If there's something in the arteries, if there's inflammation, if there's stress in

the arteries and there's chaos, your heart's going to overwork. It's going to

accelerate any condition, whether it's genetic

cardiomyopathy or whether it's coronary artery disease

or, you know, whether it's any gamut of the heart health

picture. And I think that's a really important thing to recognize that

what we eat has so much impact,

whether it's a negative impact or a positive impact.

Thank you so much for coming back for another episode of open heart

surgery with Boots. If you've been with me this month, you know

that Michelle and I have been doing this incredible almost

deep dive really into a lot of really important topics of

eating for heart health. And I've

shared little antidotes each week of how Michelle has

directly impacted my life and my husband's life. But I

wanted you, Michelle, to have this last installment

of our five part series. And I said to you, what is

one thing you want to shout from the

mountaintops, from the chair that you sit

in? And I am just going to give you free reign now to

like shout from the mountaintop. What do you need us to

know? I want you to take your health in your own

hands. I want you to be a active

participant in your care and know you have more control

than you think or that you're told you have.

I want to share with you a couple stories because I think it

would empower you to realize that you have

a lot of control in your power if you really start

implementing science based nutrition and taking it

seriously and making it a part of your lifestyle and

embracing it. Why do I say that? So I had a client who came to

see me. She had cardiomyopathy and all of a

sudden her ejection fraction went down to 20%.

And the doctor said, I want to add on two more

medications and I want you to consider a pacemaker.

And she's young, she was in, she's 45

and she decided to join my one on one

program together. And she said to me, Michelle, my

body doesn't do good with medications. I'm scared to go on to

two medications and I really don't want to do a surgery

that's really scary to me. I'm really young. Why is that what he's telling

me to do? So she talked with me in a discovery call, which I do

for all my one on one clients to make sure that I can help them.

And she went back to the doctor. And she's like, listen, I want to try

this with a dietitian. Can I retest it in, you

know, a month and a half? And I said to her, you know, in a

month and a half is your. I don't know if your ejection fraction is going

to go above 20%. It may come up a little bit, but we can try

and do our best. She's like, well, the doctor said that nutrition is not going

to help that. He's like, you know what? I'm going to. I'm going to put

in the script for you. You can do whatever you want. When you're ready,

you go pick up the script, and then when you're ready, we can come do

the pacemaker. But if you want a month and a half, okay, fine. Do what

you want to do. This woman was so motivated

to help increase her ejection fraction, which is the pumping ability of

the heart. We worked together very closely. She went back to get

a cardiac MRI, and her ejection fraction went up

to 48%. In one and a half months,

it went from 20 to 48%. I'm like, I did not

expect that to happen. Like, I'm impressed always by my clients. I'm like, how

did that happen? The doctor says, we don't need to change your medication. He's like,

I don't know how this happened, but whatever you're doing, keep doing it. And

then I will repeat another cardiac MRI in

maybe two years. She's like, two years? That's too

long. She's like, she was advocating. She's like, I wanted in.

Like, at least do an echo in, like, six months. She knew what

to ask for, and she wanted to listen to her gut

instinct. And I think that that's really important and

empowering because we tend to go into this medical model of

fear. You got to heart fill your diagnosis. That's

scary. You look online, it tells you, you know, you

have a low life expectancy. That's scary. You have a life

you want to live. And I really want to stress the importance

that you have more control than you think. Your body's

resilient. Your body can recover. Your

body, when we intervene as early as possible, yes, your chances are

much higher. I can never guarantee that your ejection fraction is going to go

up so quickly, and I never do. But what we can do

is nourish our body to allow our vascular system,

our arteries, to not be so stiff, to reduce the burden on the

heart so that it can do its job. More effectively. And I

see so many beautiful stories with the power of science based nutrition

that I really want to give you hope. I want to give you hope that

just because you have a diagnosis does not mean that you have to have health

anxiety for the rest of your life. You need to understand your

condition, what you can do about it, continue to monitor

it, see that it's effective, and then you know, you have the

actual plan for a long and healthy life. And that is

the key. I want you to take an empowered approach. I'm going to give you

one more story. Just because these stories shock me. I literally

do a dance in my like, literally. They're telling me, I'm like, like. One of

my clients was like, are you ready? Sit down. And I'm like, they know me.

But now they're like, sit down. Are you ready? One of my

clients, he came to me after his third heart

attack. He's like 46. He's like, Michelle, I don't know

what I'm doing wrong. The doctor told me to lose weight. I went on the

paleo diet, I lost the weight, I got a heart attack. Like he told me

then to, you know, lose 10 more pounds, they'll be

fine. So I tried it a car, like, I tried all keto

diet, I tried the vegan diet, I've tried every diet, nothing's working. And so he

had his third heart attack and when the doctor was inside him and said, I

can't put a stent in, there's too much inflammation. He's like, come back in

three months and I will put a stent in in three months because I just

can't. There's not enough like I unable to do it right now. We worked

together for those three months. He goes back to the doctor,

they go inside and the doctor's like, I don't need to stent you anymore. Like,

that stuff is not seen in the research. And I'm like, wait, what? He was

like, yeah. The client goes to me, why didn't you just stent me? I'm

like, do you realize what just happened? You allowed for

your arteries and that plaque to shrink and open

up. Like that is science based nutrition at its finest. And I

don't think people are sharing these stories enough because you're

not going to get a randomized control trial where people are having personalized science

based nutrition, optimizing all these values and then someone going

inside of them and looking at their arterial health. It's just not what

research looks like these days. It's just undoable but

when you hear these impactful stories, it makes me want to continue showing

up in my work because I love what I do because it's

really impacting people's lives. And doctors

literally call me and they're like, how did you do that? And I'm like, I

didn't do anything. I guided my clients to optimal health

and the body's resilient. And this goes in from aortic

root dilation. There was a guy who had a huge aortic root

aneurysm that they wanted to do surgery on. It shrunk. Nowhere in

the research shows that you can shrink it, not even with medication. I'm like, wow,

I didn't think that was possible. Right. But you just think

about it. If there's something in the arteries, if there's inflammation, if

there's stress in the arteries and there's chaos, your heart's going to overwork.

It's going to accelerate any condition, whether it's genetic

cardiomyopathy or whether it's coronary artery disease

or, you know, whether it's any gamut of the heart health picture.

And I think that's a really important thing to recognize that what we eat

has so much impact, whether it's a negative

impact or a positive impact. And so

I don't want people to be eating only to protect

their heart. I want it to nourish their entire body. But when you

understand why certain things do certain things, and

you know how to make it delicious and palatable and

enjoyable, it makes your life so

much better in terms of reduction in health,

anxiety, increasing confidence. And also, you're

like, man, I kicked this in the butt. Like, I did

that. And you should pat yourself on your. On the back for doing

that. Like, it is a big feat. And I think a lot of times we

hear. And I hear clients say, my doctor told me that this is what it

is, or this is, I have to take these medications for life. And I ha.

I'm going to have another surgery soon, or I'm going to have this, I'm going

to have that. And you kind of just say, okay, well, that's what the doctor

said. So you almost become complacent in your. In your

plan of care. I want you. And I'm going to screen this to take an

empowered approach. You got this. You have more control than you

think. You just have to be proactive and really take

charge in your health. Love it. Nothing else to be said.

That's. That's the. The best truth bomb we can end on. So

thank you Michelle for your time. Thank you for

being with us this month. I will play us out

with you explaining your course that

folks can sign up for. It starts in

November. I cannot recommend it enough. I have

directly benefited from one on one with her. I didn't take the course

because I knew I needed like a lot of help and I needed a lot

of focused help and so I elected to do one on one.

But do do consider working with Michelle.

And I want to know, I want to hear from you listeners if you have

found this series helpful. If you would like more of this in the new

year. Yes, this podcast is about open heart

surgery, but part of that is how to thrive after open

heart surgery, maybe even how to avoid it. Michelle has given

us so much to think about on how to even avoid open heart

surgery and so you will find find her in all the

show notes through all of October. Thank you so much.

And up next on Open Heart Surgery with Boots, I will be

highlighting past heart patients that I've interviewed

here. We'll be going into a new series called Hope for the

Holidays, so be sure you tune in for that. Thank

you so much. This podcast is not able

to be what it is without you listeners and so remember, I

love you. Remember that you are worthy of

thriving even with your heart journey and

I am here to be your heart buddy. So

please come back for November, December for our next series

of Hope for the Holidays. Thank you.