Hypertension reversal
Most heart patients, hypertensives, and stroke patients get the same advice—to stop smoking, reduce their meat intake or eat fish and chicken only, cut down on salt and fried foods, and to get some exercise with a moderate intake of alcohol. Despite all this, they are on life-long medication, and progression of the disease and complications inevitably follow. Most people with hypertension find themselves on a road leading toward gradually increasing doses of medication. Patients of bypass surgery or angioplasty are told that they will probably need to repeat these procedures in another few years unless they make major lifestyle changes. But what these changes are, how to make them, and how much they will prevent recurrence, is not always made clear.
What does it mean to reverse heart disease and hypertension?
Reversing heart disease and hypertension means reversing the typical trend. Blood pressure, cholesterol and lipid values that have kept rising begin to fall. Doses of medication that have incrementally risen will come down too. Symptoms such as tightness in the chest and throat can improve and even disappear. And other problems like diabetes will also concomitantly reverse due to this diet.
Scientific and Safe
The programme for hypertension and heart disease reversal is based on the research of Dr. Dean Ornish over 20 years ago, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. He then wrote a best-selling book, “Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease”. More recently Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, surgeon clinician and researcher, who worked at the world famous Cleveland Clinic for more than 35 years, did similar work and published his book “Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease”. After years of effort by doctors such as these, this system is now accepted by the US Social Insurance Program, Medicare.
Our disease reversal recommendations involve dietary and lifestyle changes only. They involve no medicines or drugs other than those prescribed by your doctor. Your progress is monitored by the medical doctors at SHARAN, and by your own personal doctor/diabetician as well if you prefer, so you can be completely assured of safety. Hence, the only side effects, if one can call them that, are good ones! You are likely to lose weight with the disease reversal programmes, especially if you are overweight to begin with. And your health and energy levels will improve as well.
Other Heart Diseases
Typically we are able to reverse coronary heart disease caused by blockage of arteries. For other types of heart disease, there are definitely benefits but we do not claim reversal in these cases.
How to get started
Our primary programme for hypertension reversal is a one-day life saving seminar. We call it life-saving because our experience with participants has been that the programme and its follow-up does completely reverse the building up of disease and change their lives.
If you can’t attend the seminar or can’t wait for it, and want to start now, you can register for a personalised consultation with our doctor, who will study your case and work out a programme for you to follow. You can choose how much support you need—various options are available starting from a few basic consultancy sessions to a complete package.
Support
If you have already attended any of our programmes and are following our system, you could attend a support group meeting in your city to meet with the SHARAN doctors as well as other participants, share notes, get questions answered and help motivate each others’ progress. You could also organise a support group meeting in your city. Or you could get personalised support by consulting with us over the telephone.
SHARAN operates a library in Mumbai from where our programme participants borrow books related to health and nutrition.
We have a collection of delicious and wholesome vegan recipes that will help you transform your kitchen into a healthy one. We also offer demonstrations and classes in whole food, plant-based cooking. You can organise a demonstration or class for a group or in your home. The cooking classes will help you convert knowledge of sugar control and what you can eat into cooking techniques that you can use to modify your own recipes so you can still eat most of the foods you love.
View the e – brochure about this program
FAQ
Is it possible?
Reversal is very much possible. Thousands of people all over the world have successfully reversed their hypertension and coronary disease. We have the testimonials of several people who have reversed their diseases here in India. Many of them have become so motivated that they have become a part of SHARAN as Lifestyle Advisors.
How long will it take?
How long reversal takes depends on the severity of the disease as well as how closely the recommendations are followed. As with any lifestyle change, it takes time to get used to new habits and routines—typically around three weeks. This time period may also be sufficient to experience the benefits, which is a great motivator to stay committed. In order to prevent diabetes from recurring, it is necessary to continue with the new diet and lifestyle—we put in our best efforts to help you sustain your practice. Curiously, the people with severe hypertension / heart disease often report quicker results than those with milder disease, provided they follow the recommendations carefully.
Is it expensive?
The main investment you have to make is one day of your time and the seminar fees. After attending the seminar you will have all the required information to begin the programme to reverse your hypertension. In fact many people have implemented the suggestions given in the seminar and managed to reverse their hypertension on their own, keeping in touch with their doctor to ensure that the drugs are tapered off as indicated.
Some people feel the need for more personalised attention and they sign up for consultations with the SHARAN doctors. This involves a personal case study, recommendations for a diet chart and follow up meetings with the Doctor to monitor the progress and fine-tune the programme. There are additional costs for personalised consultation. Consultation is totally optional and many people manage to reverse their hypertension without it. It is only a support system for people who would feel more comfortable embarking on this programme with closer monitoring.
Other expenses involve your medical tests, before, during and after the programme to measure your status and progress. But these are expenses that you would probably incur in any case. We also have a few nominally priced DVDS with recipes and so on.
There are also the expenses of buying the healthier alternatives we suggest in our diet (eg. Brown rice), but these costs are usually more than offset by our recommendation to NOT consume several things that you are probably currently buying and spending money on.
And remember, the costs for the programme are far lower than the costs of lifelong treatment and management of hypertension or heart disease, not to speak of the added health benefits.