Yesterday I posted Dr. Colin Campbell’s latest article and Today We Hear From Dr. Fuhrman. Words of wisdom from two leaders it the effort to prevent and reverse heart disease.
February is American Heart Month. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounted for 32.3% of deaths in the United States in 2010 — one out of every 3 deaths is due to this preventable disease.1
As the prevalence of CVD escalates, medical costs are rising rapidly — the American Heart Association has projected that over the next twenty years there will be a 16.6% increase in prevalence of coronary heart disease, and that the direct medical costs attributed to cardiovascular diseases will triple.2 Heart disease is truly devastating to both our health and our economy.
Risk factors for heart disease are commonplace for U.S. adults: 33% have hypertension, 13.8% have total cholesterol above 240 mg/dl,1 11.3% of U.S. adults have diabetes,3 and 68.8% of U.S. adults are overweight or obese.4
It is normal in our society to have atherosclerosis, and to die from cardiovascular disease. If you eat the standard western diet that most people eat in the modern world, you will surely develop heart disease and may die from it. But a significant number of research studies have documented that heart disease is easily and almost completely preventable (and reversible) through a diet rich in plant produce and lower in processed foods and animal products.5-8
The surgical interventions commonly used to treat heart disease, such as angioplasty and bypass surgery are futile. The COURAGE trial and additional studies conducted since have documented that patients undergoing those invasive procedures do not live longer or have fewer heart attacks compared to those receiving medical therapy with modest lifestyle changes.9,10 Surgical interventions are not long-term solutions to heart disease; they merely treat a small portion of a blood vessel, while cardiovascular disease continues to progress throughout the vasculature.
Drugs that treat hypertension and elevated cholesterol carry serious risks and do not stop heart disease from progressing. Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs are known to increase the risk of diabetes, impaired muscle function, cataracts, liver dysfunction and kidney injury.11 Each different class of blood pressure-lowering medications is associated with its own risks and side effects. ACE inhibitors commonly cause a persistent cough; diuretics are linked to increased risk of diabetes; beta blockers are associated with increased likelihood of stroke; calcium channel blockers may increase risk of heart attack and breast cancer; and ARBs are associated with increased risk of lung cancer.12-18
The risk associated with these treatments is unacceptable when there is a safe, effective alternative — excellent nutrition and exercise — that can actually reverse heart disease and obliterate the needs for risky and even futile medical care.
Atherosclerotic plaque can be reversed, and cholesterol lowered without drugs or surgery — just ask Ronnie or Julia:
Ronnie had reached over 300 lbs. when he wound up needing emergency quadruple bypass surgery. Three years later, he was back for an angioplasty and three stents, but his chest pain returned within one month of the surgery. Working with Dr. Fuhrman online in the Member Center, Ronnie has lost 140 lbs., and got off all of his medications. He runs and plays sports and has served as an inspiration to family members who have also lost weight and begun to live healthier lives. Read more | Video
Julia had three heart attacks within the space of three months. After her fifth angioplasty, she still had constant chest pain. At the age of 60, she was on ten different daily medications, suffered migraines, and could not walk even one block. Today, Julia has lost 105 lbs, and she can now enjoy every day pleasures like exercise, gardening, and playing with her grandchildren. She went from a “cardiac cripple” to a healthy, happy human being. Read more
Like Ronnie and Julia, my hundreds of patient case studies over the last 20 years with advanced heart disease patients have demonstrated that dramatic reversal of advanced disease can even occur in a relatively short time. Read more heart disease success stories.
Following the lenient recommendations of the American Heart Association and wearing a red dress pin do not form an effective strategy for protecting you or your loved ones against heart disease. Also, drugs and surgery do not cure heart disease. Over the years, I have designed and advanced a health-promoting, nutrient-dense (Nutritarian) diet, the most protective and lifespan-promoting diet-style. When coupled with exercise a Nutritarian diet is dramatically effective and protective for preventing and reversing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes as well as heart disease because it removes the primary dietary causes of heart disease.
Everyone deserves to know that heart disease can be avoided; and those who already have heart disease deserve to know that they can reverse their disease. Conventional medical care does NOT protect against heart disease-related death. Only a Nutritarian diet can offer dramatic lifespan-enhancing benefits against both cardiovascular disease and cancer.
References:
1. Go AS, Mozaffarian D, Roger VL, et al: Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics–2013 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association. Circulation 2013;127:e6-e245.
2. Heidenreich PA, Trogdon JG, Khavjou OA, et al: Forecasting the Future of Cardiovascular Disease in the United States: A Policy Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation 2011.
3. American Diabetes Association: Diabetes statistics [http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/statistics/]
4. Flegal KM, Carroll MD, Kit BK, et al: Prevalence of Obesity and Trends in the Distribution of Body Mass Index Among US Adults, 1999-2010. JAMA 2012.
5. Ornish D, Brown SE, Scherwitz LW, et al: Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? The Lifestyle Heart Trial. Lancet 1990;336:129-133.
6. Ornish D, Scherwitz LW, Billings JH, et al: Intensive lifestyle changes for reversal of coronary heart disease. JAMA 1998;280:2001-2007.
7. Esselstyn CB, Jr.: Updating a 12-year experience with arrest and reversal therapy for coronary heart disease (an overdue requiem for palliative cardiology). Am J Cardiol 1999;84:339-341, A338.
8. Esselstyn CB, Jr., Ellis SG, Medendorp SV, et al: A strategy to arrest and reverse coronary artery disease: a 5-year longitudinal study of a single physician’s practice. J Fam Pract 1995;41:560-568.
9. Boden WE, O’Rourke RA, Teo KK, et al: Optimal medical therapy with or without PCI for stable coronary disease. N Engl J Med 2007;356:1503-1516.
10. Trikalinos TA, Alsheikh-Ali AA, Tatsioni A, et al: Percutaneous coronary interventions for non-acute coronary artery disease: a quantitative 20-year synopsis and a network meta-analysis. Lancet 2009;373:911-918.
11. Hippisley-Cox J, Coupland C: Unintended effects of statins in men and women in England and Wales: population based cohort study using the QResearch database. BMJ 2010;340:c2197.
12. Simon SR, Black HR, Moser M, et al: Cough and ACE inhibitors. Arch Intern Med 1992;152:1698-1700.
13. Bangalore S, Messerli FH, Kostis JB, et al: Cardiovascular protection using beta-blockers: a critical review of the evidence. J Am Coll Cardiol 2007;50:563-572.
14. Gupta AK, Dahlof B, Dobson J, et al: Determinants of new-onset diabetes among 19,257 hypertensive patients randomized in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial–Blood Pressure Lowering Arm and the relative influence of antihypertensive medication. Diabetes Care 2008;31:982-988.
15. Wassertheil-Smoller S, Psaty B, Greenland P, et al: Association between cardiovascular outcomes and antihypertensive drug treatment in older women. JAMA 2004;292:2849-2859.
16. Group PS, Devereaux PJ, Yang H, et al: Effects of extended-release metoprolol succinate in patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery (POISE trial): a randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2008;371:1839-1847.
17.Li CI, Daling JR, Tang MT, et al: Use of Antihypertensive Medications and Breast Cancer Risk Among Women Aged 55 to 74 Years. JAMA Intern Med 2013.
18. Sipahi I, Debanne SM, Rowland DY, et al: Angiotensin-receptor blockade and risk of cancer: meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Lancet Oncol 2010;11:627-636.
