In article <
[email protected]>,
"Gymmy Bob" <
[email protected]> posted:
> Why can heart muscle tissue not repair somewhat when every
> other part of your body can?
I posted the following in 1999 about reversing heart
disease:
[ From: Dr. Jai Maharaj [ Subject: REVERSING HEART DISEASE -
Interview: Dr. Dean Ornish [ Date: March 14, 1999
REVERSING HEART DISEASE - Interview: Dr. Dean Ornish
By Praveen Swami in Mumbai Medicine Frontline March 13-26,
1999 Vol. 16, No. 6
A matter of lifestyle
A U.S. cardiac surgeon, recently on a tour of India,
generates interest with his theory that intensive changes in
diet and lifestyle are more effective than surgical
procedures in fighting, and even reversing, heart disease.
Cardiac patients surrounded by banks of equipment, popping
expensive pills, facing surgery and confronted by the
prospect of huge medical bills have one other discomforting
thought to engage with: the treatment they are getting might
not actually be helping them in the larger term.
For years, cardiac surgeon Dean Ornish was something of a
priest pitted against the priesthood. Drastic changes in
what patients ate and how they lived their lives, he argued,
would be far more effective than cutting them open on the
surgical table. Now, as evidence for his proposition has
become near-irrefutable, the rewards are pouring in. Author
of five books, two of them best- sellers, Ornish has shown
that an extremely low-fat diet, moderate exercise, stress
management techniques such as yog and meditation, quitting
smoking and building more loving relationships can actually
reverse heart disease. He has become something of a
celebrity, with his work being featured in major magazines
in the United States.
Ornish's scepticism about conventional handling of heart
disease dates back to the time when he was with the
legendary surgeon Michael DeBakey. In patients with coronary
heart disease, the flow of blood to the heart becomes
restricted. Arteries taking blood to the heart can become
blocked, a phenomenon known as atherosclerosis. Also,
constricted blood cells can form clots. The end result is
that the heart becomes starved for oxygen. Chest pains and
full-scale heart attacks follow. Caused by a high-fat diet,
nicotine, stress and other factors, coronary heart disease
was for long believed to be irreversible. Surgery to bypass
clogged arteries, and techniques such as angioplasty, were
seen as the only options.
However, such procedures rarely solved the problem. "Bypass
surgery," Ornish said in his 1990 book Reversing Heart
Disease, "became for me a metaphor for the inadequacy of
treating a problem without also addressing the underlying
causes. We would operate on patients, their chest pain would
usually go away, and they were told that they were cured.
Most would go home and continue to do the same things that
led to the problem in the first place. They would smoke, eat
a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet, manage stress poorly, and
lead sedentary lives." More often than not they would end up
in hospital again.
Early research conducted by Ornish and others suggested that
lifestyle interventions could not only stop the progress of
coronary heart disease, but actually lead to the reversal of
the condition. In one pilot study carried out in 1977 by
Ornish, a group of 10 patients marked tremendous improvement
in just one month. But to most doctors, the idea that very
low-fat diets and exercise could actually reduce coronary
blockages was arrant nonsense. Finally, with $600,000 he had
collected as grants, Ornish moved to Sausalito in the U.S.
to set up his Preventive Medical Research Institute. He
began studies on 48 patients, made up of two groups. One
followed his recommendations and the other received
conventional treatment.
Dr. Dean Ornish. The cardiac surgeon has shown that a low-
fat diet, yog and meditation can reverse heart disease.
Photo by Vivek Bendre.
Medical evidence that Ornish's programme does work steadily
built up from there. In 1990 Ornish reported in the medical
journal Lancet that a group of 28 patients who had been
following his programme for one year showed a measurable
reversal of the blockages in their coronary arteries. The
other group of 20 patients who had been following relatively
conventional dietary guidelines, typical of those
recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA), did not
benefit from Ornish's exercise programme, counselling,
instruction in stress reduction, or help in stopping
smoking. The condition of patients in the second group by
and large got worse.
This suggested at the very least that the conventional
treatment of heart disease did not really help patients. In
papers published in 1992 and in 1993, Ornish described the
progress of his patients over time. Twenty-two patients who
had followed his programme for four years showed, on an
average, less blockage in their arteries and improved blood
flow to their hearts. The condition of 18 patients who were
treated in the conventional way worsened. They showed
increased blockages in their arteries after four years than
after one year, and less blood flow to their hearts: and
this despite the medical treatment they were receiving.
In an article in the December 16, 1998 issue of the Journal
of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Ornish and his
colleagues spelled out the long-term benefits of their
strategy further. Patients in an experimental group, who
made intensive changes in diet, exercise, stress management
and other lifestyle factors, showed a higher reversal of
coronary heart disease over five years than those who had
followed the programme for just one year. By contrast,
patients in the control group, who had followed the advice
of their physicians, suffered from a further narrowing of
blood vessels, a process called stenosis, compared to what
they had at the outset. This was despite the fact that
unlike the experimental group more than half of the patients
had taken medication.
The original one-year trials showed that patients who made
intensive lifestyle changes reduced their LDL ("bad")
cholesterol levels by 37.2 per cent. Further, the extent of
narrowing of the blood vessels was not pronounced in their
case. Those patients from the original group who chose to
participate in the five-year study were put on Ornish's 10-per-cent-
fat vegetarian diet, asked to stop smoking, undergo stress
management training and begin moderate aerobic exercise.
None of them received lipid-lowering drugs, while 60 per
cent of the patients in the control group were prescribed
such medication. Angiograms were conducted at the end of the
five- year period for both groups.
The experimental group patients, the JAMA article records,
saw a 91 per cent reduction in heart pain after one year and
a further 72 per cent reduction after five years. The
conventionally treated control group patients had exactly
the opposite experience. They reported a 186 per cent
increase in the frequency of chest pain during the first
year of treatment, and a mere 36 per cent reduction after
five years. Significantly, the reduction of LDL cholesterol
levels in the experimental groups was comparable with those
obtained by lipid-lowering drugs in patients who were
mobile. Narrowing of blood vessels in patients in the
experimental group showed an improvement of 7.9 per cent
after the five-year period, while patients of the control
group recorded a worsening of 27.7 per cent.
"These findings," Ornish and his colleagues argue in their
JAMA article, "support the feasibility of intensive
lifestyle changes in delaying, stopping or reversing the
progression of coronary artery disease in ambulatory
patients over prolonged periods." The authors conclude: "In
summary, these ambulatory patients were able to make and
maintain comprehensive changes in diet and lifestyle for
five years and showed even more regression of coronary
atherosclerosis after five years than after one year as
measured by per cent diameter stenosis. In contrast,
patients following more conventional lifestyle
recommendations showed even more progression of coronary
atherosclerosis after five years than after one year and had
more than twice as many cardiac events as patients making
comprehensive lifestyle changes."
Doctors performing a bypass surgery. Lifestyle changes are
just as effective as, if not more effective than, surgical
procedures in fighting heart disease. Photo by K. Ananthan.
If intensive lifestyle changes are just as effective as, if
not more effective than, surgical procedures in fighting
heart disease, they are also considerably cheaper. Consider
the case of lovastatin, a drug used to lower cholesterol
levels. A study published in JAMA in 1998 suggested that
lovastatin could also prevent heart ailments, not just cure
patients. A research was conducted on more than 6,500 men
and women with cholesterol levels normal for Americans.
Those who took lovastatin cut their risk of heart attacks
and angina by 37 per cent. Antonio Gotto, Dean of Cornell
University's Weill Medical College, the study's lead author,
suggested that the drug would benefit the six to seven
million people in the U.S. who are considered "normal" under
medical guidelines.
Perhaps lovastatin would benefit such people, but so would
intensive lifestyle changes. One important difference is
that a year's worth of lovastatin costs between $900 and
$1,800 per person. Then, researchers estimate that a group
of 1,000 people treated for five years would have only 12
fewer heart attacks. Simply cutting back on LDL cholesterol
would reduce heart disease at no real cost, in turn saving
money on possible hospitalisation and surgical intervention.
Although Ornish is at pains to make clear that medication
and surgery can help those most desperately in need of
immediate help, giving up smoking, exercising more and
eating low-fat diets clearly work better for most patients.
The results of Ornish's programme are forcing important
components of the U.S. health apparatus to pay attention.
Bypass surgery is a $26-billion operation in that country,
and the bulk of the costs are borne by insurance companies.
Forty insurance companies, Newsweek magazine reported
(March 16, 1998), now support Ornish's programme as an
alternative to surgery. If a bypass surgical procedure in
the U.S. costs about $50,000, Ornish's year-long programme
of classes and group meetings, administered by 11
hospitals, costs just $7,500.
Ornish's findings are being received with growing
enthusiasm, but some sections of the U.S. medical
establishment are less than convinced by the effectiveness
of his methods. On the Web site, the powerful AHA appears to
suggest that many patients may not be able to follow
Ornish's strict regimen. "It's not clear," the AHA states,
"how many heart disease patients could adhere to a treatment
plan such as Dean Ornish's on a long-term basis, and how
many could benefit from such a programme. If diet and
exercise alone do not enable patients to reach the goals
they set with their doctors, then medication will be
required. And for some people, surgery will be needed."
Ornish's research, the AHA believes, "has shown that, with a
motivated patient population willing to follow the regimen
and a skilled group leader able to inspire adherence to it,
significant benefits on lesion progress can be achieved."
But, it says, many questions remain. For one, which
component of the lifestyle changes had the most impact on
heart disease? Did the lifestyle changes demanded by
Ornish's programme have a negative impact on the "day- to-
day quality of life of patients and their families"? Since
patients, despite the improvement in their arterial
blockages, still have heart disease, will Ornish's programme
actually prolong or improve the quality of their lives? And
were his study groups large enough to allow generalisations
for other patients?
To at least some of these questions, anecdotal evidence
suggests that the answer is yes. Patients on the Ornish
programme have stated that the lifestyle changes they were
asked to make improved the quality of their everyday lives
and their relationships with their families. Citing his own
experience, Ornish argues that making such changes offers
such profound rewards that their benefits become
immediately evident.
It is interesting that at least some of Ornish's ideas have
their origins in India, a country where the incidence of
coronary heart disease is beginning to rise alarmingly due,
in part, to the adoption of a First World lifestyle by its
upper middle class and rich. This, in turn, has generated a
need for growing numbers of specialised medical facilities,
which at least indirectly pull away monetary resources, such
as doctors and nurses, that could otherwise be channelled to
improve the public health system. Ornish has recorded the
influence that his spiritual teacher Swami Satchidananda's
ideas on yog, meditation and a low-fat vegetarian diet were
to have on his own life and the development of his medical
ideas (see box). Whether one takes the spiritual aspects of
Ornish's work seriously or not, the scientific evidence does
make clear that there are now options other than the purely
technological to prevent and treat coronary heart disease.
Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the
educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai Om Shanti
> "Dr. Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD" <
[email protected]>
> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > Dr. Jai Maharaj wrote:
> > >
> > > Special Report: Pioneers of Medicine
> > >
> > > Attacking the heart attack
> > >
> > > By Avery Comarow U.S.News & World Report Monday, July
> > > 12, 2004
> > >
> > > It's hard to remember that a heart attack was once a
> > > death sentence. These days, nearly 4 out of 5 heart
> > > attack victims survive.
> >
> > ... if they make it to a hospital. About two out of
> > three don't. And those who do survive are often crippled
> > with lifelong heart failure or other debilitating
> > symptoms.
> >
> > > Emergency physicians treat them with clotbusting
> > > medications, their blocked arteries are reopened, and
> > > they are sent home, loaded down with pills and finger-
> > > wagging admonitions about diet and exercise, to resume
> > > the regular rhythms of their lives. It isn't exactly a
> > > ho-hum script, but it is the one the public has come
> > > to expect.
> >
> > If you are overweight and especially if you have
> > metabolic syndrome (MetS), also expect to be told that
> > you must safely lose weight permanently.
> >
> > Enter the 2PD approach:
> >
> >
http://www.heartmdphd.com/wtloss.asp
> >
> > (doctor supervision required).
> >
> > > Yet less than 50 years ago, well within many baby
> > > boomers' lifetimes, physicians did not realize that
> > > the damage of a heart attack could be minimized and
> > > even reversed.
> >
> > In truth, damage from a heart attack is irreversible.
> > Dead heart muscle cells do not come back or regrow.
> >
> > > Indeed, it wasn't until 1960 that a research team at
> > > Northwestern University, led by pathologist Robert
> > > Jennings, used experiments with several dozen dogs to
> > > demonstrate that radical idea.
> > >
> > > A heart attack happens when there is an infarct, or
> > > sudden loss of blood flow, to part of the heart's
> > > muscular wall--hence heart attack's technical name,
> > > myocardial infarction. The Jennings team placed a
> > > block in one of the coronary arteries, which supply
> > > blood to the heart muscle, for various periods of time
> > > and then removed the blockage. Team members found that
> > > the blood- starved tissue could be saved if
> > > circulation to the area was restored soon enough.
> >
> > If restored soon enough, *less* heart muscle dies.
> >
> > > Timing is everything. And "soon enough" didn't . . .
> > >
> > > More here:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040712/-
> > > health/12jennings.htm
> > >
> > > Jai Maharaj
> > Thanks for the post.
> >
> > You remain in my prayers, neighbor.
> >
> > May you accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior,
> > someday, so that you too will have eternal life and the
> > boundless riches of His everlasting kingdom.
> >
> >
> > >
> > > The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian
> > > bible:
> > >
> > > "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth:
> > > I came not so send peace, but a sword. "For I am
> > > come to set a man at variance against his father,
> > > and the daughter against her mother, and the
> > > daughter in law against her mother in law. "And a
> > > man's foes shall be they of his own household.
> > > - Matthew 10:34-36.
> >
> > How people react to Christ is of and according to their
> > own respective free wills. He, His Father in heaven,
> > and the Holy Spirit are One and what God has made,
> > which is everything, He can unmake according to His
> > will and plan.
> >
> > Christ teaches from Matthew 10:
> >
> > 32"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also
> > acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33But
> > whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before
> > my Father in heaven. 34"Do not suppose that I have come
> > to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring
> > peace, but a sword. 35For I have come to turn " 'a man
> > against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-
> > law against her mother-in-law-- 36a man's enemies will
> > be the members of his own household.'37"Anyone who loves
> > his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me;
> > anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not
> > worthy of me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross
> > and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his
> > life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my
> > sake will find it. 40"He who receives you receives me,
> > and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.
> > 41Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet
> > will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives
> > a righteous man because he is a righteous man will
> > receive a righteous man's reward. 42And if anyone gives
> > even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones
> > because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will
> > certainly not lose his reward."
> >
> > May God add His blessings to the writing of His word
> > here within Usenet in Christ's name.
> >
> > Amen
> >
> >
> > Servant to the humblest person in the universe,
> >
> > Andrew
> >
> > --
> > Dr. Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD Board-Certified Cardiologist
> >
http://www.heartmdphd.com/
> >
> > ** Who is the humblest person in the universe?
> >
http://makeashorterlink.com/?L26062048
> >
> > What is all this about?
> >
http://makeashorterlink.com/?R20632B48
> >
> > Is this spam?
http://makeashorterlink.com/?N69721867
>
>
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian
bible:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I
came not so send peace, but a sword. "For I am come to
set a man at variance against his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law
against her mother in law. "And a man's foes shall be
they of his own household.
- Matthew 10:34-36.
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used
for the educational purposes of research and open
discussion. The contents of this post may not have
been authored by, and do not necessarily represent
the opinion of the poster. The contents are protected
by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of
copyrighted works. o If you send private e-mail to
me, it will likely not be read, considered or
answered if it does not contain your full legal name,
current e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice
telephone number. o Posted for information and
discussion. Views expressed by others are not
necessarily those of the poster.
