GOLD MEDAL DOCTOR

Long before he became an extraordinary doctor who wrote the life-changing book, PREVENT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE, Caldwell B. Esselstyn, M.D., was an Olympic Gold Medalist in rowing. His reflections on that dramatic experience in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia, and its impact on his life and work are stunning! You can read his full account here:

 

I include the final paragraphs of Esselstyn's reflections for their amazing impact on my health and well being and hopefully on yours as well:

 

"A strong argument can be made that chronic illness need never exist. There are still third world and developing nations that consume plant-based nutrition and avoid heart disease, strokes, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, osteoporosis, the common western cancers of breast, prostate, colon, endometrial, ovary as well as gall stones, diverticulitis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis to mention a few.
"Just as a subtle change in temperature from 33 degrees Fahrenheit to 32 degrees Fahrenheit can change water to ice, so can the barrage of free radicals in the Western diet marinate within our cellular matrix producing microscopic irreversible injury. These subtle injuries accumulate decade after decade until we as physicians declare a diagnosis. 
"This endeavor has become my second Olympics. It is my dream that the public will be made to understand the causation of chronic illness. How do I answer my critics who say you can never change this much behavior. Maybe that is true. Perhaps I can not, but I am very optimistic. Look how aware people are of the ravages of smoking. Also look at what happened last year in my own counseling practice to arrest and reverse coronary heart disease. Two interventional cardiologists who had developed heart disease themselves came knocking at my door. Hope springs eternal.

"I would like to end sharing with you the motto of our 1956 Olympic Champion Crew- “Press on Regardless.”

 

I met Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., and his wife Ann Crile Esselstyn at one of their Prevent and Reverse seminars at the Cleveland Clinic in 2012. Since then I have been teaching others what I learned from them--how to eat well and be well by feasting on a great variety of vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes while avoiding meat, dairy and oil.