Phil Munoz
Staff Writer
What do a warrior position (yoga stance), quinoa, kale, a walk on the beach, and discussing your feelings with someone have in common? The answer is that they all prevent and work to reverse heart disease, which happens to be the number one widow or widower-maker in America. Luckily there are two peer-reviewed, cost effective, and efficient treatment options for preventing and possibly reversing heart disease.
The term heart disease describes a range of diseases that affect your blood vessels [veins, capillaries, arteries], which in turn relate to coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, heart infections, and congenital heart defects.
What is the beef with heart disease? It tops the chart as the number one killer in America, taking about 600,000 people in the United States every year–that’s one in every four deaths.Coronary heart disease alone costs the United States $108.9 billion each year.However, the majority of cases of heart diseases are avoidable. The World Health Organization says about 80 percent of cases can be tied to choices people make everyday.
If one has heart disease or want to prevent it, where should they turn? After rummaging through epidemiological, perspective, and retrospective research, two researcher doctors, Caldwell Esselstyn, MD and Dean Ornish, MD rose to the forefront for reversing heart disease.
Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s program is based solely around plant-based nutrition. His program takes patients off all animal based foods such as fish, beef, eggs and dairy and encourages patients to eat low-fat plant based foods. Patients live off an unrestricted calorie lifestyle of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes.
The results of Esselstyn’s research study were remarkable. 17 patients abided by the program for 12 years and none experienced another cardiac event. These were patients who were written off by their previous doctors to die, because prior treatment had failed to stop the progression of heart disease. Some patients’ heart disease even reversed, meaning the plaque in their arteries decreased after staying on the diet.
Dr. Dean Ornish’s study was the first research published in a peer-reviewed article to show that heart disease can be reversed. His program includes putting patients on a low-fat, vegetarian diet and an exercise program. It also includes attending support group sessions, and practicing different types of meditation techniques like yoga. His results were very similar to Dr. Esselstyn’s. Patients with very severe cases of cardiovascular disease began feeling more active, living normal lives again, and in some cases their heart disease was reversed. The number of cardiac events that occurred after putting patients on this lifestyle change was close to zero. Ornish also published research relating his lifestyle program to effectively treat prostrate cancer.
These lifestyle changes may sound extreme, and rice and beans with pico de gallo instead of Grandma’s meatloaf takes some adjusting to, but is worth a try for someone who wants to stay away from the surgeon’s knife. Bypass surgeries, angioplasties, and medications that can come with side effects and large costs. Treat the cause of the disease, not just the symptoms.
