Transcription:

Bill Klaproth: Can the way you eat change your life and transform your health? If Hans Diehl, founder and ambassador of the CHIP program is right, you bet it can. Here to talk with us about the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle is Hands Diehl. National Institutes of Health Supported Research fellow in cardiovascular epidemiology at Loma Linda University. Hans thank you so much for your time. First off, can you briefly tell us about yourself and your medical background?

Hans Diehl, DrHSc, MPH, FACN: Well, I’m a revolutionary. I'm trying to help people to recognize that they can do more for themselves than all of the miracles of modern medicine when it comes to taking care of chronic diseases. These are the diseases hang around. These are the diseases that largely lifestyle related. These are diseases that you cannot fix with a pill or procedure usually, but it only happens if you make some deliberate better choices.

Bill: Hans, you just mentioned chronic diseases, lifestyle diseases. What are some of those?

Hans: Well, we’re talking about heart disease, excess weight. We’re talking about high blood pressure, high cholesterol numbers. We’re talking about diabetes. We’re talking about these kinds of diseases that at best we can sort of manage symptomatology wise, but we don’t really have very good answers to turning these diseases off, but we can. That’s what I've been doing for the last 35 years is I'm also a clinical professor of preventative medicine at the school of medicine at Loma Linda, California. So, these are the kinds of exciting new developments that help us understand that we need to embrace intelligent selfcare with these kinds of common killer diseases.

Bill: Intelligent self-care. I like that. So that turns me to the CHIP program. You're the founder and ambassador of the CHIP program. Can you explain what that is?

Hans: Well, you know, I am from Germany originally. When I recognized the great opportunities, we have been turning our lifestyle around and with it the diseases, I thought I have the cheap program to do it. But being German, I didn’t know how to spell cheap. So, I spelled it C-H-I-P, which actually stands for complete health improvement program. It’s a program that utilizes videos and discussion groups afterwards. It has over 85,000 graduates around the world. It has more than 40 scientifically published medical journal articles. It has been the great joy of my life to helping people to recognize that you don’t have to remain a diabetic in most cases. You don’t have to stay on high blood pressure medication. You don’t have to stay on cholesterol medications. If you become involved in making some simple changes, you can actually become the master of your own ship.

Bill: The complete health improvement program, or CHIP. So, tell us about it. Is it difficult to follow?

Hans: Well, it all depends on your readiness to embrace change. People that just had a heart attack, when they begin to understand that you need to do something about your lifestyle before it hits again, they usually jump right into it. To them, they do it. If you have people that are younger, they say well I don’t know that I want to make all those changes in my diet and exercise. I have to become a nicer person and I have to learn how to handle my stress. You know they say that’s okay. Just look at it, begin to make some changes because they're not really that difficult. You decide what you're ready to do, and then as you do it, you will see results within days often times.

Bill: Okay, so you just mentioned results. We all know eating healthy can help us lose weight and look great, but can you talk about the health benefits that go along with living a healthy lifestyle? More than just looking and feeling better. What physiologically is going on in our body that’s changing that the CHIP program can help?

Hans: That’s a very good question. When we talk about medications, medications are very system disease specific. So, if you take a medication via blood pressure, that’s what that drug does. When you take the medication for cholesterol, that’s what that drug does. When you have angina pain, you take special medication and that’s what that does. When it comes to making dietary changes, it effects all of these systems. That’s the difference between using a holistic approach versus a system specific from a pharmaceutical approach. So, when it comes to doing something about your weight, you will also very effectively lower your blood sugar levels. As you do this, you have to reduce the medication. You have to work very closely with your physician because within three to four days, the medication has to be usually somewhat adjusted because the diet, when I say diet the dietary lifestyle. Eating more natural foods with lots of fiber is so powerful that it drives down your blood sugar so fast that you'll be in trouble if you don’t reduce your medication. The same thing is true for high blood pressure.

If you have high blood pressure and you begin to make some changes, we recommend cutting back on your salt and losing some weight. You will see that the blood pressure medication has to be reduced within a few weeks in order to facilitate the lowering of your blood sugar, and blood pressure in this case, from the dietary changes and exercise. The same thing is true with cholesterol. Cholesterol has come down 10 to 15 to 20% in three/four weeks. When it comes to angina pain, many patients that have heart disease, they have chest pain. The chest pain diminishes rapidly in 30/40/50 days because the blood begins to thin down. As the blood can now, as it is thinner, get easier through these narrowed arteries, like the coronary arteries, you now bring oxygenated blood through the heart muscle and the pain is diminished. So, these are wonderful motivational clinical benefits that come to the patient in short order.

Bill: So, these changes can happen rather quickly, which is great to hear. So, starting a lifestyle change, it’s not easy. We all know that. For most people, you can't quite quit cold turkey. Sometimes you have to take one step at a time. What’s the one change you would recommend to someone who is listening right now? Whether it be a drinking more water or an exercise change or maybe cutting out a particular food. What’s the one change you would recommend right now?

Hans: The most important change that needs to be facilitated is an openness of one’s mind. That has to also do with the idea that many people fatalistically think that well my father had a heart attack, my mother was a diabetic, therefore I am—Wrong idea. These are not diseases that are being transmitted, but rather the lifestyle is transmitted. We can change the genetics within weeks because we can turn off these powerful buttons on the genes that will no longer cause the gene to express itself in a disease promoting manner. Well the genes don’t change, but you can turn them off. That can happen within weeks. So, the most important thing then is to recognize that we can change.

What I usually help people to do is I say why don’t you try this for three or four weeks. That’s all. You don’t have to change forever. Put about four weeks into this program, the CHIP program. It’s offered at the hospital. It’s one of the most talked about programs in America today because the results, the clinical benefits, are so rapidly taking place. Why don’t you give it four weeks and then you can go back to your lifestyle? Chances are, you will have so many wonderful clinical benefits that are actually measurable that you actually say my attitude is changing. My taste sensations are different now. I don’t want to give us the wonderful things that I've all achieved in the last four weeks.

Bill: That’s amazing. If someone wants to get a head start at home now listening I need to start now, I need to do something now today, what would you council that person on?

Hans: Well, I think you could start by making some commitments towards getting your seven to eight hours asleep at night. So, to save some time where you get into an exercise program where you have to be half an hour a day. Get into the gym every alternate day. If you can, do some walking every day. Then also begin to take a look at your larder. Look at your shelves in the pantry. What do you have there? Are these foods that are made for profit? Or are these foods that were made for health? What I recommend to people, why don’t you give some thought to this idea? If it has a nutrition label as a food, if it has a nutrition label, don’t buy it too often because it was probably food that was made for profit and for taste only, but not for health. Instead, begin to eat more fruits and vegetables. Eat more whole grains like wheat and oats. Get a good breakfast in the morning going that would be a wonderful beginning of the day. These are the basic ingredients. Have lots of beans, have there be some nuts and some avocados. Enjoy the food that comes to us as it was designed by nature. Use these processed foods sort of occasionally.

Cut back on the meat and the cheese and the eggs because after all, these are all the cholesterol containing foods. These are the foods that have the saturated fats that are driving the liver to produce excessive amounts of cholesterol. So, you know, begin to make some changes. As you do, it will become self-evident. The results will drive you to stay with the program and explore it more. How fortunate can you be to have it offered right here at the hospital as a community service. After all, it’s healthy by choice not by chance. You are in charge.

Bill: Hans those are great suggestions. Thank you so much. Sleep, exercise. Just walking is good. Take a look at what’s in your pantry and get rid of that processed food. Hans, thank you again. For more information on healthy lifestyle choices or the CHIP program, visit columbushosp.org. That’s columbushosp.org. This is Columbus Community Hospital health casts from Columbus Community Hospital. I’m Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.