Medical Advice to My President
Photo Credit: Vanity Fair
As a doctor, I want to get a few things straight, Mr. President.
Right, left, or in-between, our country needs you. Your wife and girls need you. They need you in good health, and setting a good example, not least because talking about healthcare is so much more credible when we do what we can to not need it.
Here’s the bad news: You have not one, but two risk factors for heart disease: smoking and high cholesterol. You’re not a teenager anymore. It’s time to take this seriously.
The good news—great news, in fact—is that you can change them both. But frankly, I’m worried. If you have had trouble sorting out smoking and cholesterol, then millions of other Americans must be in the same boat, which is to say completely in the dark about the very same problems.
So let me lay it on the line:
First, smoking. Tobacco is a tough habit to break. I know. When my hospital banned smoking, I wondered how the doctors would take it—after all, the doctors’ lounge had a dull haze 24/7. But we broke that habit, and so can you. There is no magic here. Just keep trying until you quit for good. And it gets easier every day that goes by without a cigarette.
Second, cholesterol. Here, let’s clear up a few myths.
First, exercise won’t lower your cholesterol. It may bump up “good” cholesterol slightly and improve your basketball game or your stride, but you definitely can’t count on it to lower your “bad” cholesterol. It won’t.
Second, we almost certainly cannot blame genes. For the vast majority of people, high cholesterol comes down to diet.
Third, switching from beef to chicken and fish has almost no effect on cholesterol. It lowers “bad” cholesterol only about 5 percent–and that’s not enough.
The answer is behind your house, in the White House garden. Foods from plants have essentially no cholesterol and are free of the animal fat that causes the body to make cholesterol. If you skipped meat, dairy products, and eggs for even a few weeks, chances are your cholesterol would drop right into the normal range.
What’s that? You love burgers and chili? Fair enough. So make it a veggie burger. And I can show you a vegetarian chili that is so good, you’ll never know the difference.
And when you conquer your health demons, you’ll inspire every American child to do the same. Lest you think this is a trivial issue, one in five teens has an abnormal cholesterol test today, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And it only gets worse as they reach adulthood. One in three children is overweight, and one in three will eventually develop diabetes.
You can help them by stubbing out the smokes for good and adopting a healthy, plant-based diet. And as a shining example of good habits, you will have done more good for the health of the American public than any prior president.
People may disagree on how to make healthcare work. But I hope that a bit of advice on how to be healthy will reduce the risk you’ll ever need it, and help you stay well and strong. That’s food for thought.
14 Comments
I’m curious if you or anyone else knows about a very recent study that seems to indicate that cholesterol has almost nothing to do with life expectancy in women. The study, which I of heard second hand, claimed that women with high cholesterol actually live longer than those with normal or low cholesterol. As I understand it, the ratio of good to bad cholesterol is more important than how high bad cholesterol is.
Obviously pharm companies wouldn’t want this info published. Wondering if anyone else has heard anything about it.
What a fantastic article. Prevention is indeed the most important for of health care.
Right on. And how about this? Let’s shift government policy so that it’s cheaper to buy a bag of organic berries (about $5 in my neighborhood) than a greasy “value meal” burger for 99 cents.
love this! think he’ll read it? i sure hope so.
What a great post…amazing how simple it can be to put simple prevention to work for our good!!
How awesome would it be if the PRESIDENT adopted a vegan lifestyle?? Really hope he sees this! The White House could have a RAW chef!
Cholesterol is not the bad guy…our bodies produce it to offset oxidative damage…high levels indicate that our livers are working overtime, however, it does not cause or contribute to heart disease unlike the propaganda machine (pharma/media) would have you believe…statin drugs are a very profitable segment of drug profits…they do nothing to discern between HDL and LDL…Cholesterol is actually a hormone and protects the brain and lowering cholesterol can contribute to depression, a hormonal/chemical imbalance…there are several good books on the myths surrounding cholesterol…check out http://www.mercola.com for Dr. Mercola’s recommendations and advice…
Triglycerides, c-reactive protein levels, and homo-cysteine levels are a more relevant indicator of potential heart problems…Essential fatty acids such as Omega 3′s found in fish and certain plant foods are very protective…we have too many Omega 6′s in our diet…canola, sunflower, safflower, corn, margarine, are all high in Omega 6′s…they cause oxidative damage…Eggs are also not the bad guy as some would suggest…these urban legends aka lies are hard to break…they’re enforced by the drug cos. in order to sell more drugs, bottom line…Sugar is one of the major culprits to heart disease, as well as inactivity, natch…Sugar has a crystalline structure when observed under a microscope and has sharp, jagged edges which can tear the arterial walls if too much gets into the bloodstream and is not regulated by the pancreas, as in the case of diabetics…it also stimulates the pancreas to release more insulin which turns to fat if not metabolized…so if you’re not going to run a marathon or do some high-level activity after indulging in sugar, then leave it or suffer the consequences…artificial sweeteners are neuro-toxins and cause neurological impairment and m.s. like symptoms among other disorders…
I have one caveat about Dr. Barnard’s take on smoking: if you “try” to quit, you have an out. You tried and failed. You don’t try, you quit. You say “that’s it”, or a version of that, and you put the open pack down, prepared to deal with whatever the consequences. It works. I know because I did it, 30 years ago. And at the time, I was smoking 2-1/2 packs a day. Here’s the payoff: I survived quitting. President Obama will, too, as soon as he stops trying and makes the commitment.
Tell it like it is, doc!!! Thank you for this. I hope he “gets” it.
I love this letter, I would love for every one over the age of thirty to read this regarding their own health. I am aghast in this day and age to see the number of people who still smoke! It is astounding. As far as the diet, there is so much overwhelming evidence that a plant based diet improves every aspect of your health, I fail to understand why anyone disputes this.
That is one awesome letter! Very inspiring and I couldn’t have said it better! I’m two years into my Veganism and it was the best decision I ever made for my health!
I do not think we’ll see a vegan president for a while. There are crazy people in this world who think that vegans/vegheads are weirdos and will indoctrinate their kids with false information like dairy not being a healthfood. Though, it COULD work for the president to become vegetarian AFTER election and say he’s kicking the SAD for his health. I’ve read an interview with Michele Obama about how she stays fit and how she teaches her girls about nutrition. I think they eat more vegetables and organic things than most Americans.
Thank you for this post!
I think conventional Western medicine is very good at handling emergencies but very poor at keeping people healthy and pretty poor also at dealing with chronic conditions. I think the medical system has become a self-sustaining entity – the very thing people assume will keep them healthy actually has a vested interest in keeping them sick in order to ensure its own survival. I don’t think individuals within that system have that intention, but that the system itself has taken on a life of its own, and if everyone ate a plant-based diet and practiced yoga and laughed and danced and lived healthy this system would largely die. It thrives on chronic disease management, not on health. I hope some kind of affordable health option becomes available, but I hope much much more that president Obama sets the example of living a healthy life, and if I had to choose, I would rather put funding into truly healthy school lunches and real health education in our schools than subsidizing the system that treats sick people later.
It would be nice to have both, of course.
March 11, 2010