Pritikin

Topic summary contributed by volunteer(s): Randy

Along with the work of Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, research from engineer, Nathan Pritikin has shown that plant-based diets can both stop heart disease and even, in a majority of patients, reverse it (see also here, here). Pritikin began reversing heart disease with low-fat, whole food plant-based diets back in the 1970s. Plant-based diets may also reduce benign prostate cell growth and even help reverse cancer growth by lowering circulating IGF1 levels. Combining such diets with exercise may be even more effective in trying to treat cancer.

For substantiation of any statements of fact from the peer-reviewed medical literature, please see the associated videos below.

17 videos

All Videos for Pritikin

Evidence-Based Weight Loss – Live Presentation

In this live presentation, Dr. Greger offers a sneak peek into his book How Not to Diet.

CHIP: The Complete Health Improvement Program

Learn about this community-based education program informing physicians and patients alike about the power of nutrition as medicine.

What Is the Optimal Diet?

The CHIP program has attempted to take the pioneering lifestyle medicine work of Pritikin and Ornish and spread it into the community.

How Not to Die: An Animated Summary

We have tremendous power over our health destiny and longevity.

The Problem with the Paleo Diet Argument

The Paleolithic period represents just the last two million years of human evolution. What did our bodies evolve to eat during the first 90% of our time on Earth?

From Table to Able: Combating Disabling Diseases with Food

Dr. Greger has scoured the world’s scholarly literature on clinical nutrition and developed this new presentation based on the latest in cutting-edge research exploring the role diet may play in preventing, arresting, and even reversing some of our leading causes of death and disability.

Cavities and Coronaries: Our Choice

Coronary heart disease, our #1 cause of death, was found to be almost non-existent in a population eating a diet centered around whole plant foods.

person sitting in wheelchair in a garden

Treating Multiple Sclerosis with the Swank MS Diet

A plant-based diet may not only be the safest treatment for multiple sclerosis; it may also be the most effective.

How Plant-Based to Lower IGF-1?

Those eating vegan had significantly lower IGF-1 levels and higher IGF-binding proteins than those just eating vegetarian, suggesting that the more plant-based one’s diet becomes, the lower one’s risk of fueling growth hormone-dependent cancer growth.

The Answer to the Pritikin Puzzle

Lower cancer rates among those eating a plant-based diet may be a result of reduced blood levels of IGF-1, and enhanced production of IGF-1 binding protein.

Prostate vs. a Plant-Based Diet

Eating a plant-based diet may protect against BPH (benign prostatic hypertrophy, an enlarged prostate).

Is It the Diet, the Exercise, or Both?

Whose blood is better at killing cancer cells? People who eat a standard diet and exercise strenuously, or those who eat a plant-based diet and just exercise moderately?

Ex Vivo Cancer Proliferation Bioassay

Two weeks on a plant-based diet appears to significantly enhance cancer defenses against breast cancer and colon cancer cells. The blood of those eating a vegan diet for a year suppresses cancer cell growth nearly eight times better.

Engineering a Cure

Lifestyle medicine pioneer Nathan Pritikin, who reversed his own heart disease through diet and went on to help millions of others, wasn’t a doctor or dietician, but an engineer.

Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death

Death in America is largely a foodborne illness. 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.

Our #1 Killer Can Be Stopped

Dr. Dean Ornish proved decades ago that heart disease could be reversed solely with diet and lifestyle changes.

Resuscitating Medicare

Medicare is now accepting for reimbursement the Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease and the Pritikin Program, which, on a personal note, is what inspired me to go into medicine.