Ken Stone Passed on Bypass Surgery and Healed His Heart With Plants
Ken Stone Passed on Bypass Surgery and Healed His Heart With Plants
Ken Stone had shown no signs of heart disease before his heart attack at age 53. Stone, vice president of a large Dallas, TX-based concrete construction company, was on a camping and fishing trip with his son when the heart attack occurred and after driving to one hospital and being flown by helicopter to another, doctors put three stents in his arteries in an effort to save his life. He was told he needed quadruple bypass surgery as soon as possible. Stone shared his story on Forks Over Knives where he writes:
“I sent the CD imagery of my arteries to a close friend in Odessa, Texas who is a vascular surgeon. He agreed with the cardiologist and confirmed that I had “severe heart disease.” It was a shock, completely out of the blue, and hard to understand. My wife had been pushing me to get a stress test for years because of my family history of heart disease, but my doctor would not order the test because I showed no symptoms. I had been on Crestor (cholesterol medication) for over 25 years, and my cholesterol was under control. I thought I was okay.”
A Friend With His Heart at Heart
A year before his heart attack Stone says a doctor friend had told him about Dr. Esselstyn’s book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. Stone’s father and grandfather had died from heart disease — his grandfather died at 78-years-old of a heart attack and his father died at age 68 while undergoing open heart surgery. His father had been on Crestor since age 40. Stone’s doctor friend, who is a cardiovascular surgeon, sent him the film Forks Over Knives when he learned of his heart disease diagnosis. The doctor encouraged Stone to try a whole foods plant-based lifestyle.
“…the weight starting falling off. I weighed 205 pounds the day of my heart attack (I am 5’9″ tall), and I started losing 2 to 3 pounds per day. Needless to say, I felt great and had tons of new energy.
Immediate Results
Stone writes that just 30 days after starting his new all-plants diet his bloodwork revealed a dramatic improvement. His cholesterol levels were in the very healthy range. He then went to his cardiologist anticipating the doctor might be skeptical of the diet approach to healing. He says,
“My wife and I thought we were going to be in for a big battle with him over this new diet, but when the echo came back with normal results and he saw that I had already lost 25 pounds, he wanted to know all about it.”
A Rock Star Heart Healer
When Stone told his doctor he did not want to have surgery he was nervous about the doctor’s response but the cardiologist cheered him on. Stone writes,
“Astonishingly, he said he had no idea I was going to make such a difference in my lifestyle and that we could rest assured we would not need to do bypass surgery. We spent the rest of that checkup discussing the fact that it was okay to go skiing and scuba diving. He said anything I wanted to do was fine. I told him my goal was to get that HDL number in the 60s, and he just said good luck. He told me that would be “rock star status.”
A few months later Stone went back to the doctor for bloodwork and his LDL was 67 and his HDL was 61 -he had officially reached “rock star status” according to the cardiologist. Stone was also shedding the extra weight he’d been carrying. He says,
“Yes, I am a rock star! My weight just kept falling off until it leveled out at 152 pounds, and it has stayed there for the last six months.
It is incredible to think that you can change so much in so little time and really how simple it is to accomplish. This is not rocket science. I look back on all of the burgers and chicken fried steaks I used to eat and realize that I was doomed. I am actually quite lucky to have had such a wakeup call without having any heart damage. It gave me the motivation to succeed with this new lifestyle. My wife’s friend called it a “God wink.”
Stone first shared his story at Forks Over Knives hoping to “give someone out there the inspiration to ‘jump in.'” His advice to others is: don’t rely on doctors to take care of your health — that’s up to you. ###
February is Heart Health Month in America. Heart Disease is the leading cause of preventable deaths today. Many people have regained their heart health simply by eating more plants and at Healing With Plants we are spreading the good news! Stay tuned for more inspiring stories from real people who have cured heart disease with diet. Healing With Plants is a holistic health education website empowering people to heal themselves at home, with plants.
Sources: Forks Over Kmives, After a Heart Attack I Changed My Diet, Shocked My Cardiologist, and Avoided Bypass Surgery StayingHealthyToday.com, A Case of Reversing Heart Disease in the Heart of Texas
