Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

154 Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

to rupture proportionally to, and as a result of, weight reduction, caloric

restriction, nutritional excellence, and aggressive lipid lowering. The

most impressive results of shrinking and removing atheromas occur af-

ter the person has lost all his excess body fat. Body fat is designed for en-

ergy storage. Atheromas are more difficult to remove; they resolve after

other fat storage sites have been depleted. Fortunately, the same body

that created the atheromas has the ability to disintegrate them.

Many of my patients were first advised by other physicians to

undergo angioplasty or bypass. When they refused they were re-

ferred to my office and chose aggressive nutritional management.

Without exception, they have all done well; chest pain has resolved

in almost every case (only one went to repeat angioplasty because of

a recurrence of chest symptoms); and none of these patients has died

from cardiac disease.

A typical patient is John Pawlikowski. I see patients like him al-

most every day. John's story is not unusual — but a miracle to him

nevertheless. John came to me with a history of steadily worsening

angina. His chest pains were increasing. His stress thallium test sug-

gested multivessel coronary artery disease. He underwent a cardiac

catherization, which revealed a 95 percent stenosis of the left ante-

rior descending artery, and the left circumflex had diffuse disease,

but all less than 40 percent narrowed. He had normal heart function.

His cholesterol was 218, he weighed 180 pounds, and he was on two

blood pressure medications.

Within a few weeks of following my diet, John's chest pain

ceased and he stopped taking nitroglycerin tablets for chest pain re-

lief. In two months his weight dropped to 152 — a loss of 28 pounds

in eight weeks. Today, five years later, he still weighs 150, following

the same diet. He is well, with no restrictions on his activity, and his

blood pressure runs about 128/78. He takes no medication, and his

stress test has normalized.

JOHN'S LABORATORY REPORTS

DATE 6/6/94 5/5/99 % CHANGE

Cholesterol 218 161 -26

Triglycerides (^140 80) -43
HDL (^48 65 35)
LDL 144 80 -44
CholesterohHDL ratio 4.7 2.4 -49