Reversing heart disease; no longer a dream

American Fitness, Nov-Dec, 1990 by Peg Jordan

Reversing Heart Disease

No Longer A Dream

For decades doctors denied that heart disease could be cured, let alone reversed. But new research shows lifestyle change not only halts the disease progress--but opens clogged arteries once again.

How rigorous a lifestyle change is necessary? That's where the doctors don't agree. Herman Hellerstein, M.D., is the grand old man of cardiology. His book, written with Paul Perry, Healing Your Heart: A Proven Program for Reversing Heart Disease, presents the findings of a 58-year career that proves heart disease can be reversed through lifestyle change. Although his ground-breaking work offers real hope to millions of Americans, Dr. Hellerstein is not the researcher you hear about in most of the dramatic media stories these days. Newsweek, US News & World Report and People have been touting the claims of another physician, Dean Ornish, M.D., who says his is the first clinical trial to show that heart disease can be reversed.

Ornish's program, conducted out of the University of California, San Francisco, is a highly demanding regimen that entails a near-vegetarian diet, regular exercise, meditation, stretching and yoga, and weekly social support groups. His recommended diet reduces fat intake to 10% of total calories and cholesterol to 5 mg a day. It's not an easy road for the patients in his program, but the 28 candidates in his study that succeeded in following it showed a lowering of blood cholesterol levels and dramatic improvement in their coronary arteries. Giving up burgers for bulghar may not be to the liking of most Americans, but according to Ornish, the traditional recommendations for preventing heart disease are insufficient to stop the disease.

That is where some doctors disagree. Dr. Hellerstein's program is less rigorous in its modifications, but based on his own research and the results of other major research projects, just as effective in reducting and reversing the blockages that cause coronary artery disease. His seven-step program relies entirely on sensible lifestyle changes that people can easily make--and live with. Suitable for patients recovering from bypass surgery or angioplasty as well as the millions who want to protect themselves against the nation's number one killer, Hellerstein's system has clinically demonstrated significant improvement in subjects in only six weeks.

A noted professor of cardiology at Case Western Reserve Medical School in Cleveland and co-director of the federally funded National Exercise and Heart Disease Project, Hellerstein altered the lifestyle habits of hundreds of young men with heart disease, most of whom had hearts that tested 20 years older than their age.

According to Perry, former executive editor of American Health magazine, "Dr. Hellerstein changed the same lifestyle factors as those in the Ornish study. He put them on low cholesterol diets, defatted them, exercised them, de-stressed them and of course, stopped their tobacco habits. The differences, however, are interesting. Dr. Hellerstein took the realistic approach to lifestyle changes outlined in our book. He found that by making a number of small changes, heart patients could accomplish enormous results."

What are the differences between the two programs?

* Ornish's study focused on the results of 28 individuals over the past few years. Hellerstein has successfully treated almost 1,000 patients for more than 20 years, and most of them have withstood the test of time, the most important measure of a healthy heart. * Ornish's program turns patients into meditating vegetarians. Hellerstein's includes guidelines for reducing total cholesterol to below 200 mg/dl, with a cholesterol to below 130 mg/dl, with a total cholesterol/HDL ratio of 3.5. His menu plans offer 1,500 to 2,500 calories per day, with the saturated fat content under 10% and total fat under 30% of total calories. * Ornish keeps his patient's cholesterol intake limited to 5 mg a day, a level that many consider a diet of deprivation rather than substitution. Hellerstein's cholesterol content averages 50 to 100 mg a day--well below the American Heart Association's recommendation of no more than 300 mg. * Ornish's program introduces Eastern philosophies for stress management such as meditation and yoga. Hellerstein's program looks not only at lowering stress levels through a variety of means, but also places value on raising self-esteem. He recognizes that stress affects different individuals in a myriad of ways, while fortifying your coping mechanisms will lead to feelings of greater self-control. * Ornish, 39, declares that he is the first to scientifically prove heart disease reversal. Hellerstein, 72, knows better, and gives credit to landmark studies from the 1920s to the present. (see sidebar "Mounting Evidence, The History of Reversal Research")

A multi-faceted lifestyle change is just what all the doctors call for, even though it may not be what most Americans want to face. The search continues for a magical "Roto-rooter" of the coronaries, or even a single cholesterol-lowering pill free of side effects. Asked if there is any one thing people can do that proves more effective than anything else in protecting against heart disease, Hellerstein responds, "Well, it takes more than oat bran to reverse heart disease. You've got to attend to the entire coronary constellation--all those factors that affect the health of the heart."