“All I'm trying to do is wipe out heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity”
Starting in the 1970s, the statement above was Nathan Pritikin's mission. He wasn't always involved in medicine, however. As a young man in the 1940s and 1950s, his occupation was that of an inventor. He held over two dozen U.S. patents in fields as diverse as engineering, photography, and aeronautics. But since World War II, he had probed into the origins of heart disease. He had seen classified documents showing that European deaths from heart disease and diabetes had dropped dramatically during the war. How peculiar, he thought. He had always been taught that atherosclerosis-related conditions like heart disease were caused by stress. What could produce more stress than war with its food rationing, fire bombings, and anarchy?
Intrigued, Nathan Pritikin started following the work of Dr. Lester Morrison in California, a cardiologist who in the early 1950s had placed 50 of his seriously ill heart attack patients on a diet mimicking the low-cholesterol, low-fat wartime food rationing diet that many Europeans survived on. Another 50 cardiac patients, also very ill, continued eating the typical American high-fat diet.
By 1955, the cholesterol levels of the experimental group had dropped from an average of 312 to 220. The control group’s cholesterol levels had remained the same. Half of the experiment group had died compared to 24% of the control group. By 1960, all of the patients in the control group had died; 38% of the low-fat, low-cholesterol group were still alive.
Out of curiosity, Nathan Pritikin visited Dr. Morrison in 1956 and had his own cholesterol checked. It was over 300. But Nathan did not want to give up his three eggs every morning, his pint of ice cream after dinner, his butter, and his bowls of whipped cream. Not until, that is, Dr. Morrison gave him a stress electrocardiogram, which showed coronary insufficiency. A second cardiologist and second testing confirmed that Nathan's arteries were indeed clogging up. He was diagnosed with substantial coronary heart disease. He was 41 years old.
A prestigious team of cardiologists gave him the standard prescription of the day: stop all exercise, stop climbing stairs, take it easy, and take naps in the afternoon. Once again, Nathan asked questions. His readings of population studies had convinced him that dangerous arterial plaque would form at any cholesterol level over 160. If he could just get his cholesterol level down with dietary measures, he figured, he might have a chance of surviving.
Once again, he met resistance. UCLA Medical School cardiologists admonished him, saying, “You CAN'T control your cholesterol. Ridiculous!” So Nathan decided to make dietary changes on his own. He was frightened, but obstinate. By April 1958, he had become a vegetarian. He had also started running three to four miles daily. By May, his cholesterol had fallen to 162. By January 1960, his cholesterol had plummeted to 120, and a new electrocardiogram showed that his coronary insufficiency had disappeared. His test results: normal.
Emboldened by his new life – and the results of his diet and exercise program – Nathan Pritikin launched several research projects over the next 25 years which, study after study, validated the efficacy of his program. These studies on heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and nutrition were published in several key medical journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and Circulation.
Nathan Pritikin also wrote several books on nutrition, exercise, and health which were international bestsellers, including Live Longer Now, The Pritikin Program For Diet and Exercise, The Pritikin Weight Loss Manual, and Diet For Runners. To date, 10 books have been published on the Pritikin Program. The latest, published by Simon & Schuster in 2008, is The Pritikin Edge: 10 Essential Ingredients For a Long and Delicious Life. The paperback version of Pritikin Edge will be released January 2010. Over three million Pritikin books are in print today.
In 1975, Nathan Pritikin also opened the Pritikin Longevity Center, a residential program of nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle education, which attracted people from the entire world. In 1976, the television news program 60 Minutes followed three men, all with severe heart disease, as they attended the one-month program at the Center. 60 Minutes also conducted extensive interviews with Nathan Pritikin and Dr. David Lehr, a cardiologist from the Miami Heart Institute who monitored the three men. All three patients improved dramatically. Their angina (chest pain) disappeared. They eliminated virtually all their medications. Their cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressures fell into normal, risk-free ranges. And, much to their joy, they regained the energy, the vitality, that allowed them to resume the lives – and occupations – they loved.
One year later, in 1977, 60 Minutes revisited the three men and found that all three had continued to enjoy active, vigorous lives free of the symptoms of heart disease. At this time, Nathan Pritikin, Dr. David Lehr, and his associate, Dr. Robert Bauer founded the Pritikin Longevity Center in Florida.
In 1984, just months before Nathan Pritikin passed away from complications related to his decades-long fight with leukemia, the National Institute of Health published the “Lipid Research Clinical Trial,” the definitive study confirming that lowering cholesterol reduces heart disease risk. Its publication was a great source of comfort to Nathan Pritikin. Now, he knew, his work would continue, and many more lives would be saved from cardiovascular-related diseases.
In 1985, Nathan Pritikin's autopsy results, so remarkable that they were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, revealed coronary arteries that were free of all signs of heart disease. In this report, his final statement to the world, Nathan Pritikin had asserted that heart disease can in fact be reversed, and with diet and exercise alone.
Today, the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Miami, Florida, is led by Paul Lehr, the son of Dr. David Lehr. The Center continues to operate as both a lifestyle training program and a research center – an internationally acclaimed laboratory for investigative work into the relationship between diet, exercise, and disease prevention.
