As my patients and readers know, heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women in the United States.
So I was delighted and pleasantly shocked to see that Kim Williams, M.D. the incoming president of the American College of Cardiology has just announced that he has gone vegan! In addition, he is now recommending a vegan diet to all his patients.
As you know, the American College of Cardiology is one of the most conservative medical organizations in the world. Their focus is the treatment of heart disease with pharmaceuticals, angioplasties, and bypass surgeries.
Dr. Kim changed his diet because of an experience with a patient. He had read a nuclear scan on a patient with very high risk findings – it showed a three vessel disease pattern of reversible blood flow in the patient’s heart arteries.
Six months later, the patient came back to Dr. Kim and the nuclear testing facility. The patient had been following Dean Ornish M.D.’s program for “reversing heart disease” which is based on a plantbased diet, exercise and meditation. The patient told Dr. Kim that their chest pain had resolved in six weeks after starting this program, and the nuclear scan was then repeated. and it had become essentially normal!
This forced Dr. Kim to study the details of the plant based diet in Dr. Ornish’s many publications. Dr. Ornish has shown reversal of plaque in both one and five year studies using nuclear scans.
Dr. Kim did studies of his own and found that chicken breasts have more cholesterol (84mg/100g) than does pork (62mg/100g).
After he became vegan, within six weeks of starting the diet, his own LDL cholesterol dropped from 170 to 90.
Dr. Kim now encourages all his heart patients to go on this vegan diet.
One concern I have with Dr. Kim’s diet is he is using “meat substitutes” and recommends even a substitute of Italian sausage. Unfortunately, many of these products even though they are vegan, have chemicals and other additives that make it not the best for one’s health. Nevertheless, even with these types of foods on a vegan diet, one’s cholesterol usually drops significantly.
In his recent interview, Dr Kim laments that the American Heart Association prevention guidelines do not specifically recommend a vegan diet.
A wonderful quote from him is “Wouldn’t it be a laudable goal of the American College of Cardiology to put ourselves out of business within a generation or two? We have come a long way in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, but we still have a long way to go. Improving our lifestyles with improved diet and exercise will help get us there.”
What a wonderful thing for the incoming president of the American College of cardiology to be promoting!
If you or a loved one has cardiovascular disease, I urge you to consider a plantbased diet. Two books that will help you get there are:
Dean Ornish M.D. ’s book: The Spectrum: A Scientifically Proven
Program to Feel Better, Live Longer, Lose Weight, and Gain Health
Caldwell Esselstyn M.D. ’s book: Prevent and Reverse Heart
Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, NutritionBased Cure
10 Questions: Kim Williams, MD
Drop me a note on Facebook or Twitter and let me know your thoughts about this diet !
About Dr. Soram Khalsa
As an MD, Dr Soram specializes in Integrative Medicine combining diet, nutrition, acupuncture, herbs and nutrition. Visit Dr Soram’s Healthy Living Store where you’ll find high-quality nutritional supplements:
