Success Story: Lou saved his own life, came off medication, and got signed off by consultants by dropping 44kg

Lou heard about me through his son and wasted no time booking a free call to find out if nutritional support was right for him. Having had multiple heart attacks and seven stents, he knew things had to change, and he wanted them to, but life felt overwhelming.

He told me how confused he felt by all the conflicting information about nutrition. With weekly hospital visits, multiple consultants looking after him, and a long medication list, the overwhelm was real. Lou’s beloved wife of 47 years (56 years together) had survived cancer the previous year. They wanted to look ahead, but Lou was taking each day as it came, and he was frequently waking up worried it might be his last.

I recommended weekly appointments over the next few months so we could progress at a realistic pace and simply put one foot in front of the other. Lou’s goal was to lose weight and hopefully reduce medication as a by-product of being healthier.

As a Registered Nutritional Therapist specialising in cardiometabolic and complex heart conditions, I sit with people in Lou’s position every week. Long medication lists, conflicting nutrition advice, and the quiet fear that the next event could be the last one. They want to know whether food, movement and the right support can change the picture, alongside the care they’re already getting. Book a free 20-minute call if that sounds like you.

What Lou hadn’t anticipated was that this journey would set off a domino effect of positive change in his life and his future with his wife.

Diagnoses, medication, supplementation: a quick reality check

In 2022, Lou was diagnosed with chronic ischemic heart disease. After multiple heart attacks and stents to support his arteries, he’d had two of those stents replaced after they failed. Medications are often necessary at this stage. Lou’s list of 12 medications, with half needing to be taken twice a day, was not unusual but, understandably, it felt like a lot.

The thing most people aren’t told is that medications come with side effects and nutrient depletions. Those depletions can quietly add new symptoms, which sometimes lead to more medication, or to that vague ‘below par’ feeling that nobody can quite explain.

Here are some of the most commonly prescribed cardiometabolic medications that Lou also had on his prescription list:

• Statins (e.g. Atorvastatin)

Prescribed for high cholesterol. Common side effects: low energy, brain fog, nose bleeds, muscle pain and aches, digestive issues, sleep disorders, alopecia, numbness, pancreatitis, raised blood sugars (yes, really) and more. Nutrient depletions: CoQ10 (a key antioxidant for the heart), selenium and vitamin D.

• ACE Inhibitors (e.g. Ramipril)

Prescribed for high blood pressure. Common side effects: a tickly cough that doesn’t resolve, headaches, dizziness, diarrhoea, vomiting, dry mouth, blurred vision, rash, alopecia, swollen ankles, pancreatitis and more. Nutrient depletions: electrolyte imbalance, zinc, magnesium and some B vitamins.

• PPIs (e.g. Lansoprazole)

Prescribed for reflux, gastritis, ulcers, or when taking NSAIDs (like ibuprofen) frequently. Common side effects: abdominal pain, digestive issues, increased risk of infections, skin reactions, dry mouth, dizziness, insomnia, confusion, depression, headaches and more. Nutrient depletions: magnesium, vitamin B12 and bone nutrients, which increases the risk of osteoporosis.

Lou was aware of some of these losses and was already taking vitamin D and magnesium, plus omega-3s and turmeric for anti-inflammatory support.

But here’s where things get tricky. Some supplements, like turmeric, can disrupt the way medications work, which makes them inappropriate for certain people. Lou also had some B vitamins in his stack, for all the right intentions, but B6, B9 and B12 in the wrong combination can potentially contribute to stent failure.

This is the kind of detail that doesn’t come up in a 10-minute GP appointment, and it’s exactly why a heart health and complex conditions programme starts with a full review of what you’re already taking before we add a single thing. 

When we add supplements, it’s in support of your health goals while minimising risk. A key part of my early work with Lou was to redefine his supplement stack so it lined up with his goals and his medication: 100% support, 0% risk.

Important note: do not stop taking your medication after reading this. It’s essential to work with your GP, and with one of us at Integral Wellness, if you’d like to explore coming off these medications safely. Book a free 20-minute call to see what that could look like for you.

Getting clear on the foods that help

Lou loved some genuinely nutrient-dense foods, but he was confused by all the conflicting nutrition advice out there. His love of fish, seafood and vegetables gave us a clear starting point: a small set of simple changes that would make a big difference in how he felt.

Some of the changes Lou made included:

• Building balanced meals: protein, fibre, antioxidants, anti-inflammatories
• Increasing the quantity and diversity of vegetables
• Setting a target for portions of fish and seafood each week
• Adding vascular-focused foods like beets, celery, garlic and leafy greens
• Using herbs, spices and citrus in meals and marinades
• Upping water intake to 2 litres a day
• Removing sugary snacks, fruit juices, fizzy drinks and most non-alcoholic beverages

Lou embraced every change. He would proactively add things to his shopping list during our weekly calls and ask me to walk him through food labels so he could make informed choices. His nutrition knowledge grew so much that he felt confident in any food environment.

If you’d like the version of that we hand to clients, our shopping guide is the same starting framework Lou used for those early weeks.

Let’s get moving

Lou also joined a gym. He’d been a frequent gym-goer in the past and was keen to feel the endorphin lift exercise gives you. To manage his progress safely, he started with six aquafit classes a week.

For some people, depending on the starting point, dropping some weight before certain exercises is important to avoid accelerating inflammation. Aquafit takes the load off the joints while still building up the cardiovascular system, which is why it suited Lou’s stage so well.

Lou was also keen to make walking easier and more enjoyable, so we built up his weekly minutes gradually, with each next step staying small enough to be manageable. The cumulative effect, over months, was the part that really shifted things.

The results

It’s the part everyone skips ahead to, and fairly so. But Lou didn’t have a smooth ride. He caught a virus partway through, sat by his wife’s side in hospital for a few months, and had a couple of medical events triggered by stress. Life threw curveballs, but Lou stayed as consistent as he could, and none of those events turned out to be a heart attack. Lou genuinely saved his own life with his efforts.

Here’s how the numbers moved.

Within one month, Lou had:

• Dropped 9kg
• Stopped all angina medications
• Stopped needing to hold his breath to do up his laces

By the end of month two:

• Lost another 5kg
• Stopped using his CPAP machine for sleep apnoea
• Reduced knee pain when walking
• Reduced his blood pressure to healthy and normal range

Starting month four:

• Down a total of 21kg
• More confident in different food environments
• In control of his appetite and able to read his own nutritional needs

Within 6 months:

• Walking 3x 45-minute walks every day, plus six aqua classes a week
• Sleeping better than he had in years
• Feeling energised from the moment he woke up
• Down 3 t-shirt sizes (he hadn’t worn these since 1979)
• Another 11kg lost
• Signed off by his vascular surgeon and removed from the knee replacement list

Today:

• Dropped 44kg in total
• Removed from more medication
• Walking even further to enjoy long summer days in nature
• Planning a once-in-a-lifetime trip with his wife to celebrate their life together

Lou’s testimonial

“When I started, I was overweight and on a lot of medication for heart disease, having had a Bypass and 7 stents fitted after multiple heart attacks. Now I eat the right foods, go to a gym every day and walk with friends 4 times a day. There’s no better feeling than when you’re out and about and you see someone that you haven’t seen for a while, and they don’t realise it’s you. Even better when your heart surgeon tells you that they are taking you off certain medicines because of the amount of weight you have lost. I couldn’t have done any of this without the help & support from Integral Wellness. I would highly recommend them.” – Lou

Huge well done to Lou. The determination to follow the plan and trust the process paid off. Not because it was easy, but because Lou found consistency at a pace he could actually keep going.

Our client support is designed for exactly that. We want you to learn enough to live without us, just like Lou can now, with a check-in every six months when his blood tests are reviewed.

If you want to understand the cardiometabolic picture behind results like Lou’s, our piece on why blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure are the same problem is a useful next read.

Does Lou’s story sound like the position you’re in?

If you’re reading this with a long medication list, a recent diagnosis you didn’t expect, or a quiet feeling that things aren’t going in the right direction, there are three ways we can help, depending on where you are: 

1. Want to understand your full clinical picture first? Start with a Wellness Check. A one-off appointment that pulls everything together: cardiometabolic markers, nutrient status, medication review and clinical recommendations you can act on straight away.
2. Ready for the same kind of support Lou had? Our heart health and complex conditions programme is 1-1 root-cause work for people with multiple diagnoses, stents, heart events or a long medication list. We build it around your GP and your consultants, not in opposition to them. 
3. Not sure where you fit? Book a free 20-minute call and we’ll work it out together. No pressure, no script, just a clinical conversation about your situation. 

And if you’d like another outcome like Lou’s before you decide, read Dave’s story, medication-free at 69 after years of being told it would only get worse.