| Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr., M.D.
A former Internationally known Surgeon
Researcher and Clinician at the Cleveland Clinic
Author of "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease"
Biography
Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., received his B.A. from Yale University and his M.D. from Western Reserve University. In 1956, pulling the No. 6 oar as a member of the victorious United States rowing team, he was awarded a gold medal at the Olympic Games. He was trained as a surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic and at St. George’s Hospital in London. In 1968, as an Army surgeon in Vietnam, he was awarded the Bronze Star.
Dr. Esselstyn has been associated with the Cleveland Clinic since 1968. During that time, he has served as President of the Staff and as a member of the Board of Governors. He chaired the Clinic’s Breast Cancer Task Force and headed its Section of Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery.
In 1991, Dr. Esselstyn served as President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, That same year he organized the first National Conference on the Elimination of Coronary Artery Disease, which was held in Tucson, Arizona. In 1997, he chaired a follow-up conference, the Summit on Cholesterol and Coronary Disease, which brought together more than 500 physicians and health-care workers in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. In April, 2005, Dr. Esselstyn became the first recipient of the Benjamin Spock Award for Compassion in Medicine.
His scientific publications number over 150, “The Best Doctors in America” 1994-1995 published by Woodward and White cites Dr. Esselstyn’s surgical expertise in the categories of endocrine and breast disease. In 1995 he published his bench mark long-term nutritional research arresting and reversing coronary artery disease in severely ill patients. That same study was updated at 12 years making it one of the longest longitudinal studies of its type. It is most compelling, as no compliant patients have sustained disease progression. Today, 20 years later compliant patients continue to thrive.
Dr. Esselstyn and his wife, Ann Crile Esselstyn, have followed a plant-based diet for more than 20 years. They work together to counsel patients both in Cleveland, where they live, and in summer at the farm in upstate New York where Dr. Esselstyn grew up. Dr. Esselstyn concentrates on the medical details, and Ann focuses on healthy foods and how to prepare them.
The Esselstyns have four children and seven grandchildren.
Praise for Dr. Esselstyn
“Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn has directed pioneering research demonstrating that the progression of even severe coronary heart disease can often be reversed by making comprehensive change in diet and lifestyle.“
Dean Ornish, M.D, founder, president and director of Preventive Medicine Research Institute and author of Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease
“Dr. Esselstyn has always been ahead of his time. His focus on the healing powers of proper nutrition on diseased coronary arteries has now proven right, raising another unthinkable notion—that heart patients can cure themselves.”
Bernadine Healy, M.D., former Director of the National Institutes of Health
“A hard nosed scientist shows us his secrets for successfully cleaning the rusting arteries of so many patients - and it doesn't even hurt.”
Mehmet Oz, M.D., coauthor, You: The Owner’s Manual
“Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., is certainly the father (and the mother) of the now proven hypothesis that you can reverse severe arterial disease (including severe disease of the arteries supposed to nourish your heart). He proved that radical changes in diet (and that alone) cause radical changes in the age and disease of your arteries—and that you can make your arteries much younger.
"So even if you only want to try this plan five days a week, this book is a must purchase because of its great recipes that spice low fat plant based food to high taste—you may even want to enjoy (and know I am using that word specifically and as intentionally as the proposal I made to my wife 33 years ago) the recipes all 7 days."
Michael Roizen MD, coauthor of YOU: The Owner's Manual and YOU: On A Diet. The Owner's Manual to Waist Management
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States for men and women. But, as Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., a former internationally known surgeon, researcher and clinician at the Cleveland Clinic, explains in this book it can be prevented, reversed, and even abolished. Dr. Esselstyn argues that conventional cardiology has failed patients by developing treatments that focus only on the symptoms of heart disease, not the cause.
Based on the groundbreaking results of his 20-year nutritional study—the longest study of its kind ever conducted—this book explains, with irrefutable scientific evidence, how we can end the heart disease epidemic in this country forever by changing what we eat. Here, Dr. Esselstyn convincingly argues that a plant-based, oil-free diet cannot only prevent and stop the progression of heart disease, but also reverse its effects.
The proof is in the results. The patients in Dr. Esselstyn’s initial study came to him with advanced coronary artery disease. Despite the aggressive treatment they received, among them bypasses and angioplasties, most were told by their cardiologists that they had less than a year to live. Within months on Dr. Esselstyn’s program, their cholesterol levels, angina symptoms, and blood flow improved dramatically. Twenty years later, they remain free of symptoms.
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