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Jan 19, 2018

If you had heart disease, wouldn't you prefer advice from a cardiologist who is trying to make themselves heart attack proof?

Dr Kim Williams is a vegan cardiologist. Yes you read it right. He adopted a plant-based diet 15 years ago when his cholesterol level was found to be higher than it should have been and he'd recently seen a patient's heart scan improve remarkably with a plant-based diet.

He now understands that a whole foods plant-based diet should give him a longer life and should also give his patients the opportunity to reverse their heart disease, one of the greatest killers on this earth.

Hence he eats, advises and advocates plant-based nutrition.

After graduating from the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago, Kim became board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular diseases, nuclear medicine, nuclear cardiology, and cardiovascular computed tomography. He has worked at the Pritzker School of Medicine, the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit and since 2013 at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, where he is Professor and Head of the Cardiology Department. He was President of the American College of Cardiology from 2015-2016 and has also been President of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology.

Previously an elite tennis player himself, Kim is now combining his passions of tennis and plant-based nutrition advocacy with a visit to Melbourne this January. Whilst primarily here to watch the professional tennis players at the Australian Open he is also speaking at the "Young at Heart" Nutrition in Healthcare Symposium run by Lucy Stegley of Raw Events Australia on January 23rd 2018 at RMIT University in Melbourne. If you live in or close to Melbourne you won't want to miss what he has to say. As a doctor whose career combines patient care, scientific reasoning, diagnostic testing and health advocacy he has lots to tell us all about the patient stories and the evidence to support his stance that a diet devoid of animal products is the best for our heart health.

He was very kind to give us an opportunity for a chat here on the New Normal Project podcast. We covered several important topics from what he eats, what patients with heart disease should eat, to what pro tennis players eat. And lots in between.

Live well, feel well, do well!

Claire & Andrew

 

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Links to people, organisations and other resources mentioned in this episode:

 

Dr Kim Williams at Rush University Medical Center: https://doctors.rush.edu/details/1728/kim-williams-sr-cardiovascular_disease-chicago-oak_park

 

Dr Kim Williams on Twitter: @cardio10s

 

Australian Open tennis tournament: https://ausopen.com

 

Blog post by Dr Williams on "Vegan diet, healthy heart": https://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Prevention/46860

 

American College of Cardiology: http://www.acc.org

 

Dr Caldwell Esselstyn: http://www.dresselstyn.com 

 

Dr Dean Ornish: https://www.ornish.com

 

Portfolio diet (David Jenkins): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portfolio_diet

 

American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association guidelines on high blood pressure: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29133356

 

Meta-analysis by Dr Neil Barnard’s team: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24566947

 

Adventist health studies: https://publichealth.llu.edu/adventist-health-studies

 

Dr John McDougall: https://www.drmcdougall.com/

 

Dr Joel Fuhrman: https://www.drfuhrman.com/learn/the-nutritarian-diet

 

Book - The Spectrum by Dr Dean Ornish: http://deanornish.com/books/

 

Mediterranean diet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_diet

 

PREDIMED study: http://www.predimed.es/

 

Happy Cow: https://www.happycow.net/

 

Tennis Australia: https://www.tennis.com.au/

 

Rod Lever Arena: https://www.rodlaverarena.com.au/

 

Professional tennis players mentioned: Donald Young, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Venus Williams

 

Raw Events Australia: http://www.raweventsaustralia.com/

 

Raw Events “Young at Heart” Nutrition in Healthcare Symposium: http://www.raweventsaustralia.com/calendar/

 

Raw Events Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nutrition-in-healthcare-melbourne-symposium-dr-kim-williams-usa-more-tickets-41260790134

 

New Normal Project website: https://www.newnormalproject.com.au/

 

New Normal Project podcast: http://newnormalproject.libsyn.com/

 

New Normal Project on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newnormalproject/

 

New Normal Project on Instagram: @newnormalproject

 

New Normal Project on Twitter: @newnormalproj

 

Email Claire & Andrew Davies: info@livingtheplantpowerway.com

 

Photo credit: Noah Hannibal