Do most doctors fully understand human physiology? At least to the degree they need to for public health and chronic disease? Most doctors think they know plenty about human physiology, but many don’t. In fact, many doctors are missing some of the most fundamental principles of how human physiology misfires when consuming the modern western diet, particularly too much meat and dairy. What most doctors are taught in medical school is a set of rules created more around pharmacological-based medicine and less about true evidenced-based medicine.
Is there a flaw or a conspiracy? Nobody can claim any one reason to the problem. Nevertheless, many of the rules governing how modern health care is taught and practiced can be linked back some 100 years earlier to the Flexner Report. The Flexner Report came out in the early 1900s and it still accounts for much of how medicine is controlled in the modern era. The report essentially enabled a few powerful global elites to insert themselves and their personal bias and beliefs into how the science and education of modern medicine is conducted and controlled in the United States, and fundamentally throughout the world. It may have done more harm than good, as it has led to a global epidemic of chronically sick human beings. This new generation of humans may be the first in history with a lifespan less than that of their parents.
This article is not about the Flexner Report or modern suppression of the scientific evidence related to the reversal of heart disease with diet and supplementation, which can accelerate the process. That can be explored another day. This blog is about using the evidence-based knowledge and research we currently have, and then applying it correctly to achieve the successful reversal of heart disease and possibly many other leading chronic diseases.
Heart Disease Key Facts:
The good news is cardiovascular disease can be avoided. The better news is now it can be reversed, even in patients who are in the later stages of coronary artery disease.
One of the first clues we need to look at in our understanding of true human physiology is to explore why dogs don’t die of heart attacks. Is it because they eat only dog food? If you want to test this on your cardiologist, ask him the question below.
The next time you’re sitting across from your cardiologist, ask him: “Dr., why don’t dogs die of heart attacks?” See how they respond!
The answer is an easy one. It shows us a lot about how simple heart disease is to avoid, reverse, and RESOLVE!
Atherosclerosis is easily produced experimentally in herbivores (rabbits) by giving them diets containing large quantities of cholesterol (egg yolks) or saturated fats (animal fats), while impossible to induce in tigers, lions and dogs!
Armed with this information, most third graders can begin to solve the riddle of modern heart disease. Our epidemic of cardiovascular disease is mainly due to the level of animal based products we consume. Therefore, humans must be more physiologically associated to herbivores, so we should eat more similarly to herbivores than to carnivores if we want to protect ourselves from disease. This is profound to understanding how to manage, prevent and reverse cardiovascular disease properly. If we just eat fruits and vegetables, ideally a well planned healthy whole-food plant based diet, these diseases will decline and possibly disappear completely. That’s exactly what doctors Dean Ornish, M.D. and Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D. did in their published research on reversing heart disease.
Read Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, MD research
Here are the rules to Dr. Esselstyn’s program in their simplest form taken from his book:
Esselstyn states further, you can eat a wonderful variety of delicious, nutrient-dense foods:
Basically, if you can navigate these rules, you can work with one of our nutritionists to build a heart healthy diet around these rules. For many, it may seem impossible, but once people learn there are a number of delicious recipes, a transformation in dietary habits can be taught and applied in a matter of a week or two. Dr. Dean Ornish found in his research that it usually required approximately 72 hours of instruction before it really begins to click in the minds of the patient.
To summarize Esselstyn: “Heart disease is nothing more than a paper tiger.” We agree. It is nothing more than working to keep total cholesterol around 150 mg/dL and LDL-c below 60 mg/dL. It’s been reported, that no one ever died of cardiovascular disease in the famous Framingham Heart Study with a total cholesterol of 150 or lower. That was a multi-generational study which began in the late 1940s and continued into the 1990s.
That’s about where the Esselstyn / Ornish style heart reversal programs end. A whole food plant based diet. What we can do in addition is combine other research, and those supplements shown in the research, to help accelerate and improve body composition and lipids (HGH and Niacin primarily), leading to better results sooner. This kind of program can be started at any of our international treatment centers under the supervision of a medical professional and counselors experienced in plant-based nutrition protocols.
First we start with Niacin. Niacin is an inexpensive vitamin supplement. It’s one of the first supplements used to treat low HDL. HDL cholesterol is called the cleaning cholesterol. It’s the good cholesterol that helps remove the bad (LDL) cholesterol. This is a simple explanation, but more or less that’s what is going on inside your arteries. The good HDL helps clear the bad LDL. Treatment works to drive down LDL cholesterol (the oxidized / bad form ) with diet, and elevate the HDL cholesterol (cleaning / good form) with Niacin. Therefore, the anti-atherogenic effects of HDL occur by reverse cholesterol transport of oxidized LDL cholesterol, resulting in restoring part or all of endothelial cell function. (Endothelial cells are the lining in your artery walls).
Niacin has been shown to raise HDL (good cholesterol) by as much as 30-35%. It can also reduce LDL (bad cholesterol) particle size (a good thing) from small dense pattern B to larger non-atherogenic pattern A.
Generally we recommend 1 – 3 grams of Niacin per day (See Ref: Baylor University Medical Proceedings p 126, Vol. 26, No. 2).
We all know that obesity is strongly correlated to heart disease. Epidemiological studies demonstrate an increase in coronary heart disease mortality in men and women with higher than average body mass indexes. What’s more, obesity is strongly related to cardiovascular risk factors such as elevated blood pressure, glucose intolerance, type 2 diabetes and dyslipidaemia.
In the famous Dr. Rudman study on HGH in men over 60 years of age, it was found that decreased levels of growth hormone secretion is responsible in part to a decrease in lean body mass, and an increase in fat tissue mass. HGH replacement therapy helps aging men and women maintain more muscle mass and less fat, resulting in an overall improved body composition.
It’s also been shown that diabetic women who use natural bio-identical hormone replacement therapy are more likely to have their blood glucose under control and have lower cholesterol levels.
In recent studies it has been shown that short courses of growth hormone replacement therapy reduced LDL (bad cholesterol). That’s good, as we want bad cholesterol to be below 60 mg/dL ideally.
HGH shows improvements in exercise capacity and cardiac function. Those undergoing HGH replacement therapy show increased oxygen uptake and power output during exercise. Echocardiography has shown that left ventricular muscle mass index, fractional shortening, and fiber shortening velocity all improve after 6 months of low-dose HGH therapy.
Cardiovascular symptoms of growth hormone deficiency include:
Ref: A4M Michael Klentze, MD, PhD p 418
These factors along with overall body composition attest to the benefits of supporting a heart healthy diet with niacin and HGH replacement therapies. For those with heart disease or for those who wish to live longer without heart disease, we can help. Heart disease can be avoided and reversed with a whole food plant based diet. Outcomes can be improved and accelerated with additional HGH and Niacin supplementation.