FIRST DO NO HARM

Sue's Story

“My name is Susan Barry and I am a 64 year old with Coronary Artery Disease. May 2002 began my downward slide into doctoring and hospitals with my first heart attack and subsequent quintuple by-pass surgery.

I was told by my cardiologist that I should continue all that I was doing to maintain, but that probably I would not have a very good quality of life, and to expect future issues. I continued to exercise (walking) and eat as nutritiously as I knew how (the Standard Heart Diet). My total cholesterol continued to range in the high 200s, with the highest at 306.

I did maintain until August 2011 when I had a second heart attack and suffered congestive heart failure. As my ejection fraction remained very low, my cardiologist recommended that I be ambulanced to the University of Pennsylvania for evaluation at the Heart Transplant Unit. After seeing many doctors, the lipidologist “strongly recommended LDL-apheresis”as my mode of treatment, which would be done twice monthly for the rest of my life in a hospital about 3 hours from home. (This was on 9/28/11 when my cholesterol reading was 272 and LDL of 214.)

LDL apheresis is a form of apheresis resembling dialysis, to eliminate the cholesterol-containing particle, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), from the bloodstream. Each procedure takes several hours. Going home to ponder and pray lots about having to live this way, my daughter found Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s book, “Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease”. After devouring it (Esselstyn’s book), I told my lipidologist that I wanted to try plant-based nutrition to see if it would reverse my lab scores. My numbers began to improve immediately and my follow-up visit to Univ of PA found me no longer eligible for apheresis treatments. Praise God.

I continue to follow a plant based nutrition regimen, and continue to experience great lab scores. My current TOTAL CHOLESTEROL IS 165, HDL 59, LDL 93. My weight has come down from 142, while at the hospital at Univ of PA, to 120 today. I feel good, exercise often, and share my story as often as I can: PLANT-BASED NUTRITION HEALS.”