The picture on the right is an actual angiogram from Dr. Esselstyn's data depicting the improvement associated with combination therapy.
The Journal of the American Medical Association, July 23/30, 2003
The New England Journal of Medicine, 1985; 313,52
The New England Journal of Medicine, 1985; 313,52
Additional
reading and
references
reading and
references
The benefits of joining and becoming a member and be e-mailed every article or healthy recipe the very minute one is published.
The heartMonitron Nutrition Journal
The heartMonitron Heart and Diabetes Gazette
The heartMonitron Cholesterol Chronicles
The heartMonitron Weight Monitor
The hM Nutrition Journal covers the basics on nutrition, diet and recipes for health improvement
The hM Gazette covers the basics on heart / cardiovascular health and diabetes care
The hM Chronicles cover the basics on cardiovascular health and cholesterol management
The hM Monitor covers the basics on nutrition, diet, weight loss and weight control
View the other heartMonitron Journals.
Computer Assisted Diet / Meal Planning and Nutritional Analysis Tools
Cooking Software for Healthy Recipes
Click on a Picture
to view either
<<< mastercook or cook'n >>>
Software Detais
to view either
<<< mastercook or cook'n >>>
Software Detais
The heartMonitron Nutrition Journal
heartMonitron's healthy recipes
MarketPlace
Category : Books - Nutrition and Food Guide
"The Complete Food and Nutrition Guide"
Author:
The American Dietetic Association
Author:
The American Dietetic Association
Category : Books - Nutrition and
Heart Disease Reversal
Heart Disease Reversal
"Heal your Heart"
Author:
K Lance Gould MD
Author:
K Lance Gould MD
Category : Books - Nutrition -
Heart Disease Reversal
Heart Disease Reversal
"The China Study"
Author:
T Colin Campbell PhD
Author:
T Colin Campbell PhD
Category : Books - Nutrition
Heart Disease Reversal
Heart Disease Reversal
"Dr Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease"
Author: Dean ornish MD
Author: Dean ornish MD
Category : Books - Nutrition
Heart Disease Reversal
Heart Disease Reversal
"Prevent and reverse Heart Disease"
Author:
Caldwell B Esselstyn MD
Author:
Caldwell B Esselstyn MD
Category : Cooking Software - Health Improvement - Recipes Management - Meal Planning
Disclosure:This ad space is sponsored by hM, the purchase of the above, contributes to keep hM going and keep membership free for everyone
Disclosure:This ad space is sponsored by hM, the purchase of the above, contributes to keep hM going and keep membership free for everyone
Disclosure:This ad space is sponsored by hM, the purchase of the above, contributes to keep hM going and keep membership free for everyone
Disclosure:This ad space is sponsored by hM, the purchase of the above, contributes to keep hM going and keep membership free for everyone
Disclosure:This ad space is sponsored by hM, the purchase of the above, contributes to keep hM going and keep membership free for everyone
Disclosure:This ad space is sponsored by hM, the purchase of the above, contributes to keep hM going and keep membership free for everyone
Contents of Article
>> 1 - Intro: Possiblity of Reversal
>> 2 - Nathan Pritikin, a Pioneer
>> 3 - The Influence of Nutrition
>> 4 - Dr. Colin T Campbell PhD
>> 5 - Dr. Dean Ornish MD
>> 6 - Dr Caldwell B Esseltsyn MD
>> 7 - Dr Lance K Gould MD
>> 8 - Dr David Jenkins MD
>> 10 - Efficiency of Combination
>> 9 - What is the Evidence
>> 11 - References
Coronary Heart Disease Reversal and Nutrition
Part I
Part I
1- ABSTRACT / Introduction
Many people who have been diagnosed with coronary heart disease or have suffered a heart attack are unaware of an important fact. More often than not, coronary heart disease can be reversed to some degree. The path to successful CHD reversal is usually some form of combination therapy.
Medical intervention ( angioplasty or other procedures and the prescription of drugs such as Lipitor and Crestor) combined with the appropriate nutrition or diet can make the difference between the progression of the disease and its actual reversal or regression. Over the past decades, some clinicians and researchers have been able do develop methods that achieve such reversal results.
Many people who have been diagnosed with coronary heart disease or have suffered a heart attack are unaware of an important fact. More often than not, coronary heart disease can be reversed to some degree. The path to successful CHD reversal is usually some form of combination therapy.
Medical intervention ( angioplasty or other procedures and the prescription of drugs such as Lipitor and Crestor) combined with the appropriate nutrition or diet can make the difference between the progression of the disease and its actual reversal or regression. Over the past decades, some clinicians and researchers have been able do develop methods that achieve such reversal results.
A PIONEER. Although not a physician himself, one of the grand pioneers was certainly Nathan Pritikin who was said to have reversed his own heart disease in the 1950's. According to The New England Journal of Medicine, in 1985, when he passed away, his arteries were found to be relatively free of the disease. Stunningly, his arteries were also found to be soft and pliable. His legacy is The Pritikin Longevity Center. ( www.pritikin.com ) The Pritikin organization claims to achieve coronary heart disease reversal mainly by nutritional or dietary means.
THE INFLUENCE of NUTRITION: The medical and scientific community had also been looking into the effect of a suitable nutrition on cardiovascular disease. heartMonitron will be paying particular attention to today's "heavyweights" of reversal therapy, those heavyweights are :
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?
The nutritional approaches taken by these clinicians do bear some similar features: the intake of saturated fat is minimal; the intake of wholegrain cereals and legumes is encouraged as well as a large intake of fruits and vegetables. It is no coincidence if the ingredients chosen to be part of the recipes included in the Chef GOODWIZZARD TM software are mostly wholegrain cereals, very lean sources of protein and a profusion of vegetables and fruits.
On one hand, some of the above mentioned clinicians and researchers have now seen their versions of combination therapies documented with either angiograms or P.E.T. scans, the kind of evidence one can hardly argue with ! On the other hand, the data from major medical and scientific trials conducted on the efficacy of the prescribed medication also tend to prove them right. The drugs prescribed by those cardiologists are often of the "statin" group. Statin drugs work by reducing the production of LDL-Cholesterol by the liver. In one of the studies involving just over 500 patients, it was found that in those patients treated with an aggressive daily dose of 80 mg of atorvastatin (Lipitor) the atheroma volume (plaque build-up in the arteries) had regressed from 0.625 mm to 0.591 mm on average. This is a clear indication that not only has the progression of coronary heart disease been stopped but also that it has been rolled back or reversed to some degree. Those are very good news indeed. At long last there are now means to reverse this affliction.
Describing in detail their nutritional recommendations and the medical techniques would require a massive book rather than one article. However, in this series of articles, we will present, over the next few months, the basic principles. We will start with the lessons to be drawn from Dr. Collin Campbell's "The China Study", uncovering why some areas of the world are virtually free of coronary heart disease. We will, in the following issues describe what those researchers and clinicians recommend to halt and reverse coronary heart disease.
CONCLUSION : the evidence supporting combination therapy in order to reverse coronary heart disease can be summarized by the following:
THE INFLUENCE of NUTRITION: The medical and scientific community had also been looking into the effect of a suitable nutrition on cardiovascular disease. heartMonitron will be paying particular attention to today's "heavyweights" of reversal therapy, those heavyweights are :
- Dr. COLIN T CAMPBELL PhD, Author of : "The China Study" in which he relates geographical areas free of heart disease with their traditional diet. Dr. Campbell's findings point to populations (comprising millions of people) who experience less than five percent ( < 1 / 20th ! ) the rate of cardiovascular disease experienced in the american population. the epidemiological data provided by the china report was gathered over decades. the study was supported by universities such as oxford and cornell and by the chinese government. the data can considered as most reliable and viewed as a basis to design nutritional dietary means to achieve coronary heart disease reversal.
- Dr. DEAN ORNISH MD, Director : The Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Professor of Medicine : The University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine. He his one of the leading proponents of a daily diet that promotes nutrition principles that closely match those introduced by "The China Study". Dr. Ornish is an advocate of lifestyle changes (10% fat whole foods vegetarian diet, smoking cessation, exercise, stress management). A published scientific study called "The Lifestyle Heart Trial" has validated the nutrition principles advocated by Dr. Ornish - see: The Journal of the American Medical Association Vol 280 No 23 Dec 16 1998
- Dr. CALDWELL B ESSELTSYN MD, Researcher : The Cleveland Clinic. Dr Esselstyn uses a combination therapy approach to achieve coronary heart disease reversal. Combination therapy involves using cholesterol-lowering medication with a specific heart-friendly diet. Viewing the angiograms of his follow-up volunteer patients is very convincing to say the least. His angiograms illustrate and prove the reversibility of coronary heart disease in most instances. Angiography is a special imaging technique allowing cardiologists to view the heart and the arteries that supply it with blood. The angiograms provided by Dr. Esselstyn illustrate the improvement of blood flow in patients' coronary arteries after a period of combination therapy. Those angiograms (they look a bit like x-rays) are a good demonstration of actual coronary heart disease reversal. Of course, his dietary recommendations do not include potato chips, hot dogs with a swimming pool full of cola. Dr. Esselstyn would rather have you eat the whole vegetable patch with plenty of unrefined wholegrain and very lean sources of protein ! Dr. Esselstyn is an advocate of plant-based nutrition.
- Dr. LANCE K GOULD MD, Professor of Medicine/Cardiology, The University of Texas Medical School. He is a strong advocate of a very low fat diet in combination with lipid reducing and anti-cholesterol drugs. It is heartMonitron's belief that future epidemiological studies will prove this approach to be the best of them all. This prediction is not hard to make, given that positron emission tomography ( PET Scans) has already clearly illustrated the far improved perfusion of the heart. According to Dr. Gould, the combination of a very low fat diet and lipid-reducing and anti-cholesterol drugs can reduce a person's risk of a heart attack by 90% or more. The Pet scans of Dr Gould's follow-up patients show "in colorful ways" this markedly improved perfusion (blood flow in the arteries of the heart) after a period of five years of combination therapy. These scans are a graphic illustration of coronary heart disease reversal.
- Dr. DAVID J A JENKINS, MD, PhD, Director/Clinical Nutrition, St-Michael's Hospital, The University of Toronto Medical School. The results of the study he conducted in 2003 prove the concept and validate the theories advanced by Drs. Gould, Esselstyn and Ornish.
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?
The nutritional approaches taken by these clinicians do bear some similar features: the intake of saturated fat is minimal; the intake of wholegrain cereals and legumes is encouraged as well as a large intake of fruits and vegetables. It is no coincidence if the ingredients chosen to be part of the recipes included in the Chef GOODWIZZARD TM software are mostly wholegrain cereals, very lean sources of protein and a profusion of vegetables and fruits.
On one hand, some of the above mentioned clinicians and researchers have now seen their versions of combination therapies documented with either angiograms or P.E.T. scans, the kind of evidence one can hardly argue with ! On the other hand, the data from major medical and scientific trials conducted on the efficacy of the prescribed medication also tend to prove them right. The drugs prescribed by those cardiologists are often of the "statin" group. Statin drugs work by reducing the production of LDL-Cholesterol by the liver. In one of the studies involving just over 500 patients, it was found that in those patients treated with an aggressive daily dose of 80 mg of atorvastatin (Lipitor) the atheroma volume (plaque build-up in the arteries) had regressed from 0.625 mm to 0.591 mm on average. This is a clear indication that not only has the progression of coronary heart disease been stopped but also that it has been rolled back or reversed to some degree. Those are very good news indeed. At long last there are now means to reverse this affliction.
Describing in detail their nutritional recommendations and the medical techniques would require a massive book rather than one article. However, in this series of articles, we will present, over the next few months, the basic principles. We will start with the lessons to be drawn from Dr. Collin Campbell's "The China Study", uncovering why some areas of the world are virtually free of coronary heart disease. We will, in the following issues describe what those researchers and clinicians recommend to halt and reverse coronary heart disease.
CONCLUSION : the evidence supporting combination therapy in order to reverse coronary heart disease can be summarized by the following:
The picture below shows actual P.E.T. scans from Dr. Gould's data depicting the improvement in perfusion associated with combination therapy. We will not go into the details of perfusion. Suffice to say that the top row represents the initial poor perfusion (prevalence of red and orange) ant that five years later good perfusion had returned (prevalence of blue and green) as proven by the bottom row.
The graph below presents data from twelve trials or studies showing the relationship between the level of reduction of LDL-Cholesterol and the reduction in the degree of arterial occlusion. Please note that at a given level it starts to reverse. (from lipidsonline, i.e. Bayer College of Medicine)
EFFICIENCY (QUANTIFIED)
Those graphs and stuff are fine, but how well do the work in real person. One staff member at heartMonitron suffers from hyperlipidemia (familial hypercholesterolemia). He now has four metal stents implanted in his arteries in order to keep them open. After the intervention, he has embarked on a dietary regimen that is a hybrid of all of the above-mentioned plans. His cardiologist, Dr. Derek Paul Rahal MD, is very aggressive when it comes to treating coronary heart disease. Dr. Rahal is a graduate of McGill University Medical School (one of the very best medical faculties on this planet). Dr. Rahal can sometimes be seen on the ward with a flock of medical students following him. Dr. Rahal has whacked our staff member with 80 mg atorvastatin (Lipitor) and 500 mg niacin, daily. The blood test results are almost incredible. In fact, combo machines, such as the ones bought in drugstores, reported the cholesterol to be under 115 mg/dL i.e: 3.0 millimole/L or too low to be measured by this device. The machines at the Royal Victoria Hospital (a McGill University teaching hospital) did measure it. With the staff member's permission, we publish the results of a lab report ( July 10, 2007). Total Cholesterol : 114 mg/dL or 2.94 mmol/L (the population average is 181 mg/dL or 4.7 mmol/L), LDL (bad) Cholesterol was a wonderfully low 48 mg/dL or 1.24 mmol/L (population average is 108 mg/dL or 2.20 to 3.40 mmol/L). Combination therapy does indeed work wonders in real people. HeartMonitron certifies the above stated results to be absolutely and rigorously exact. They were obtained from the Archives Dept. of RVH on March 20th, 2008, they are published with the express consent of the concerned individual.
Those graphs and stuff are fine, but how well do the work in real person. One staff member at heartMonitron suffers from hyperlipidemia (familial hypercholesterolemia). He now has four metal stents implanted in his arteries in order to keep them open. After the intervention, he has embarked on a dietary regimen that is a hybrid of all of the above-mentioned plans. His cardiologist, Dr. Derek Paul Rahal MD, is very aggressive when it comes to treating coronary heart disease. Dr. Rahal is a graduate of McGill University Medical School (one of the very best medical faculties on this planet). Dr. Rahal can sometimes be seen on the ward with a flock of medical students following him. Dr. Rahal has whacked our staff member with 80 mg atorvastatin (Lipitor) and 500 mg niacin, daily. The blood test results are almost incredible. In fact, combo machines, such as the ones bought in drugstores, reported the cholesterol to be under 115 mg/dL i.e: 3.0 millimole/L or too low to be measured by this device. The machines at the Royal Victoria Hospital (a McGill University teaching hospital) did measure it. With the staff member's permission, we publish the results of a lab report ( July 10, 2007). Total Cholesterol : 114 mg/dL or 2.94 mmol/L (the population average is 181 mg/dL or 4.7 mmol/L), LDL (bad) Cholesterol was a wonderfully low 48 mg/dL or 1.24 mmol/L (population average is 108 mg/dL or 2.20 to 3.40 mmol/L). Combination therapy does indeed work wonders in real people. HeartMonitron certifies the above stated results to be absolutely and rigorously exact. They were obtained from the Archives Dept. of RVH on March 20th, 2008, they are published with the express consent of the concerned individual.
REFERENCES:
1- AHA Journals, Circulation. "Lipid Lowering by Simvastatin Induces Regression of Human Atherosclerotic Lesions" 2002;106:2884
2- Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "Optimal Low-Density Lipoprotein is 50 to 70 mg/dl" 2004;43;2142-2146
3- The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, "Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease" www.uth.tmc.edu
4- Journal of the American College of Cardiology, " Combined Intense Lifestyle and Pharmacological Treatment Further Reduce Coronary Events..." 2003;41:263-272
5- Colin T Campbell MD, "The China Study"
6- Cornell University and Oxford: "The China Report"
1- AHA Journals, Circulation. "Lipid Lowering by Simvastatin Induces Regression of Human Atherosclerotic Lesions" 2002;106:2884
2- Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "Optimal Low-Density Lipoprotein is 50 to 70 mg/dl" 2004;43;2142-2146
3- The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, "Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease" www.uth.tmc.edu
4- Journal of the American College of Cardiology, " Combined Intense Lifestyle and Pharmacological Treatment Further Reduce Coronary Events..." 2003;41:263-272
5- Colin T Campbell MD, "The China Study"
6- Cornell University and Oxford: "The China Report"
Category : Cookbooks - Heart Health -
cholesterol management - nutrition
cholesterol management - nutrition
"The Cleveland Clinic Healthy Heart Lifestyle Guide and Cookbook"
The Cleveland Clinic Heart Center
The Cleveland Clinic Heart Center
Disclosure:This ad space is sponsored by hM, the purchase of the above, contributes to keep hM going and keep membership free for everyone
