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My brother in law, just got out of the hospital on Wednesday, Dr says he had to lose 100lbs on a "heart healthy" diet. Is there any heart patients on here, if so, plz share any changes in your health.

I'm starting this program on Monday, April 4th. My brother, a retired State Police Officer, has been doing this life change for 3 months, do to, adrenal fatigue (among other problems) with obvious results. I will be 60 in July and have decided to take back, the control of my health.

Thank you

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Not a heart patient but I used to have some serious heart symptoms on a regular basis before my first Whole30 (gluten induced ataxia - feels similar to a heart attack and is not healthy). I had experienced some severe muscle mass loss prior to finding Whole30 and Vitamin K2 is something that helped a lot with my recovery in rebuilding and repairing my muscle (heart is all muscle), as well as magnesium, Vitamin D3 and eating enough good quality protein. Without gluten & other grains, I have lost dozens of health issues, experience no more heart palpitations or pains, have regained most if not all of my loss muscle mass and I feel strong and healthy.

 

My doctor was shocked at my improvements, through food. I'm now medication free and have also gone from Prediabetic to Normal :wub: (this isn't all from 30 days, big changes can take time).

 

Do you know what kind of heart condition it is?

Does he have any bad markers in his blood work or other tests?

 

Make sure his doctor knows exactly what his food changes are, as if he's on any medications or treatments, they may need adjustment (a lot of diabetics find they need big changes to medications as they are much healthier).

 

If he has any kind of monitoring, tests etc, having a pre-W30 set of tests done (or just ASAP if he's already started) and then followup ones to measure progress can be something doctors like (so you can measure the results with hard data).

 

Although there's a lot of encouragement for exercise along with Whole30, your brother should talk to his doctor about this, what activities he approves of and what he really doesn't. Stressful cardio work is something which may not be allowed, but there are lots of other exercise options, even for people with imposed limits. If he gets a list of what he's not allowed and isn't sure where to go from there, there's a lot of people on the forums who use modified exercise programs :)

 

I've had some doctors and specialists tell me they didn't approve of Whole30, right up until I told them what the menu was and then they were all for it (some of them made a lot of assumptions and really didn't know anything about the program, if you think yours or your brothers may be like this, print out the PDFs and take them with you, if they're really negative, ask them to explain their concerns, sometimes doctors try to make things easier on us by *not* eliminating things as they think it's too hard, but they are trying to help).

 

Most doctors want us to eat more plants, less or no processed food and better quality meats and fats, so most doctors are pretty supportive of this program.

Most doctors agree on olive oil and avocado as healthy fats.

 

Some doctors are not aware of the differences in animals fats where land animals are grass fed (naturally high omega 3). But they *do* usually agree on fatty fish being good (it's also full of omega 3).

 

As a clear example of differences in land omega 3, healthy grassfed butter is yellow (without anything added), the colour comes from the grass, other butter can be pure white, no yellow at all unless colour is added to make it *look* healthy. While they're both butter, one is much healthier than the other (while ghee is allowed on Whole30, butter is not, ghee from grassfed butter is great!). Grassfed butter contains a number of great fat soluable vitamins as well, A, E, K & D and these are all present in ghee.

 

Some doctors want dairy included, if they do I think it's worth challenging this (respectfully) as there are many foods containing the same nutrition as dairy, without the negative side effects. Ghee is allowed on Whole30, so your doctor may be happy with this for "dairy". If not, Vitamin K2 was one of the reasons one of my doctors wanted dairy, so we compromised, I take the Vitamin K2 and skip the dairy (it makes me less well, overall, both the lactose and the proteins/hormones in it). If after 30 days you can reintroduce dairy without any issues, this may not be a big issue in the long run.

 

http://forum.whole30.com/topic/2140-whole30-post-heart-attack/ - this thread has a video about heart disease from Robb Wolf - one of my favourites, he's not just super smart on all the science stuff (he's on the cutting edge of science), he's been in the same boat, he had health issues and found great health and weight loss from changing his diet - as someone who has suffered from chronic inflammation, I find his insights very helpful in the "why" as he's both science-y and practical.

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Hello,

I'm a heart patient (and ironically a cardiology nurse as well). My heart issue is congenital and I'm 2 months postop from my 2nd open heart surgery in 6 years. I had no idea I had a congenital defect until I turned 40. I'm starting my Whole 30 tomorrow and anticipate excellent results based on a similar program I did 4 years ago for just 21 days. Learning to eat real food, exercising, and reducing sugar intake are the key to improving one's health. I'd recommend getting labs done at the end of the program to see how your body reacts as everyone is different. I have a friend doing the program and she is only 3 weeks in and has dropped her cholesterol 30 points and is now in the "normal" range. 

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Thank you all for your comments. The Dr won't allow him to try the whole30 but I have started it (no heart conditions, I have arthritis throughout) to try and get control of my life and reduce the pain I am always in. He has to lose 100lbs, I need to lose 75lbs. I'm also doing this as a support for him and my sister.

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Is there anything from Whole30 the doctor doesn't approve of? (fat, something else?)

Some Whole30 recipes might still be good for him, if he's allowed the ingredients. Let us know and we can try and find some things you can enjoy together :)

 

Whole30 was great for my arthritis! (gone, along with gluten)

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