Shownotes
Hello Heart Buddies! This is our 5th and final installment of the Empower Your Heart Health Series! Cardiac dietitian, Michelle Routhenstein, comes back for one more powerful episode of how to take control of your heart health through science-based nutrition. She shares inspiring success stories, including a client who dramatically improved her heart function and another who avoided surgery by reducing artery inflammation. TRUE STORY! Michelle emphasizes that dietary choices significantly impact overall heart health, urging listeners to be proactive and empowered in their care.
Next up on the podcast...the next series starts next week! "Hope for the Holidays" revisits a few past guests' stories. I check in with them and hear the latest on how they are THRIVING post heart event.
How to find Michelle
Michelle Routhenstein, MS, RD, CDCES, CDN
Cardiology Dietitian and Preventive Cardiology Nutritionist
Owner of Entirely Nourished, LLC
Sign up for her next Optimize Group at here. This is an affiliate link and by signing up, you support this podcast. Thank you!
About the program: Optimize is a six-week virtual heart optimization group program designed to teach you how to protect your heart through science-based nutrition. In this live program, Michelle Routhenstein, a cardiovascular dietitian, leads Zoom lectures that delve into arterial health and how to enhance your cardiovascular risk profile. She addresses underlying issues like inflammation, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance using evidence-based nutritional strategies. Throughout the six weeks, you'll also have access to a private community for questions, support, and the implementation of science-based heart-healthy changes to safeguard your heart for the long term.
Get in touch...P: (646) 979-0328 E: Michelle@EntirelyNourished.com
http://www.entirelynourished.com
Join the Newsletter for almost weekly content for this podcast and other heart related news.
Join the Patreon Community! The Joyful Beat zoom group is where you'll find connection and hope that you aren't alone in your journey.
If you just want to support the show as a one-time gift (thank you), go here.
**I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Be sure to check in with your care team about all the next right steps for you and your heart.**
How to connect with Boots
Email: Boots@theheartchamberpodcast.com
Instagram: @openheartsurgerywithboots or @boots.knighton
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/boots-knighton
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Transcripts
If there's something in the arteries, if there's inflammation, if there's stress in
Speaker:the arteries and there's chaos, your heart's going to overwork. It's going to
Speaker:accelerate any condition, whether it's genetic
Speaker:cardiomyopathy or whether it's coronary artery disease
Speaker:or, you know, whether it's any gamut of the heart health
Speaker:picture. And I think that's a really important thing to recognize that
Speaker:what we eat has so much impact,
Speaker:whether it's a negative impact or a positive impact.
Speaker:Thank you so much for coming back for another episode of open heart
Speaker:surgery with Boots. If you've been with me this month, you know
Speaker:that Michelle and I have been doing this incredible almost
Speaker:deep dive really into a lot of really important topics of
Speaker:eating for heart health. And I've
Speaker:shared little antidotes each week of how Michelle has
Speaker:directly impacted my life and my husband's life. But I
Speaker:wanted you, Michelle, to have this last installment
Speaker:of our five part series. And I said to you, what is
Speaker:one thing you want to shout from the
Speaker:mountaintops, from the chair that you sit
Speaker:in? And I am just going to give you free reign now to
Speaker:like shout from the mountaintop. What do you need us to
Speaker:know? I want you to take your health in your own
Speaker:hands. I want you to be a active
Speaker:participant in your care and know you have more control
Speaker:than you think or that you're told you have.
Speaker:I want to share with you a couple stories because I think it
Speaker:would empower you to realize that you have
Speaker:a lot of control in your power if you really start
Speaker:implementing science based nutrition and taking it
Speaker:seriously and making it a part of your lifestyle and
Speaker:embracing it. Why do I say that? So I had a client who came to
Speaker:see me. She had cardiomyopathy and all of a
Speaker:sudden her ejection fraction went down to 20%.
Speaker:And the doctor said, I want to add on two more
Speaker:medications and I want you to consider a pacemaker.
Speaker:And she's young, she was in, she's 45
Speaker:and she decided to join my one on one
Speaker:program together. And she said to me, Michelle, my
Speaker:body doesn't do good with medications. I'm scared to go on to
Speaker:two medications and I really don't want to do a surgery
Speaker:that's really scary to me. I'm really young. Why is that what he's telling
Speaker:me to do? So she talked with me in a discovery call, which I do
Speaker:for all my one on one clients to make sure that I can help them.
Speaker:And she went back to the doctor. And she's like, listen, I want to try
Speaker:this with a dietitian. Can I retest it in, you
Speaker:know, a month and a half? And I said to her, you know, in a
Speaker:month and a half is your. I don't know if your ejection fraction is going
Speaker:to go above 20%. It may come up a little bit, but we can try
Speaker:and do our best. She's like, well, the doctor said that nutrition is not going
Speaker:to help that. He's like, you know what? I'm going to. I'm going to put
Speaker:in the script for you. You can do whatever you want. When you're ready,
Speaker:you go pick up the script, and then when you're ready, we can come do
Speaker:the pacemaker. But if you want a month and a half, okay, fine. Do what
Speaker:you want to do. This woman was so motivated
Speaker:to help increase her ejection fraction, which is the pumping ability of
Speaker:the heart. We worked together very closely. She went back to get
Speaker:a cardiac MRI, and her ejection fraction went up
Speaker:to 48%. In one and a half months,
Speaker:it went from 20 to 48%. I'm like, I did not
Speaker:expect that to happen. Like, I'm impressed always by my clients. I'm like, how
Speaker:did that happen? The doctor says, we don't need to change your medication. He's like,
Speaker:I don't know how this happened, but whatever you're doing, keep doing it. And
Speaker:then I will repeat another cardiac MRI in
Speaker:maybe two years. She's like, two years? That's too
Speaker:long. She's like, she was advocating. She's like, I wanted in.
Speaker:Like, at least do an echo in, like, six months. She knew what
Speaker:to ask for, and she wanted to listen to her gut
Speaker:instinct. And I think that that's really important and
Speaker:empowering because we tend to go into this medical model of
Speaker:fear. You got to heart fill your diagnosis. That's
Speaker:scary. You look online, it tells you, you know, you
Speaker:have a low life expectancy. That's scary. You have a life
Speaker:you want to live. And I really want to stress the importance
Speaker:that you have more control than you think. Your body's
Speaker:resilient. Your body can recover. Your
Speaker:body, when we intervene as early as possible, yes, your chances are
Speaker:much higher. I can never guarantee that your ejection fraction is going to go
Speaker:up so quickly, and I never do. But what we can do
Speaker:is nourish our body to allow our vascular system,
Speaker:our arteries, to not be so stiff, to reduce the burden on the
Speaker:heart so that it can do its job. More effectively. And I
Speaker:see so many beautiful stories with the power of science based nutrition
Speaker:that I really want to give you hope. I want to give you hope that
Speaker:just because you have a diagnosis does not mean that you have to have health
Speaker:anxiety for the rest of your life. You need to understand your
Speaker:condition, what you can do about it, continue to monitor
Speaker:it, see that it's effective, and then you know, you have the
Speaker:actual plan for a long and healthy life. And that is
Speaker:the key. I want you to take an empowered approach. I'm going to give you
Speaker:one more story. Just because these stories shock me. I literally
Speaker:do a dance in my like, literally. They're telling me, I'm like, like. One of
Speaker:my clients was like, are you ready? Sit down. And I'm like, they know me.
Speaker:But now they're like, sit down. Are you ready? One of my
Speaker:clients, he came to me after his third heart
Speaker:attack. He's like 46. He's like, Michelle, I don't know
Speaker:what I'm doing wrong. The doctor told me to lose weight. I went on the
Speaker:paleo diet, I lost the weight, I got a heart attack. Like he told me
Speaker:then to, you know, lose 10 more pounds, they'll be
Speaker:fine. So I tried it a car, like, I tried all keto
Speaker:diet, I tried the vegan diet, I've tried every diet, nothing's working. And so he
Speaker:had his third heart attack and when the doctor was inside him and said, I
Speaker:can't put a stent in, there's too much inflammation. He's like, come back in
Speaker:three months and I will put a stent in in three months because I just
Speaker:can't. There's not enough like I unable to do it right now. We worked
Speaker:together for those three months. He goes back to the doctor,
Speaker:they go inside and the doctor's like, I don't need to stent you anymore. Like,
Speaker:that stuff is not seen in the research. And I'm like, wait, what? He was
Speaker:like, yeah. The client goes to me, why didn't you just stent me? I'm
Speaker:like, do you realize what just happened? You allowed for
Speaker:your arteries and that plaque to shrink and open
Speaker:up. Like that is science based nutrition at its finest. And I
Speaker:don't think people are sharing these stories enough because you're
Speaker:not going to get a randomized control trial where people are having personalized science
Speaker:based nutrition, optimizing all these values and then someone going
Speaker:inside of them and looking at their arterial health. It's just not what
Speaker:research looks like these days. It's just undoable but
Speaker:when you hear these impactful stories, it makes me want to continue showing
Speaker:up in my work because I love what I do because it's
Speaker:really impacting people's lives. And doctors
Speaker:literally call me and they're like, how did you do that? And I'm like, I
Speaker:didn't do anything. I guided my clients to optimal health
Speaker:and the body's resilient. And this goes in from aortic
Speaker:root dilation. There was a guy who had a huge aortic root
Speaker:aneurysm that they wanted to do surgery on. It shrunk. Nowhere in
Speaker:the research shows that you can shrink it, not even with medication. I'm like, wow,
Speaker:I didn't think that was possible. Right. But you just think
Speaker:about it. If there's something in the arteries, if there's inflammation, if
Speaker:there's stress in the arteries and there's chaos, your heart's going to overwork.
Speaker:It's going to accelerate any condition, whether it's genetic
Speaker:cardiomyopathy or whether it's coronary artery disease
Speaker:or, you know, whether it's any gamut of the heart health picture.
Speaker:And I think that's a really important thing to recognize that what we eat
Speaker:has so much impact, whether it's a negative
Speaker:impact or a positive impact. And so
Speaker:I don't want people to be eating only to protect
Speaker:their heart. I want it to nourish their entire body. But when you
Speaker:understand why certain things do certain things, and
Speaker:you know how to make it delicious and palatable and
Speaker:enjoyable, it makes your life so
Speaker:much better in terms of reduction in health,
Speaker:anxiety, increasing confidence. And also, you're
Speaker:like, man, I kicked this in the butt. Like, I did
Speaker:that. And you should pat yourself on your. On the back for doing
Speaker:that. Like, it is a big feat. And I think a lot of times we
Speaker:hear. And I hear clients say, my doctor told me that this is what it
Speaker:is, or this is, I have to take these medications for life. And I ha.
Speaker:I'm going to have another surgery soon, or I'm going to have this, I'm going
Speaker:to have that. And you kind of just say, okay, well, that's what the doctor
Speaker:said. So you almost become complacent in your. In your
Speaker:plan of care. I want you. And I'm going to screen this to take an
Speaker:empowered approach. You got this. You have more control than you
Speaker:think. You just have to be proactive and really take
Speaker:charge in your health. Love it. Nothing else to be said.
Speaker:That's. That's the. The best truth bomb we can end on. So
Speaker:thank you Michelle for your time. Thank you for
Speaker:being with us this month. I will play us out
Speaker:with you explaining your course that
Speaker:folks can sign up for. It starts in
Speaker:November. I cannot recommend it enough. I have
Speaker:directly benefited from one on one with her. I didn't take the course
Speaker:because I knew I needed like a lot of help and I needed a lot
Speaker:of focused help and so I elected to do one on one.
Speaker:But do do consider working with Michelle.
Speaker:And I want to know, I want to hear from you listeners if you have
Speaker:found this series helpful. If you would like more of this in the new
Speaker:year. Yes, this podcast is about open heart
Speaker:surgery, but part of that is how to thrive after open
Speaker:heart surgery, maybe even how to avoid it. Michelle has given
Speaker:us so much to think about on how to even avoid open heart
Speaker:surgery and so you will find find her in all the
Speaker:show notes through all of October. Thank you so much.
Speaker:And up next on Open Heart Surgery with Boots, I will be
Speaker:highlighting past heart patients that I've interviewed
Speaker:here. We'll be going into a new series called Hope for the
Speaker:Holidays, so be sure you tune in for that. Thank
Speaker:you so much. This podcast is not able
Speaker:to be what it is without you listeners and so remember, I
Speaker:love you. Remember that you are worthy of
Speaker:thriving even with your heart journey and
Speaker:I am here to be your heart buddy. So
Speaker:please come back for November, December for our next series
Speaker:of Hope for the Holidays. Thank you.
