“Less than a year ago, at the age of 49, I was well into my second year of suffering from angina, shortness of breath, and fatigue. I used the maximum dose of nitroglycerin daily to help with the chest pain, but it didn’t improve my exercise tolerance and I was extremely limited in my day to day activities. A trip to the grocery store would require most of a day to recover from. I gained weight from a combination of inactivity and relying on processed foods and takeout because I lacked the energy to cook. I was miserable physically and mentally.
The fact that nitro helped reduce my chest pain was a clue to the source of my problem, but after diagnostic tests ruled out major artery blockages I was told that I might have microvascular angina. No stenting or surgery can help those tiny blood vessels so there was very little more to be done but learn to pace myself. I was advised to control my risk factors by taking statins, but no doctor ever mentioned that I could control my risk factors through diet. They certainly didn’t tell me I could reverse my condition by adopting a whole food plant-based diet.
I was in a Facebook group where someone mentioned Dr. Esselstyn’s book and the promise of preventing and reversing heart disease through diet. This prompted me to start looking around the internet to see if Dr. E was some kind of a quack. I found no evidence of that, in fact quite the contrary, but I did discover a whole world of information about the whole food plant-based way of eating and its benefits. I watched Forks over Knives with my husband and before it was finished, we decided this was something I needed to try and he was keen to participate as well. I dove into The China Study, watched Plant Pure Nation and discovered many resources online and in books to not only convince me this was the right path, but to help me do it.
By the end of the first week of my new diet, I started to feel woozy and headachy and generally unwell. This was disappointing until I realized that these were the exact symptoms I’d felt before becoming accustomed to the vasodilation from an increased dose of nitroglycerin in the past. The symptoms went away as soon as I reduced the dose. My body was starting to work properly again! I was able to reduce the dose every week until after 4 weeks I was wearing no nitro patches and had no more chest pain.
Curing my angina would have been reason enough to continue eating this way, but the benefits kept coming in. I have so much energy I can exercise for 1-2 hours a day, keep up with all my housework, work in the garden and do whatever else I want without having to pace myself. My eczema completely cleared up, seasonal allergies almost vanished, sore joints are a thing of the past, and my digestion is now perfect. As a “woman of a certain age” I had been experiencing many of the symptoms of peri-menopause, but they have completely disappeared as well. I lost close to 40 pounds without ever using any willpower or feeling deprived. Since I feel so much better physically it makes sense that I would feel better mentally as well, but I detect an additional lightness of mind resulting from the whole foods plant-based diet.
The remarkable thing is the speed with which these health improvements took place. Within weeks I was feeling back to my old self again and nine months later I actually feel younger than I have in years. I turned 50 this spring without the slightest bit of trepidation.
I recently went zip lining on a hot day. At one point I thought of myself the previous summer not only being unable to do such a thing, but unable to contemplate that level of activity, especially in the heat. I felt sad for a moment, but decided my old sick self wouldn’t want the new healthy me to waste any time feeling sorry for her. This made the thrill of flying through the trees extra sweet!”
– Beverly Frans
With thirty entrees to choose from, PlantPure meals are the most convenient, healthy and inexpensive delivered foods available on-line! Our meals have no added oils and are priced lower than most fast foods. Order today at: PlantPureNation.com/collections/Foods