Summary
It took us 14 years to get that. We've shown that there are two-and-a-half times fewer heart attacks and strokes and bypasses and angioplasties in randomized controlled clinical trials. So to give people the message that you lose more weight on the [Atkins] diet-which is false-and it's better for your heart-which is completely crazy-really saddens me. Because it may discourage people from making changes that have been proven to reverse heart disease. The other thing is that people in this recent study didn't follow the diet! They say they were eating a 30 percent [of calories from fat] diet at 12 months. Well, my diet's not 30 percent fat-it's 10 percent fat! In fact they weren't following any of these diets very well-which is why there wasn't any significant difference in weight loss.
I would love to be able to tell people that eating bacon and Brie is good for your heart, but it's not. That doesn't mean you shouldn't ever eat it, but don't kid yourself. So if your cholesterol level's too high, you can start by making moderate changes. If that's enough to accomplish your goals, great! If it isn't enough, we don't have to say, "Diet failed, now you have to go on Lipitor for the rest of your life." You have a choice. You can make bigger changes, or you can go on drugs. When we published our data in JAMA in 1998, we found there was an average 40 percent reduction in LDL cholesterol after a year. And none of these people were taking drugs. They lost an average of 24 pounds in the first year, and they kept half the weight off five years later. They reversed their heart disease.We really live in an era of reimbursement-based medicine. If you're trained to use drugs and surgery and you're only reimbursed to use drugs and surgery, then it's not surprising that doctors use drugs and surgery. Insurance companies and Medicare will pay billions of dollars for these interventions that are invasive, dangerous, expensive and, for most people, don't work. Angioplasties were reviewed by the American Heart Association last year and they concluded that they don't prolong life and they don't prevent heart attacks. Did that slow the rate of angioplasties? Not one bit. Because they're reimbursable. The newer technologies like the drug-coated stents actually increase the risk of heart attacks, but they're still using them. We've had these Alice in Wonderland kinds of debates with Medicare. I said, you pay tens of billions of dollars for angioplasties that are dangerous and ineffective but you think changing diet and lifestyle is radical?! What's wrong with this picture?See the full content of this document
Extract
Tipping the Scales with Dean Ornish
Dean Ornish is in love. He's in love with his wife, he's in love with his little boy, he's in love with his life and his work. In fact, love, first and foremost, is what his work is all about.
Ornish is famous for developing a regimen that can prevent and even reverse heart disease without drugs or surgery. Hislow-fat diet is the component of the program for which he's most well-known; but he's said all along that love may be the greatest heart healer of all.His program incorporates exercise, stress management and a diet with only 10 percent of calories from fats. For stress management, he recommends yoga, meditation and nurturing a sense of connectedness with others. The whole program is an adaptation of the teachings of Swami Satchidananda, which Ornish has been following faithfully since he was 19. He credits those teachings with saving his life when he was a suicidally depressed ...See the full content of this document
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