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Heart Health Fuhrman Ornish

Support to take control of your health, reverse disease. Medically documented. ... more

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EngineerGuy

Joined: 02/28/2010

My Story:

Hi folks,

I've lived in beautiful Salt Lake City for the last 6 years (as of 2010).

I had a mild 30's crisis, and adopted the Pritikin Diet, because I thought active life was half over. Now I'm 62, and I barely notice any aging at all.

I had average atherosclerosis, based on my IMT (carotid artery ultrasound). For myself, I felt this was totally intolerable. All cardiac risk factors are exactly, identically the same risk factors as for alzheimer's disease. I need to protect the few brain cells I have!!

I adoped the Pritikin program very strictly for 2 years. I ran 4 miles 7 days a week. I ate more than 5 servings of vegetables daily, but I did not emphasize vegetables, because I thought I needed more calories than veggies offered. After 2 strict years, my IMT had significantly worsened, contrary to most person's experience with the Pritikin program.

I learned of Fuhrman while attending the Pritikin Longevity Center. I modified my program to follow Fuhrman strictly. After 2 years, my IMT cleared up. No more lipid inclusions (fat pockets) in the artery wall. The average thickness of the artery wall thinned (improved) nicely.

My motivation in creating this board is to increase be informative, if you wish to take control of your health. You can decide also to adopt Fuhrman. Please, no pressure. Just relax and look around, and maybe read one of Fuhrman's books, just for the information. Only try to adopt the program if YOU are excited that this is a great idea for YOUR health and for YOUR benefit.

Don't think you could adopt a mostly whole plant based program, with exercise and stress reduction?

Rent the movie Super Size Me (2004). This is the guy (Morgan Spurlock) who ate every meal at McDonalds for 30 days. He ate 5000 calories a day, when he needed 2500. He gained 25 pounds. At the beginning of the study, he felt good all the time, and only felt bad when he was overeating on all that food. After only 30 days, he felt bad all the time, and the only time he felt good, was when he was overeating on all that food! Food can be addictive! Did he condense into 30 days, what many of us experience over many years? We can't imagine giving up our favorite foods, because that's the best we feel all day!

Today I enjoy my Fuhrman diet just as much as I used to enjoy my steak and ice cream diet. But my diet makes me healthy today, instead of robbing me of my health.

Best regards, EngineerGuy

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Reply: josvin84

Hi Dolores, Hey, interesting thing. Nathan Pritikin felt that people were especially...

Posted by EngineerGuy

12 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:josvin84 Hi Dolores, Hey, interesting thing. Nathan Pritikin felt that people were especially...

Reply: 10 years on

Congratulation, Josvin

Posted by EngineerGuy

2 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:10 years on Congratulation, Josvin

Reply: josvin84

Hi Dolores, Sounds great ! Food for thought - suggestions for your consideration: ...

Posted by EngineerGuy

12 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:josvin84 Hi Dolores, Sounds great ! Food for thought - suggestions for your consideration: ...

Reply: Esselstyn: The most effective Heart study ever doc...

continued... BTW, I am not perfect on all these things. I sometimes eat when I am not...

Posted by EngineerGuy

2 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Esselstyn: The most effective Heart study ever documented continued... BTW, I am not perfect on all these things. I sometimes eat when I am not...

Esselstyn: The most effective Heart study ever doc...

Hi folks, Dr. Esselstyn ran the most effective treatment for heart disease, ever...

Posted by EngineerGuy

Hi folks,

Dr. Esselstyn ran the most effective treatment for heart disease, ever medically documented. He had 18 heart disease patients, who had 48 cardiac events in the 8 years prior to starting his diet, and zero cardiac events in the 22 years subsequent. These were worse heart patients than ususal. 5 were told by their cardiologists that they had less than a year to live, prior to starting Dr. Esselstyn's diet. Dr. Esselstyn's medical publications are listed on his website www.heartattackproof.com . He wrote a book "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease", at the 20 year mark.

Some may criticize this study because there was no control group. Dr. Esselstyn answers that the patients are their own control group, in that they had 48 cardiac events in the 8 years before the diet.

Dr. Ornish ran a study, with a control group randomly assigned between standard medical care, and the Ornish diet and stress relief and support. Dr. Ornish did not use statin drugs, for this study. The Ornish group had half of the heart attacks compared to the standard medical care group. This is very good, but is actually not good at all, compared to Dr. Esselstyn's results.

Why did Dr. Esselstyn do so much better than Dr. Ornish? One reason is that statins are beneficial, and do reduce heart attacks and strokes, by about 27%, in randomized trials. But I do not believe that would not account for most of the difference between the two doctor's results.

Dr. Esselstyn was very strict in the diet. Ornish allows non-fat dairy, Esselstyn allows no meat, fish, poultry or dairy. Esselstyn had his patients have a cholesterol test every 2 weeks, for the first 5 years!! He watched them very closely. All the doctors (Esselstyn, Ornish, McDougall, Fuhrman, and Mr. Pritikin) have observed that the most strict patients do the best.

In my opinion, Dr. Fuhrman has improved upon the other excellent programs. Each of these initiatives are very valuable. Dr. Fuhrman emphasizes checking for deficiencies, such as vitamin D (I was severely deficient, I found out by a blood test), Omega-3 fats, and many other other less common. Dr. Fuhrman talks about meal frequency, promoting 2 or 3 meals a day, not 6. I ate 6 meals a day for 30 years, on the Pritikin diet. Animals fed fewer meals, but same total calories, live longer.

Dr. Fuhrman emphasizes eating a wide variety of high nutrient foods. Many foods are emphasized for many benefits, including anti cancer properties.

I believe, for myself, curing my vitamin D deficiency, plus changing meal frequency, cured my occasional painful dry mouth at night, my mild but genuine occasional depression, and my 30 years of very severe lactose intolerance. These things went away, and the only changes that line up with them, is the vitamin D supplementation and meal frequency reduction.

So, what is the most important thing to do, to avoid heart disease? In my opinion, there is no single most important thing. There are over a dozen very important things. Strictly cutting out the bad stuff is critical. Being vegan most days or most weeks. Cut out the salt, oils, and simple or refined carbs. Emphasize lots of veggies. It is helpful to eat a large salad, even a small salad before every meal. Be very lean. Exercise. Lots of sleep. Do not eat ideally 4 hours before going to bed. Get hungry between meals. Do not eat until you are stuffed.

Best regards, EngineerGuyView Thread

Posted byEngineerGuy

2 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Esselstyn: The most effective Heart study ever documented Hi folks, Dr. Esselstyn ran the most effective treatment for heart disease, ever...

Reply: josvin84

Hi DMW, Thanks for the kind words. Back at u. Hi Dolores, If you like, you could...

Posted by EngineerGuy

12 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:josvin84 Hi DMW, Thanks for the kind words. Back at u. Hi Dolores, If you like, you could...

Reply: Dr Fuhrman new book The End Of Diabetes

Hi Dolores, You are right. Poor Garnet was surrounded by rich tempting food, and...

Posted by EngineerGuy

3 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Dr Fuhrman new book The End Of Diabetes Hi Dolores, You are right. Poor Garnet was surrounded by rich tempting food, and...

Reply: Fuhrman diet had better results than low fat vegan...

Hi Dolores, I might have been wrong about the Fit For Life being low fat vegan....

Posted by EngineerGuy

3 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Fuhrman diet had better results than low fat vegan, for this person Hi Dolores, I might have been wrong about the Fit For Life being low fat vegan....

Reply: Stents do not reduce heart attacks or extend lifes...

Hi Dolores, DO NOT FORGET - You are a CHAMP !! Congratulate yourself for what you...

Posted by EngineerGuy

7 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Stents do not reduce heart attacks or extend lifespan Hi Dolores, DO NOT FORGET - You are a CHAMP !! Congratulate yourself for what you...

Reply: Stents do not reduce heart attacks or extend lifes...

Hi Dolores, Since you were having a heart attack, a stent or bypass is absolutely the...

Posted by EngineerGuy

Hi Dolores,

Since you were having a heart attack, a stent or bypass is absolutely the right thing to do, as it had a great chance to minimize or prevent the damage being done by the heart attack.

For those reading, is anyone having a heart attack or stroke, RIGHT NOW?

If so, get to a hospital immediately, because as a modern miracle of medicine, a stent or bypass may be able to prevent the damage from the heart attack or stroke.

OK - happily, nobody replied that they are having a heart attack or stroke RIGHT NOW.

If you want to prevent a heart attack or stroke next month, should you go get a stent or bypass? Unfortunately, no. 70% of heart attacks or strokes occur at fresh, new plaque, which ruptures and causes a clot. The old established severe blockages often have considerable collateral circulation, and the plaque does not rupture as easily. The only way to prevent next month's heart attack is to promptly and diligently adopt a healthy lifestyle. And a diligent healthy lifestyle can take effect that quickly. Don't forget lots of sleep, too.

Dolores, eating ham in one meal on Easter, I don't think should cause a heart attack. True, Dr. Esselstyn has no tolerance for "moderation", but ham on Easter is not really "moderation". It's one meal.

Please understand, I am only trying to be helpful. Please absolutely believe that the heart attack was not "your fault". You have worked very hard to have an excellent lifestyle, and you are to be congratulated for it. You can rightfully be very proud of your accomplishments, to take control of your health.

Should you take H's advice? Well, bless H for his perseverence and dedication. But H still points to the Masai as an example of a healthy population on a program similar to his. And this is even after Dr. Mann publicly reversed himself, to Dr. Mann's credit, and stated that "The coronary arteries showed intimal thickening by atherosclerosis which equaled that of old U.S. men. The Masai vessels enlarge with age to more than compensate for this disease. It is speculated that the Masai are protected from their atherosclerosis by physical fitness which causes their coronary vessels to be capacious."(1) Ultimately, H attributed the bad results of the Masai to occasional white flour use, which H completely dreamed up. And, if H were right that occasional white flour use was the Masai's downfall, that would imply that the SAD was actually very protective against heart diesase, compared to H's program, since the SAD has vastly more white flour than the Masai, but the SAD makes less atherosclersis.

My recommendation is to carefully consider Dr. Fuhrman's recommendations, compared to your present program.

I was pretty shocked, 5 years, ago, after faithfully and strictly following the Pritikin program for 2 years, and pre vs post IMT tests showed the development of lipid inclusions (fat pockets) in my carotid arteries. Well RATS.

After 2 years on Fuhrman, (with occasional binges) my lipid inclusions are gone.

We all have different heredity. Our heredity tells us how hard we have to work to be healthy.

Below I am listing aspects of our program, only as suggestions for your consideration. Whether you decide you might work to improve some aspect of your program, only you can decide.

Are you very lean? Are you near to pinching 1 inch by the navel? Some people are very sensitive to abdominal fat, and for some sensitive people, even 5 pound of extra fat, can make problems. Do you exercise daily? Do you get plenty of sleep?

continued...

Best regards, EngineerGuy

(1) http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/95/1/26 View Thread

Posted byEngineerGuy

7 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Stents do not reduce heart attacks or extend lifespan Hi Dolores, Since you were having a heart attack, a stent or bypass is absolutely the...

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