Can a plant-based diet reverse heart disease?

[jimmyq]

Definitive proof would mean that everyone trying it would have to have an angiogram. Hospitals are never going to conduct these tests on healthy subjects.

This from the BHF website:

“It found of the 177 patients who stuck to the diet, the majority reported a reduction in symptoms and 22 per cent had disease reversal confirmed by test results”. My opinion: If a drug on trial gets a 22% success rate it is called a "wonder drug".

bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo...

“If you decided to hang your shingle in Okinawa, the Papua Highlands of New Guinea, rural China, Central Africa, or with the Tarahumara Indians of Northern Mexico, these countries do not have cardiovascular disease. The common thread is that they all thrive on whole food, plant-based nutrition (WFPBN) with minimal intake of animal products.”

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

“The primary aim of the plant-based diet is to maximize the consumption of nutrient-dense plant foods while minimizing processed foods, added sugars, oils, and animal-based foods. A plant-based diet encourages lots of vegetables and fruits and is low in fat. Broadly defined, a plant-based diet has significant health benefits, and studies have shown that a plant-based diet can be an effective treatment for obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and heart disease.

The Lifestyle Heart Trial found that 82% of patients diagnosed with heart disease who followed this plant-based diet program had some level of regression of atherosclerosis and 91% had a reduction in the frequency of angina episodes, whereas 53% of the control group, fed the American Heart Association diet, had progression of atherosclerosis. In addition, the study showed a reduction in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) (37.2%) that is similar to results achieved with lipid-lowering medications. Similarly, other researchers showed that compared with a control group, the plant-based diet group had a 73% decrease in coronary events and a 70% decrease in all-cause mortality. In 1998, a collaborative analysis using original data from 5 prospective studies was reviewed and showed that, compared with nonvegetarians, vegetarians had a 24% reduction in ischemic heart disease death rates.”

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Dr Esselstyn's success stories.

dresselstyn.com/site/succes...

[Agoodenough]

Informative article Jimmyq. I think becoming vegan is the best thing you can do for your overall health.

One of the biggest problems is that in 4 years of medical training only 20 hours are spent on nutrition which much be wrong. Therefore one should not have confidence talking to a doctor/ consultant about how diet effects illnesses. I was told by a consultant two years ago that what you eat doesn’t affect your health lol 😂 Doctors are there to provide a chemical solution to your health problems which is frightening. 🤨

[benwl Volunteer]

That's really interesting.

I find it annoying that the bhf write stuff like "A plant-based diet may suit some people, but is a serious undertaking" as though there's something really hard about it. It's just going to put people off. As you say, if it was a drug that achieved those results people would be raving about it.