Introduction

THIS BOOK HAS ITS ORIGINS in the dramatic experiences of twenty-three men and one woman who came to me in despair and without hope some twenty years ago. At the time, I was a surgeon at the renowned Cleveland Clinic. Year in and year out, the clinic is widely recognized as the number one heart center in the world. And indeed, there is no way to exaggerate the remarkable innovations and feats of surgical wonder that my colleagues have been able to introduce into the world of medicine.

But a surgeon has only so many tools to use against a lethal disease, and in the case of the patients to whom this book is dedicated, the clinic’s physicians had found themselves in the position of having to say that there was nothing more they could do.

This is always the hardest moment both for the patient and the physician—the time when, in effect, a death sentence has been rendered. And that was the position the majority of these patients found themselves in back in 1985. They were, it must be acknowledged, a sorry lot by the time they arrived in my office—sorry in terms of both their physical health and their spirits.

Most demoralizing for those who had been the beneficiaries of the clinic’s surgical interventions was the recognition that so much that had been done to save them—repeated open heart surgery, angioplasties aplenty, stents, and a host of medications—seemed no longer to have any useful effect. Almost all the men had lost their sexual potency. Most had chest pains, the terrifying condition known as angina. For some, it was so agonizing that they couldn’t lie down and had to sleep sitting up. Only a few could take long walks, and some couldn’t even cross a room without excruciating pain. The fact is that some were walking dead men.

It was, no doubt, because they had completely run out of options that they agreed to the demanding conditions I set for entry into the trial cure that I had come to believe in.

What they had to give up, I explained, would not be easy for any American accustomed to a diet flush with deep-fried fast foods, thick steaks, and rich dairy products. But if they were prepared to join me in a diet not unlike the one followed by two-thirds of the world’s population, I held out the likelihood that we could overturn the death sentences that had been delivered to them by their physicians. In the process, we could demonstrate that the leading killer of Americans, heart disease, was a paper tiger that could be defeated—and without the use of a surgeon’s knife.

By now, most everyone is generally aware that what you eat has something to do with whether or not you will develop heart disease. Back when my study began, this wasn’t at all established. But also out of a personal sense of threat—everyone in my family had died early—I had begun looking for some alternative fate and had come up with the idea of low-fat, plant-based nutrition. On the West Coast, unbeknownst to me, Dean Cornish had started down the same path with several earlier published studies showing the benefits of lifestyle change. There we were, on opposite sides of the continent, not knowing nor having heard of each other at the time.

Almost all of those who came to me, who had been told there was little hope, today—twenty years later—are alive, their arterial diseases receded. They stand as living proof of what is possible for you and anyone else who chooses to do what is necessary to become heart-attack-proof. And they gave me the invaluable gift of confidence as I went on to counsel and treat hundreds of additional patients.

This book is dedicated to those original patients—to the adventure we had together, pioneering this experiment in the treatment of coronary heart disease, and to the way they picked up their lives and found, in the course of pursuing an alternative diet and lifestyle, a resumption of the joy of living. It offers a simple, basic hopeful way for you to navigate your way into a long and rewarding life.

Let me tell you the story of my patients, of our research, and of what we have learned.