New Hope...

It is good to feel oneself empowered, to feel one has choice, that one has control. After suffering the heart attack I had endured a long period where this did not feel to be the case. On the contrary, the feeling had been one of not being in control, of having no choice, of being helpless. Learning about the work of Doctor Esselstyn, understanding the experiments and studies on which it was based, and finally, with some relish, consuming his excellent book 'Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease' all helped to completely change my mindset.

Esselstyn had been a very successful surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic following his return from service during the Vietnam conflict. At this stage of his career he had focussed on the treatment of cancer but became interested in cardiac problems when he began to realise how reactive the traditional treatments were. For the most part, they were focussed on repairing the damage done rather than preventing further damage or even preventing the conditions altogether.

At first his thinking was influenced by several epidemiological studies involving countries where the diets were fundamentally different to the United States with its reliance on dairy, meat, processed and fast foods. As he examined the evidence it became clearer and clearer that countries that avoided the excesses of the Western diet seemed to have much lower instances of coronary disease. Another factor that emerged from examining these studies was that as countries, such as Japan, began to adopt a diet high in dairy, meat and processed foods so their rates of cardiac problems increased. There was also a curious benefit for many countries during World War 2. In many lands there was a shortage of meat and dairy because of occupation, supply problems and rationing. In many of these countries the health of the population actually improved as their diets became simpler and more plant based. Following the war and the ending of these restrictions (and the return of meat and dairy) the problems had returned.

My own personal experience seemed to confirm many of Esselstyn's findings. I had the privilege of travelling to India and Nepal about 25 years back and then, six months later, I found myself in Florida in the US. The contrast was huge and unmissable and I struggled to comprehend the number of obese people I came across. This was my first visit to the States and I was ill prepared for the bombardment of fast food that was awaiting me. I remember one particular occasion where I stopped at a 'Wendys' and ordered pancakes and coffee. Within minutes I found myself confronted by a pile of about seven pancakes smothered in syrup with a dollop of ice cream placed on top. Manfully, or at least I thought so at the time, I ploughed through this mountain of 'food' only to find that the waitress wanted to replace it with even more when I finished, for no extra charge. Generous as this was, I realised that it was far from healthy. The same with the coffee; ordering a coffee seemed to entail a bottomless jug of the stuff.

I was aware at the time of the health and diet problems of the United States but, at this stage, it had not become a personal issue. Over the years I became aware of how the changing diet in the UK, leaning more and more towards the American model, was adversely affecting the health of the nation and producing more and more obese (a comfortable euphemism, we used to simply say 'fat'!) people.

Back in those days I would go swimming on a regular basis and would often come across classes of kids waiting to get into the pool following the adult session. As a child there would sometimes be one 'fatty' to a class, often the unfortunate recipient of many a jibe. Looking at the average class in the 1990's there were suddenly about 25% of the kids who would comfortably qualify for this category. It is much worse now, the obese kid has de facto more or less become the norm.

I am also someone who likes to travel on a frequent basis. On these travels over the years one could visibly see how changes in diet, mostly moving closer and closer to the American model, was affecting the populace. Places where one would rarely see anyone particularly overweight were increasingly filled with youngsters struggling with these issues. Even such places as China and Thailand were clearly becoming increasing and negatively affected.

 These are, of course, subjective opinions on my part but for all the controversy of the debate I feel one should not ignore the evidence of one's own eyes. Statistics and studies can be bandied about endlessly as people attempt to justify the excesses of the Americanised diet but the reality of its effects are often to be see all too obviously in the physique of people ingesting it.  

Esselstyn decided to run his own study with a group of severely incapacitated heart patients. The patients referred to him were mostly considered beyond the reach of the conventional medical interventions employed at the time so, for many of them, Esselstyn's study offered a last resort. The main emphasis in the study he designed was dietary: these patients were asked to keep their diet to plant based foods and avoid all diary, meat, fish, excess sugars, oils and processed foods. I will go into more exact details of his dietary recommendations in a later blog but, for now, merely give a basic outline. The experiment was a great success, almost all of the patients not only surviving much longer than their prognosis but actually returning to good health.

This return to good health is the moot point in all this. On Esselstyn's diet not only did most of his patients halt the progress of the disease, something that was thought to be highly problematic at the time, but they actually managed to reverse it. Angiograms show evidence of previously diseased arteries returning to health, a phenomenon thought impossible previously. Esselstyn for his part had always been an advocate of the bodies remarkable abilities to repair itself if given the building blocks to do so.

I think for my own part, the images of the recovered arteries were perhaps the most compelling evidence. Such pictures offered the hope that not only could I avoid further deterioration but could actually repair the damage done and become fit and healthy once again.

 Despite the nay sayers and critics that I found on the internet the evidence seemed compelling enough for me to embark on this diet...