The Heart of the Matter

And soon he became a specialist, specializing in the diseases of the rich.

Tom Lehrer, ca. 1960.

Cardiometabolic dysfunction in all forms, is still the single biggest health threat in our society, and it is a lifestyle disease. It is the core issue in most chronic disease. Of course we do have a bad problem with Fentanyl, however the most recent year the CDC reports is 2021, and opioid deaths were 71,000 and deaths from heart issues are typically around 700,000 in recent years, and presently probably rising due to the myocarditis and pericarditis caused by the vaccines. That situation bears watching. However the broad conclusion is that while the opioid crisis and the present vaccine scandal are catastrophically bad cases of iatrogenic disease, whipped cream still kills more people than opioids do, and our society still treats that as the cost of doing business. It remains socially acceptable to promote foods and lifestyles that directly cause heart disease, diabetes and other chronic illnesses. The vaccine injuries may well exceed opioids, and perhaps eclipse the historical cardiovascular categories. Still the core issue remains lifestyle.

The clear advantage of the whole lifestyle medicine concept is simplicity: a whole foods, plant-based diet prescribes a very simple concept:

• 80% of calories should come from complex carbohydrates, i.e. whole grains, etc. i.e. avoid all refined foods, white rice, white flour, sugar, oil.
• 10% of calories should come from naturally occurring oils, such as in beans, and the occasional avocado. Ergo, avoid refined oils, for cooking, for frying, for salad dressing, for baking. And practice moderation with oily fruit.
• 10% of calories should come from protein, and specifically plant-based proteins, as there is considerable evidence that plant-based proteins inhibit tumor growth, while animal proteins promote tumor growth. So no dairy, eggs, fish, fowl, or meat of any kind.
• Be on guard for the sneaky killers sugar, salt and oil, which are too often added in food processing in various disguises. In simple terms: NO SOS, Sugar, Oil, Salt.

Health versus healthcare

What we generally call healthcare is anything but. It tends to be focused on medical interventions that are offered after people call 911. The problem needs to be addressed before there is any need for medical interventions. This is the terrain of Lifestyle Medicine, and of primary care in general, but even that is too “medical,” the emphasis should be on Lifestyle, not on Medicine. The way healthcare is organized creates problems, and it gets complicated even further with over-specialization. This is very evident with e.g. Cardiology. If there is a a conceptual land area between primary care and cardiology, traditionally 80% was shifted to cardiology, for beyond the most simple issues, the primary care physician might feel out of his depth, so the specialists were called in. And even then it was hard for the immense array of tests that exists may have some amount of probative value, but most are not conclusive, and the specialist must interpolate between the various test results and his own clinical observations and even so, malpractice claims abound. The following video gives some insight:

So if there are 10 symptomologies of budding heart disease and the primary care physician has been unable to address them for lack of a simple test to identify them, this has just changed. We are calling 911 too soon, in particular because of a lack of knowledge, and adequate diagnostics. “Premier Heart’s Multifunction Cardiogram(TM) – I represent this product and am actively involved in bringing it into the primary care circuit in general and Lifestyle Medicine in particular – is permanently changing this landscape. With this test, the primary care physician can see precisely where it hurts and what can be addressed with lifestyle changes and what needs actual medical intervention. If he or she then needs to refer the patient to a cardiologist, it will be very specific, and as there are no better tests than the MCG. So now the terrain of cardiac care shifts to 80% primary care and 20% cardiology. This is what can really make healthcare affordable, 80% of the burden shifts to primary care, which would not even be feasible, until you realize that 80% of the solution is DIY: lifestyle changes including #WFPB nutrition.

The most obvious avenue for disease reversal and prevention remains a whole food, plant-based diet, which is very anti-inflammatory, and other lifestyle issues, such as good sleep hygiene, and a healthy regime of exercise, and relaxation as well as meditation and prayer, or however you address, your spiritual well-being. One very significant tool in this process is also the practice of intermittent fasting, up to and including three-day water fasts. For more extended water fasts, which may be very effective for certain conditions, medical supervision is a must, and you want to find yourself adequate support, such as True North Health.

With these tools in hand, 80% of cardiac issues can be addressed at the primary care level, and in turn 80% of those are lifestyle issues, and not medical issues. Premier Heart’s Multifunction Cardiogram(TM) is quickly emerging as the pivotal technology that provides the necessary diagnostic and prognostic information for physicians and their patients, to make this murky area completely insightful, so they can see directly how effective lifestyle changes really are. This is particularly relevant also in under-served communities for the lifestyle issues can be addressed readily with lay support. Various volunteer organizations around the country are doing so, including Plant-Powered Metro New York (PPMNY) in the New York metropolitan area.

For extra credit

And it does not end here, for with the ability of clear and explicit diagnostics that can separate the chaff from the wheat and identify what is susceptible to lifestyle changes, and what actually needs medical intervention, a lot of cardiac issues can be resolved at the primary care level, but also what remains for the cardiologists will be well defined, and conclusively diagnosed, which eliminates a lot of insecurity. First of all, it will eliminate a lot of very expensive and unnecessary testing, and replace it with a cheap test that offers 90-100% accuracy of diagnosis and prognosis. It will also eliminate vast numbers of false positives, unnecessary procedures, and consequently malpractice claims.

In short, this test, by eliminating a huge area of uncertainty out of the chain of healthcare, and effectively performing triage where the disease reversal candidates are referred back to primary care, and the actual cardiac patients who need medical support will have a very accurate diagnosis and prognosis, giving the cardiologist accurate and actionable data from the outset.