Reversing My Heart Disease With Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr.

My name is Paul Chatlin. I was born in Detroit, Michigan and have lived in West Bloomfield, Michigan since 1971. I am 57 years old. In May of 2013, I was diagnosed with heart disease. One of my arteries was 100% blocked and two others were 65% blocked. I had leaky valves and an enlarged heart, hardening of the right side of my heart, and a left bundle branch block and heart murmur. My cardiologist gave me two options: bypass surgery or try “Plant Based Nutrition” (PBN). I met and spoke with Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, who wrote the book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. After our meeting, I decided to try “Plant Based Nutrition”. After just one month, my heart pain went away (that took 3 weeks), and my cholesterol levels dropped from 309 to 122 in just one year. I have lost 43 pounds, and I feel great.

I would like to share all my experiences with any persons in our community who may be considering a change to PBN. Who should consider this type of nutritional change? Any person who has had bypass surgery and hopes through a nutritional change will never have to have bypass surgery again, any person who is in need of bypass surgery but would like to change their diet to PBN in hopes of not having bypass surgery (like me), and  any person whose family has had a history of heart disease and wishes to alter their current diet to a more plant-based diet to possibly avoid health issues down the road.

I promised myself that when I felt better I would put together a support group to help others in our community. I contacted all the current Chiefs of Cardiology in our area. They suggested I contact Dr. Joel Kahn, which I did. We met, and Dr. Kahn agreed to assist me on this journey.

In February 2014, we held our first PBN Support Group meeting. I thought 20-40 people would be a great showing. A total of 123 people attended! We had 23 people sign up as volunteers. The meeting was held at Beaumont Hospital.

On March 24^th, we held our second meeting. I thought there would be a significant drop off of participants, but I was wrong! We again had over 110 people attending. What was interesting is that of the 110 people, 44 of them were new faces. This means we now have over 220 people in our support group and 40 volunteers. In both April and May we continued to grow, and as of today we have 1309 members and 42 volunteers.

We also moved to Birmingham Groves High School (we needed a bigger auditorium), built a web page (www.pbnsg.org), which has had over 115K hits in just one year. We’ve worked with ten restaurants in the area to help them prepare plant-based meals for our members, held nutritional tours, and have a walking club that uses our West Bloomfield Trail System, and we have many more activities going on.

Please help me help others in our community. Join our group, make a positive life change, and let us help others. The group meets once a month. The volunteers meet once a month. If you would like more information on our group, please visit our web site at http://www.pbnsg.org.

In closing, we will offer education, events, nutritional tours, exercise, fun, and much more. Though no one can go backward and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.

Paul Chatlin earned a bachelors degree in business, with a minor in social work from Michigan State University. Paul currently is the principal and owner of a telecommunications consulting company. Today his heart disease is in remission, and he has made spreading the word of plant-based nutrition part of his mission in life. He does this through the group he founded—Plant Based Nutrition Support Group (PBNSG)—as mentioned in this article.

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Check out my book, The Empty Medicine Cabinet, to start your journey towards better health. This step-by-step guide leads you through many of today’s common chronic diseases (heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, and more), giving you the facts on food versus medication in treating these medical conditions. The book also contains an easy-to-follow guide on how to adopt a whole foods, plant-based diet as a part of an overall lifestyle change, producing the best possible health outcomes for you and your family. Hurry and get your copy today!