The perfect evening. The munchkins are fast asleep, a glass of perfectly chilled Gavi, Netflix and Mrs P curled up on the sofa. A quick debate on what to watch and we decide on some of Quentin Tarantino’s work and we put on his dubious masterpiece that is his 2007 grindhouse classic ‘Death proof’. It stars Kurt Russell, who is a scarred stuntman that preys on women using his ‘death proof’ stunt cars to execute his murderous plans.
Halfway through my glass of Gavi, my mind starts wandering and I consider if I could actually make myself ‘death proof’? If I could that, I would never die. I’d just grow older and older. Good thing anti-ageing is my speciality.
Suddenly I’ve lost interest in the movie and a quick browse on Madame Google reveals a few interesting articles and videos. I’m intrigued. So I search some more. Mrs P noticing that my choice of movie is no longer relevant, she puts on Dirty Dancing (again!) and I decide I’m not sleeping tonight until I know everything about making myself ‘death proof’.
Old age in itself is not a cause of death, the cause being an ailment associated with old age. Therefore if we never get ill, we wouldn’t die. Simple.
Heart disease is no joking matter. A lot of people die from heart attacks, my family included, or have to have heart bypasses or stents inserted in operating theatres followed by a lifetime of medication. Not funny. My career as a hospital pharmacist and covering cardiology and the stroke unit did open my eyes to some surprising facts. I expected the wards to be filled with overweight wheezy pensioners. Instead, there was a significant proportion of young men and women in their early 20’s and 30’s there, who looked to be in great shape but had suffered some cardiac event. Scary. Some were younger than me, played sports, went to the gym and kept a seemingly healthy diet. I was the overweight wheezy pensioner compared to them.
So how can we prevent a heart attack ever happening? According to Dr Caldwell Esselstyn, you can actually reverse heart disease to the point that you will never have a heart attack or another heart attack. Incredible claims. Dr Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondant, looked into this and made some incredible findings. Followers of Dr Esselstyn’s teaching include the former U.S president Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton started Dr Esselstyn’s diet plan soon after suffering a heart attack after failure of stents from a previous cardiac event. He is now a changed man, much healthier and with a greatly reduced risk of heart attacks.
With the correct diet you can reduce the formation of plaques in the arteries which are formed by bad cholesterol. These plaques are the blockages resulting in heart attacks and strokes.
The diet itself tells you what not to eat, which lucky for all of us , is a much smaller list than what you can eat. Easy? Do not eat oil, dairy, meat, fish or chicken. He is quoted as saying not to eat anything with eyes or a mother and to concentrate on beans, vegetables and fruit, and wholegrains like cereal, bread and pasta.
How does this differ to Dr Assem Malhotra’s Pioppi diet I wrote about last year and that was presented to parliament by Keith Vaz? The Pioppi diet was big on full fat dairy, fish, olive oil, coconut oil, and to avoid carbohydrates like cereals and grains whereas all these are the reverse for Dr Esselstyns preachings.
Similarities are the consumption of vegetables, nuts and beans, and the avoidance of sugar, although natural fruit sugars are allowed by Dr Esselstyn all with a healthy dose of exercise and sleep.
With recent news of a new test to check for heart attacks that’s 5 years away before being rolled out in the NHS, we need to start looking after ourselves better. We may not be death proof but we can help ourselves to reduce the chances of heart attacks just by eating the right foods and avoiding the bad.
If you need more information, you can contact me, your GP or the British Heart Foundation about your heart concerns.
