“Ask your doctor if lifestyle changes are right for you”? You probably didn’t hear this on TV. However, according to the National Cholesterol Program of National Institute of Health in 2001, called the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III), study authors concluded, ”Everyone with elevated LDL cholesterol should be treated with lifestyle changes that are effective in lowering LDL. Lifestyle changes are the most cost effective means for reducing risk for cardiovascular heart disease. This approach is designated therapeutic lifestyle change (TLC)”. The ATP III guidelines recommended that physicians should begin to incorporate “medical nutrition therapy” in patients in need of lowering LDL before medications.

The American Journal of Cardiology in 2004 said “many patients with conventional risk factors for cardiovascular heart disease can experience lowered risk without medications within 12 weeks of starting a therapeutic lifestyle program, refuting the notion that lifestyle modification is not worth the effort.” These recommendations apply to high blood pressure, pre-diabetes, elevated triglycerides and low HDL (the “good cholesterol”). Many people with one or more of these factors also have elevated waist circumferences. Above 40 inches in men and 33 inches in women is considered to be a major risk factor for heart disease and diabetes.

In the 2008 Journal of the American College of Cardiology researchers found that eating a common American meal (e.g. steak, baked potato with sour cream or butter and desert) would immediatly elevate triglycerides, blood sugar, damaging free radicals. This causes a response in the body consisting of unnecessary stress chemicals triggering plaque deposition in arteries within hours after the meal. However a Mediterranean diet consisting of fish or poultry, vegetables, nuts and seeds, fruits and legumes has the opposite effect in the body. They called the Mediterranean diet an anti-inflammatory diet and should be considered for the primary (1st heart attack) and secondary (2nd heart attack) prevention of heart disease and diabetes.

“Ask your doctor if the Mediterranean diet is right for you”? Again, you probably didn’t hear this on TV. If these recommendations were actually followed the cost savings to our health care system would be tremendous through decreased medication usage and a decreased need for medical services for the most costly chronic illnesses.

Tucson Arizona

Please see our therapeutic lifestyles program.