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.
Plant-Based Diet: A Plant-Based Diet Combined With Niacin And HGH Replacement Therapy Can Help Reverse 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:
- You may not eat anything with a mother or a face (no meat, poultry, or fish).
- You cannot eat dairy products.
- You must not consume oil of any kind— not a drop. (Yes, you devotees of the Mediterranean Diet, that includes olive oil)
- Generally, you cannot eat nuts or avocados.
Esselstyn states further, you can eat a wonderful variety of delicious, nutrient-dense foods:
- All vegetables except avocado. Leafy green vegetables, root vegetables, veggies that are red, green, purple, orange, and yellow and everything in between.
- All legumes— beans, peas, and lentils of all varieties. All whole grains and products, such as bread and pasta, that are made from them— as long as they do not contain added fats.
- All fruits.– Esselstyn Jr. M.D., Caldwell B.. Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease
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.
Niacin: Niacin Is An Important Component For Reversing Heart Disease With HGH And Diet
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).
HGH / IGF-1: HGH Is Another Important Component To Reversing Heart Disease With A Plant-Based Diet And Niacin.
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:
- Hardened vessels (sclerosis of vessel wall).
- Hyperlipidemia
- Reduced NO-production
- Increased fibrinogen and PAI-1
- Hypertension
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.