Preventing and Reversing Disease with Plant-Based Diets

Hot in the news this week is a new study suggesting that consuming probiotics can slightly reduce blood pressure, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. So, now everyone is running out and eating yogurt, hoping for a miracle cure. There are no pills, procedures, or superfoods that prevent or cure chronic disease. These pills and procedures are band aids being placed on top of a core problem that many prefer to cover up and “fix”… Yet, research is building on the ability to prevent and now reverse cardiovascular disease, its risk factors, type 2 diabetes, and more, with a whole food, plant-based diet. Overall diet and lifestyle need to be the focus of health and medicine today in order to shift away from the downward spiral of the current healthcare crisis…

Some of the research:
—>Kaiser Permanente Thrive’s Permanente Journal Review: “Research shows that plant- based diets are cost-effective, low-risk interventions that may lower body mass index, blood pressure, HbA1C [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][blood glucose control over time], and cholesterol levels. They may also reduce the number of medications needed to treat chronic diseases and lower ischemic heart disease mortality rates. Physicians should consider recommending a plant-based diet to all their patients, especially those with high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or obesity.” (link)
—>The CHIP Program, a 6-year study emphasizing a whole food, plant-based diet, can lead to rapid and meaningful reductions in chronic disease risk factors. (link)
—>Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. showing that 99.4% of 198 people with cardiovascular disease on a plant-based diet for 3.7 years avoided major cardiac events (2014). (link)
—>Dean Ornish, MD regression of coronary atherosclerosis with intensive lifestyle changes – 10% fat whole foods vegetarian diet, aerobic exercise, stress management training, smoking cessation, group psycho- social support – for 5 years (1998). (link)
—>”An 18-week dietary intervention using a low-fat plant-based diet in a corporate setting improves body weight, plasma lipids, and, in individuals with diabetes, glycemic control.” (link)
—> “Vegetarian diets confer protection against cardiovascular diseases, cardiometabolic risk factors, some cancers and total mortality. Compared to lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets, vegan diets seem to offer additional protection for obesity, hypertension, type-2 diabetes, and cardiovascular mortality.” (link)
—>Adventist Health Study-2 “Vegetarian dietary patterns were associated with lower body mass index, lower prevalence and incidence of diabetes mellitus, lower prevalence of the metabolic syndrome and its component factors, lower prevalence of hypertension, lower all-cause mortality, and in some instances, lower risk of cancer.” (link)
—>”The dietary portfolio approach of combining a range of cholesterol-lowering plant foods may benefit cardiovascular disease risk both by reducing serum lipids and also blood pressure.” (link)
—>5 Ways to Avoid Cardiovascular Disease Without Medication (link)

*Image via Vegan Street

 
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