Reversing NCDs
“I AM well, Alhamdollilah. Not one drop of oil, not one piece of meat, not one bite of white flour or white rice, not one egg, not a drop of dairy since … never going to look back. I exercise daily and do breathing exercises three to five times a week.”
Abu Noaman wrote the above in a recent communication to one of his doctors, Munira Abassi, who is a Diplomate of Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Metabolism and Lifestyle Medicine from the US, and is now based in Pakistan.
Let’s retrace this radical lifestyle change.
Last week, during a post-graduate course on lifestyle medicine, we discussed the case study of a patient who had a massive heart attack on July 1, 2021. It started with severe chest pain during his post-dinner walk with his wife in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was rushed to hospital, where after examination and various tests he was diagnosed with serious myocardial infarction. His left anterior descending artery was found to be 90 per cent blocked and the right coronary artery 30 to 50pc. Together, these main arteries provide 70 to 85pc of the blood the heart muscle needs. Diffused plaques could be seen in his coronary arteries. Due to these obstructions, his heart was not getting enough nutrition, and its pumping function, measured as ejection fraction had gone down to 25pc. He underwent immediate cardiac catheterisation and two overlapping stents were inserted. According to his cardiologist, his chances of survival were only 12pc.
Heart disease, diabetes and fatty liver are reversible through lifestyle interventions.
His tests also revealed high levels of cholesterol, at 222 mg/dL (which should normally be less than 200mg/dL). His bad cholesterol, LDL, was also high, at 150mg/dL, when it should be less than 129. He was subsequently declared diabetic, as his fasting glucose was high at 205 mg/dL, when normally it should be between 70-99. Additionally, he had a fatty liver with high values seen in his liver function tests: AST/SGOT, a liver enzyme, was 258 U/L, though the normal value is between 15-41.
Abu Noaman was 59 at the time. His business was not doing well due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and he was stressed. He had led an otherwise healthy life until that fateful July. In fact, he was very health conscious because he had lost his father and two siblings to heart disease, another two siblings to complications from diabetes, and his mother to a stroke. Despite being genetically predisposed, he had no trace of these diseases until then. Hailing from KP, he moved to the US at the age of 18 to pursue computer engineering and an MBA degree. He led an active lifestyle. He biked, swam, hiked, and played squash. Despite all this, he was shocked to find he had heart disease, diabetes and a fatty liver.
Noaman is an exceptionally analytical and determined man. Initially, when we were told how he fought back and reversed these serious diseases during our case study discussion, I was sceptical. We know heart disease, diabetes, and liver disease as ‘chronic’ diseases grouped as non-communicable diseases. Worldwide, NCDs cause 43 million deaths annually and constitute more than 70pc of total deaths.
Three killer chronic diseases at this age usually mean lifelong medication, repeated interventions, difficult adjustments in medicines due to comorbidities, etc. Despite the odds, we were told that today, at 62, Abu Noaman has become disease-free and also medicine-free. I could not believe it.
I decided to dig deeper and requested Dr Munira to connect me, if possible, to Mr Noaman. After getting in touch, last Saturday I had a long video call with him. Here comes the rest of the story.
Once he had settled down a bit after the heart attack, while still in hospital, he started inquiring how he could get rid of these diseases. He just could not accept that he had to live with them for the rest of his life. Despite some unhelpful doctors, his own research led him to some very relevant books on this subject: Reversing Heart Disease by Dean Ornish, published in 1995, and Prevent And Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure by famous cardiologist Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. The latter is considered the gold standard, according to Abu Noaman.
He also found a couple of other books on reversing diabetes, which he ordered. He found them waiting for him when he returned home after three weeks in hospital. Reading all these books, he understood the key message was to adopt a healthy lifestyle, and most importantly, switch to a whole food plant-based diet. Once convinced, he immediately imposed upon himself Esselstyn’s WFPB diet, resulting in a complete lifestyle shift — a cold turkey method. No meats, dairy, eggs, or oils. He only consumes vegetables, fruits, corn or whole wheat bread. Instead of oil, his food is cooked in vinegar or vegetable broth. He only uses oat milk. He has a big collection of WFPB recipes, and has not looked back since.
After his cardiac procedure, he was put on seven heart medications and insulin for diabetes. But by sticking to the new diet and regular exercise, the values of his tests started improving, and he began shedding one medicine after another. His fatty liver was back to normal in three months, and eventually he was taken off insulin and even oral hypoglycemics. His last values read: cholesterol 133 mg/dL; LDL 83 mg/dL; fasting glucose 108 mg/dL; AST/SGOT 25 U/L.
These changes were made possible through: complete adherence to WFPB diet; regular exercise; stress management through meditation; strong family support from his wife and kids and working with a team of doctors who themselves follow a WFBP lifestyle.
He wrote me: “I often think to myself that if I could relive my life and knew what I now know, perhaps I could have shared this knowledge with them [lost parents and siblings] and prolonged their lives. They were my pillars and reflecting back on losing them prematurely to preventable and manageable diseases breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes. Allah knows best.”
I have urged him to write a book on his extraordinary and inspiring experience.
The writer is a former health minister and currently a professor of health systems & population health at the Shifa Tameer-i-Millat University.
Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2025