Veganist_ Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World - Kathy Freston [37]
I am talking here about impotence, a male problem, but for women, too, sexual pleasure is also dependent on blood flow. So although women don’t experience impotence, clogged arteries can—for the exact same reason they inhibit erectile function in men—inhibit sexual pleasure for women.
A Few Case Studies on Plant-based Diet and Circulation
I have included a variety of case studies in this book—anecdotes that support the overwhelming scientific evidence that diet can be used to beat back the greatest health scourges that are affecting the developed nations. When I started looking for stories, I was bowled over by how many there are—including dozens in Dr. Esselstyn’s book, and many more on Dr. John McDougall’s website (more on him soon). And they are all so deeply inspiring. In a moment, I’m going to introduce you to Dr. Ruth Heidrich, who is one of my heroes, but first, I’d like to mention just a few from two of my favorite nutritional experts.
Dr. Esselstyn explains:
In 1996, I used plant-based nutrition to aggressively reduce the risk factors in a patient with demonstrably poor circulation to a portion of heart muscle. A cardiac PET scan noted the problem just prior to my intervention. Within ten days of her starting a plant-based diet and a low dose of cholesterol-lowering drug, the patient’s cholesterol level fell from 248 mg/dL to 137. After just three weeks of therapy, a repeat scan showed restored circulation to the area of heart muscle that had been deprived. There was no doubt what had happened: a profound change in lifestyle, adopting strictly plant-based nutrition, brought about a rapid restoration of the endothelial cells’ capacity to manufacture nitric oxide, and that, in turn, restored circulation.
Esselstyn tells of a man who came to him with multiple blockages in his coronary arteries. He was experiencing chest pain when he walked, and was scheduled for bypass surgery. After just eleven days on a low-fat, plant-based diet, the pain was gone. He canceled his surgery. In addition to publishing his best-selling book, Dr. Esselstyn also published his findings in the American Journal of Cardiology.
Dr. Ornish tells of “a man named Mark [who] came to my office and showed me a photograph of how he looked two years earlier. I hardly recognized him—because he weighed 335 pounds then and only 165 pounds now. He lost 170 pounds by following the program outlined in Eat More, Weigh Less and has not regained it.”
Of course, anecdotes are not science; but these doctors—and others—have published their results, which prove that these anecdotes put faces to the vast numbers of people who have beaten heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, impotence, dementia, and more—by changing the way they eat.
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Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Dean Ornish, and Dr. Neal Barnard agree that a whole-foods, plant-based diet minimizes the likelihood of stroke, obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and cancers of the breast, prostate, colon, rectum, uterus, and ovary.
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Other Factors That Influence Longevity
Okay, just so you don’t think I’m only about a plant-based diet, here are some other recommendations for long-term health and happiness!
1. Regular physical activity
It’s no secret that regular exercise benefits the body in a wide variety of ways. Regular physical activity helps us look better, increases energy levels, and boosts self-confidence. Evidence also suggests that it may help you live longer. Moderate physical activity is associated with a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes. A 2005 study conducted by the U.S. Department of Public Health and the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam