of training to be a physician, there are
these "eureka!" moments, these "aha!"
moments that occur, particularly in the
early years of medical school where you
realize some insight into existence that
you didn't expect. And the heart did that
to me. I remember the first time I saw
this incredibly powerful organ twisting
and turning in the chest cavity of an indi-
vidual whose life was threatened by its fail-
ure. Remember, the heart doesn't empty
blood like a balloon letting out air; it's
much more elegant than that. It twists the
blood out of it the way you would wring
water out of a towel. When I saw this
organ I realized why it plays such an
important role in our poetry, why it dom-
inates our religion, why we associate the
soul and love to a muscle. I've dedicated
my life to try to figure out what that allure
is and in particular how to help folks who
are challenged with this illness.
Heart disease is the #1 killer. Why?
The heart, our internal metronome --
it keeps us pounding. Of all the organs
we have, it's always on call. What kills
more human beings than anything is
hardening of the arteries. With heart dis-
ease, we don't have a Plan
B
.
What's the biggest causal factor?
High blood pressure, caused by our
processed food diet and a sedentary
lifestyle. If you keep your waistline less
than half your height, the incidence of
hypertension, as well as diabetes and high
cholesterol plummets.
What advice would you give a person
to avoid or cope with heart disease?
The heart muscle regenerates through-
out your life. We used to think it stopped
after you were grown. But your heart will
stop regenerating if you don't keep chal-
lenging it. So exercise. At every age. Walk
every day for 30 minutes at a brisk pace.
Ideally, you will accumulate 10,000 steps
daily. Avoid transfats and saturated fats
(the fats that are hard at room temper-
ature) as well as enriched flour, high fruc-
tose corn syrup, and simple sugars.
What has been the greatest advance-
ment in cardiology?
Heart replacement therapy for heart
failure. We can transplant and implant
mechanical devices to save people who
only 15 years ago would be ghosts.
You sometimes use scare tactics.
I don't think the gentlemanly approach
always works. You have to shake some
people up. The reason for that is that our
biggest enemy in educating people about
their bodies, is that they think they
already know the answers. And they
don't. But they ignore the advice you're
trying to give. So I use the shock tactics
as a wake-up call. Most of the time, people
say "My goodness, I never knew."
You espouse the availability of free clin-
ics. What's your view on health coverage?
I think we have to have everyone
forced to be part of the health plan,
whether we give it to them for free
because they can't pay for it, or we sub-
sidize it or make them pay for it together
with their employer. You really can't have
a wealthy society unless you are a healthy
society. We have to have affordable care
for all. America must find new ways to
address the poor health re-cord and stag-
gering expenditures gripping our coun-
try. People who do not have insurance
who come to the hospital cost a lot more,
and they do far worse.
You prescribe yoga and massages to
your patients. Do your colleagues agree?
Some of them think it's flaky. But I do
these things myself. They work for me.
When I'm tired at the end of the week,
I get a massage. When I'm exhausted in
the mornings, I do yoga. I know it
works for me, so why wouldn't it work
for my patients? Why should I treat them
any differently than I treat me?
How do you describe your approach?
In my practice I have struggled to pro-
vide holistic healing. For example, help-
ing a transplant recipient deal with the
emotional crisis of a rejecting heart is
often more of a challenge than the
surgery itself. Nothing in science can
address the hopelessness we feel when
our hearts fail us completely, or give us
comfort when we face the possibility of
our own death or the loss of a loved one.
As a physician, I seek to connect with my
patients on both the physical and spiri-
tual levels, since true healing is never
about curing just the body.
We understand you play mystical Islamic
Sufi music for patients during operations.
Are you inspired by Sufism?
Influenced by it. The biggest influence
for my alternative medicine interest are
my wife and her family. They are very
insightful people. My father-in-law is a
very well-known heart surgeon, Gerald
Lemole. I saw how they were using it in
their own family and to create a healthy
environment, and I liked it. In Islam, of
course, it makes you realize that you have
to have your own connection with the
divine, there should be no one between
you and God, so it makes you very
autonomous, very free thinking. Organ-
ized religion are the rules, Sufism and
other mystic sects of Christianity and
Judaism allow us to transgress those rules
and actually begin to enjoy the game.
Are organic foods really healthier?
Organic foods -- defined as those
produced without irradiation, genetic
modification, sewer-sludge fertilizer,
antibiotics, or synthetic pesticides or fer-
tilizers -- do have advantages that can
justify their cost, especially since even the
priciest organic products often cost less
per pound than the processed junk
most of us snack on daily. With some
foods -- meat, milk, spinach, strawber-
ries, cherries, peaches, and apples, to
name a few -- going organic really can
help avoid the potential health risks
associated with pesticides and animal
infections. But the main reason I advo-
cate buying organic foods? They just taste
better.
You've also been talking about acai (pro-
nounced "
AH
-sigh-
EE
"), a small fruit
from South American rainforests that is
often found in the United States in juice.
Acai is a powerful antioxidant. It has
twice the antioxidant content as a blue-
berry, so it's a wonderful alternative. Look
at the food label and make sure they don't
have too many carbohydrates in there.
It's available in all major stores now. It's
just sort of breaking through. Colorful,
dark foods like red wine, pomegranates,
concord grapes, blueberries -- they call
them brain berries -- are full of nutri-
ents.
And tomatoes are beneficial?
[When eating] tomatoes, heat them up
a little bit and put a little oil in them. It
makes it easier to absorb the lycopene.
Lycopene is another antioxidant, but it
has additional benefits as well, which are
particularly valuable for the heart.
You recommend eating garlic because
it contains allicin.
Allicin has been shown to effectively kill
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus (
MRSA
). We believe garlic is effec-
tive against
MRSA
and other resistant bugs.
[Allicin] is a fascinating mechanism that
plants use to protect themselves.
Is there anything wrong with replacing
a meal with a PowerBar and Gatorade?
The rule I use is, If it doesn't come out
of the ground looking the way it looks when
you eat it, be careful. There's no such thing
as a PowerBar tree.
How much coffee is too much?
You get the health benefits of coffee up
through about the first 24 ounces. It's the
biggest source of antioxidants for Amer-
icans, and we think it helps prevent Alz-
heimer's and Parkinson's as well.
Is all seafood good for you?
Nope. Some of the crustaceans have
cholesterol -- shrimp, crab, lobster. And
top predators like swordfish and tuna can
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