The End of Heart Disease: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease PDF
Preview The End of Heart Disease: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease
The results of any diet or medical intervention can vary from person to person. Some people have a medical history and/or condition that may warrant individualized recommendations and, in some cases, drugs and even surgery. Do not start, stop, or change medication without professional medical advice, and do not change your diet if you are ill or on medication except under the supervision of a competent physician. Neither this nor any other book is intended to take the place of personalized medical care or treatment. A CAUTION TO THE READER If you are taking any medication, especially medication for diabetes or high blood pressure, do not make dietary changes without the assistance of a physician, as your medication will need adjustment to prevent excessive lowering of your blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Very low blood glucose levels (hypoglycemia) and low blood pressure (hypotension) from using too much medication can be dangerous. This dietary program is very effective at lowering both, so any medication you are on for either of these conditions will need to be adjusted and, with time, maybe discontinued. Hypoglycemia and hypotension can cause weakness and fainting, which can lead to a fall or a motor vehicle accident. The overuse of blood pressure medication can even damage your kidneys. Because this nutritional program is so effective at reversing heart disease, dropping body weight, and reversing diabetes, it is even more important to consult with a knowledgeable physician who is familiar with reducing medication as a result of aggressive dietary modifications. Do not underestimate the effectiveness of this program. Many physicians, not realizing how effective this diet-style is, may be hesitant to taper medications sufficiently. Make sure you warn your physician about this and follow your blood pressure and blood sugar levels more carefully, especially over the first few weeks after you begin this plan. I discuss medications in more detail and give more guidance for their reduction for you and your physician later in this book. However, you must be aware that a book cannot take the place of individualized counseling from a physician who knows your medical condition. It is your responsibility to work with your physician to assure that your blood sugar and blood pressure readings are neither too high nor too low. Note: The cases in this book are all real, but some of the names have been modified or omitted for privacy purposes. Dedication I dedicate this book to physicians who utilize Lifestyle Medicine, showing they care by spending the extra time to communicate and motivate their patients to take control of their health, despite the challenges and resistance of society and even their peers. Millions of human life years have been saved by their dedication. Contents DEDICATION INTRODUCTION: The Heart of the Matter ONE: Food Can Either Kill or Heal, the Choice Is Yours TWO: Bypassing Angioplasty THREE: Nutritional Excellence, Not Drugs FOUR: The Nutritional Path to Reversing Disease FIVE: Fat-Food Nation: The Science of Fat SIX: Salt Is a Four-Letter Word SEVEN: Comparing Cardioprotective Diets EIGHT: The Nutritarian Plan NINE: The End of Heart Disease Recipes TEN: Your Questions Answered A LETTER OF PROMISE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS REFERENCES INDEX ABOUT THE AUTHOR PRAISE ALSO BY JOEL FUHRMAN, M.D. CREDITS COPYRIGHT ABOUT THE PUBLISHER INTRODUCTION The Heart of the Matter Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. In fact, cardiovascular diseases claim more lives than all forms of cancer combined. About half of these needless deaths are caused by sudden cardiac death. This means a person dies immediately after symptoms begin, or within a short time afterward. The cause of sudden cardiac death can vary from an obstructive clot to a fatal arrhythmia. Another common cause is enlargement of the heart, specifically, left ventricular hypertrophy caused by many years of high blood pressure. Fifty-five percent of the men and 68 percent of the women who die of sudden cardiac death have no prior warning of significant heart disease. Heart disease kills many people many years prematurely, and most of them do not even make it to the hospital alive. I am reasonably certain that the nutritional program in these pages can make it almost impossible for you to have a heart attack or to experience sudden cardiac death. Not only that, this program is effective even if you presently have advanced heart disease. It can radically lower your cholesterol and blood pressure, and it can reverse obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) so effectively that it obliterates the need for angioplasty and bypass surgery. Unless you are one of the fewer than 1 percent of people who has advanced valve damage, a genetic defect, or electrical pathway disease, you should be able to reverse any heart disease you now have. In other words, you will not merely lower your cholesterol, but you will also remedy other risk factors. By following this nutritional plan, you will • Lower and normalize your blood pressure • Lower your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol • Lower your weight, body fat, and waist measurements • Lower your fasting glucose levels and resolve diabetes (type 2) • Restore normal bowel function • Improve your immune function, lowering the risk of infection • Maintain your youthful vigor as you age, and age more slowly This approach is the most effective and safest way to lower your blood pressure and cholesterol. But more importantly, I give you information that will assure you that you most likely will never have a heart attack. This is potentially lifesaving information. When you lower your cholesterol and blood pressure through superior nutrition, you lower your risk of heart disease much more radically than by using cholesterol-lowering drugs and blood pressure medication alone. Other nutritional programs have demonstrated, in clinical practice and research trials, effective protection against and reversal of heart disease. As one would expect, those programs are similar to this one. Effective nutritional interventions must have significant similarities, or they would not be effective. But the information presented in this book takes this science a step further. Based on my twenty-five years of clinical experience reversing heart disease in thousands of patients through nutritional excellence, this book provides the clinical protocols, the medical management, and the detailed application information not merely to prevent and reverse heart disease, but also to prevent sudden cardiac death, stroke, and dementia. My experience with thousands of patients has also given me invaluable insight so that I can give you the information that allows you to tailor the protocol to your individual needs. What you learn here will help you overcome obstacles to effective dietary change, especially since dietary change can be challenging and unhealthy foods are highly addictive. Existing heart ailments, obstructive atherosclerosis, and CAD can improve and eventually resolve. In addition, you can gradually reduce and eventually eliminate your need for medications that treat high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. This book delivers the most effective method to lose weight, lower cholesterol and high blood pressure, and reverse heart disease, and it makes most medical care and medical interventions for heart disease obsolete. Plus, the results happen quickly in most cases, immediately lowering risk and within a few months entirely removing the risk of ever having a heart attack. Over the past twenty-five years, I have counseled thousands of patients who’ve had advanced heart disease, many of whom experienced angina (chest pain) or were told they needed urgent bypass surgery or angioplasty. Not one of the individuals who followed my nutritional recommendations ever had a heart attack or died from heart disease. I do believe that the risk goes down gradually, over time, when a person follows such a heart-protective diet-style. I do not think the first week, or even the first month, will offer total protection against heart attacks, but as months pass, I am certain that a heart attack would be an incredibly rare occurrence. In my opinion, this lifesaving book should be distributed to every heart patient in the United States because conventional care, with its usual poor outcome, is bad medicine. Cardiac patients typically worsen and usually die of heart disease despite the finest medical management. Every physician caring for people presenting with heart disease should offer them the information found in this book. Not informing patients about this simple advice—advice that could make the difference between life and death—should be considered malpractice. Patients are not given the information they need to make a definitive decision to not have a heart attack. Many may choose to eat the heart disease–causing Standard American Diet (SAD) and sprinkle a few drugs on top to try to lessen the risk a bit. That’s their choice. But others—and I hope this is you—will do more. They will say “No!” to angina and heart attack. They will learn that superior nutrition can reverse and prevent heart disease, and save them from getting some other diseases as well. If what I am saying is true, and if what I call a Nutritarian diet-style is this effective, then the foundation of traditional cardiology is subpar, even negligent. If a patient with heart disease is not told about effective dietary interventions and instead is offered only drugs; invasive, interventional procedures; and surgeries, then that person is denied informed consent. That patient has effectively been corralled into risky interventions that are expensive and high-tech—and mostly do not work.
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