Heart Bi-Pass

Yesterday we went to Green Bay so my mom could get an angiogram. As I sat in the cardiac unit, I watched an employee eat her breakfast at her desk. She sat there with a bowl of sausage link for breakfast. This somehow seemed like it was oxymoronish to me. I went down to the cafeteria to get something to eat and my choices were eggs, hash browns, white bread, bagels (made from enriched white flour), sausage links, bacon, yogurt, oatmeal, bananas and apples. There were muffins of all kinds, danishes and cookies all over. There was also a guy behind the counter making omeletts by the order.

Shouldn't a hospital be the one to take the initiative and "show" people healthy eating? Whole grain bread would be a great start and fat free and vegan entrees would also be great to see. But, I suppose--hospitals are "for profit". They are not there to make people well, they are there to make money by treating the problem. If they told people how to prevent health issues, it wouldn't be a billion dollar industry.

Back to my mom and the reason we were there....
She is a smoker and has never eaten well--so at the age of 56 years old she has 70 % blockage in two arteries and 90% in one as well as a leaky valve.

I can't say I was surprised. Before the procedure I asked the cardiologist if blockage can be reverse by lifestyle and diet. He told me flat out, "no, you can prevent more blockage by changing your diet, but you cannot reverse heart disease without surgery". This is a blatant LIE.

The head cardiologist of the Cleveland Clinic has PROVEN different. Surgery is NOT the only way to reverse and cure heart disease. See the link above for the facts.

After talking about the medication my mom is on, and discussing her lupus--the cardiologist change his recommendation from bi-pass surgury to bi-pass surgury is too risky.

She has a choice. She can quit smoking immediately and change her diet DRASTICALLY to reverse the effects or die. The blockage isn't the biggest concern...the blood will find a new way around. The concern is that the plaques will break off and cause a stroke. A diet rich in antioxidants will help prevent the plaques from breaking off.

A healthy diet and lifestyle is the key to life. Below are resources.
http://http://www.ravediet.com/

Below is information I pasted from a blog. This person has all of the info needed on his site. Click on the link:
http://http://soulveggie.blogs.com/my_weblog/2008/06/dietary-time-bo.html


"...Every forkful of fat, he says, causes an immediate biochemical assault on the endothelium, the lining of the arteries. White blood cells collect there, gobbling up bad cholesterol and creating fatty deposits over time. For many people, especially those who smoke or have other risk factors, accumulation of plaque is a time bomb for a coronary event..."

"...What really keeps me on fire about this is we have an epidemic of disease in this country that doesn't need to exist," Esselstyn said in an interview. "It's so ridiculously simplistic to turn around this epidemic, it's scary..."

"...Esselstyn has turned his life's work to demonstrating that heart disease doesn't need to exist in the first place. And if it does, it can be reversed. The remedy is a plant-based diet, he says. Learn to live with no meat, no fish, no dairy or oils of any kind, and make yourself "heart-attack proof.""

The above is excerpted from the article here (and below), although one of the "experts" quoted seems to think that 20 years of peer-reviewed research that clearly demonstrated reversal of heart disease, by two different doctors separated by 1000s of miles "is not proof." How absurd. But then, I've taken a lot of flack since interviewing Esselstyn. Over the past 16 or 17 months, following his diet, and losing my taste for the added fat or oil, has made me at odds with some friends, family, and other vegans. One vegan blogger said he would have to "agree to disagree" with Caldwell's research! (Yeah, sorry Mr. Newton, this "gravity" you speak of makes no sense... have to disagree with you).

It's also ironic, too, that some of the VegNews "VegBloggy" (past and present) winners unconsciously extoll unnecessary fat in their recipes. One of them has promoted high-fat cheese substitutes and high-fat processed vegan dressings, and another recently praised Pringles for her kid's lunch (essentially processed potatoes, salt, and fat).

What Drs. Esselstyn and Ornstein have discovered is of vital importance to all vegans and vegetarians (let alone the general populace). Adding fat to your diet is essentially creating a ticking internal time bomb that has a high percentage chance of blowing up when you are in your 40s and beyond. The accumulated abuse over decades of adding unnecessary fat to your diet, for most people, will enable heart disease to manifest and your health deterioriate. It's probably not a coincidence that Dr. Barnard has cited proof that a no-added fat vegan diet also reverses diabetes in most cases, and is probably a preventative there as well.

So, if you've the discipline to give up meat, eggs, and dairy, then why not take the last crucial step of eliminating added fat to your diet? Some might say, "life without oil isn't worth living," but I would counter that, "life with oil will most likely kill you." Try it for two months. You've only your long-term health to gain. Heart disease is the biggest killer of men and women in this country (irrespective of whether they are vegan or not).
Be a healthy vegan... stop with the oil. Here's four fine places to start:
http://www.fatfreevegan.com
http://www.fatfree.com
http://www.pcrm.org/health/Recipes/
http://www.heartattackproof.com

FROM:http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2008/06/exsurgeon_caldwell_esselstyn_e.html
Ex-surgeon Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. espouses a noninvasive cure for heart disease
Thomas Ondrey/The Plain Dealer Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. and his wife Ann, in pink, consult with a couple interested in his plant-based diet for coronary heart disease, in the kitchen of his home.Read excerpts from the book: "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure."
Esselstyn's rules to live by

• No meat, poultry, fish, dairy products or oils
• Eat vegetables (except avocado), fruits, legumes and whole grain products.

His Web site: http://www.Heartattackproof.com

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. has no qualms about stepping inside the nation's No. 1 heart hospital and dishing on angioplasty.

Invasive treatment is a mainstay of cardiac care, and it pays the bills. It's also what's wrong with medicine, says the retired Cleveland Clinic surgeon who has been affiliated with the hospital for 40 years.

Esselstyn has turned his life's work to demonstrating that heart disease doesn't need to exist in the first place. And if it does, it can be reversed. The remedy is a plant-based diet, he says.
Learn to live with no meat, no fish, no dairy or oils of any kind, and make yourself "heart-attack proof."

Most doctors would agree a strict vegetarian diet is good for the heart. But the idea that a diet free of animal products and fat can cure the No. 1 killer in America is a point of debate among doctors.

Drug companies are in fierce competition to find a cholesterol drug that does what Esselstyn argues can be done better through diet. The call to attack artery-clogging plaque naturally is a challenge to the medical profession and an unspoken threat to the bottom line of the medical industry.

But Esselstyn has the audacity to take his message to Cosgrove Country, where Clinic chief Toby Cosgrove is building a glassy new center for heart treatment while also trying to build a reputation for prevention and wellness programs.

One recent morning, Esselstyn slipped on a white lab coat and told a group assembled in a Clinic classroom that treating heart disease with stents and statins is not the answer. He implored them to accept that the body, given the right fuel, can restore coronary arteries damaged by the fatty Western diet.

Why a stent when the right diet will do?

Esselstyn, a stalky 6-foot-3 former Olympic gold medalist, pointed to white branches of the heart's plumbing system illuminated on an overhead screen. They were X-rays of arteries belonging to patients who took up his nutrition program. The X-rays showed vessels narrowed by disease that appeared to open after patients shunned burgers and fries for greens and grains.

"Why do you have to have an operation or stent?" Esselstyn asked rhetorically. "Your body can do this so simply."

Esselstyn and his wife, Ann, have followed a plant-based, oil-free diet for more than 20 years. He has studied a number of heart patients under his counsel during that time and reports their remarkable success in a recently published a book called "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease."
He lives in Pepper Pike and is part of a small fraternity of prevention activists who say a vegetarian diet can protect the heart, the best known of whom is best-selling author Dr. Dean Ornish.

"What really keeps me on fire about this is we have an epidemic of disease in this country that doesn't need to exist," Esselstyn said in an interview. "It's so ridiculously simplistic to turn around this epidemic, it's scary."

A diet that calls for extreme discipline

Simplistic perhaps, but demanding. The Esselstyn diet means never saying you ate "pretty good," or you only had a little ice cream.

Thomas Ondrey/The Plain Dealer The Esselstyn file
• Age: 74
• Member of Yale rowing team that won gold medal in 1956 Olympics.
• U.S. Army surgeon during the Vietnam War.
• Married to Ann Crile Esselstyn (above), granddaughter of Cleveland Clinic co-founder Dr. George Crile.

• Cleveland Clinic surgeon for 31 years.

• Quote: "I became disillusioned with a lot of what we were doing in medicine. No matter how many operations I did, I wasn't doing anything for the next victim."
Every forkful of fat, he says, causes an immediate biochemical assault on the endothelium, the lining of the arteries. White blood cells collect there, gobbling up bad cholesterol and creating fatty deposits over time.

For many people, especially those who smoke or have other risk factors, accumulation of plaque is a time bomb for a coronary event.

It might take something like that to convince an average meat-eater to adopt the Esselstyn diet. Even then, you wonder how many people at a heart attack survivors' convention would line up at his table.

Many doctors might agree with Esselsytn, but few are likely to push the no-mercy diet on patients, simply because it's thought to be unachievable.

"This diet is looked at as extreme as you can get, so many physicians instead of going to the extreme, go somewhere in the middle," said Dr. Joe Crowe, director of the breast center at the Clinic.

Crowe has followed Esselstyn's program since he suffered a heart attack at age 44 in 1996. He learned a new way of eating and said that once your taste buds adjust, you stop liking the taste of fat. You learn which restaurants to eat at and how to navigate social functions, which for Crowe involves moving stuff around the plate "so it looks like I've eaten something."

He was lean and healthy, with no sign of heart trouble when his heart attack struck. He learned that the lower third of a main artery leading to the front of his heart was significantly narrowed. They call this vessel the "widow maker." Crowe wasn't a candidate for surgical intervention, so he turned to Esselstyn. Two-and-a-half years later, an angiogram showed the diseased artery was normal.

A need for large-scale trials?

Esselstyn has meticulously followed more than a dozen patients with advanced coronary disease who adopted his program. He writes in his book that patients saw cholesterol levels plummet and their angina disappear. After five years, 11 patients who underwent follow-up angiograms had stopped or reversed progression of the disease, he wrote.

"Patients with heart disease and their families, their greatest fear is when the next shoe is going to drop," Esselstyn said. "This is a very powerful gift they have given themselves and their families."

He counts cardiologists among those who have come knocking at his door for help. But he is first to admit he has not won a large number of believers at the Clinic. He tiptoes carefully on the subject of how his mantra plays there.

Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Clinic, said Esselstyn's premise is unproven because nobody has conducted a rigorous study to show whether diet alone can reverse coronary disease.

"This is the reality," Nissen said. "We do the large-scale trials that somebody has to fund."
Nissen also cautioned that there is no "one-size-fits-all" answer for patients at risk for heart trouble. "I generally advise patients don't go out and buy a book and decide that's what you're going to do," he said.

But medicine should be a forum for different ideas, Nissen said.
On that count, the Clinic has made room for Essesltyn in his second career (he retired from surgery in 2000). He is part of the hospital's new Wellness Institute, headed by celebrity health guru Dr. Michael Roizen.

Esselstyn's wife, Ann, who is granddaughter of Clinic co-founder George Crile, is also a partner in his efforts. She authored a chapter in the book and contributed a volume of recipes, from banana french toast to veggie stuffed peppers.

Ann asks people she meets right off what they ate for lunch.

Together they counsel patients in their home, hosting four-hour sessions on how to shop, cook and eat in ways that most people never contemplated.

Ann accompanied her husband on his recent Clinic lecture, cradling a bundle of leafy greens to demonstrate the art of stripping leaf from stem.
Who knows? In an institution known for th"e best cardiac treatment in the world, kale and collard greens might be just what the doctor ordered.
2008.06.11 at 10:59 Permalink
Technorati Tags: diabetes, diet, fat free, heart disease, no fat, non-fat, recipes, vegan, vegetarian

Is Anybody Out There?!?!?

Hey, I'm still here! Still alive, I decided I needed to prioritize my life. Unfortunately, I had to put sleep ahead of blogging.

Life is good.

The custody thing is over and my little one now goes to see her father every other weekend. The judge did specify "no alcohol in the presence of R". That is a great rule and keeps things in check when she is with her father. I'm doing ok with it. The first weekend was really hard--I just cried and cried. But, now, I accept it--even though I don't like giving up my time with her.

A friend once told me that eventually his social life would take precedence over visitation with his daughter. Well, it has already begun. He did not pick her up Friday night...he told me it was because he was tired, but I know better. When he asked if I could keep her Friday night I was happy and told him I'd love to keep her. I don't care what his reasons are, it's more time I get with her. He picked her up Sat and then his mom babysat Sunday while he went golfing from noon until I picked her up @ 4.

I'm focusing on the positive.

The relationship is going well....
I'll be in the U.P. and WI next week with my mom. She is going to the hospital in Green Bay WI so they can see if there is blockage in her heart.....

I should have plenty of time next week for posting....and refection......