Discussion Board

Well, unless he was a McDougaller it probably WAS diet related. <shrug> And most people aren't, so . . .

It's still not as rare for this to happen as we might think. Look no further than Dr. McDougalls issues when he was very young. The bottom line is that there are millions of people in their 30,s 40, and 50, s that are walking around without a clue they are within arms length of an early death or significant injury. If they were to come to the forum inquiring about changing their diet what would our recommendations be for them? Would it be to suggest an accelerated change or to slowly and gradually make the change. If this swimmer were to have made an abrupt and radical change in his diet would it have possibly helped? I believe there are millions that would benefit, yes even have their lives saved by such an intervention. The problem is know one really knows if they are at that kind of risk unless they are "lucky" enough to have some mild warning. Many don not get that warning. There is no outward way to tell who fits the profile of one in serious danger. That is why there are several of us hard heads that push for adherence as close to max as possible. That will save lives in certain cases.
If you came to this program gradually and it was successful my hat is off to you and consider yourself fortunate. There are many that can't afford that luxury of time.
Dr. Esselstyn says you can be heart attack proof in a couple weeks of serious dietary changes. He has seen the transformations over and over again. So has Dr. McDougall. I believe them and much of it is because I want to believe them. I want to believe what I am doing is saving my life. That's not very objective but it's very real for me. I have seen enough evidence to be convincing. I haven't seen the medical institutions produce anything close to those results. All I have seen from them in the best case is a slowing down of the inevitable when it comes to heart disease. They can even keep those that are walking dead alive sometimes but they cant stop this train heading for the cliff.
This young man was so young that diet was probably not even on his radar. In fact, there is a good chance he is following a "Phelps" type of diet and only concentrating on his training. At his age, so was I. This kind of knowledge must get in the hands of people before they leave their teens. It's a way to possibly save a lot of lives. I can't tell you how often I read the news, read about the passing of some young soul, and think to myself what a tragedy this all is. As Dr. Esselstyn says, heart disease is a paper tiger. We can stop it if we just get the word out to anyone that will listen. Most people still think it's out of their hands. We here know better and it's our responsibility to help pass along the message.
f1jim

supposedly he was a swimming sprinter, which means he was probably eating protein by the plateful to increase his muscle mass, so I can only imagine how many chickens/eggs/protein shakes he was consuming in any given day...