A Holistic Approach To Heart Disease

February is National Heart Awareness Month.

There is new research and information coming out all the time regarding the best way to take care of our health. It has been proven that reversing heart disease holistically is possible. In this article, I will expand on things you can do in order to holistically reverse heart disease.

According to Dr. Bryan Ardis, make sure you are getting enough magnesium into your body every day. In addition to that, staying hydrated, making sure your Vitamin D level is optimum, and eating a lot of organic, fresh nutrient-rich foods (especially ones that contain Vitamin C) is recommended.

A vegetarian diet has been proven to reverse heart disease holistically. The studies show that people on healthy vegetarian diets have lower risks of:

• Heart disease
• Colorectal, ovarian, and breast cancers
• Diabetes • Obesity
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)

This is because a healthy vegetarian diet is commonly high in organic, fresh, whole vegetables and fruits, low in unhealthy fat, and abundant in fiber and antioxidants.

I do believe that quality is important. For an optimum vegetarian/vegan diet, you want to buy certified organic, non-GMO, fresh food, and to avoid trans-fats, cottonseed oil, canola oil, soy, artificial sweeteners, high fructose sweeteners, white refined carbohydrates, processed, microwaved, pasteurized, radiated, and fast foods. (I expand on this in my book, “How To Be A Healthy Vegetarian,” 2nd edition.)

Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., former president of the medical staff at the Cleveland Clinic, writes that you can reverse heart disease with no drugs and only a plant-based diet. He bases this conclusion on the groundbreaking results of his 20-year nutritional study. Backed by solid scientific evidence, he argues that we can end the heart disease epidemic simply by changing what we eat. Dr. Esselstyn recommends a plant-based, oil-free diet that he says can prevent heart disease, stop its progress, and even reverse its effects.

Dr. T. Colin Campbell, PhD, professor emeritus at Cornell University and co-author of The China Study, the most comprehensive human nutrition study to date, advocates a plant-based diet for optimum health.

I was fortunate to be part of Dr. Campbell’s class at Cornell University, where he told us that plant-based eating is a superior way of eating. The benefits of eating this way include living longer, looking and feeling younger, having more energy, losing weight, preventing and even reversing heart disease, lowering your risk of prostate, breast and other cancers, preserving your eyesight in your later years, preventing and treating diabetes, avoiding surgery, vastly decreasing the need for pharmaceutical drugs, helping to keep your bones strong, avoiding impotence, avoiding stroke, preventing kidney stones, keeping your baby from getting Type 2 diabetes, alleviating constipation, lowering your blood pressure, avoiding Alzheimer’s, and beating arthritis and more.

Dr. Campbell discussed studies he had done on the diseases that arose in populations when meat protein was introduced into the diet. He continued: “My early research gave me the understanding that animal protein, when tested experimentally, was substantially different from plant protein in its ability to promote tumor development. It turned out that animal protein had its effect by operating through a constellation of integrative mechanisms. The division between animal and plant foods was a signpost of a division of the kinds of foods having an effect on cancer.”

“Dr. Dean Ornish in California, and Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. in Ohio, during the mid l980’s, each separately initiated studies of plant-based nutrition as treatment for patients severely ill with coronary artery disease. Their goal was to remove every last morsel of animal food, dairy, processed flour, and oils that were causing the disease, and to eat a diet of vegetables, fruit, legumes and whole grains. In all compliant patients, results were prompt and enduring. Angina heart pain diminished and both physicians found that x-rays of the hearts’ arteries confirmed the disease could be reversed. Dr. Ornish proved this after one year of treatment.

Dr. Esselstyn showed the same at 5 years, and reported his results again at 12, 16, and finally beyond 21 years in his book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.

Dr. Esselstyn is particularly pleased with a smaller subset of patients who were told by expert cardiologists in 1986 they had less than a year to live, and all of whom are alive 21 years later.” One thing I’ve learned through research is that people with heart disease frequently have diabetes as well. It’s common for a person to actually die from a heart attack, without even knowing they were diabetic. A plant-based diet can help with diabetes as well. More than 100 million people today have diabetes or pre-diabetes.

The study’s findings agree with my experience. Working with people who have diabetes, I have found they show remarkable improvement in their health and well-being from consuming a plant-based and almost completely raw food diet.

Dr James Anderson, of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, directed a study of 25 Type 1 and 25 Type 2 diabetics. This study involved placing the patients on a high-fiber, high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet in a hospital setting.

Dr. Anderson initially put the patients on the American Diabetes Association’s recommended diet plan for one week. Then he switched them over to a vegetarian, plant-based diet for three weeks. None of these patients were overweight when they started the study, but they were on insulin shots to control their blood sugar levels. All through the study, Dr. Anderson measured their blood sugar levels, their cholesterol levels, their medications, and their weight.

Type 1 diabetics cannot produce insulin, and it was thought that dietary changes would not affect this situation. But, the results showed that after three weeks on a vegetarian, whole-food, high-fiber diet, the “Type 1 diabetics were able to lower their insulin medication by an average of 40%”, “their blood sugar profiles improved dramatically”, and their “cholesterol levels dropped by 30%”.

These results were more impressive with the Type 2 diabetics who had not incurred as much damage to their pancreas. After three weeks on the high-fiber, vegetarian diet, 24 of the 25 Type 2 diabetics discontinued their insulin medication completely. The one Type 2 diabetic who wasn’t able to get off his medication had been a 25-year diabetic taking 35 units per day. After three weeks of vegetarian food, his requirement dropped down to only eight units per day. As he continued the vegetarian eating plan at home, he was able to cut out all insulin shots after another eight weeks.

More recent events within the past 4 years, have led my friend, Dr. Ardis to create a program that addresses heart issues in regards to the C…d injections. Dr. Ardis has a protocol he created for people who are concerned about having gotten the “vac-c-ne,” or who have been around people who have gotten it, and what they can do about it.

In closing, I’ve learned that everyone needs to find the proper eating plan that works best for them, and to find balance in their life. Even if you do not become 100% vegetarian, just switching out a few meals a week (or a day), can start to make a difference in your health and the health of your heart. As you start to change your eating habits or diet, it may seem challenging at first, but it will start to become easier as you implement the new foods into your diet, and you will be on the road to better health.

* Note: I have to change the spelling of certain words, so my newsletter emails don’t get censored.

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