Book Details a New Approach

Bradley Bale, MD, was glad to get back to the green grass of home after five years in the less lush plains of West Texas where he served as medical director of the Heart Health Program at the Grace Clinic in Lubbock for five years.

Bale grew up in Elizabethtown, Ky. and received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Lawrence University in Wisconsin. He returned home to earn his medical degree from the University of Kentucky School of Medicine.

An internship led him to Spokane, Wash. He settled in the city and founded a family medicine practice and later the Heart Attack Prevention Clinic. After practicing in the northwest for 30 years, Bale said he got “an offer he couldn’t refuse” to join the Grace Clinic.

Now he is glad to be back in the Southeast near where he grew up.

“I love having seasons and being near family, especially our young granddaughter,” he said about the move to Hendersonville.

Bale has opened a private practice as a heart attack, stroke and diabetes prevention specialist in downtown Nashville with Amy Doneen, MSN, ARNP. Bale and Doneen are co-founders of the Bale/Doneen Method, a new paradigm in tackling cardiovascular disease that emphasizes preventing atherosclerosis before it occurs.

The two clinicians teach the Bale/Doneen Method to healthcare providers in an American Academy of Family Medicine-accredited preceptorship program. They have given hundreds of lectures at leading medical conferences in the United States and globally and have published their research in many peer-reviewed medical journals.

Bale and Doneen recently co-authored, Beat the Heart Attack Gene, published in February of this year, highlighting their findings. Already in its second printing, the book has been ranked number one in sales on Amazon.com in the Health and Fitness section and has been called a revolutionary, personalized guide to preventing heart disease based on genetic factors.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in America. It affects 81 million Americans and is a factor in one of every two deaths in the United States. Patients often think they are not at risk of a heart attack if they control their cholesterol and blood pressure and are unaware of other major risk factors that might impact their health.

In their book, and in their practice, Bale’s and Doneen’s message offers good news: with the right information and strategies, heart attacks are preventable — even if heart disease runs in the family. In Beat the Heart Attack Gene, they present a new model for understanding and preventing heart disease, identifying three different genetic types of cholesterol profiles and treatments tailored for each type.

Their cutting-edge Bale/Doneen Method is a simple, comprehensive prevention plan that detects cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the early stages. Beat the Heart Attack Gene includes quizzes and self-tests that show how to determine cholesterol genotype and offers evidence-based strategies to apply that knowledge through nutritional and lifestyle changes to live active, healthier lives.

The book identifies the hidden causes of many heart attacks, explains and emphasizes early prevention methods, and distinguishes the best and worst heart supplements. Bale advocates patients have an oral glucose tolerance test, which can detect insulin resistance long before the condition progresses to diabetes. Although the A1C test is more convenient, Bale maintains it often fails to detect insulin resistance, which he said leads to inflammation that can trigger plaques to rupture and form clots.

Bale said the method they have designed holds the keys to future successes in the fight again coronary inflammation. For heart attack and stroke survivors, the Bale/Doneen Method also purports to help prevent recurrences by identifying and treating what is triggering the patient's disease, a crucial step often overlooked.

Bale noted, “We offer a unique, comprehensive strategy that allows us to treat the individual patient and prevent their heart attack because we are able to identify the root cause of their disease by a thorough investigation of non-traditional drivers of coronary disease, especially that of undiagnosed diabetes, which is often masked by a normal fasting blood sugar.”

Baled continued, “The normal standard of care aims to fix the house after it has burnt down, and the Bale/Doneen (Method) seeks to prevent the fire from ever starting.” He added, “We are filling in major holes in our understanding of clinical management of CVD, which starts with life choices that result in marked plaque regression and improvement in the arterial health of patient.”

Bale also noted, “There is more to cardiac care and disease prevention than just lowering cholesterol, having stents and bypasses, and waiting for the next event.”

One review of the book observed, “The Bale/Doneen Method encourages a ‘mind over metal’ approach by focusing on both primary and secondary prevention.”

Bale noted that in 2013, over $300 billion was spent in cardiovascular medicine, and it is predicted that by 2030, that number will exceed $1.2 trillion. “This is not just a medical issue, it is a fiscal problem, also,” he stated.

“We have the technology and knowledge to treat this,” Bale said, “and we have to follow that old adage — ‘do the best you can until you know better.’ We now know better.”