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How I lost 15 kg. in weight in 3 months and cured angina in 2 years with a vegetarian diet.
The Banfield Talk - The public speaking script for how I survived angina with a vegetarian diet and a monitoring exercise regime. This talk is now available as a CD for A$25 which includes postage. Please forward cheques or money order to M.A.Banfield, Unit 6, No.6 Hartman Ave., Modbury, South Australia 5092 for enquiries email to posture@chariot.net.au or phone +61 (08) 82635735 The Angina Heart Disease Vegetarian Diet Cure & Weight Loss Webpage © M.B.
Australian National Heart Foundation Month September 2007 48,000 Australians die of heart disease every year, which is greater than the number of deaths due to cancer. The National Heart Foundation of Australia will be doorknocking during the month of September to raise funds for heart research. Channel 7 TV News, Adelaide, South Australia 31-8-07 Coronary heart disease is the biggest cause of death in Australia in 2007 - It did not exist at all in 19th century vegetarian tribal societies. *** Many famous people have had fatal heart attacks after not changing their diets or lifestyles including Singer Elvis Presley, British comedian Benny Hill, Australian billionaire businessman Robert Holmes Acourt, Australian pop singer Billy Thorpe, and Australian 60 minutes journalist Richard Carlton. For more information on Celebrity Heart Attacks click here. The Banfield Diet This diet is for the treatment of angina and is based on the Pritikin Diet and on information derived from a book called "The New Health Revolution" by Ross Horne. Those diets had to be modified because I had an additional problem of chronic abdominal pain which was aggravated by eating soya beans. Therefore, in the urgency of the angina diagnosis 10 years ago, I decided to substitute rice as the primary source of protein for 3 months, and because this left me deficient in some nutrients I then added cold water fish, and then kangaroo meat. (Angina is a squeezing sensation in the mid chest and is a symptom of coronary artery disease i.e. congestion and narrowing of the coronary arteries). M.B. 19-9-05 This webpage was started 11-9-04 and was most recently modified on 31-8-07
THE ANGINA DIET PRINCIPLES
Angina Artery
Junk Food Artery
Tobacco Smokers Artery
Alcoholics Artery
(Clogged and narrowed arteries) These arteries contain a build up of cholesterol sludge called atheroma which produces atherosclerosis that is responsible for 90% of coronary heart disease. 50% of the Western population dies of this type of heart disease).
The Heart and the Coronary Arteries
Healthy Artery
Vegetarian Artery
Tribespeoples Artery
(Clean and wide arteries) These arteries contain no cholesterol sludge and are seen in native vegetarian tribespeople where heart disease does not exist).
A heart attack occurs when the coronary arteries become so congested that they block completely, or when they are partially congested and a small blood clot traveling through the bloodstream blocks a narrow section like a cork and prevents blood flow and oxygen supply to the heart muscle. Heart Attack Artery (Completely blocked) When surgeons perform coronary bypass surgery they replace clogged arteries from the heart with clear blood vessels from the legs, but, unlike coronary arteries these do not produce tributaries, and if the person does not change their diet then other arteries in the heart, and the new vessels can clog up again. The Cause and Cure of Angina Angina is caused by reduced blood flow to the heart muscle and this can result from various factors which mainly involve narrowing of the coronary arteries or gradual blockage of those arteries by cholesterol material which builds up on the inner lining. Some examples of the main causes of angina are listed below, and prevention and treatment involves avoiding or removing the causative factors. However, as I was a non-smoker and moderate drinker this webpage deals primarily with the dietary cause and cure.
Causes of gradual blockage Causes of narrowing Added Salt, sugar, and fat in the diet Cigarette tobacco smoking Excessive consumption of alcohol Excessive consumption of strong coffee The Symptoms of Angina The word angina refers to any spasmodic suffocating pain, but when it affects the heart it is called angina pectoris. It may be described by different patients, not as pain, but as a pressure, tightness, or crushing sensation, usually occurring near the centre of the chest, and sometimes radiating to the neck, shoulders, jaw or arms. The term squeezing sensation is also used and refers to the sense that something inside the chest is squeezing in on itself, like a sea sponge contracting. The term vice-like is another apt word because it depicts how winding a vice increases the pressure, and unwinding it relieves that pressure. If medical students wish to understand this symptom they could place their thumbs in a chinese knot and as they pull their hands apart there is no pain, but the squeezing sensation gets tighter and tighter, and the only way of achieving relief is to stop and move the hands together again. In my case the angina was a simple matter which I can best describe as a squeezing sensation just behind my breastbone which was predominantly brought on by effort and relieved by rest. I could walk for 20 yards and then the squeezing sensation would start, and if I tried to take another step the squeezing would increase and I would feel as if I was about to collapse or die, so I would stop before taking the third step and the symptom would gradually ease.
Introduction: how I cured angina: a biography About 7 years ago, in April 1997, I was first diagnosed with angina and shortly after that a cardiologist told me that I could be dead within 2 weeks unless I had urgent coronary bypass surgery. I had had many previous operations in which the complications of surgery were often worse than the conditions being treated, so, before rushing into this procedure I decided to read some information on the subject. Fortunately I had an old book called "The New Health Revolution" which was essentially a review and summary of the Pritikin Diet, and after reading this and several other items I concluded that the diet approach would give me my preferred best chance of survival. Essentially I noted that angina involved narrowing of the coronary arteries which was a feature of the Western World and non-existent in vegetarian tribal societies. Furthermore in our societies the incidence of heart disease and high blood pressure increases with advancing age and has been regarded by medical science as "normal" but there are vegetarian tribes in which blood pressure decreases with advancing age. I also found it interesting that some religious groups, such as the Seventh Day Adventists, have vegetarian diets and a very low incidence of heart disease, and that those who had a very pure vegetarian diet which not only excluded meat, but also excluded milk and eggs, had the lowest incidence of all. Furthermore vegetarians are invariably lean (thin) people. Apart from my own desire to avoid surgery I was influenced by the fact that when Pritikin developed his ideas he lived for 20 years after starting his diet, yet when he eventually died of heart disease he was condemned as a failure, but surgeons were promoting their procedures as being successful because some of their best cases survived for only 5 years by comparison. Of course, this situation has improved somewhat since, but I still decided to start the diet immediately, and have not seen a cardiologist since.
As I had several other health problems to juggle I could not use the Pritikin diet but the principle impressed me so I developed a modified version of my own. The principle which I derived may not be scientifically precise, but essentially, I concluded that fat in the diet entered the blood making it thick and sticky so that it stuck to the artery walls and built up in layers making the inside diameter narrower and narrower until there was not enough blood getting to the heart muscle to sustain exercise. This is why I could sit and rest comfortably in a lounge chair, but if I stood up and walked 5 yards to change the TV station I would get chest pains half way across the floor. Eventually the coronary arteries can clog completely resulting in a heart attack. The blockages can therefore occur gradually, or suddenly, as the result of a small piece of clot breaking loose from an artery wall and traveling along to a narrower part of the artery where it blocks it completely. By contrast if fat was removed from the diet the blood would become thin and run like water, eroding away the fatty deposits on the artery walls so that the inside diameter becomes wide again.
The build up of fatty deposits on the inside of the artery wall occurs gradually over decades without producing symptoms, and in my case I recalled that, for the previous 18 months I had been getting subtly breathless whenever I exerted myself or walked up slight hills, but I had assumed that that was a natural part of getting older. Then one day as I was walking about 20 yards to the letter box I got halfway and suddenly felt a squeezing pain in the centre of my chest, just behind my breastbone, and as I kept walking it got alarmingly worse, so I stopped and waited a few moments until the pain passed, and then proceeded to the letter box again. I was not aware that this was due to heart disease and so kept doing the usual things and did not want to consult a doctor about it because my other chest symptoms were routinely dismissed as nothing, however over the next two months these vague squeezing pains became more frequent and were brought on by less exertion, and with shorter distances walked. Eventually I was a virtual cripple, unable to do anything, and my life was somewhat worthless, so I decided to consult a doctor who diagnosed me as having typical angina, and then I was immediately referred to a cardiologist who recommended that I have urgent bypass surgery within 2 weeks.
After reading about the Pritikin diet I drew the conclusion that if the arteries took decades to block, then they might take decades of dieting to unblock, but, I assumed that my arteries had only been clogged enough to cause symptoms (breathlessness) for 2 years, and angina (squeezing pains in my chest) for about 2 months. This most recent symptom may have been due to the fact that my artery walls had finally silted up enough to severely restrict blood flow to my heart muscle and cause angina with exertion, when extra blood is needed for the heart muscle to work. Alternatively, the symptom may have been due to a small stray clot causing a partial blockage of a narrowed artery. Regardless of the exact cause, I concluded that, in a best case scenario, all I had to do was stay on a strict vegetarian diet for several months and my arteries would clear enough for blood flow to be restored in enough volume to allow me to engage in mild exertion without symptoms, and that would be enough evidence for me to continue into the future without surgery, and I took the calculated risk of proceeding on that basis. i.e. I would probably have a better chance of long term recovery from the diet than I would from the heart surgery.
If I get the time or sufficient public interest in this webpage I will describe the type of diets and exercise regime which enabled me to recover. In the meantime the general principle of treatment was to have a diet which included only natural food items in the meals that I prepared, and to exercise daily by walking at a slow pace below the level which induced symptoms, and to gradually increase the distance and frequency of the walks as my health improved.
As a matter of further interest, in the first 3 months I lost 15 kg in weight, so the diets will be of interest to people who wish to lose weight. I also had a pot belly which I thought was normal for a person of my age, and I thought that it was an irreversible problem that I would have for the rest of my life, but that disappeared with the weight loss.
What I did with my existing stock of food on the first day before starting the angina diet regime. Based on the observation that there was a very high incidence of heart disease in modern societies and a zero incidence in primitive vegetarian tribes, I decided to eat what the natives ate. In that respect I concluded that if it grew in the ground or on a tree I would eat it, and if it had been processed by modern technology and put into bottles, cans, or packets, I would discard it. Also, I would reject any foodstuff which contained added salt, sugar, or fat. As a vegetarian diet might result in the absence of some vital nutrients, I also decided to supplement my food by taking a multi-vitamin tablet each day. Also, as vegetarian diets were low in protein I would begin to consider how I would ensure that protein containing vegetables had some priority, and how I would eventually add low cholesterol protein containing meats. I then placed my rubbish bin in the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door and removed the tomato sauce bottle, the mayonnaise, the ice cream topping, the milk, the soft drink, the bread, and the margarine, and threw it all into the bin. All I had left in the fridge was one apple, and one pear. I then opened the freezer door and removed the ice cream carton, the pieces of porterhouse steak, the lambs liver and sheep kidneys, and the bread, and when I had finished the freezer was empty. I then went to the kitchen cupboards and removed the tea box, the coffee jar, the salt container, the sugar bowl, and the cooking oil, and all I had left was a packet of quick cooking oats, a jar of dried pasta shells, and a jar of rice. Having removed all modern foodstuffs I then went to the greengrocer shop and purchased tomatoes, onions, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, zucchini, squash, corn, celery, spinach, lettuce, and pumpkin vegetables, and apples, pears, kiwi fruit, mango, water melon, rhubarb, strawberries, plums, peaches, and and assortment of other fruits. I then went to the supermarket and purchased some pear and apple juice, and some pearl barley, and some more rice. I took all of these natural foodstuffs home and began experimenting with ways of combining them into tasty and palatable meals. I then asked a local bakery to make me some wholemeal bread with instructions that it was not to contain any fat or sugar. The loaves were half the size of normal and the bread itself was somewhat firmer, but was nevertheless edible as a base for sandwiches. I later found European style flat breads at the supermarket and these were cholesterol free, and I laid them on the bench top and spread diced tomato, lettuce, and grated carrot etc. over them and then rolled the bread around the salad and ate it. I continued with this diet format for at least 3 months, and had lost 13-15 kg in weight, and was looking a bit pale. However, my angina symptoms were becoming less frequent, and I was walking greater distances so I decided to continue with it but needed to add meats for iron and protein. I therefore began to buy cholesterol free kangaroo meat and included it in vegetable stews. I also learned that eating cold water fish was beneficial in reducing cholesterol so I started to include them in my diet. My health continued to improve and I was able to stop taking the medication (Noten tablets) some time in the fifth month, and I resumed normal mild exercise in the seventh month, with some of my friends commenting only that I looked a bit pale. My health and my complexion continued to gradually improve after that until 18 months later when it was obvious that the problem of angina was a thing of the past. In February 2002, about 3 years after recovering from the angina, I was prescribed a drug called Lipitor to further lower my blood cholesterol levels, and although I am reluctant to take any medication because of the potential side-effects, I have continued to do so since because it had the effect of reducing my levels further than was possible with diet alone. There have been no obvious, or significant side-effects as far as I could determine. Since then my diet has become a bit slack and I eat foodstuffs that, for health reasons I would rather not, but my diet pattern has changed permanently and I will never return to my former food choices. I now eat chicken breast with all fat removed, and sometimes roast beef, and I drink tea daily and coffee about 3 times a week, and I occasionally drink a glass of claret, or a glass of beer, but I would not have done that in the early stages of treating my angina. M.B.
The Angina Diet Cures And Weight Loss Meals © Before starting the diet I knew that I would have to give up some of the tasty processed junk foods in exchange for the less appealing vegetarian foods. My attitude was "it was better to be a live vegetarian than a dead junk food eater". I have known other people who tried the diet method but could not maintain it, and those who had bypass surgery and continued with their former junk food diet. They continued to eat sausages, steaks, and eggs with white bread spread with butter, followed by sweet and sugary desserts swilled down with soft drinks, wine or beer, and have since died, while I am still alive.
I cannot know how long I will live but if I died tomorrow it would not be due to any failure of the diet, but because, since the symptoms and limitations of angina ceased I have not had the obvious warning of possible death and have therefore become less disciplined with my eating habits. In order to maintain the diet it was necessary that it contained all the vital nutrients, and was put together in a tasty and appealing way. I have known many people who have listened to popularly advertised propaganda about diet which advises that it is acceptable to have the occasional fish and chips meal, greasy pizza, or hamburger, chocolate, ice cream, dessert, cake, and soft drink, and the amount of junk food they ate each week exceeded the total of the vegetarian content, but I had a life threatening illness and my attitude was "don't muck around - get serious about diet". I intended to remove virtually all fat from my diet with the humorous objective that "the only way my body was going to supply itself with fat, if it needed it, was to extract it from my arterial walls". When I was experiencing severe nausea as a side-effect of chemotherapy for cancer, I was unable to eat properly for months, and was vomiting a lot of the undigested food, and I had the attitude that "this is another one of those advantages coincidences where, "if my body wants fat now, it will have to harvest it from my arteries". I had a similar attitude when I experimented with a useless fruit juice only diet, and when I could not eat during bouts of food poisoning. This reminds me of the statistics which show that in times of war or famine the incidence of heart disease declines, for reasons which are obvious to me, but which have been the subject of much scientific confusion and debate. (During wars food rationing occurs and the general public are given a lot of cheap grain foods, rice etc., and very little meat).
The Oatmeal Breakfast © Ingredients: 4 dessert spoons of quick cooking oats, 1/2 banana sliced, 3 diced strawberries, 1/2 glass of apple and pear juice.
Method: Place the oats into water and bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes until it reaches a firm texture, then pour it into a bowl and wait a few more minutes until it sets, then add the banana and strawberries and pour the fruit juice over the top.
The Rice Breakfast © Ingredients: 1/4 cup of rice, 1/2 diced apple or pear, 3 diced strawberries, 1/2 glass of apple and pear juice.
Method: Bring 1 litre of water to the boil and add the rice, then keep boiling for about 10-15 minutes until the rice is cooked to a soft texture. Drain off any excess water and pour the rice into a bowl and then add the apple and or pear ,and then the strawberries and pour the fruit juice over the top. This breakfast can include a glass of tomato juice as a drink.
The Fruit Salad © Ingredients: 1/6th of a mango, 1 kiwi fruit, 1/2 banana, 3 strawberries, 1 passion fruit, and 3 tablespoons of apple juice.
Method: Skin, peel, and dice the fruit and mix them together in a bowl, then sprinkle with the apple juice and spread the passion fruit on top.
The Vegetarian Salad © Ingredients: 2 lettuce leaves, 1 tomato, 3 slices of bitterroot , 1 small piece of celery, 1/2 small red capsicum, and two teaspoons of olive oil.
Method: Slice and, or dice the vegetables and mix them together in a bowl, and then sprinkle the two teaspoons of olive oil over the top.
The Vegetarian Stew Ingredients:
The Rice meal
Stews with Low Cholesterol Meats The meats include tuna, pink salmon, squid (calamari), and kangaroo meat
Breads fat and cholesterol free breads to be described later
Snacks Raw fruits including apples, pears, apricots, plums, peaches, kiwi fruit, passion fruit, mango, water melon, rock melon, Raw Vegetables including celery and carrots, tomatoes, Most raw and unsalted nuts are suitable for eating and will not adversely affect the arteries (but not peanuts). Olives do not adversely affect arteries, and Olive Oil can be added to salads or used for cooking.
The Effect of the Vegetarian Diet on my Cholesterol Levels for five years (The Ratio is calculated by dividing the Total Cholesterols by the HDL's)
Date Details LDL HDL Total cholesterol Ratio Notes Pre-April 1997 before angina diagnosis ? ? ? ? normal Australian diet May 1997 after angina diagnosis ? 0.5 3.9 7.8 vegetarian for a few weeks July 1997 3.9 0.5 3.95 7.9 vegetables and fruit only Sept 1997 1 glass claret / day 3.4 0.8 4.4 5.5 introduced tuna & roo meat to add protein into the diet Dec 1997 2 glasses claret / day 3.1 0.8 4.3 5.4 April 1998 no claret 3.0 0.7 4.2 6.0 April 1999 2.4 0.8 3.6 4.5 June 2001 4.2 1.0 5.6 5.6 lack of symptoms made me less disciplined with diet Aug 2001 4.3 1.0 5.7 5.7 Oct 2001 3.4 0.9 4.7 5.2 Jan 2002 3.6 1.0 4.8 4.8 April 2002 5mg Lipitor / day 2.2 0.7 3.2 4.6 started Lipitor 2 months earlier Note: I cannot confirm the accuracy of these details, but as far as I am aware they are correct on the basis of my notes which were made from blood tests results on print outs at the time . M.B.
The Yellow Grease Plague: Coronary Artery Disease The Yellow Grease Plague - The modern epidemic of coronary artery disease which has resulted significantly from the excess consumption of yellow grease products such as yellow colored butter (milk fat), margarine (vegetable fat which has been processed with a yellow dye to imitate butter) and meat fat, particularly lard, which is distinct from the other fats in being white. Also called the Fat Food Plague. This concept is based on the idea that the cholesterol in grease fats, after digestion, enters the bloodstream and ultimately clogs the coronary arteries. It is also based on the observation that coronary heart disease did not exist in native vegetarian tribes people regardless of their age, and yet affects 50% of the population of the Western World over the age of 50, and that the incidence is highest amongst those who consume excess meat, milk, cream and butter, and somewhat lower in those who substitute butter with manufactured margarine, and lowest in those who only consume unprocessed vegetables and fruit. It is also the result of a conclusion that I have drawn from personal experience where I developed angina while consuming margarine, and that a complete cure was achieved, notably because of the removal of margarine from my diet. M.B.
The Exercise Treatment for Angina Before discussing the type of exercise I did to deal with angina I will give a brief account of the original symptoms.
The angina symptom was a squeezing sensation in the middle of my chest just behind my breast bone. The first time it occurred I was walking about 30 yards to my letter box and when I was halfway across the lawn the symptom occurred. I kept walking but the squeezing got tighter and felt ominous so I stopped. After about a minute it eased so I continued to the letter box.
The symptom continued to be a problem thereafter, particularly when I walked up and down the slight hill to the local shops. On the way down the hill, for example, the symptom would occur about every 50 yards and if I tried to continue it got worse so I would stop, wait about a minute for it to pass, and then continue. On the uphill journey I would have to stop more frequently, and I noticed that I would also have to stop more often if I was walking against a head wind, or carrying groceries, and on cold days I had to stop more often than on warm days. I also noticed that if I was doing any form of consistent mild exertion, such as walking, the symptom would be a problem for about 15 minutes but then I could proceed without problems for an hour or two. I later learned that this was because, during sustained regular exercise, the coronary arteries dilate after 15 minutes and allow more blood to reach the heart muscle.
Over the next two months the squeezing sensation became gradually more frequent in relation to less exertion and ultimately I found it impossible to sustain mild exertion because the symptom did not stop recurring after 15 minutes of activity. I had to walk at a slower pace and eventually decided to drive my car the short distance to the local shops to avoid the symptom. Ultimately the problem became so disabling that I was unable to do anything of significance so I consulted a doctor. He diagnosed angina and prescribed me a drug called Noten and referred me to a specialist (who later confirmed the diagnosis and recommended urgent coronary bypass surgery). When I left the clinic I had to go to the chemist to get the drug, but to do that I had to go about 30 yards up a relatively steep hill. I was unable to go straight up, so I avoided the straight footpath, and chose to zig-zag up the driveway alongside it, stopping each time as I changed direction. It took me quite a few minutes to go that very short distance. (I had also noticed a few days before that roads were built like small hills, highest in the middle, and lowest at the edges so that, on rainy days, the rain would run off the road into the side gutters and flow away to drains. I noticed this fact because when I tried to walk across a road I would have to stop and rest before reaching the middle, and then I could get over the top and proceed down the other side. For this reason I decided to walk around the block on a flat footpath, and avoid crossing the road. However, if I did have to cross a road, I had to watch carefully for traffic because if a car came speeding along I would not be able to hurry or run to get out of its way).
When I started taking the drug called Noten I noticed that the squeezing symptom was less of a problem, and was replaced by a vaguer sensation within my chest which indicated that the squeezing pain was about to happen, so, with this warning I was able to stop before it occurred, and that enabled me to control the problem more effectively.
I decided to treat the problem by using a vegetarian diet to remove all fat from my bloodstream with the ultimate objective of cleaning away the fatty deposits which were blocking my arteries and I used the symptom to monitor my progress. I did this by walking until the warning symptom occurred and then stopping, and resting a minute or so, and then proceeding. For example, when I started I walked several times a day (1-3 times) around the local street block (about 700 yards) on a mostly flat footpath, and would have to stop about every 20 yards. There was a slight rise on this journey for about 70 yards where I would have to slow down and stop several times, and the driveway at the end was sloped so I had to slow and stop several times in that 10 yard distance as well.
After a month of exercising several times a day with this regime I had a vague idea of improvement in the distance I could walk without incurring the symptom, and by the second month it was still not obvious that I was better than the previous month but it was somewhat more obvious that I had improved since the start, and by the 3rd month I knew for certain that I was traveling further with less symptoms. I had also become adventurous enough to travel part way down the nearby sloped roadways, but initially had quite a bit of trouble with the return uphill journey, having to slow and stop more frequently to minimise symptoms. By the sixth month I was able to perform my previously accustomed levels of exertion (brisk walking) without too much trouble, so I decided to stop taking the medication, and, by being judicious with my exercise (not doing anything suddenly, vigorously, or strenuously) I was able to avoid symptoms. I still felt the need to be somewhat cautious, but two years later I was exercising quite vigorously at times, without any need to be particularly cautious, and I was confident that the symptoms had passed. I have not had those symptoms in the 5 years since. M.B.
Angina And Emotions
Various factors other than exertion were likely to induce a sense of uneasiness in my chest which included the sense that continuing in that situation would bring on the squeezing symptom. These included instances of anger, especially sustained anger, anticipation, excitement, and even engaging in lengthy conversations. I dealt with these problems in the following manner.
Anger - I often listened to talk back radio shows for light entertainment to observe the hijinks of politicians making promises to get votes and then justifying their reasons for breaking them later, and scientists telling lies in the name of science to deceive the public with their veil of respectability. However, sometimes these interviews would annoy me and as the string of nonsense continued I would become angry and start feeling a sense of uneasiness in my chest, with the added impending sense of the squeezing sensation, so I would turn off the radio. Ultimately I found it easier to avoid talk back radio shows altogether and switched channels to the easy listening music stations. Excitement - I sometimes found it entertaining to watch football games on television, but often, in close games, the scores of each team would be within a goal of each other half way through the last quarter, and if an opposing team kicked two goals to get ahead with only 5 minutes to the siren I would feel uneasy in the chest and have to turn the TV off, and then turn it on again 1/2 hour later to learn of the final score on the evening news programme. Talking - When I engaged in general social conversations of any sort, without there being any argument, or ill-will, the simple act of talking would tend to bring on the uneasy feeling in my chest, so I tended to stop talking in mid-conversation. (for example, if I was telling a joke I would often have to stop before reaching the punch line). I assume this was because, in order to produce voice, air has to be pushed from the lungs through the vocal chords in the throat. This meant that less oxygen was available in my lungs for the blood stream, and therefore less oxygen was reaching my heart muscle. Coffee - I also noticed that when I drank coffee, especially more than one cup a day, that the symptoms seemed to be more readily induced and to increase in frequency and intensity, especially in relation to anger, excitement, or conversation, so I stopped drinking coffee.
I adopted the practice of avoiding the provocation of annoying talk back radio shows, and I avoided watching football games, and I avoided lengthy conversations and drinking coffee while I had the symptoms of angina and for some time after. I cannot recall the exact time frame but it would have been for 6 - 18 months. Now, 6 years later I listen to talk back shows, watch football grand finals, and talk as much as I like, and I drink coffee about 3 times a week, but I do not get those symptoms anymore. M.B.
My Family Diet and Heart Disease History There have been general discussions about health relating to the fact that some diseases run in families. With regard to heart disease it has been suggested that this may be due to inherited limitations in the ability to metabolise cholesterol, in which case it would be genetic, or due to the fact that the children adopted the same diet practices of their parents, in which case the cause would be familial. In my case I think that the predominant factor is familial as will be evident with the following information.
As a child I lived in a house which had a large back yard with many fruit trees and a chook yard. My mother would make a lot of home made jam from the fruit but would add a large amount of white sugar into the recipe. We also had boiled, poached, or scrambled eggs, and roast chicken in many of our meals. My mother had a penchant for adding butter to all of her foods such as carrots, and mashed potatoes, and she would use butter extensively in sandwiches. She also liked cheese and cream toppings and would often refer to the fact that it was bad for her figure but that never stopped her from eating those things. By the age of 40 she was quite overweight (pear shaped) and she died of heart disease at age 51.
My father ate the same foods but had less of a penchant for butter and cream, however he smoked like a train and drank like a fish. He had to retire from his job in his late 50's because he started getting pains in his legs which made it difficult to deliver letters as a postman on his push bike. This pain was due to congestion of the arteries in his legs. One night when I visited him at his club and had a game of table tennis I noticed that whenever he exerted himself to hit the ball vigorously his face would go quite red, probably due to his problem with high blood pressure. One day I heard that he was playing table tennis, and after finishing a game he went towards the bar with a cigarette in his mouth and an empty beer glass in his hand and he collapsed with a heart attack. An ambulance arrived 5 minutes later but he died on the way to the hospital at the age of 61. He had always told me that he knew that his smoking and drinking was bad for his health but that his whole social life involved such activities and he enjoyed it so he was not going to stop. He only wished that one day he would die suddenly and not have to linger with a disabling illness in a hospital for many boring years like his friend Nobby. He got his wish.
My brother ate the same foods, but I note that he tended to drink a lot of milk as a teenager. As an adult he smoked prolifically and drank a lot of coca cola. I often saw him drink a 1 litre bottle of coke in a few seconds and go back for more. In his late thirties he had to use an asthma like puffer, which I think was to help his breathlessness which was related to his ailing heart. He died of a heart attack at the age of 42 and at some stage I learned that his coronary arteries were 90% blocked.
In my own case - my diet - I can remember as a child putting 2 wheat bix or a handful of corn flakes into a bowl and then filling it with milk and topping it with a lot of white sugar and then eating it for breakfast. My mother would make jam sandwiches, or fritz, cheese, and tomato sandwiches on white bread for lunch. (fritz is a very fatty compressed mince meat which is cut into thick slices for sandwiches). I would also have a lot of white bread, butter, and vegemite sandwiches because my mother said that vegemite contained vitamin B which was good for health. We often had boiled or scrambled eggs, or egg and lettuce sandwiches, and on most Sundays we would have a roast beef meal with mashed potato, carrots, cauliflower, and cabbage. The mashed potato was topped with a generous dob of butter while still hot, and the meat was drowned in gravy. My mother would drain off the fat from the roast and store it as lard and later use it in cooking fried meals. As an young adult I had white bread rolls with lettuce, tomato, gherkin, and a thin slice of meat and thought it was a healthy lunch. Some time later I was living in poverty and scrimped on meals and ate cheap foods. These included liver and kidneys for iron, and offal. I would follow the media health advice that the average Australian diet was healthy and did not need modification as recommended by the loopy fringe vegetarians and health extremists, so I would have the occasional treat of ice cream or chocolate, and I would have fish and chips for one meal, pizza for another, and greasy chicken and chips for another throughout a week. I would also eat at least 3 loaves of wholemeal bread per week, and to improve its taste I would spread it with margarine which was promoted as being healthier for the heart than butter. The amount of margarine consumed would be 1-2 500gm tubs per week or about 50 kg per year. After developing chest symptoms and being diagnosed with angina I became a strict vegetarian for two years and have continued to be a less strict vegetarian since. My vegetarian diet is vastly different to my pre-angina diet and is not "the average Australian diet" which kills 50% of the population. For example I have probably only consumed 3 tubs of margarine in the past 7 years. M.B.
Celebrity Heart Attacks Clinton's Angina - The chest pain of former U.S. president Bill Clinton caused by narrowing of his coronary arteries resulting from junk food addiction, and treated by coronary bypass surgery. Elvis Coronary - A heart attack similar to that suffered by Elvis Presley which was caused by narrowing and blockage of the coronary arteries resulting from junk food addiction. British comedian Benny Hill would often stay with friends in his free time, and they described how he would spend a lot of time watching TV and eating snack foods and drinking beer between meals and be too full to eat the normal meals with the rest of the family. After being sacked from his television show at the age of 62 he became disillusioned with life and continued to eat snack foods and drink beer to excess, and to gain weight, and three years later was diagnosed with a heart ailment and offered bypass surgery. He refused to have the bypass or change his diet and soon after had a heart attack and died in his lounge chair while watching TV. West Australian billionaire Robert Holmes-Acourt was diagnosed with diet related diabetes in his forties, and advised of the cause, and to change his diet and lifestyle. He refused to change his diet and continued to eat the same sorts of meals when dining out at restaurants and died of a heart attack in his early fifties. Many people have shorter than normal life expectancies because, even if they know the cause of heart disease, they do not wish to change their lifestyle, and even after having a heart attack the still don't alter their diet. Famous Australian rock star Billy Thorpe was rushed to hospital at midnight 28-2-07 after suffering from chest pains and he died of a heart attack at 2.30 a.m. A spokesman from the hospital said that sometines no matter how many top specialists, or how much technological equipment is available the doctors still can't save the patient. Friends of Billy Thorpe said that he had been having health problems in recent months and was advised to have bypass surgery, but the declined the offer and continued with his energetic lifestyle of strenuous physical performances of loud singing at pop concerts.
Richard Carlton's Heart Attacks Australia's most famous and controversial investigative journalist, Richard Carlton, of 60 Minutes TV show, has had heart attacks and bypass operations since 1988. After his second attack in November 2003 he had another bypass, and he died after his third heart attack on Sunday 7-5-06. In effect he died after three lots of blood vessels silted up with cholesterol and blocked completely.
Richard Carlton said "I'm quite fatalistic about life really, so there was no real choice. If these doctors would have me, then I'd put my life in their hands. By any measure it's a huge operation (coronary bypass surgery)". A reporter said that shortly before he died he was seen drinking several bottles of wine, and eating some cheese. I have found as a matter of necessity that I have to take the responsibility for everything that happens to me even if it is not my fault, and that I have to be the master of my own destiny, and that humans can alter the course of great rivers, and that I can influence the course of disease and life. Sometimes I fail, usually because of my own limitations and because of unknown and unpredictable factors, but sometimes, as in the case of heart disease, I succeed. Angina is a condition which involves chest pains which indicate that the coronary arteries are partially blocked with cholesterol, and a heart attack occurs when they are completely blocked. I cured angina with a vegetarian diet, and prevented an impending heart attack 9 years ago. This talk describes exactly how I did it. .M.B. . (10/5/06)
The Difference Between The Symptoms of Severe Angina and Severe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Severe Angina: About 7 years ago I began experiencing a squeezing sensation behind my breastbone and some two months later I described the problem to my doctor who diagnosed angina immediately. I explained that when I left the front door of my home and went for a walk I would start getting a squeezing sensation behind my breastbone and if I continued it would get rapidly worse so I was forced to stop and rest for a minute or two before continuing another 20 yards when the symptom occurred again. This would continue to recur every 20 yards until I finished an 800 yard walk. After reading briefly about this problem for two weeks I was able to theorise a cause and treatment regime which was 80% successful within six months and I achieved a complete cure within two years and have not had any angina symptoms in the five years since.
Severe Chronic Fatigue: About 30 years ago my health began to insidiously deteriorate over a period of 3 years until I was experiencing intolerable symptoms but my doctor advised me all throughout that time that according to all of the medical tests there was absolutely nothing physically wrong with me and that I had a peculiar unknown but insignificant condition. When the symptoms were at their worst I would leave the front door of my home and when I lifted my left foot to start walking my heart would pound and race violently until I placed my foot on the ground, and then, when I lifted my right foot to take the next step my heart would pound and race again, and this would continue every step for 50 yards until I turned around and went back home where I laid on the floor for the remaining 23 hours and 50 minutes of the day and night staring at the ceiling and wondering how and why I became so ill and what I was going to do about it. I was therefore forced to study medicine myself and to devise my own treatments. It took me about a year to positively establish beyond doubt that it was a measurable and chronic physical condition, and more than a year to persuade a research cardiologist to tell me the scientific name of my condition which was "neurocirculatory asthenia" and some additional time of reading books and journals at the university medical library to learn that the severe form was called "neurasthenia gravis" and involved extreme fatigue in response to the slightest exertion. That was when I knew for the first time that I was not the only person in the world to suffer from it and that I would have some history to study and learn from. It took me four years to theorise a cause and devise a practical and effective treatment regime and a total of 10 years to regain a vague resemblance of normal health but I have never fully recovered. I regularly go for 5 km walks but am still unable to sprint for 30 yards to catch a bus. Nowadays the condition is known as "the chronic fatigue syndrome" and was first officially recognised by the medical profession as a real illness about 10 years ago. M.B.
This webpage was again modified slightly on 29-6-07 (I previously reported this information after 8 years had passed, and now 10 years have passed with no recurring heart symptoms. (In addition, my blood pressure which was high in 1991 and diagnosed as requiring medication for life, returned to normal in 2000 while I was in hospital undergoing a stem cell transplant for cancer. The hospital physician stopped the antihypertensive medication a month before the transplant and I haven't needed or taken blood pressure medication since, and my blood pressure has remained normal. The cancer was cured a month later - in January 2000. That was followed by 6 months of vomiting, an additional 18 months of poor appetite, and a further 18 months of impaired immunity which was diagnosed as incurable. A recent blood test - in May 2007 - revealed that my immune system had completely recovered and the test also showed no sign of cancer which was first diagnosed in 1992 when it was estimated that I had two months to live with no hope of a cure, and advice to write a will. These details have been documented on other web pages.).
The incidence of heart disease drops during famines so more than two years of vomiting and poor apetite following various chemotherapy treatments for cancer would have contributed to my recovery from heart disease. i.e. very little food intake would have equated with very little fat in my diet. M.B.
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