Be A Life-Saver

As a physician who advocates eating an optimal diet in order to reduce the risk of life-threatening illness, I was troubled by news that was presented at a cardiology conference this past April. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic found that a severe type of heart attack, known as a STEMI (for ST-elevation myocardial infarction), is occurring in younger patients.

This type of heart attack is severe and is caused by a sudden and complete blockage of a heart artery, cutting off all blood flow to a portion of heart muscle and depriving that section of oxygen. Tissue damage begins, and over minutes and hours some of the damage becomes permanent. Even after treatment to restore blood flow, patients remain at risk; about 12 percent die within one year of their heart attack. Patients who are obese or diabetic are most at risk; they are more likely to die soon after STEMI.

The Cleveland Clinic study, which examined the records of thousands of patients treated for STEMI at that hospital from 1995 to 2014, found other disturbing news. Not only were patients experiencing this severe heart attack at younger ages, but the prevalence of the risk factors that most likely led them to fall ill also rose over that same time period. In the first five years of records that were examined, 65 percent of the patients had three or more of the risk factors they measured; in the final five years, it was 85 percent.

Among the risk factors that were reported:

• The average age of STEMI fell from 64 to 60
• The rate of obesity in STEMI patients increased from 31 to 40 percent
• The number of STEMI patients with diabetes increased from 24 to 31 percent
• The number with high blood pressure increased from 55 to 77 percent

I found this research particularly disheartening because almost all of these heart attacks could have been avoided through superior nutrition. As I discuss in my book, The End of Heart Disease, the primary aproach to dealing with the epidemic of cardiovascular disease in this country needs to be by removing the root cause of heart disease, our Standard American Diet. Living healthfully improves all the modifiable risk factors to cardiovascular illness while guiding you to a naturally healthy weight.

In a study I conducted that was published in 2015 in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, it was demonstrated that survey respondents who started obese had lost an average of 50 pounds, that they maintained for years after they switched to a Nutritarian (nutrient-dense, plant-rich). There were dramatic cardiovascular benefits to this type of diet. After one year, in those who started out with hypertension, there was a 26 mm Hg average reduction in systolic blood pressure. In respondents who were not taking cholesterol-lowering medication, there was an average of 42 mg/dl decrease in LDL cholesterol and a 79.5 mg/dl average decrease in triglycerides.²

Unfortunately, many physicians don’t believe that their patients will adopt the required lifestyle changes that will prevent heart attacks, and so they don’t bother to underscore its importance. However, patients need to be informed and the message needs to be clear: If we truly want to prevent heart attacks, there is an intervention that is actually more effective than medical treatment. Switching to a Nutritarian diet, can prevent and even reverse atherosclerotic heart disease.

Over time we have learned about the contribution of diet and lifestyle behaviors to heart disease, and more people are gaining access to this information. However, heart disease still remains the leading cause of death in the United States. Although it is now accepted by most physicians that a diet high in natural plant foods and low in animal products, without processed foods (which I call a Nutritarian diet) can reverse heart disease, as this study sadly suggests, this information has not translated into healthier habits among our population.

It is my mission to inform the public that there is an effective, non-medical solution, one that is achievable and only has side benefits, not side effects. The Nutritarian lifestyle is a much more effective approach than taking medication, which, along with high-tech, risky and expensive procedures is still the primary approach to treating heart disease in the U.S.  While drugs may reduce risks slightly, nutritional excellence wipes it out.  If you have someone you care about, they must read my new book, The End of Heart Disease.  The in-depth review of the dangers of medications, contrasted with the proven and effective natural approach will inform and motivate everyone to make more substantive and effective changes in their life.  Every step in the right directions saves lives. 

1. Study: Heart Attack Patients Getting Younger, With Risky Health Habits. In Cleveland Clinic healthessentials, 2016 [https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2016/03/study-heart-attack-patients-getting-younger-riskier-health-habits/]
2. Fuhrman J, Singer M. Improved Cardiovascular Parameter With a Nutrient-Dense, Plant-Rich Diet-Style: A Patient Survey With Illustrative Cases. Am J Lifestyle Med 2015.