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Anthea Rowan

Lauren Bernick was 46 when she developed chest pains while practising yoga. She saw her doctor to have it checked out.
A CAT scan of her chest revealed moderate plaque build-up and coronary artery disease.
“My arteries were worse than 75 per cent of other women my age,” says Bernick, a former stand-up comic who lives in the US state of Texas.
A follow-up with a cardiologist confirmed she had blockages in two main arteries.
“Without changing my diet and taking a statin, I had a 20 per cent chance of having a heart attack in the next five to 10 years,” says the 56-year-old mother of three.

Bernick was devastated, crying in the doctor’s office next to her husband, who was also in shock.
She left “feeling overwhelmed, scared and defeated”.
Her diagnosis was not surprising: she had high cholesterol and a family history of heart disease.
“Everybody in my family has heart disease,” she says. “Several cousins dropped dead in their forties from heart attacks. My mother had two heart attacks before she died, my father has several stents, my maternal grandfather died from his third heart attack when he was 63.”
Bernick’s cardiologist said it would be impossible to reverse her heart disease. At best, she might manage it.
He advised a diet of skinless chicken, fish, low-fat dairy, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, avocados and olive oil.
“I told him that’s what I eat anyway”, Bernick says.
Her cardiologist said she would also need to take statins – drugs that help lower cholesterol levels in the blood, improve the health of blood vessel lining and help stabilise plaque build-up in the arteries – for the rest of her life.
“I knew from years of working at a pharmaceutical journal that statins were overprescribed and not effective for most people, and that they came with side effects,” she says.
“I also did not want to be on medication for the rest of my life.”
She called her father for advice. To address his heart disease, his doctor had recommended Dr Caldwell Esselstyn’s bestselling book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure.
Decades ago, Esselstyn grew disillusioned with the way heart disease was being treated with pills and procedures. He is quoted as saying that it was “particularly frustrating given that research had suggested an obvious culprit: the fatty American diet”.

Esselstyn and his wife began cutting out all fats and adopting a plant-based diet.
“It means a lot to patients to know their doctor is making the same changes they are,” he said.
Bernick bought the book and read it in one sitting. It offered what she had been looking for: a way to reverse disease.
The premise, she says, is that a low-fat, whole-food, plant-based diet without oil – “yes, any oil, including olive oil” – reverses most disease states.
Within three months on the diet and with continued exercise, she had lost more than 9kg (20lb) – and has kept it off since. She lowered her blood pressure from 136/82 to 107/70, her cholesterol from 288 to 200, and her body mass index (BMI) from 24 to 21.
“I have been 100 per cent whole-food, plant-based for 10 years now. I love it,” she says.
Determined to understand more about why eating this way reversed disease, Bernick gained a certificate in plant-based nutrition from the US-based T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.
Bernick is now an unabashed advocate for the vegan lifestyle through her podcast, Age Like a Badass Mother, and her Well Elephant website.
“Well Elephant teaches people how to eat the way I do and reverse disease while losing weight. I named it Well Elephant because elephants are strong, beautiful herbivores supported by their community, and you are too!”


Hong Kong-based functional nutritionist Beth Wright is not surprised at Bernick’s swift health turnaround.
“When someone shifts to a plant-based diet after years of eating a typical Western-style diet, the improvements can be dramatic – especially when it comes to lowering inflammation,” Wright says.
She stresses that many of the benefits come from what is removed from a diet rather than what is added in.
“Swapping ultra-processed food for whole, home-cooked meals – whether plant-based or not – will almost always move someone in the right direction.”
Although Bernick is fully vegan, a plant-based diet does not need to 100 per cent exclude animal products. Wright says that for many people, including herself, it is about eating lots of plants at every meal: vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, seeds, herbs and fruits.
“It’s less about food labels, more about whole ingredients.”

There are many studies that point to the benefits of plant-based eating for cardiovascular health. The reasons are varied.
First, it means a much lower intake of saturated fats, which is good for cholesterol levels.
Secondly, it comes with more fibre – from vegetables, beans and whole-wheat cereals, for example.
“More fibre intake supports gut health and improves insulin sensitivity,” Wright says, which helps maintain healthy blood-sugar levels. A plant-based diet is also high in antioxidants and polyphenols, which reduce inflammation.
Wright adds that although food is powerful, a change in diet often comes with a change in lifestyle, which often involves “cooking more, eating mindfully, sleeping better and moving more”, which all add up to better health.

She has seen women of Bernick’s age change within weeks of adopting this sort of diet.
Bernick’s age probably played a part in her health issue.
There is a shift during perimenopause and menopause, Wright says, when the risk of heart disease starts to climb.
“This largely because of hormonal changes that affect everything from cholesterol and blood pressure to body fat distribution and insulin sensitivity.”
It is never too late to start, but the sooner you make positive changes, the better.
Wright has seen women in their sixties and seventies dramatically improve their blood work, reduce reliance on medication and feel better in their bodies with targeted nutrition and strength training.
Making a big diet change may seem intimidating, especially if you are the only one in the house doing so, as Bernick is.
Bernick’s advice: “If you fall off the wagon, you can get back on at the next meal. Go ‘cold turkey’ and let your palate adjust. Food comes alive. Think of how you want to age. This is the one thing you can control.”
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Lifestyle

Health & Wellness

Health

Food & Drink

Lauren Bernick adopted a vegan diet after being diagnosed with coronary artery disease at 46. A decade on, she’s thriving without statins


Lauren Bernick adopted a vegan diet after being diagnosed with coronary artery disease at 46. A decade on, she’s thriving without statins.


How this 56-year-old reversed heart disease with a plant-based diet and no statins

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Lauren Bernick adopted a vegan diet after being diagnosed with coronary artery disease at 46. A decade on, she’s thriving without statins

Lauren Bernick adopted a vegan diet after being diagnosed with coronary artery disease at 46. A decade on, she’s thriving without statins