Eliminate Heart Disease by Doing 3 Things Study

At least 80% of all heart disease is totally unnecessary.  Indeed, according to a recent study, if you can do the three things discussed in the article to eliminate heart disease, most drug companies, hospitals, and cardiologists would be out of business.

Jeff's Experience

This past weekend I spoke at a conference sponsored by my hospital.  Sadly, the message that was conveyed is that heart disease is inevitable.  Thus, taking preventative medications is critical to preventing the number one killer in the U.S.

Jeff didn't buy into this philosophy either.

By age 45, Jeff's cardiologist insisted that he take 5 medications to treat his diabetes, high blood pressure, and his heart condition called atrial fibrillation.  Believing there must be another way, he came to me for a second opinion.

Jeff really did need those five medications at the time.  He had some serious lifestyle changes that he had to make first before we could ever think about getting him off of medications.

At the end of his initial visit, Jeff asked "Do you think my weight caused these problems?"

"Probably," I said.

"Is it too late?" he asked.

"The good news is that if you act quickly, we can probably reverse everything before permanent damage occurs," I said.

Jeff clung onto this hope of a life free of medications and the goal to eliminate heart disease.  I then shared with him the following results from the recently published LEGACY Study.

Eliminate Heart Disease: The LEGACY Study

The idea to do the LEGACY Study was the brainchild of my good friend, Dr. Prash Sanders, from the University of Adelaide Hospital in Australia.  As there are a limited number of Australian cardiologists specializing in heart rhythm disorders, Dr. Sanders really didn't have any other options to treat the thousands of patients with a heart condition called atrial fibrillation.

Indeed, his patients often had to wait a year or longer for procedures to correct atrial fibrillation when medications were no longer effective.  Suspecting that the obesity crisis was causing this atrial fibrillation epidemic, Dr. Sanders came up with a plan.

What would happen if he offered his patients a healthy dose of "lifestyle medicine" while they waited for their procedures?  This lifestyle medicine experiment then led to what was later known as the LEGACY Study.

LEGACY Study Goal

The real goal of the LEGACY Study was to use lifestyle medicine to lose both the weight and the atrial fibrillation heart condition.  To test this approach, Dr. Sanders enrolled 355 of his patients.

With lifestyle medicine, he collected a group of patients that were able to lose an average of 36 pounds.  He then followed these patients for five years to see what would happen.

What a 36 Pound Weight Loss Can Do

The results of the LEGACY Study caught most of the cardiology community by complete surprise.  Below are the 7 things that happened with just a 36 pound weight loss.

1. 46% of Atrial Fibrillation Patients Went into Remission

Probably the most remarkable finding of this study was that a 36 pound weight loss gave you a fifty fifty chance of making atrial fibrillation go away without drugs or procedures. This finding went against the prevailing wisdom that atrial fibrillation only gets worse with time.

2. Blood Pressure Dropped by 18 Points

In this study, a 36 pound weight loss dropped blood pressure by 18 points.  Considering that the typical blood pressure medication only lowers blood pressure by about 8 points, this is the equivalent of getting off of two blood pressure lowering medications.

3. Inflammation Dropped by 76%

To live a long and healthy life, you can't "rust" out your body.  Inflammation causes rusting and aging of all your organs.  In this study, a 36 pound weight loss translated into a 76% reduction in inflammation as measured by the blood test, C-reactive protein.

4. 88% of Diabetes Went into Remission