Dietary Interventions to Reverse Arterial Disease and Diabetes Mellitus type 2.
Ten years of practicing hospital medicine has shown me that taking medications, getting stents or having surgery to open blocked arteries responsible for strokes and heart attacks, is only buying time! Time until your next event. The process responsible for giving you these problems is still at work… and it’s STILL trying to give you that next heart attack, stroke, or rendering your other organs dysfunctional. These medical interventions are not a cure for the disease process. They are quick saving measures. If you need them, I recommend doing them… but it should also signal a renaissance in how you do life!
Much of what drives the artery diseases is lifestyle driven, with the biggest component being diet. Now, I haven’t always thought so. I definitely wasn’t taught so. But NOW… there is science to show that it is so! And you can do something about it!
This page is meant to be a consolidated “jumping off” point. People have written entire books and there are vast websites dedicated to this topic. (I will reference some below with links to their site.)
Be careful. There are many many people trying to grab your money, thus distracting knowledge seeking people from obtaining good information. So, I’m here with my 13 years of medical experience working in a busy Comprehensive Stroke Center, dealing with diabetes, strokes, heart attacks and I want to point you in the direction of some good science!
DIABETES MELLITUS TYPE 2
Stroke, heart attack and peripheral artery disease can happen without diabetes. But toss some high blood sugars into the mix and we have just added gasoline to the fire! Uncontrolled diabetes? You’ve chosen the fast track to recurring heart attack or stroke. So, if you’ve experienced any of the above life altering diagnoses, we MUST deal with the diabetes or you are still heading in the wrong direction!
Type 2 diabetes drives your blood sugars up because your body’s becomes LESS sensitive to the insulin your pancreas makes. Most of our medications and shots of insulin itself doesn’t make your body more sensitive to insulin again. While they can work to control the blood sugar, it’s not reversing the disease, and you are merely slowing the progression of all the complications of diabetes. Artery disease, heart attacks, strokes, blindness, kidney failure, neuropathy, erectile dysfunction, cognitive impairment, etc. Yes, diabetes is that detrimental.
What if we didn’t just try to manage the sugars, but we made the body less resistant to it’s own insulin, reversing diabetes…. Is it possible? YES!
NUMBER 1: EXERCISE.
30 minutes of exercise a day makes a big difference. It must be vigorous enough to get your heart rate up! Break a sweat. But it can and will make your body more sensitive to insulin! (reference 1) Also, more is better. If you’re achieving 30 minutes daily or at least 5 days a week and you want to do more, go for it! There are added health benefits!
NUMBER 2: WHOLE FOOD PLANT BASED DIET.
This is so powerful, it’s dangerous! If you adopt and adhere to this diet, you will need to be on the look out for low blood sugar. In fact, nearly everyone who switches to this diet (and sticks to it) has to stop most of their medications… and even get OFF OF INSULIN! A study followed people for 7 months. The mean number of diabetes medications for patients in the study at the start, four. By the end of the study, they were down to ONE. Also, their A1c dropped to an average of 5.8! We don’t even diagnose diabetes until an A1c reaches 6.5, so effectively… you’ve cured your diabetes. AS LONG as you continue to eat this diet.
Here’s the study if you want proof:
D. M. Dunaief et al. / Open Journal of Preventive Medicine 2 (2012) 364–371
What is this Whole Food Plant Based diet?
A whole-food, plant-based diet is centered on whole, unrefined, or minimally refined plants. It’s a diet based on fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. Additionally, it excludes or severely minimizes meat (including chicken and fish), dairy products, and eggs, as well as highly refined foods like bleached flour, refined sugar, and oil.
Personally, I limit meat to twice a year. Refined white flour or sugar to once a week.
WAIT, QUIT MEAT??!!! Yes… The funny part is, I used to think “I could never quit meat!” But the longer I eat plant based, the less rewarding the meat is. I’m rewiring my brain! In the past year, I had meat twice. First, on vacation, I had a nice $45 steak because my traveling companions wanted to go to a steakhouse. Next, I was on the coast of Maine, I had to try a lobster roll. Years ago, I would have loved them both and talked about how amazing they were. Now… My thoughts right after eating it, “it’s just okay. I sort of feel gross now.”
This made me realize… What you think tastes great, is just a product of where you live and what you grew up eating. And you aren’t stuck there.
Want to try a Whole Food Plant Based diet? Here are some starting points.
What does a whole food plant based diet even mean? What do I eat? What do I not eat? What could I even cook?
Plant-Based Primer: Forks Over Knives ← click here to get started!

Ready to dive in deep and get pumped up with fantastic scientific knowledge? If so, YOU MUST READ:
“HOW NOT TO DIE” by Michael Greger, M.D.
Follow the link above to learn more. I bought the book and read it all. Learned a ton!
NOT FEELING EXCITED YET? I watched these documentaries and I felt a huge surge of motivation: These documentaries show many personal stories of lives transformed! Click the links to the right of the images.

FORKS OVER KNIVES:

EATING YOU ALIVE:
Heart attack/Diabetes, yes. Plus, this doc even has amazing recoveries from cancer. (see bottom of page re: cancer.)
Purchase digital or hard copy.
I HAD A STROKE/HEART ATTACK, BUT I DON’T HAVE DIABETES.
This LIFESTYLE isn’t all about diabetes. It’s about all artery diseases! (and cancer prevention, and increased mobility and longevity.) If you had a stroke or a heart attack, the vast majority are caused by cholesterol plaque build-up in the arteries that supply your heart or your brain. Good news. This diet when pitted against the best medications… beats the best medications! The whole food plant based diet REVERSES the blockages. They shrink. The flow of blood to these vital organs improves. Whereas the control group eating a standard American diet but receiving the medications still had PROGRESSION of the cholesterol plaques. Their blockages got WORSE. This was proven with coronary angiogram, “heart cath.” The gold standard imaging for coronary blood flow.
The science behind my statement:
Ornish Study: Intensive lifestyle change reversing heart disease.
Another study by Dr. Esselstyn, which wasn’t randomized, but followed 198 patients with coronary artery disease who wanted to try a plant base diet to stop their disease progression. 177 of those patients stuck to the diet. When they observation period of 3.7 years stopped, only 0.6% who stuck to the diet had another major cardiac event. Of those who quit the plant based diet, 62% had another major cardiac event.
I AM CONVINCED. My dad just had a heart bypass surgery (CABG). He always touted his very low levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol as proof that his ketogenic diet was working for him… but he ended up with a near massive heart attack and a proximal 95% LAD blockage leading to his bypass surgery. So, for me… I’m going plant based! My 1 year anniversary of this change is just around the corner! Join me?
CANCER. Prevention, treatment?
This is a big topic. Prevention I believe in. It’s not a guarantee, but it will improve our odds. Cure? There are some amazing stories of cure. Especially in the documentary, “Eating You Alive.” I don’t have data showing how likely you are to cure a cancer. I personally would do whatever my cancer doctor recommends PLUS a whole food plant based diet. I’d hit the broccoli hard! I wouldn’t explain away a great cure story… but I wouldn’t place all my money on that bet.
MY COMMENTS TO FREQUENT OBJECTIONS
“It’s too difficult to find places to eat when I’m out of the house.” — — I took a 22 day cross country road trip from The coast of Maine to the coast of Oregon. Always had a plant based option. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you make it a priority. AND you have a smart phone with access to Google or Yelp. While I did have to eat some white rice and white flour containing foods, it was kept to a minimum and it was kept vegan.
“But I need dairy to prevent osteoporosis!” — — Turns out, no. Increased dairy intake does not reduce risk of osteoporotic hip fractures. (reference here)
“You can’t get enough protein.” — — Have you ever seen a gorilla? Man… those are huge animals and they have massive muscles and incredible strength. They are also raw plant based vegans.

