Caldwell Esselstyn

Caldwell Esselstyn

Medal record
Men's rowing
Competitor for the  United States
Olympic Games
Gold	1956 Melbourne	Men's eights

Caldwell Blakeman Esselstyn Jr. (born December 12, 1933) is an American surgeon and former Olympic rowing champion. He is a "leading proponent" in the field of "plant-based diets"^[1] and starred in the 2011 American documentary, Forks Over Knives. Esselstyn's book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease (2007), influenced former U.S. President Bill Clinton.^[2]

Background

Esselstyn was born in New York City in 1933.^[3] He grew up on a cattle farm in upstate New York and attended public schools. He attended Deerfield Academy for high school^[4] and graduated from Yale University in 1956^[5] where he was a member of Skull and Bones.^[6] He also competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, winning a gold medal in the "eights" as a member of the American team.^[7]

Esselstyn received his M.D. from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1961 (during which time he met his wife Ann).^[4] He was an intern (1961–62) and resident (1962–66) at the Cleveland Clinic.^[3] After returning in 1968 from duty as an Army surgeon in Vietnam, he began work at the Cleveland Clinic where he eventually rose to serve as President of the Staff and as a member of the Board of Governors. He served as the President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons in 1991. In 2000, he gave up his post at the Cleveland Clinic.^[4]

In 2005, he also "became the first recipient of the Benjamin Spock Award for Compassion in Medicine. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Cleveland Clinic Alumni Association in 2009. In September 2010, he received the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame Award."^[8] Esselstyn is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Nutrition Action magazine, published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.^[9]

Book and film

Esselstyn is the author of the 2007 text, Prevent and reverse heart disease, in which he discusses his heart diseased patients's reversals of atherosclerosis by following a low-fat, whole foods, plant-based diet.^[10] The second half of the book contains recipes from his wife Ann Crile Esselstyn (the granddaughter of George Washington Crile, founder of the Cleveland Clinic) who works with him to counsel patients on cooking practices. Esselstyn and his family of four children have maintained a plant-based diet since the mid-1980s.^[8] Esselstyn attributes the success of his twelve-year trial with heart patients to low mean levels of both total cholesterol (145 mg/dl) and LDL cholesterol (82 mg/dl).^[11][12]

After undergoing cardiac surgery in 2010, former American president Bill Clinton adopted the plant-based diet recommended by Dean Ornish, T. Colin Campbell, and Esselstyn.^[2][13]

Esselstyn stars in the 2011 documentary Forks Over Knives, based on his work in Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease and the research of his colleague T. Colin Campbell in The China Study (2005). It also explores the work of other physicians who share this approach, as well as the personal experiences of some Esselstyn's patients. Esselstyn's son, Rip Esselstyn, a former "professional triathlete," firefighter, and author of The Engine 2 Diet based on his father's research, also appears in the film, as does his wife Ann.

Bibliography

• Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure (2007)
• "Is the Present Therapy for Coronary Artery Disease the Radical Mastectomyof the Twenty-First Century?"
• Esselstyn CB Jr. et al. "A Strategy to Arrest and Reverse Coronary Artery Disease: A 5 -Year Longitudinal Study of a Single Physician's Practice." The Journal of Family Practice, 1995 December; 41(6): 560-68.
• Esselstyn CB Jr. Updating a 12 -Year Experience With Arrest and Reversal Therapy for Coronary Heart Disease (An Overdue Requiem for Palliative Cardiology)". The Am J of Cardiology, 1999 August 1; 84:339-341.
• Esselstyn CB Jr. "Resolving the Coronary Artery Disease Epidemic through Plant-Based Nutrition (with photos of disease reversal)." Preventive Cardiology, 2001;4: 171-177.
• Campbell, T. Colin and Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. "Forks Over Knives: How a Plant-Based Diet Can Save America." Huffington Post, May 13, 2011.

References

External links

• Official website
• Caldwell Esselstyn at the Internet Movie Database

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