My dream that started 10 years ago was that THE WORLD MUST KNOW MORE ABOUT NUTRITION! After all, if it were not for my Cardiologist, who knew about the benefits of nutrition before pills or procedures I would not be writing my story. I would not have a stage that the Plant Based Nutrition Support Group (PBNSG) allows me to help spread the word of nutritional health. What I would have is a 10 inch chest scar from heart surgery, expect more surgeries in the future be on medication with all the side effects and would continue my families long history of heart disease. You see my dad and all of his brothers had by-pass surgery in there 50’s when I was growing up. Two never made it through the surgery, one was never the same person and my father cried in pain for 4 days. It was the only time I saw tears in his eyes. I have 3 sons so when given the choice of surgery or a nutritional change I made the jump the next day to Whole Food/Plant Based eating. I had always heard from my local doctor that it was in my genes. That was just 10 years ago. I have never felt better! I was given a miracle! My motivation for this lifestyle change was of my love for my sons and out of respect and love for my father and uncles.
Even with great stories to share, I believe the best one would be my personal story. An introduction to PBNSG. PBNSG highlights and some discussion points that never leave my mind. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. My story…
My name is Paul Chatlin. I was born in Detroit, Michigan and have lived in West Bloomfield, Michigan since 1971. I am 64 years old. In May of 2013, I was diagnosed with Heart Disease. One artery was 100% blocked and two others were 65% blocked. Add to that leaky valves and enlarged heart, the thickening of the right side of my heart, a left bundled branch block and heart murmur, and I was in seriously bad shape. I could not walk more than 7 steps without excruciating pain in my chest. They did not know if I needed a heart transplant or by-pass surgery. I kept praying that this was not happening to me! I promised that if I can find a way to not have this surgery I would give back to others. I called it a “gurney promise”. After the heart catheter procedure, a heart transplant was ruled out. I needed triple by-pass surgery. My cardiologist gave me two options: bypass surgery or try a life style change called “Plant Based Nutrition” (PBN). When I said I would try anything other than by-pass surgery, he picked his cell phone while I was being wheeled toward surgery. He was calling Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn who picked up the phone at 11p.m. to talk to my doctor. I never knew that Dr. Esselstyn was his mentor in medical school. I was handed the phone and heard Dr. Esselstyn say “go on home and I will call you in the morning”. As I look back I realized that this was the first time I met my cardiologist and Dr. Esselstyn. Quite a leap of faith! At 8:00 a.m. the next morning, Dr. Esselstyn called me and spoke to me for an hour. Thus began my Plant Based Nutrition transition. After just 3 weeks my angina disappeared. My cholesterol levels dropped from 347 to 92 in just one year. I have lost 75 pounds, have kept it off and I feel great! I was given 3 miracles. 1) getting into the Cleveland Clinic in just 3 weeks. 2) being assigned to a doctor (it could have been so many other doctors) whose mentor was Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. I still can’t call him Essy even though he has given me permission to! 3) Dr. Esselstyn picking up the phone so late that night. IT WAS TIME TO GIVE BACK!
I attended a Plant Based Cooking Class hosted by the Esselstyn’s. After all, I was not a cook and did not have a clue about this lifestyle change. The cost was $775.00. I tried to have Blue Cross/Blue Shield reimburse me but was denied. So I thought this is what I can do to give back! So for the next 3 months I started to work with BC/BS with no luck. After escalating to the highest level I was denied because they did not have a pay code assigned and they suggested I work with the legislature for any hope of future change. I kept saying to them that they would rather cut a check for $125,000 for by-pass surgery than reimburse me $775.00 so I can learn how to cook Plant Based and insure I never have one. Right then I knew the system was broken and I need a bigger voice. Plant Based Nutrition Support Group was born.
I was still not well, my doctor told me I needed 60-90 days of bed rest to help shrink my enlarged heart and he believed this would stop my valves from leaking. During my bed rest depression started to creep into my life. I am a dreamer so depression and negative thoughts where very new to me. I felt as though I was all alone! I decided to put a small ad in the local paper inviting anyone who was interested to hear my story, see my cupboards and be connected to me. The ad looked something like this. I would like to share my experience with any person in our community who may be considering a nutritional change before pills or procedures. Who should consider this type of nutritional change? Any person who has had bypass surgery and hopes that a change in eating habits may prevent additional surgery. Any person who is in need of bypass surgery but would like to change their diet to Whole Food Plant Based in hopes of not needing surgery (like me). Any person whose family has a history of Heart Disease and wishes to alter their current diet to possibly avoid health issues down the road. Any person with Type 2 Diabetes. Any person who would like to try a weight loss program that does not starve you and is sustainable In just 2 days 20+ people contacted me and I invited them to my house. What a wonderful evening we had. Some of these wonderful people are still PBNSG members today.
Each person attended felt just like me. Alone but hopeful. I did this the following month and another 20 people attended. I thought we must start a Whole Food Plant Based support group to help others. I contacted all of the current Chiefs of Cardiology in our area. I asked them to give me 3 names of cardiologist that may be interested in educating our community on the benefits of Whole Food/ Plant Based Nutrition. They gave me 3 names. Dr. Joel Kahn was the only one that was repeated by all 3. So I called him and we met. It was like at first site. That day Dr. Kahn agreed to assist me on this journey.
In February of 2014, we held our first PBN Support Group meeting. I thought that 20-40 people would be a great showing. 123 people attended! 23 people signed up as volunteers. The meeting was held at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan.
On March 24th, we held our second meeting. I thought there would be a significant drop off of participants, but I was wrong! We had over 143 people attend. What was interesting is that of the 143 people, 44 of them were new faces. This means that we now had over 260 people in our support group and 20 volunteers. In both April and May we continued to grow and today we have over 10000 members and over 50 volunteers. We also moved to the 2 Birmingham High Schools (we needed a bigger auditorium) and built a web page (www.pbnsg.org). We have a Facebook , Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter presence.