While still in high school, Nathan Pritikin began studying health as a hobby. His interest in health matters was renewed in 1957, when he was diagnosed with heart disease. Medical treatment at the time was not very effective. In the face of mainstream medicine's inability to offer any relief, he began an intensive study of the scientific literature on the subject and came to the conclusion that diet and lack of exercise was to blame. He then began experimenting with his diet, keeping meticulous records. By April 1958, he had become a vegetarian. He had also started running three to four miles daily. By May, his cholesterol had fallen to 162. By January 1960, his cholesterol was 120. An electrocardiogram done on June 15 showed that his coronary insufficiency was gone. His test results were normal.
For the next 10 years, he refined his program, testing it on friends and relatives. During that time, he learned how to cook without sugar, fat, or salt.
In 1974, he started writing books about his experience.
In 1976, he rented half of a Howard Johnson motel in Santa Barbara and, assisted by Dr. Stephen Kaye, opened the Pritikin Longevity Center, a residential program of controlled diet, graduated exercise, and lifestyle education. His wife was in charge of the kitchen. Patients began to arrive from all over the world. While his initial concern had been heart disease, he discovered that his program was also effective against diabetes, gout, and arthritis. This was a pleasant surprise. Half of the adult-onset diabetic patients had normalized their blood sugar levels and discontinued insulin by the end of three weeks.
Although the scientific evidence supported his views on the link between diet and disease, this was largely ignored by the medical profession.
In 1984, New York City's Mount Sinai Medical School agreed to co-sponsor a medical conference with Pritikin. It took place in April, and Pritikin delivered a speech before hundreds of health professionals.
Just months before he died, the National Institute of Health published the “Lipid Research Clinical Trial,” which confirmed that lowering cholesterol reduces heart disease risk. .On July 4, 1985, the New England Journal of Medicine published a report on Pritikin's autopsy, noting that his coronary arteries were in excellent condition.
On June 19, 1987, the Journal of the American Medical Association announced a study by David Blankenhorn and his associates at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles that showed regression of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries of humans, using diet and drugs.
Dr. Dean Michael Ornish directed the Lifestyle Heart trial, scientifically demonstrating for the first time that a lifestyle regimen featuring yoga, meditation, a low-fat vegetarian diet, smoking cessation, and regular exercise can reverse coronary artery disease, without drugs or surgery--as evidenced by decreased narrowing of the coronary arteries after one year of treatment. Most patients in the control group had narrower coronary arteries at the end of the trial. This was a rigorously controlled trial. The results of this experiment were published in The Lancet in 1990.
Pritikin had the courage to stand up to the medical and scientific communities in defense of his ideas. Surprisingly, he received considerable validation and acceptance for his ideas within his lifetime. This is not typically the way things work.