
How Not to Die from Heart Disease
Lifestyle approaches aren’t only safer and cheaper—they can work better, because they let us treat the actual cause of the disease.
Topic summary contributed by volunteer(s): John and Dawn
Angina pectoris, or simply angina, is recurring heart muscle cramping from blockage of the arteries feeding the heart (coronary arteries). Angina represents early cardiovascular disease. An ‘attack’ of angina, signified by silent, mild or crushing chest pain, may turn into a full-blown heart attack, when part of the heart muscle dies.
To prevent angina attacks, doctors prescribe blood vessel-dilating medications (e.g., nitroglycerin tablets), which patients put under the tongue when an attack begins. ‘Nitro’ works by causing nitrate release that relaxes the coronary vessel muscular walls, letting more blood flow through, but it does not address the underlying cause of chest pain symptoms.
Dr. Dean Ornish demonstrated how simply putting cardiac patients on a quasi-vegan diet, without any change in their exercise regimens, could lower patients’ angina attacks by 90% within just 24 days. And while we know that plant-based diets can reverse heart disease, dissolve plaque, and open up arteries (in many instances without drugs or surgery), physicians themselves may be preventing their patients from choosing a plant-based diet. Why? Because they often assume their patients won’t have the discipline to make fundamental changes to their diet. What’s more, traditional medicine relies more on drugs than lifestyle modifications, even when patients are faced with a choice between surgery, which contains inherent risks, and drugs with serious potential side effects.
Blockage of the coronary arteries is a direct result of buildup of LDL cholesterol that comes from eating saturated and trans fats, cholesterol found in animal products and processed foods, and lack of fiber. A plant-based diet alone may prevent angina attacks and improve heart health, but even more may be achieved by also changing modifiable behaviors using lifestyle medicine. Adding an exercise program approved by one’s physician, for example, and implementing simple stress management techniques may minimize the risk of developing heart disease.
Image Credit: Pixabay. This image has been modified.
Lifestyle approaches aren’t only safer and cheaper—they can work better, because they let us treat the actual cause of the disease.
In this “best-of” compilation of his last four year-in-review presentations, Dr. Greger explains what we can do about the #1 cause of death and disability: our diet.
Even without an exercise component, a plant-based diet can reduce angina attacks 90% within 24 days.
The improvement of arterial function on a whole food, plant-based diet appears so pronounced that cardiac patients can achieve a 90% reduction in angina attacks.
We finally discovered why a single high-fat meal can cause angina chest pain.
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The nitrate in vegetables, which the body can turn into the vasodilator nitric oxide, may help explain the role dark green leafy vegetables play in the prevention and treatment of hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart disease.
A case report in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly Journal of the American Dietetic Association) of a man who went on the Atkins diet, lost his ability to have an erection—and nearly lost his life.
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.
Dr. Dean Ornish proved decades ago that heart disease could be reversed solely with diet and lifestyle changes.