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Hi, my name is Don Carrier and I am a 58-year-old,
life-long vegetarian who was diagnosed with clogged heart
arteries 3 years ago. In July of 2003 my Los Angeles-based MD
discovered after taking an EKG that I had had a silent heart
attack sometime after May of 2002. This doctor then sent me to
see a cardiologist. After running tests, including an angiogram,
the cardiologist found that all three of my coronary arteries
were diseased. The worst of the disease was seen as a closure by
70 to 80% of the main artery supplying the front of my heart
(called the left anterior descending artery).
Apparently, my heart muscle had been severely damaged by the
heart attack that I had never felt. As a result the amount of
blood now being pumped out of my heart (my ejection fraction)
was down to 27% (normal is 65% and in May of 2002 my ejection
fraction had been found to be almost normal at 55%). The
cardiologist strongly recommended heart bypass surgery as soon
as possible, or at least having several stents placed to open my
narrowed arteries. The thought of having a band saw buzzing
through my chest wall didn't set well with me. This heart
specialist then prescribed for me to take an aspirin, Plavix,
Coreg (a beta blocker), Diovan (an ACE inhibitor), digoxin, and
Advicor (a combination of lovastatin and niacin to lower
cholesterol). It was then I remembered a doctor I
had heard about from Hawaii. Dr. John McDougall was a
board-certified internist, an MD, who promoted a healthy vegan
diet just for my kind of problems. I wasted no time looking him
up on the web and as fate had it, he had a 10-day clinic
scheduled two weeks away. I talked with both of my Los Angeles
doctors and neither of them gave me any hope that a diet change
would help me in any way. They insisted that I was wasting my
time, and possibly placing myself in jeopardy of another heart
attack, or even worse. I didn't let them discourage me.
All My Life I Had Been an Overweight, Sickly Vegetarian
Let me take you back to the beginning in order to
explain how I ended up in this trouble. As an infant I had not been
able to hold down baby food that contained any kind of animal
product, such as beef, chicken, fish, lamb, or even eggs. Still, the
doctors recommended that my parents keep trying to feed me meat from
time to time and suggested I might outgrow this problem. But every
time I was fed animal products, they would just come right back up.
Out of concern and desperation, the doctors told my parents to feed
me lots of dairy, which did not have the same effect on my stomach.
I grew up a "cheese-a-tarian." Not a day of my life went by without
me eating some kind of cheese or other dairy food.
All my adult life I had been overweight. I was raised
Italian-style; olive oil was used on everything. Now I can see
where oil, along with the cheese, was a big part of my weight
gain. In the 6th grade I weighed over 160 pounds. My fat
accumulation was unstoppable, by my fifties I was over 200
pounds, and still climbing. By age 54 I was over 225 pounds and
in terrible shape—unable to run even 1/8 of a mile and walking
uphill made me breathless. My blood pressure was over 170/110
mmHg, cholesterol was 228 mg/dl, triglycerides were 532 mg/dl; I
had bad allergies, sleep apnea, and slight arthritis in my
hands. I ate Tums like they were M&Ms, and I kept a large supply
of antacids in both cars, both offices, both homes, and I took
them with me on all my trips. No surprise that I was in the
hands of a cardiologist and facing heart surgery by my
mid-fifties. The Best Investment I Ever Made
In October 2003 I went to Dr. McDougall's 10-day program. By the
third day I was already feeling much better. Learning what foods
our bodies are designed for was an eye opener. For the first
time I realized that, yes, I had been a life-long vegetarian,
but a very overweight and unhealthy vegetarian.
As I followed the McDougall diet, the weight started to come
off. I lost 2 to 4 pounds each month and by the end of the first
year I had lost approximately 30 pounds. The second year I lost
another 20 pounds. I was jogging up to 7 miles a day and loving
my new energy level. All my friends who knew me before are still
amazed that I have not only lost the weight, but also have kept
it off.
As great as the diet education was, the second
greatest benefit of the 10-day clinic was the "medication
education." Even though Dr. McDougall had changed and reduced some
of my medications, I left the clinic still taking too many, as far
as I was concerned. I was feeling tremendous except for the bag full
of pills I swallowed daily. In September of 2004, I finally told my
cardiologist that I was going to slowly stop the Coreg, Diovan, and
Plavix. My next step was to fire him; the reason was he refused to
believe that diet and exercise had anything to do with my improved
condition. It was time to say goodbye to his negativity, and his
unrestrained prescription pad.
By the fall of 2004 I was taking half of a 20mg
tablet of Pravachol for my cholesterol, and a baby aspirin daily,
both prescribed by Dr. McDougall. I was down to 168 pounds, my blood
pressure without medication was 106/62 mmHg, and I was doing a
5-mile slow jog daily. I experienced many other benefits, such as
being able to sleep like a baby again, all my allergies disappeared,
the slight arthritis in my hands was gone, and I no longer had
energy highs and lows. There was no more acid reflux, bloating, or
any other kind of digestive problem. I attribute the improvement in
my digestive health to getting off the dairy.
Most recently, I have stopped the Pravachol, and as of February,
2006 my cholesterol was 139 mg/dl and triglycerides 133 mg/dl on
no medication. I do take a baby aspirin, CQ10 and a B-12 pill
daily. I love the fact that I no longer spend huge amounts of
money on a monthly regimen of drugs.
I can't say I have suffered one bit for all the
health I have gained—I never feel that I am missing out on any of
the foods that I used to love—I have new favorites. I live by the
recipes in Mary's Quick and Easy cookbook. I am also pleased that
some of my close friends have converted to the McDougall Diet after
seeing my results. The time and effort I put into changing my diet
and exercising was the best investment I have ever made in my entire
life. |
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