Undo It!: How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases

by Dean Ornish

A review of all eight randomized controlled trials concluded that stents don’t prevent heart attacks, don’t reduce the need for bypass surgery, and don’t prolong life in patients with stable coronary heart disease! Then it was thought that even if angioplasties and stents didn’t prevent heart attacks, at least they reduced angina (chest pain), which justified doing these operations. However, a recent randomized controlled trial proved that patients who underwent sham (fake) angioplasties and stent placements (where they put a tube into the heart that is usually used to place a stent but pulled the tube out without doing anything) had reductions in chest pain comparable to those who actually had the stents placed. In other words, the angioplasties and stents did not reduce angina more than doing nothing. “All cardiology guidelines should be revised,” Dr. David L. Brown of Washington University School of Medicine and Rita F. Redberg of UCSF wrote in an editorial published with this study in the Lancet entitled, “Last Nail in the Coffin for PCI [Stents] in Stable Angina?”