Anonymous Testimonials after 30-90 days
I did not know I had issues (high cholesterol, etc.) because I had never been tested. I was shocked by my initial blood work and even more motivated to follow the diet.
“The results I achieved were awesome. I dropped my cholesterol by 100 points in 40 days. My BMI: 29 to 25, my weight: 220 to 190 (I am now 182lbs), my waist: 41″ to 35. From the blood tests, six categories moved into the “green.”
The 30 day Program made it easy for me because all the resources and support I needed were right there. Once I started watching the videos and doing some research, I was even more motivated. The potlucks were really good.
I feel amazing. My total cholesterol dropped from 160 to 141. My blood pressure improved. I lost 17 pounds during the 30 days. I am currently a pound shy of 30 lbs lost since eating a Whole Food Plant Based diet. We had a great time sharing recipes and delicious potluck Friday’s. Join the challenge for 30 days and you just may change your life. I did!
My daughter who has struggled with her weight like me has already lost 10 pounds. I wish I would have known about this 10 years ago.
It has now been 3 months and I have not felt this good (both inside and about my outside) in a really long time. I was diagnosed with two chronic pain conditions, one at 14 and one at 24, that made me miserable. I now have been managing the pain on my own without medications for about two months. If that wasn’t enough, I have lost 17 pounds. I’m so happy that I decided to take this challenge with my co-workers and am proud of myself for keeping it up!
I have an auto immune condition that causes constant inflammation throughout my entire body. I saw significant reduction in inflammation within the first couple of weeks.
Both of my parents are now on the diet. They are both diabetic, with high blood pressure, and my father has heart disease. Both have seen marked reductions in their insulin intake, and have lost over 10 lbs
I didn’t actually sign up for the 30 day challenge. It seemed way too restrictive and unachievable. However, I kept seeing the 30 day update emails and the books and videos in the pantry area. I borrowed them because I was curious and really wanted to lose some weight. Everything I was learning made sense. When I returned from my vacation, I decided to give it a try. In the first week, I lost ten pounds. Now, three months later, I have lost a total of 17 pounds. I believe that the changes I have made are significant and I do plan to continue.
18 People Dr. Esslestyn Followed for 26 Years
• Before: 18 people had 49 coronary events in the 8 years before treating the cause with plant based nutrition
• 5 told they would die within the year
• 0 coronary events 12 years after for 17 compliant (article available)
• 0 coronary events 26 years after (12 still living, 5 died of other causes)
JIM CONWAY, MD
In this 3 minute video, Dr. Jimmy Conway, a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon in Oklahoma City, with a family history of heart disease and a cholesterol level of 494 and triglycerides of 3,295, discusses reversing his heart disease with a plant based diet.
Art Soteros
Art Soteros, a 32 year old engineer, was diagnosed with Type II diabetes mellitus and began treatment with oral medication (metformin 1,000 mg twice per day with a hemoglobin A1c of 6.5).
By age 43 he started experiencing chest pain. Angiography at a local hospital confirmed coronary artery disease and he required a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with stent placement in May of 2003. He returned to the local hospital in August of 2005 with recurrent chest pain and he received another stent. In June of 2007, recurrent symptoms warranted two additional stents. In September of 2007, he was seen at the Cleveland Clinic with recurrent chest pain. He required two angioplasties to treat stent re-stenosis.
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These recurrences were despite the standard lifestyle modifications, cardiac rehabilitation and usual cardiac medications (including the addition of glimepiride), achieving an LDL cholesterol of 60 mg/dl. By July of 2008, at age 47, he was having unstable angina necessitating a double coronary artery bypass graft surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. In November of 2009 he had recurrent chest pain for which he had stenting of his stenotic bypass graft and approximately one month later in December of 2009, at the same institution, his symptoms required two more stents for stent restenosis.
At this time, physicians informed Soteros and his wife that there was little else that could be done for him in view of his aggressive and progressive disease. He therefore, started on a regimen of multiple dietary supplements as recommended by a holistic medicine practitioner.
Nevertheless, on June 12, 2010 his three month experiment with holistic medicine failed and he underwent two more angioplasties for unstable angina.
On June 18, 2010, becoming interested more in nutrition, he attended our 5.5 hour intensive counseling seminar at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. He has since been fully adherent to whole foods, plant-based nutrition beyond four years. He has had no further chest pain. Four months following initiating whole foods, plant-based nutrition he was declared no longer diabetic (with a hemoglobin A1c of 5.1 he was no longer taking any diabetic medications). He maintains a normal, full work schedule and is empowered with the realization that his nutrition has vanquished his illness.
ANTHONY YEN
When he came to this country in 1949 from China, Anthony Yen abandoned the diet with which he was raised and started eating American food. As a businessman who owns several overseas manufacturing plants, Yen ate the typical American businessman’s diet–“a lot of roast beef, chocolate mousse, fried chicken and pork chops.”
In his 50’s, this diet began to catch up with him. While dancing on New Year’s Eve with his wife, his chest tightened and he got very sweaty. Within the week, Yen learned he had experienced angina because five of the arteries to his heart were blocked.
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In 1988, Yen had open-heart surgery to bypass the clogged arteries. However, he knew the operation was not a cure, and sought out Dr. Esseistyn’s experimental therapy–the combination of a low fat diet and cholesterol lowering drugs. As a result, he adopted a diet akin to that his parents ate in China, which he hopes will lend him their longevity. After all, his parents died at ages 95 and 98, with no evidence of heart disease.
When traveling overseas, Yen now carries 3 by 5 inch cards, on which are translations of his diet, just in case a waiter or waitress does not understand his order. As a result of the diet, Yen says, “I feel rejuvenated.” Not prone to exercise, Yen says his blood pressure is, at age 73, that of an athlete.
Evelyn Oswick
Evelyn Oswick suffered two heart attacks in her fifties. After an angioplasty and a triple bypass operation failed to keep her heart disease from returning, Oswick’s doctor told her there was nothing more he could do and that she ought to “go home and wait to die.”
Dr. Esselstyn had stopped by her room when Oswick was hospitalized after the surgery to suggest she would be a good candidate for his experiment. But when Oswick heard she would have to eliminate all but 10 percent of the fat from her diet, she told Esselstyn, “No way.”
Later Oswick reconsidered. “I realized I wasn’t ready to die,” she says. After talking it over with her husband, Oswick embarked on Dr. Esselstyn’s study, giving up her beloved “chocolate donuts, ice cream and beef livers.”
Yet, Oswick says, she has never looked back. Although Esselstyn told her she was the last person he expected to change her mind, Oswick has been with the program for 21 years. When she isn’t teaching public speaking and interpersonal skills at a university, she instructs business executives etiquette and speech making, and is even considering going to law school.
MURLAN MURPHY
“Few Murphys lived beyond the age of 55,” says Murlan Murphy (the owner along with his sons of the company that manufactured Murphy’s Oil Soap), whose family has been decimated by a family history of heart disease. At 88, he said. “I’ve never felt better.”
At 40, Murphy started jogging, five miles three times a week, to prevent the arterial disease which had left his father an invalid. But at 65, having paid no attention to his diet, Murphy found he would get exhausted after only a quarter mile. Murphy was diagnosed with heart disease and received an angioplasty.
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Nevertheless, Murphy’s disease returned. Scheduled for open-heart surgery, he decided against it and opted to try Dr. Esselstyn’s approach. Within six months of maintaining a regimen of a plant-based diet and cholesterol-lowering drugs, he was jogging again at full strength. He did so until about ten years ago when at 78, he opted to start working out in the gym instead.
“Exercise alone would never have worked,” says Murphy. “The diet is what made the difference.”
ROBERT MERCER
Robert Mercer of Newfoundland, Canada is a 74 year old male who had a heart attack at age 42 in 1982 and a mild stroke in 1985.
Imaging at that time confirmed a 100% occlusion of the right carotid artery and a 27% blockage of the left carotid artery as well as further coronary artery disease progression necessitating bypass surgery which was performed not withstanding a 100% occluded right carotid artery. Despite optimal medical therapy and modest nutritional changes of decreasing sugar, fat, and eating less meat, the patient’s left carotid artery blockage had progressed by 2008 to 80-90% occlusion by ultra sound. By 2011 he was having daily angina and his physician indicated there was nothing further they could do for him. He felt his time was short.
During this time, Mercer’s daughter had found and read Dr. Esselstyn’s book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. She herself had experienced a heart attack at age 37, so they both became fully committed to whole foods, plant-based nutrition. Within one month, his angina completely disappeared. After 4 months, he had lost 41 pounds to a body weight of 136 pounds which was the same weight at his wedding 53 years earlier.
In September of 2013, a repeat duplex ultrasound confirmed left carotid artery disease reversal from 80-90% in 2008 to 50-69%. Mercer states he no longer tires and in retirement he is physically active all day. He states: “I am so busy living now, I no longer think about dying.”
JIM MCNAMARA
Jim McNamara is a 62 year old male who was initially seen at the Cleveland Clinic on September 4, of 2003 at age 52.
At that time he weighed 192 pounds and had hyperlipidemia and hypertension, both controlled by medications. He was given the standard diet prescription, and was started on niacin. On a return visit he had lost 25 pounds. He returned to an affiliate hospital of the Cleveland Clinic on March 15, 2006 having had a cerebral vascular accident for which he underwent a right carotid endarterectomy on March 19, 2006. At the time of that procedure he sustained a right retinal infarct. A right carotid duplex on May of 2006, two months after the procedure, confirmed the right carotid artery was now occluded. On August 27, 2007 a repeat duplex of the remaining left carotid artery confirmed increasing stenosis. Also, this time he was diagnosed with leg claudication. Further evaluation on February 28, 2008 confirmed progression of carotid stenosis from 20-39% in 2006 to 60-79% in 2008.
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By March 14, 2010 his claudication progressed to the point of necessitating an intervention. He required an endarterectomy of his left carotid artery on June 4, 2010 before his left leg bypass surgery. The left leg operation consisted of a vein graft from the left superficial femoral to the left posterior tibial artery and was performed on September 20, 2010. Within 48 hours the graft failed. Thombectomy of the failed graft was performed on September 23, 2010. A further evaluation of the leg graft on February 22, 2011 confirmed that it has thrombosed. At this time, exercise was recommended along with usual cardiovascular medications.
In March of 2011, McNamara attended a 5.5 hour intensive counseling seminar on whole foods, plant-based nutrition to halt and reverse cardiovascular disease at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. Within four months his claudication was markedly improved, his blood pressure was normal and he had now lost an additional 15 pounds. Two years following his transition to plant-based nutrition, he is able to walk without discomfort or pain beyond 45 minutes. He has maintained his weight loss and his blood pressure and cholesterol remain normal with minimal medications. Though he is presently retired, he derives satisfaction as a motivational speaker at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute program for the arrest and reversal of cardiovascular disease.
Our Daughter's wedding was 6 months after starting a plant based diet. There is no way Jim would have been able to dance all night if he hadn't changed his diet.
- Jim's wife
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and voluntary health benefit option to reverse, halt and prevent
chronic diseases like heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity
and others using plant based nutrition.