Paul was referred to us at 35 years old after unexpectedly discovering he required a stent to abate developing coronary artery disease. Given Paul’s age and otherwise good health, the condition caused him to completely question his overall physical health and significantly impacted his mental health.
OUR ACTION PLAN
On referral, despite the stent, Paul’s condition was generally quite good with normal weight and fat mass readings. However, after a stent, the risk of further intervention is statistically high unless significant lifestyle changes are undertaken. This formed the basis of our plan for Paul; to overhaul his lifestyle and ensure a consistent, balanced and healthy approach going forward.
In Paul’s case, this meant introducing resistance training and regular cardiovascular exercise to improve the efficiency of the heart and, through increasing muscle mass, reducing the workload on his heart. Paul’s lifestyle involved a very stressful work environment with long days and lots of responsibility, so we had to plan with this in mind, ensuring his new routine was manageable long-term.
Paul’s results
Through our work with Paul, he went from rarely exercising to regularly completing four to six exercise sessions per week. He even competed in several 10 km runs and a half marathon!
We were able to help Paul reduce his blood pressure to be consistently within normal ranges (less than 140/90 mmHg), significantly reducing the workload on his heart. Given that a 2 mmHg reduction in a high blood pressure can reduce risk of cardiovascular disease by 6%, this was an important achievement.
In addition, Paul increased his muscle mass by over 5kg and reduced body fat percentage initially by 2.5%.
Following his stent, Paul was put on a statin to reduce his cholesterol, which had an immediate impact. With nutritional interventions, we were able to further decrease his cholesterol by 0.61 mmol/L, and his reading finally reached the recommended 4.0 mmol/L. All these results combined will have a significantly reduced the likelihood of Paul having further shocks or interventions in the future.
