Heart Disease
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3. ROLE OF NATURO-FOOD THERAPY IN THE CURE OF
CORONARY HEART DISEASE
Prevention of Heart Disease from Childhood
3.1 Prevention is better than cure. Unfortunately, most of us start taking precautions and incorporating lifestyle modifications only after an initial heart attack, angioplasty or a bypass surgery. It is like locking the stable doors once the horse is gone. Healthy living has to start in childhood. Heart disease is the biggest killer in the adult population of the world, but the pathological processes and risk factors have been shown to begin in childhood. So there is increasing realisation that healthy lifestyle training to prevent heart disease in society has to start in early childhood and promotion of cardiovascular health should be integrated into the comprehensive paediatric care of children.
Angioplasty and Bypass Surgery and Heart Disease Process
3.2 It is important to realise that both angioplasty and bypass surgery are temporary palliative procedures and not curative, that is, they take care of the major immediate problems, but the disease process is still active and if proper precautions are not taken, there are greater chances of new blockages developing and the previous ones getting reblocked. These procedures by themselves do not alter the basic disease process in an individual’s arteries. It is a mistaken belief in several individuals, after the initial shock has worn off, that they are now cured and do whatever they want. In reality, nothing is farther away from the truth. If at all, the experience of having undergone major procedures like these should afford an opportunity to the patient and family members to adopt healthier lifestyle for it plays a major role in ensuring long-term good health and disease-free survival. It is medically proven that given the right kind of diet and exercise, the heart on its own can achieve the same results that a bypass surgery would. It is just that in this case the process will be longer. But the results will be long-lasting and risk-free.
Atherosclerosis and Heart Disease Reversal
3.3 The good news is that coronary-artery blockages are not irreversible. The key to reversing heart disease is restraint. Making serious efforts to trade your eating habits for healthy arteries and a healthy old age, can give your cardiovascular system a longer, healthier life. Controlling the risk factors for heart disease is a full time job. It need not consume you, but creating a lifestyle of appropriate diet, exercise, emotional and stress management along with adequate rest, relaxation and sleep and above all having a positive, cheerful and optimistic attitude is the real key to heart health.
3.4 Recently Dr. Dean Ornish, founder President of US-based Preventive Medicine Research Institute in an interview (published in the newspaper Indian Express on 16.11.2013) stated that a series of studies conducted by him revealed that comprehensive change in diet and lifestyle can reverse the atherosclerosis and heart disease. Answering a question as to how his programme prevents or reverses disease, he said that: “The programme addresses what we eat, how we respond to stress, how much exercise we get, and perhaps most importantly, how much love and support we have in our lives.” To a question: How his programme is relevant for India?, he said; “I think it is particularly relevant for India now because unfortunately what we are seeing worldwide, and especially in India, is what I term the globalisation of chronic diseases: that other countries are starting to eat, live and die like us (Americans). Heart disease and Type-II diabetes were fairly rare in India 50 years ago. Now Type-II diabetes is affecting over 50% of population. Ironically, our lifestyle and diet programme is essentially what Indians were eating and living before they started copying the American way of life.”
