An entire issue of a cardiology journal dedicated to plant-based nutrition explores the role an evidence-based diet can play in reversing congestive heart failure.
It is a hopeful sign of the times when an entire issue of a cardiology journal is not just dedicated to nutrition, but particularly a plant-based diet. Dr. Kim Williams, former president of the American College of Cardiology, begins his editorial with a quote attributed to philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: “All truth passes through three stages. First, he is ridiculed. Secondly, he violently opposes it. Thirdly, it is accepted as something self-evident.” He goes on to write that “the truth (i.e., evidence) for the benefits of plant-based nutrition continues to grow.” We have the evidence. The problem is “inertia, culture, habit and the widespread marketing of unhealthy foods. Our goal should be to get data to the medical community and the public, where it can truly change lives, creating healthier, longer lives.” That is essentially my life’s mission in four words: Take out the data. Based on what we already know from the existing medical literature, “plant-based nutrition…clearly represents the most important, but underutilized, opportunity to reverse the pending epidemic of morbidity and mortality induced by obesity and diabetes,” i.e., disease and death.
As I analyze it in my video. How to reverse heart failure with dietthe problem presented his typical heart disease reversal cases, including a 77-year-old woman with heart disease so severe that she could not walk more than half a block or climb a single flight of stairs. She had severe blockages in her three main arteries and was referred for open heart surgery for a bypass. However, instead of surgery, “she chose to adopt a whole plant-based diet, which included all vegetables, fruits, whole grains, potatoes, beans, legumes and nuts.” Although he “described his previous diet as ‘healthy’ Western,” within just one month of starting to consume plants, “his symptoms had almost resolved” and he forgot to walk a block. “He was able to walk on a treadmill for up to 50 minutes without chest discomfort or dyspnea,” leaving him breathless. His cholesterol dropped about a hundred points, from around 220 mg/dL (5.7 mmol/L) to 120 mg/dL (3.2 mmol/L), with an LDL below 60 mg/dL (1.5 mmol/L). Then, four or five months later, he must have started missing his “chicken, fish, low-fat dairy, and other animal products” and “returned to his previous eating habits.” After a few weeks, with no changes to his medications or anything else, his chest pain returned and after all, his chest was cut in half. After surgery, he continued to eat the same diet that had contributed to causing his illness in the first place, and then the illness continued to progress.
another case presented in the diary it has a happier ending. It all started similarly: A 60-year-old man with severe chest pain after walking just half a block decided to take control of his health destiny and switched to a diet based on whole foods and plants. “He described his previous diet as a ‘healthy’ diet of skinless chicken, fish and low-fat dairy with some vegetables, fruits and nuts,” a diet that had been choking his heart. Within a few weeks, he underwent the same amazing transformation: from not being able to do any exercise to walking a mile and then being able to jog more than four miles (6.4 km), completely asymptomatic, without medication or surgery. and live happily ever after.
Now, of course, case reports are just glorified anecdotes. What we need is a randomized controlled trial to show that heart disease can be reversed with lifestyle changes alone. Guess what? there was one published three decades agodemonstrating angiographic reversal of heart disease in 82 percent of patients. His arteries were opened without drugs and without surgery. Therefore, these case reports are just to remind us that hundreds of thousands of people continue to die unnecessarily each year from what was proven decades ago to be a reversible condition.
However, the conventional use of case reports is to present novel results in the hope of inspiring trials that test them. For example, consider This case report on a plant-based diet for congestive heart failure, not simply coronary artery disease. In this case, the heart muscle was so weakened that it could not pump blood efficiently. It was only able to expel about 35 percent of the blood from the heart’s main chamber with each beat, while normally the heart can pump at least 50 percent. And that’s exactly what the patient’s heart was able to do just six weeks after switching to a whole-food, plant-based diet, which he decided to do instead of having his chest cut open. The researchers wrote: “To our knowledge, this is the first report of an improvement in heart failure symptoms and left ventricular ejection fraction after adoption of a plant-based diet.” It may be the first, but it is not the last.
Another case: a 54-year-old woman, obese and diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, presented with swollen ankles due to his heart failure. He switched from his usual diet of chicken and fish to whole plant foods. He began eating healthier, lost 50 pounds, and reversed his diabetes, meaning he had normal blood sugar levels on a normal diet without the use of diabetes medications. His heart function also normalized, going from an abysmal ejection fraction of just 25 percent to normal, as you can see below and at 5:00 on my video. given that it was not In a randomized controlled trial, all we can say is that their improvements coincided with adopting a whole food plant-based diet. But, “given the burden of heart failure [as a leading cause of death]its prognosis poor,” meaning it generally progressively worsens, “and overall evidence to date, a plant-based diet should be considered as part of a multifaceted approach to heart failure care.” We already know that it can reverse coronary artery disease, so any benefit in heart failure would simply be a bonus.
Now simply need Good strategies for “health professionals to support patients in plant-based eating.” Shown below and at 5:42 in my video are some great suggestions to pause and reflect.
Doctors, for example, can “use the Plant Rx pads produced by the Plantrician Project” and prescribe from one or two good websites, such as NutritionFacts.org, as seen below and at 5:50 in my video.
“While is It is certainly true that many people would resist fundamental dietary changes, but it is also true that millions of intelligent people motivated to preserve their health are now taking intermediate measures that may provide only modest benefit: choosing leaner cuts of meat, using reduced meat fatty dairy products… Most of these people do not have the time or training to evaluate the biomedical literature themselves. Don’t they deserve honest and direct advice when their lives are at stake? Those who wish to ignore this advice or only partially implement it are free to do so.”
Do you want to go smoke cigarettes? Bungee jumping? It’s your body, your choice. It is up to each of us to make our own decisions about what to eat and how to live, but we must do so consciously, educating ourselves about the predictable consequences of our actions.
Did I say reverse coronary heart disease? As inversely the number one killer of men and women? I have many videos on the topic and How Not to Die from Heart Disease is a good place to start.
Check out the Plantrician Project at projectplantrician.org. I am a proud supporter.
