Dr. Soram's Integrative Medicine
Practical Complementary and Alternative Medicine
.aspx)
And while heart disease is a widely known illness — and the leading cause of death in the United States — there are actually several different “types of heart disease” that fall under the classification of heart disease.
Heart disease, often referred to as cardiovascular disease, is defined as any condition that affects your heart. It is the number one worldwide killer of both men and women and takes approximately 2,500 American lives each day.
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 !
There are 15 major causes of death in the United States. My colleague Michael Gregor M.D. has pointed out that the majority of these diseases are “foodborne illnesses”.
I have the pleasure to present to you this lecture by Dr. Gregor in which he discusses the 15 major causes of death in America and how the foods in our diet all contribute or cause to these major causes of death. Focusing on studies published just over the last year in peer-reviewed scientific medical journals, Dr. Greger offers practical advice on how best to feed ourselves and our families to prevent, treat, and even reverse many of the top 15 killers in the United States.
If you like this video, you can buy it at Amazon here as a DVD to share with your friends.
I am delighted to have the privilege to have a several part interview with Dr. Gregor coming up on my podcasts in the near future. Check my website for the exact date.
I also encourage you to check out his website HERE where you can subscribe to his latest daily 2 minute videos about health and diet.
What are your thoughts about the diet that Dr. Gregor talks about in this video? Do you have friends or relatives who are following that diet? Are they in better health as a result of it? Let me know.
