President Clinton and his plant-based diet are in the news these days, and people are talking about this "new" and "experimental" treatment for heart disease. But his diet is not new, nor is it really experimental.
Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn from the Cleveland Clinic, and Dr. Dean Ornish of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, have been working with patients for over 20 years to evaluate the differences that life styles make on health. They have produced extensive data that these approaches work and can actually reverse coronary artery disease. These life style changes are effective, inexpensive and do not have the side effects seen with other treatments for heart disease. Dr. Esselstyn starts every talk with "coronary artery disease is a toothless paper tiger that need never, ever exist, and if it does exist, it need never, ever progress."
I recently spent time at the Cleveland Clinic observing Dr. Esselstyn and his wife, Ann Esselstyn, as they worked with heart patients interested in making dietary changes to prevent or reverse heart disease. Most had stents, heart attacks or coronary artery bypass surgery in their medical history. He described coronary artery disease as a "food-borne illness." After many years as a registered nurse, what was stunning to me was the simplicity of the program: make these changes in your diet and watch your disease improve or even go away. The diet is vegan (no meat, no fish, no dairy) and no added oils. Simple.
If the program is so simple, why isn't everyone doing it? Why aren't all the doctors recommending it? A big part of the reason is that although these dietary changes are fairly straightforward, they are not necessarily easy to accomplish in our daily lives. We love our Standard American Diet (abbreviated as SAD for a good reason). We are very attached to our comfort foods, to our processed foods, to our fast food restaurants and our super-sized portions. Many of us eat to deal with stress, using chocolate or potato chips to make ourselves feel better after a disagreement with our teenager or a bad day at work, or just because we are bored. We see pizza on TV, so we grab the cell phone and order a pizza. We struggle to lose weight, force ourselves to exercise, then give it up again when faced with a family or work crisis. I used to celebrate weight loss with food, and console myself after weight gain…with more food. So do you blame doctors for thinking we will never be able to stick to a strict diet?
The reality is that people can and do follow these programs. Dr. Esselstyn believes that if you educate people about what their diet is doing to their health, and teach them how and why a different diet will benefit them, then they will have the motivation to change. He said "patients can take control of the disease that is destroying them." He described research by Dr. Robert Vogel that showed the toxic effect that one meal can have on the blood vessels. I saw that motivation take hold in the patients in that room." I have been on the diet since the day I left Cleveland. My colleague Dr. Huebner has been on the diet for 9 months and has been able to stop his blood pressure medicine and statin drug because of it. And the food is good!
Dr. Huebner and I believe that people in this area will benefit from this program, and so we are working with Dr. Esselstyn to bring it to Petoskey. If you are interested, please contact the Harbor LifeStyle Center at 231-487-2150 or email me at susanboyko1@gmail.com. You can find more information at www.heartattackproof.com and www.harborlifestylecenter.com.
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Susan Boyko RN,
Health Coach, Harbor LifeStyle Center
