While modern cardiology has some spectacular high tech tools that can be lifesaving in emergencies, in general the field of cardiology is concerned with managing heart disease, not reversing, nor even just halting its onward march. Angioplasties, stents, and bypass operations have never been shown to arrest or reverse the underlying progressive disease and often must be redone over time. These procedures come with a high price tag and unintended consequences most patients are unaware of when they agree to have them done. For example – bypass surgery requires the use of a heart-lung machine, which typically causes some degree of brain damage, and patients getting these procedures usually must stay on drugs that can damage muscles, the liver, or cause depression. Because most cardiologists are only trained in the use of drugs and surgeries, few ever tell their patients there may be a safer, more effective option (an oil-free, whole-foods vegan diet) which just happens to have none of these side effects. (But does have the side effect of often reversing type two diabetes!) The typical dietary measures that most cardiologists do recommend simply do not go far enough to halt disease progression, so most of them have never seen for themselves how effectively a proper diet can actually reverse this disease. Much death and disability could be prevented if more people were aware of this information.
To those unfamiliar with the actual science on diet and heart disease, programs touting recipes sanctioned by cardiologists, might sound impressive, but how many cardiology patients have you heard of that avoided surgery, or got off many of their drugs, and five years later were feeling better than ever? Yet this is a common occurrence for patients of Doctors Caldwell Esselstyn, John McDougall, Baxter Montgomery, Joel Fuhrman, Pam Popper, Joel Kahn, Michael Klaper, and Linda Carney none of whom tout the American Heart Association diet. Their successful patients are eliminating all animal flesh including fish, and oils, because no scientific studies have demonstrated arrest and reversal of cardiovascular disease eating these foods. The best one could say about the supposed “heart healthy” menus that most doctors still endorse, is that compared to the standard American diet, cardiovascular disease might progress a bit more slowly. Given that we have good science showing we can actually REVERSE heart disease on a whole-foods, plant-based, oil-free diet, it’s unfortunate that more people aren’t aware of this information.
http://www.dresselstyn.com/site/
https://www.drfuhrman.com/disease/HeartDisease.aspx
http://montgomeryheart.com/
http://www.healthpromoting.com/condition/heart-disease
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/advice-from-a-vegan-cardiologist/?_r=2
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-kahn-md/3-nba-players-die-of-hear_b_8060014.html