The China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project directed by T. Colin Campbell and colleagues showed that chronic diseases, such as heart disease, are not inevitable consequences of aging.
China Study on Sudden Cardiac Death
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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
What exactly do they mean by sudden cardiac death? It’s defined as the sudden, unexpected natural death from a cardiac cause a short time (generally less than an hour) after the onset of symptoms in a person without any known previous condition.
Most people know the number one killer of both men and women in the United States is heart disease. What people may not know, though, is that, according to the American Heart Association, for the majority of Americans that die of heart disease, their first symptom occurs not years before they die, but literally minutes before they die. In our last hour on this Earth, in agony, all the dietary change in the world isn’t going to reverse our course. Even if the paramedics snatch away our milkshake, refuse to stop at our favorite fast food joint en route to the hospital, it is too late. One moment we’re talking to our family, and less than an hour later, we could be gone forever.
The number one cause of death in America is not just heart disease, but more specifically sudden cardiac death. People dropping dead in their 30s, 40s, 50s.
Is that just what happens when you get old, though? Your ticker just conks out? Your pump just wears out on you? No.
That’s why Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s work was so revolutionary. In fact, he’s the reason I chose Cornell. At the same time Ornish was studying what effect a plant-based diet was having on hundreds of people, Campbell and colleagues were studying hundreds of thousands. Here’s just one of the 894 pages of the Oxford-Cornell-China study. Let me share just one statistic.
Guizhou county, in China, where, among a population of 246,000 men, over three years, there was not a single recorded death from coronary artery disease. If that was in the U.S., that many men, it would be thousands of recorded deaths. Instead, there were none.
There’s nothing “natural” about heart disease. So, when Dr. Esselstyn talks about how most heart disease is a “toothless paper tiger that need never exist and if it does exist need never progress,” he’s not exaggerating. Nobody else has to die. Plant-based diets can prevent, successfully treat, and even reverse our number one killer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Zheng ZJ, Croft JB, Giles WH, Mensah GA. Sudden Cardiac Death in the United States, 1989 to 1998. Circulation. 2001 Oct 30;104(18):2158-63.
- Kong MH, Fonarow GC, Peterson ED, Curtis AB, Hernandez AF, Sanders GD, Thomas KL, Hayes DL, Al-Khatib SM. Systematic review of the incidence of sudden cardiac death in the United States. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2011 Feb 15;57(7):794-801.
- Esselstyn CB Jr. Resolving the Coronary Artery Disease Epidemic Through Plant-Based Nutrition. Prev Cardiol. 2001 Autumn;4(4):171-177.
- Campbell TC, Parpia B, Chen J. Diet, lifestyle, and the etiology of coronary artery disease: the Cornell China study. Am J Cardiol. 1998 Nov 26;82(10B):18T-21T.
- Diet, Life-style and Mortality in China. A Study of the Characteristics of 65 Chinese Counties: Chen J., Campbell T.C., Li J., Peto R. Oxford University Press, (Oxford, U.K.), Cornell University Press, (Ithaca, NY), People's Medical Publishing House (Beijing PRC), 894 pp. 1991.
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
What exactly do they mean by sudden cardiac death? It’s defined as the sudden, unexpected natural death from a cardiac cause a short time (generally less than an hour) after the onset of symptoms in a person without any known previous condition.
Most people know the number one killer of both men and women in the United States is heart disease. What people may not know, though, is that, according to the American Heart Association, for the majority of Americans that die of heart disease, their first symptom occurs not years before they die, but literally minutes before they die. In our last hour on this Earth, in agony, all the dietary change in the world isn’t going to reverse our course. Even if the paramedics snatch away our milkshake, refuse to stop at our favorite fast food joint en route to the hospital, it is too late. One moment we’re talking to our family, and less than an hour later, we could be gone forever.
The number one cause of death in America is not just heart disease, but more specifically sudden cardiac death. People dropping dead in their 30s, 40s, 50s.
Is that just what happens when you get old, though? Your ticker just conks out? Your pump just wears out on you? No.
That’s why Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s work was so revolutionary. In fact, he’s the reason I chose Cornell. At the same time Ornish was studying what effect a plant-based diet was having on hundreds of people, Campbell and colleagues were studying hundreds of thousands. Here’s just one of the 894 pages of the Oxford-Cornell-China study. Let me share just one statistic.
Guizhou county, in China, where, among a population of 246,000 men, over three years, there was not a single recorded death from coronary artery disease. If that was in the U.S., that many men, it would be thousands of recorded deaths. Instead, there were none.
There’s nothing “natural” about heart disease. So, when Dr. Esselstyn talks about how most heart disease is a “toothless paper tiger that need never exist and if it does exist need never progress,” he’s not exaggerating. Nobody else has to die. Plant-based diets can prevent, successfully treat, and even reverse our number one killer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Zheng ZJ, Croft JB, Giles WH, Mensah GA. Sudden Cardiac Death in the United States, 1989 to 1998. Circulation. 2001 Oct 30;104(18):2158-63.
- Kong MH, Fonarow GC, Peterson ED, Curtis AB, Hernandez AF, Sanders GD, Thomas KL, Hayes DL, Al-Khatib SM. Systematic review of the incidence of sudden cardiac death in the United States. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2011 Feb 15;57(7):794-801.
- Esselstyn CB Jr. Resolving the Coronary Artery Disease Epidemic Through Plant-Based Nutrition. Prev Cardiol. 2001 Autumn;4(4):171-177.
- Campbell TC, Parpia B, Chen J. Diet, lifestyle, and the etiology of coronary artery disease: the Cornell China study. Am J Cardiol. 1998 Nov 26;82(10B):18T-21T.
- Diet, Life-style and Mortality in China. A Study of the Characteristics of 65 Chinese Counties: Chen J., Campbell T.C., Li J., Peto R. Oxford University Press, (Oxford, U.K.), Cornell University Press, (Ithaca, NY), People's Medical Publishing House (Beijing PRC), 894 pp. 1991.
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China Study on Sudden Cardiac Death
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For more on plant-based diets and cardiovascular health, check out these videos:
Why Was Heart Disease Rare in the Mediterranean?
Cholesterol Crystals May Tear Through Our Artery Lining
Heart Disease Starts in Childhood
Be sure to check out Our Number One Killer Can Be Stopped as well as Resuscitating Medicare, and don’t forget all my other videos on heart health and heart disease.
Check out my associated blog posts for more context: Heart disease: there is a cure; Magnesium-Rich Foods to Prevent Sudden Death; Eating To Extend Our Lifespan; and Treating Crohn’s Disease With Diet.
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