By Robert Ostfeld, MD, MSc
One of the most common
operations performed in the world today is coronary artery bypass graft surgery
(CABG). I would like to share with you the remarkable story of a recent Cardiac
Wellness Program patient here at Montefiore Medical Center (I’ll call him Mr.
J), who changed his diet and averted the CABG knife.
Mr. J is a middle-aged man
with high cholesterol and a family history of heart disease. Understandably, he
desperately wanted to avoid the problems that many in his family had faced, so
he ate a “healthy” diet of chicken, fish, and low-fat dairy, with a few fruits
and vegetables mixed in. And he exercised. A lot. In fact, he loved exercising
so much that he would do it for two to three hours a day — brisk walking, playing
sports, etc.
Mr. J. first visited a
cardiologist at age 55, after having experienced several weeks of tightness in
his neck during physical activity. The condition had worsened to the point that
only 30 to 45 seconds of exercise brought on significant discomfort. The doctor
ordered a stress test, to see if heart disease could be contributing to this
symptom. The test results were so wildly abnormal that he was sent immediately
to the hospital for a cardiac catheterization, to look for cholesterol blockages
in the vessels that supply his heart with blood. Such severe blockages were
found that he was admitted directly to the hospital for coronary artery bypass
graft surgery. In less than one day, his life had changed dramatically.
While lying nervously in his
hospital bed, he began to think that maybe there was another way to approach
this disease, so he went online. There, he read about the impact of a
whole-food, plant-based diet on heart disease, and he decided that was the path
for him. He called the nurse, gave back his hospital gown, and despite the
pleas of his medical team, signed himself out of the hospital against medical
advice. Mr. J’s nurse was so concerned that before he was able to leave, she
called his wife to have her convince him to stay. He did not. Later, the nurse
even called Mr. J at home to plead for his return. He politely declined.
Soon thereafter he found our
Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore. He was already taking all the
appropriate medications, and he chose to completely change his lifestyle as
well. He fully embraced a whole-food, plant-based diet without oil and had
perhaps the most remarkable turnaround I have ever seen. Within one week, he
went from being able to walk only a block before feeling tightness in his neck
to walking 25 blocks without incident! Fast-forward three months and he was
back to exercising two to three hours each day without symptoms. That is what I
call remarkable!
A few weeks later, Mr. J got
another call from his nurse. She had just been diagnosed with cholesterol
blockages in her heart, and her doctors were recommending cardiac procedures.
With Mr. J in mind, she told her doctors no way and called him to learn how to
do exactly what he did: embrace a whole-food, plant-based diet!
Mr. J never did get that
bypass surgery, nor did he get a coronary stent. In fact, he did not need to
have any procedures at all. He got healthier with appropriate medications and
by wholeheartedly embracing a whole-food, plant-based diet.
The key to health, it seems,
lies at the end of your fork.
* * *
*Postscript: While many heart
patients may reverse their disease with lifestyle change alone, Mr. J also
continued his prescribed medications, given the severity of his condition, and
their doses were lowered as his health improved. Please note that I am not
recommending lifestyle change over medical intervention for any particular
person, as every case is of course different. Some cases are fraught with more
risk than others, so please consult with both your physician and a physician
trained in lifestyle medicine before making significant lifestyle changes.
This post was originally published
on the Forks Over Knives blog, here.
* * *
Cardiologist Robert Ostfeld,
MD, MSc is the founder and director of the Cardiac Wellness Program at
Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, where he encourages patients to
embrace a whole-foods, plant-based diet. He earned his MD at Yale and his MSc in
epidemiology at Harvard, and he is an associate professor of clinical medicine
at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
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