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I am 50 yr old, male, 5"7'.

I failed a stress test about 7 weeks back and was advised angiography that was very likely to result in stents in my arteries.

I talked to Dr Esselstyn, read several books and declined the surgery, at the same time starting on Dr Esselstyn/Dr McDougall's life style about 6 weeks ago.

I am on 10mg of lipitor (a statin), 25 mg of metoprolol (a beta blocker) and 75 mcg of synthroid for my under-active thyroid.

I have lost about 23 pounds in 6 weeks (from 180 to 157) and do not have any significant angina. I have started walking 4 miles daily on a path that has several small hills. Everything is going well as far as I can see.

And I just received my blood work. It is simply amazing:

before/after
Total Cholesterol 199/76
LDL 130/25
HDL 38/27
Triglycerides 150?/118
Cardio CRP 3.3/2.3 (higher cardio risk to lower cardio risk)
Glucose 99/84

The total cholesterol of seventy six is not a typo!

Cardio CRP that measures inflammation and is thought to be a good indicator of heart disease risk has become normal (I am still not in the low risk category though). Glucose has gone from high normal to mid (low?) normal.

My blood pressure is 110/70 most of the time. My pulse is less than 60. Sometimes less than 50. (it was just above 60 before the change).

My family doctor is bewildered and has asked to halve the lipitor dose before re-running the tests in a few days. It is a good bet that he would tell me to stop the lipitor, which would be a great relief. He is concerned about the low HDL, but as Dr Esselstyn says: if the LDL is low you do not need high HDL. But I'll see what the doctor says when I see him next.

My new TSH levels are also very low (0.23 ) and the doctor tells me that the synthroid dose will have to be adjusted down.

I cannot believe I have lost all this weight, reversed my angina and produced the excellent blood work in such a short time. I thank Dr Esselstyn for imploring me to try the new life style before succumbing to surgery. And I thank the Star McDougallers and others on this site for giving me the strength to stand up to the interventional cardiologists!

This change has been a rather easy one for me. I was a lacto ovo vegetarian for the first 20 years of my life, so cutting out the meat was easy. Cheese and milk were a bit difficult but not much. Cutting out the oil I thought would be difficult. But it has not been. I have been surprised that most dishes we used to make with oil taste the same without. And many taste better and are easier to cook.

I am glad we are eating out a lot less but when we do eat out, I find that chefs are quite willing to cook something conforming.

I am in it for life!

All I can say is AWESOME!


Atheria

Wow! Very inspiring. Keep up the good work!

Congratuations and applaud you for taking that first step.

Every couple of months posting on how you are doing will benefit the ones who are somewhat skeptical and looking for solid evidence. This is a great real world proof that it works!

Congratulations. It doesn't take long to see results and the food is great as well. I found that the cravings disappeared very fast.

so cool! I am so very happy for your success. Keep at the exercise it is wonderful to be outside and walking that far!
again, congrats!

Amazing! Keep us posted on how you do and when meds get further decreased.

Thanks for everybody's encouragement.

My doctor has decreased lipitor to half ( 5 mg) and also Metoprolol (betablocker) to half.

My thyroid medication also has been reduced: I have been asked to take half the tablet two days a week. That amounts to about 60 micro gram per day from 75.

They'll test again in 6 weeks.

I continue to take my 4 mile walk daily most days. Raleigh is beautiful this time of the year. And mornings are so calm and pleasant.

Congratulations!!
Unfortunately like you I did not have the luxury to turn down the procedure. I checked into the emergency room on the 4th of July and the day after I had a stent place on my RCA for 100% blockage. Having discovered Dr. MC Dougall and Dr. Esselstyn I embarked on their diet 2 full weeks now. My blood work was out of my norm.

LDL 127/67
HDL 39/30
Tryglic. 142/162
I'm concerned with the low HDL and the triglyceride. but reading your post and indicating that Dr. Esselstyne does not worry about low HDL if the LDL is also low makes me feel a it better.

mimmo56:


My cardiologist from Duke also said the same thing. He was not concerned about the low HDL.

My family doctor wanted me to take fish oil, believing it may increase the HDL, but since my cardiologist was not concerned, I decided to not take it. I continue to take 1-2 tablespoons of flex-seed meal however, as recommended by Dr Esselstyn.

You may want to decrease your fruit intake unless you have already done so, to help decrease the triglycerides.

It is great that you have started on this WOE. You are infinitely more likely to not need any more cardiac intervention.

Congratulations on the great progress you have already made!

Thank you pundit 99! and sorry I didn't mean to hijack your thread.
Incidentally I have big fruit shakes almost everyday and pasta. I will reduce the fruit shakes and the will also include flex seed meals in my salads or even in fruit shakes.

Congratulations on all your success! You're teaching your doctor a thing or two about the role of diet in heart disease.

I would ask your doctor to do a full thyroid panel. TSH is the standard among doctors, but it's actually a very poor indicator of how you're doing. My TSH has been around .1 for years, and that's ok. It's the free T3, total t3, total T4, and free T4 you have to look at to get a true picture. If you start to feel tired, brain-foggy, or depressed on the lower dose, you need more.

You shouldn't be on Lipitor at all now, to my mind. I mean, how low does the doctor want your cholesterol to go before he eliminates it?? There can be some pretty nasty side effects from taking Lipitor, including liver damage and breakdown of muscle tissue. I'd speak to him about it at the next visit.

Keep up the good work!

Nettie

Your path gives me a strong feeling of deja vu. Your path and experiences are becoming thankfully, more common and mirror my own experiences. Welcome to the exclusive club of people that have actually done something positive about their heart disease. As Dr. Esselstyn has pointed out, it's incredibly powerful to have the power to change your situation through your own actions. This is in stark contrast to the creeping feeling of death in my own cardiologists waiting room. Enjoy your new found power, celebrate your successes with everyone that will listen and congratulations for being here. Don't forget that with this newly discovered knowledge comes the responsibility to share and help those fighting the same issues but don't know the way out. For every one of you there are thousands that haven't a clue what they might do. Jump in and grab a shovel and get to work!
Congrats
f1jim

Hi to everyone from Europe. Apologies again if my English won't be perfect. English is not my mother tongue. I already wrote a long message before and I lost it due to a mistake of mines..... So I will keep it shorter now..... do not consider me unpleasant.....
I'm a female, 45 years old, 1.62 m high, 77 kg of weight. I have been overweight most part of my life, already as a child I never used to be skinny.
I chose to reply to this topic, posted by pundit999, because of his testimonial of reversal of heart disease, which I hope I will be able to obtain as well. I experience signs of angina since a couple of months, not always and not very strong. It happens only after exercising, never at rest, which make me feel that it should not be life-threatening. However, when it happens, it leaves me weak, with some discomfort in the chest and discouraged for quite many hours. Sometimes I can walk more than one hour uphill at a fast pace without feeling a bit. Sometimes, with no apparent reason and not walking too fast, here it is. I'm quite disappointed (angry?) about all this because after having had a very hard life for many reasons, I thought to be still young for heart disease and I hoped that at least my good health, which I have always been proud of, would be granted to me..... Good health granted, very human, isn't it ? After surfing and reading a lot I found this program (Dr. Mc.Dougall / Dr. Esselstyn) the most appealing and natural to me, although I know it won't be easy. For example, because of my job, I will have to go to dinner with customers sometimes. Not very often, twice or three times a month. In these occasions, I won't be able to order a little salad with just some lemon juice on it because I will spoil the party..... which I'm not allowed to. I don't know if you understand what I mean..... However, my fear is that these occasions will possibly jeopardise everything I have accomplished inbetween? I hope not. I'm the type "black or white", with grey being no option but I have to keep my job. No chance. Second question: I have been replacing milk with soy milk and yesterday, after having read the part of Dr.Esselstyn's book where his wife recommends to read the ingredients of everything, I discovered that in my "safe" soy milk there are vegetable oils (saturated and not saturated) to be found. The ingredients are only water and soyflour (bio). Where the hell do the vegetable oils come from then ? Are these oils safe ? I do not think so. I saw that in the majority of products, i.e. in toast breads are vegetable oils present..... Any suggestion is welcome, also how to roast for example potatoes without oil. And onions ? And garlic ? I wait for your kind replies and hope on your support for this journey which will hopefully allow me to take care of my family - my husband, married only this year in March - and my dearest son, Marco, for quite a lot of years to come.....
Bless you all. R.

Congratulations on starting the McDougall Program! And you're to be commended for taking this seriously, and being very particular about what you eat. You probably already know that the results you get will be related to the effort you exert towards following the plan 100%.

Perhaps if you know where you are going for dinner, you can call ahead or go to their website to check out their menu. Sometimes you can talk to the chef on the phone about preparing something without all the added oils or dairy. Most restaurants have a big, plain potato, or perhaps some beans over rice, steamed vegetables in addition to the salad. (Another good trick is to eat before you go to the restaurant so you're not hungry. )

And, as you've learned, the manufacturers sneak in oil or sugar everywhere they can. You'll have to shop around for an oil-free soy milk. Westsoy has a fat-free version, but I have to order it at my local health food store. I buy it by the case, so it's not too expensive. You'll probably have to change bread brands, too, if you're in the habit of buying them from a local grocery.

Again, welcome to the forum, and keep up the good work. Let us know how you're doing.

Nettie