and Exercise Medicine Physician / low-carb metabolic-health advocate
Low-carbohydrate and carnivore diets • metabolic health • contested cardiovascular claims
1Discussion
71 minAnalysed
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About the expert
Focus: Low-carb metabolic health and contested cardiovascular claims
Paul Mason is an Australian sports and exercise medicine physician who advocates low-carbohydrate and carnivore diets for metabolic health. He is a popular speaker who challenges conventional dietary guidelines and proposes alternative explanations for heart disease, including the idea that coronary artery calcium may reflect chronic infection.
Expert discussions with Dr. Paul Mason
Is coronary artery calcium caused by infection?
Coronary artery calcium (CAC) is calcium found within atherosclerotic plaque, the buildup that develops in the artery walls that supply the heart. A CAC scan is a type of CT scan that measures this calcium and gives a calcium score that helps estimate heart-disease risk. In this episode a low-carbohydrate physician argues that this calcium may arise from chronic infection, specifically mineralized microbial biofilms, and he promotes low-carbohydrate and carnivore diets. The infection idea is speculative and rests mainly on mechanism, with little evidence to support it. Some underlying points, like metabolic health mattering for the heart, are reasonable, but they do not establish the much larger claim that infection explains coronary calcium.