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April 23 - November 14, 2023
Dr. Ornish and his colleagues showed that the lowest-tech approach—diet and lifestyle—can undeniably reverse heart disease, our leading killer.
Our diet is the number-one cause of premature death and the number-one cause of disability.
In other words, we’re living longer, but we’re living sicker.
In public health school, students learn that there are three levels of preventive medicine.
1. Primary Prevention - pill to lower high cholesterol
2. Secondary - asprin perscribed after heart attack to prevent another
3. Third level - cardiac rehabilitation program to prevent further deterioration
Proposed
4. Reduce complications of 1-3
5. Primordial Prevention - preventing the development of chronic disease i.e. preventing the onset of high cholesterol in the first place
The Simple 7” factors that can lead to a healthier life: not smoking, not being overweight, being “very active” (defined as the equivalent of walking at least twenty-two minutes a day), eating healthier (for example, lots of fruits and vegetables), having below-average cholesterol, having normal blood pressure, and having normal blood sugar levels.
No one profits from lifestyle medicine (other than the patient!), so it’s not a major part of medical training or practice.
If there’s anyone reading this over the age of ten, the question isn’t whether or not you want to eat healthier to prevent heart disease but whether or not you want to reverse the heart disease you very likely already have.
It turns out that the arteries of fetuses whose mothers had high LDL cholesterol levels were more likely to contain arterial lesions.23 This finding suggests that atherosclerosis may not just start as a nutritional disease of childhood but one during pregnancy.
To drastically reduce LDL cholesterol levels, you need to drastically reduce your intake of three things: trans fat, which comes from processed foods and naturally from meat and dairy; saturated fat, found mainly in animal products and junk foods; and to a lesser extent dietary cholesterol, found exclusively in animal-derived foods, especially eggs.26
The optimal LDL cholesterol level is probably 50 or 70 mg/dL, and apparently, the lower, the better.
To become virtually heart-attack proof, you need to get your LDL cholesterol at least under 70 mg/dL.
For those at high risk for heart disease who are unwilling or unable to bring down their cholesterol levels naturally with dietary changes, the benefits of statins generally outweigh the risks.
The reason some doctors routinely order regular blood tests for patients on these drugs is to monitor for liver toxicity.
We’ve known for nearly two decades that a single fast-food meal—Sausage and Egg McMuffins were used in the original study—can stiffen your arteries within hours, cutting in half their ability to relax normally.
Curcumin has been found to be effective against a variety of other cancer cells in vitro, including those of the breast, brain, blood, colon, kidney, liver, lungs, and skin. For reasons not fully understood, curcumin seems to leave noncancerous cells alone.20 Unfortunately, turmeric has yet to be tested in clinical trials for the prevention or treatment of lung cancer, but with no downsides at culinary doses, I’d suggest trying to find ways to incorporate the spice into your diet.
If you do fry at home, good ventilation in the kitchen may reduce lung cancer risk.
Given the excess cancer risk, the researchers concluded that it wouldn’t be safe to live near the exhaust of a Chinese restaurant for more than a day or two a month.
Studies show that the number of particles deposited into the lungs increases by a factor of ten when frying indoors versus outdoors.
Just one extra serving of fruit each day may translate into a 24 percent lower risk of dying from COPD.
What if you already have the disease? Can the same foods that appear to help prevent COPD be used to treat it?
By uping the intake of fruits and vegitables effects of COPD were halted and in some cases lung function improved
Improvements in lung function and asthma control were evident only after subjects increased their actual fruit and vegetable intake, strongly suggesting that consuming whole foods is paramount.
The two most serious brain diseases are stroke, which kills nearly 130,000 Americans each year,1 and Alzheimer’s disease, which kills nearly 85,000.2
Stroke - Brain attack
Alzheimers - Mind attack
We do know that fiber helps control your cholesterol14 and blood sugar levels,15 which can help reduce the amount of artery-clogging plaque in your brain’s blood vessels. High-fiber diets may also lower blood pressure,16 which reduces the risk of brain bleeds.
What are some of the truly potassium-rich foods? The healthiest common whole-food sources are probably greens, beans, and sweet potatoes.
Citrus fruit intake has been associated with reduced stroke risk
Higher stroke rates were found among individuals sleeping six hours or less, or nine hours or more.
Those at lowest risk got around seven or eight hours of sleep a night.
mitochondrial theory of aging—suggests that free radical damage to your cells’ power source, known as mitochondria, leads to a loss of cellular energy and function over time.
According to the theory, the resulting cellular damage is what essentially causes aging. Aging and disease have been thought of as the oxidation of the body.
You can slow down this oxidant process by eating foods containing lots of antioxidants.
One of the diseases antioxidant-rich foods may help prevent is stroke.
The food category that averages the most antioxidants is herbs and spices.
There is an emerging consensus that “what is good for our hearts is also good for our heads,
Today, we have a substantial body of evidence strongly associating atherosclerotic arteries with Alzheimer’s disease.70 Autopsies have shown repeatedly that Alzheimer’s patients tend to have significantly more atherosclerotic plaque buildup and narrowing of the arteries within the brain.
Normal resting cerebral blood flow—the amount of blood circulating to the brain—is typically about a quart per minute. Starting in adulthood, people appear to naturally lose about half a percent of blood flow per year.
Autopsies have revealed that Alzheimer’s brains have significantly more cholesterol buildup than normal brains.
Drug companies have hoped to capitalize on this connection to sell cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to prevent Alzheimer’s, but statins themselves can cause cognitive impairment, including short- and long-term memory loss.
Compared to those eating meat more than four times a week, those who have eaten vegetarian diets for thirty years or more had three times lower risk of becoming demented.
Although some remarkable benefits have been reported in anecdotal case studies with the spice turmeric,129 the best data we have on spice-based interventions for Alzheimer’s is for saffron.
The researchers concluded that even a modest reduction in meat intake could realistically cut daily AGE intake in half.152 Because sirtuin suppression is both preventable and reversible by AGE reduction, avoiding high-AGE foods is seen as potentially offering a new strategy to combat the Alzheimer’s epidemic.
Three of the most common cancers of the digestive tract kill approximately one hundred thousand Americans each year.
As explained in this paragraph:
-Colon Cancer - an fairly treatable cancer
-Pancreatic - "virtually a death sentence"
-Esophogeal - also a risk of high fatality
Starting at age fifty until age seventy-five, you should either get stool testing every year, stool testing every three years plus a sigmoidoscopy every five years, or a colonoscopy every ten years.
Why such a discrepancy? The regular use of the spice turmeric in Indian cooking has been proposed as one possible explanation.
Since fiber is found only in plant foods, it’s no surprise that the more plants you eat, the less likely you are to be constipated. For example, a study comparing thousands of omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans found that those eating strictly plant-based diets are three times more likely to have daily bowel movements.
Those who eat more high-phytate foods actually tend to have a greater bone mineral density,41 less bone loss, and fewer hip fractures.
Meat consumption was associated with increased risk of dying from cancer, dying from heart disease, and dying prematurely in general.
iron can be considered a double-edged sword—too little of it and you risk anemia, too much and you may increase risk of cancer and heart disease.
The human body has no specific mechanism to rid itself of excess iron.
Studies have found that people randomized to give regular blood donations to reduce their iron stores appear to cut their risk of getting and dying from new gut cancers by about half over a five-year period.
Pancreatic cancer is among the most aggressive forms of cancer. Untreated, most patients die two to four months after diagnosis.
