How to Guard Your Heart | Dr. Chidi Ngwaba

Summary

In Dr. Chidi Ngwaba's enlightening talk on 2CBN TV, he emphasizes the critical importance of guarding our hearts, both physically and emotionally. He highlights heart disease and hypertension as major global health concerns, often exacerbated by lifestyle choices and sometimes misunderstood as purely genetic issues. Drawing historical parallels, Dr. Ngwaba explains that individual health impacts not only personal well-being but also families and communities, potentially shaping global events. He advocates for a plant-based diet, exercise, and stress management as key strategies to prevent and even reverse heart disease, underscoring how these practices are rooted in both modern medicine and timeless wisdom.

Highlights

• Learn from history: one person's health can change the world! 🌍
• Heart disease and hypertension are not just genetic; lifestyle matters! 🧬
• Switch to a plant-based diet to open up those arteries naturally! 🥦
• Exercise doesn't have to be intense; walking is powerful! 🚶‍♀️
• Stress less, live more; emotional health is crucial. 🧘‍♂️
• Embrace a healthy lifestyle for long-term heart protection. 🛡️

Key Takeaways

• Guard your heart like a treasure; it holds life's issues! 💖
• Heart disease is a major concern, but lifestyle changes can prevent it. 🌿
• Individual health impacts families and communities worldwide. 🌍
• A plant-based diet can naturally reverse heart disease! 🍏
• Understand the warning signs; it's never too late to change. ⚠️
• Exercise and diet are your heart's best friends. 🚶‍♂️🥗

Overview

Dr. Chidi Ngwaba's talk takes us on a journey of understanding the profound impact of heart health. Not just a physical condition, he shows how the heart is central to life itself, affecting everything from individual health to global events. By referencing historical figures and events, he illustrates that when we neglect heart health, we not only risk personal health but community well-being too.

He passionately challenges common misconceptions about heart disease being unavoidable due to genetics, shining light on the power of lifestyle changes. Through compelling examples, he demonstrates how transitioning to a plant-based diet and regular exercise can lead to remarkable health reversals. Dr. Ngwaba's approach is not just about diet and exercise; it's about adopting a mindset of diligence towards one's own body and life.

The heart is not just an organ; it's metaphorically a source of life and decision-making, as supported by the proverb he quotes. He urges us to guard our hearts by being mindful of what we consume, both physically and emotionally, highlighting the importance of letting go of stress and embracing positivity. This change not only enriches personal health but also radiates outwards, impacting the lives around us.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Topic Overview The speaker, Dr. Chitty, introduces themselves and the topic of the discussion, which is about the heart. The focus is on the importance and functionality of the heart, with the thematic emphasis on the concept 'guard your heart.' The introduction sets the stage for a detailed exploration into why and how one should protect this vital organ.
• 00:30 - 02:30: Understanding the Heart and Its Diseases This chapter delves into the understanding of heart diseases, with a focus on heart disease and hypertension, represented by red and orange in the referenced chart. It emphasizes the commonality of these conditions by noting that nearly everyone knows at least one person affected.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Historical Context and Impact of Individual Health The chapter discusses the historical context and impact of individual health by referencing a significant historical site, the Tower of London. Within this context, a particular installation featuring 880,000 ceramic poppies is described, symbolizing or commemorating historical events, and possibly drawing a parallel to the topics of health or the influence of historical events on individual health. The structure of the narrative likely intertwines historical landmarks with discussions on health implications over time.
• 04:00 - 09:00: Role of Lifestyle in Heart Health The chapter begins with a reference to the Tower of London installation in 2014, commemorating 880,000 people from Great Britain who died during the First World War. The text highlights an intriguing discussion led by Dr. Dop about a topic relevant to the chapter's theme, which will be revealed in detail. It also mentions Woodrow Wilson, the President of the United States during the First World War, though further details are not provided in this excerpt.
• 10:00 - 18:30: Hypertension: Causes and Misconceptions The chapter 'Hypertension: Causes and Misconceptions' discusses the historical context related to America's involvement in the First World War. It touches on the establishment of the League of Nations, an early attempt at international cooperation to prevent future conflicts. However, the United States opted not to join, preferring to remain isolated. This political background serves as a precursor to the formation of the United Nations.
• 18:30 - 22:00: Diet and Exercise: Keys to Heart Health The chapter discusses the historical context surrounding the League of Nations and Woodrow Wilson's involvement. It highlights Wilson's efforts to garner American support for joining the League, as well as the consequences of his severe stroke, which impeded his ability to lead effectively, leading to his wife taking on significant responsibilities.
• 22:00 - 23:50: Spiritual and Emotional Well-being The chapter titled 'Spiritual and Emotional Well-being' starts with a historical context of the President's efforts and failures in convincing America to join the League of Nations and the severe consequences imposed by the Europeans on Germans after World War I. This sets a stage for a discussion about individual health, suggesting that both spiritual and emotional well-being go hand in hand with an understanding of history and its impact on the psyche. The narrative seems to bridge past historical events and their psychological impact on current individual health, indicating that personal well-being is influenced by larger socio-political contexts.

How to Guard Your Heart | Dr. Chidi Ngwaba Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 It's great to be back with you. Um, I wasn't expecting to come up so quickly to be honest. This is this is this is good. This is very good. Um, all right. So, yes, for those of you who don't know me, I'm Dr. Chitty. Today, we're going to be looking at a very special part of the body, the heart. Um, in fact, it's the title is guard your heart. Guard your heart. As you have
• 00:30 - 01:00 seen over the past few days, we've been looking at these different these different colors. They represent different diseases that we seek to reverse or prevent. Today, we're looking at both the red and the orange, which is the heart disease and hypertension. Just let me see your hands. Do you know anybody who has high blood pressure or heart disease? Let me see a raising of your hands. Just about everybody knows at least someone. It's a big deal. But let me start with this. Does anybody
• 01:00 - 01:30 know where this is? Anybody recognize this building? Did you say the Tower of London? Special man. You should have a prize. This is the Tower of London. And all of this red that you see was a special installation in the Tower of London. It was 880,000 ceramic poppies that were put in
• 01:30 - 02:00 the Tower of London in 2014. This was to remember the 880,000 people who died during the First World War from Great Britain. Now, I was very interested to hear from Dr. Dop on Monday because he was talking about something that I'm going to reveal today as well. Um during the first world war this gentleman was the president of the United States Woodro Wilson. Many people have a lot of
• 02:00 - 02:30 negative things to say about him. Now when America joined the first world war it kind of ended quite quickly and as Dr. Dh mentioned they started something called the League of Nations. The League of Nations was supposed to be there so that the countries would not go to war again. And this was the precursor to the UN. Now the Europeans said, "Okay, we'll join the League of Nations." But the Americans said, "No way. We want to stay
• 02:30 - 03:00 out of this." That's for the Europeans. Woodro Wilson said, "Look, if we leave it to the Europeans, they will punish the Germans, and we don't want that." So he said, "I'm going to go around America and I'm going to convince the Americans that they should join the League of Nations." Sadly, Woodro Wilson got a stroke. He had such a bad stroke that he couldn't really function very well at all. In fact, his wife was doing much of
• 03:00 - 03:30 the work of the president. So, he couldn't convince America to join the League of Nations. So the Europeans punished the Germans and when they punished the Germans so severely along came one man saying we're not secondass citizens. We're going to rule Europe for a thousand years. Now why am I telling you this? I speak to you all about health and it's all about individual health.
• 03:30 - 04:00 But let me tell you one man's health doesn't just affect one man. It affects your family. It affects your community. It can even affect the world. People say to me all the time, "Dr. Chitty, I hear what you say, but I want to live. I want to do whatever I want to do." Well, when you get sick, who is it that takes you to hospital? It's the family. We are not an island. And that is why we are seeking to help you prevent and reverse.
• 04:00 - 04:30 Imagine if Woodro Wilson had had one of these meetings and he prevented heart disease. The world may be different. The world may be different. And it's the same for you and me. If we can listen to these messages, our worlds could be different and the people around us. So, as I've said, this is guard your heart. It comes from the proverb 4:23. Guard your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life. this this
• 04:30 - 05:00 organ in our chest. You know, after six weeks of conception, this heart starts to beat. And from that moment until your last moment, it continues to beat. It takes all the oxygenated blood from the lungs and then shoves it out and oxygenates the rest of your body. It's a wonderful, wonderful organ, but it can be diseased. And when we talk about heart disease,
• 05:00 - 05:30 we're talking about the clogging of the arteries. Clogging of the arteries with fat and cholesterol and calcium. These things cause severe problems. In fact, even in Kenya now and most of the develop and developing world over half of the people who die prematurely die from heart disease. So why do we get it? Why do we get heart disease? Is it genetic? You may have heard that. I hear that all the time. Doctors saying, "Well, there's nothing you can do about
• 05:30 - 06:00 it. It's genetic." In Africa, according to the World Health Organization, there's about 30% of people are hypertensive. Some studies show that it's got up to even 60%. But what does heart disease look like? I don't know if you know this gentleman. You see, when I was at medical school, there is no way you could qualify out of medical school unless you knew what the first signs of heart disease were or in fact what the
• 06:00 - 06:30 sign of a heart attack was. But I'm telling you, if you live your life like this fictional character, you already have the first signs of heart disease. If you're inactive, if you have a poor diet, if you're stressed all the time, if you're overweight, if you smoke and drink, if you do any combination of these things, I guarantee you, you already have the first signs of heart disease. How do I
• 06:30 - 07:00 know this? You know, um, during the Vietnam War, do you know what the average age of the American soldiers was? 19 years old. That's the average age of the American soldiers. And when in their thousands they were being sent home in body bags because they died. They did autopsies on these 19 year olds. They already had severe heart disease because of their diet, because of their lifestyles. So when I was a younger
• 07:00 - 07:30 doctor, I decided I wanted to find out can you reverse heart disease? Is it possible those arteries that clog up? Can we rather than go and have an operation, can we open up those arteries? And I went and saw a gentleman who was doing that very experiment. What he did, Eselstein Caldwell is his name. He took 18 patients with severe heart disease. Severe heart disease and they had very high cholesterol. And for the previous eight
• 07:30 - 08:00 years, they had had 49 cardiac events between them. That means chest pain, heart attack, stroke, something like that. All he did was change their diet to a plant-based whole grain, no saturated fat or meat diet. That's all he did. No operation. What he found out was the cholesterol harved quickly. 11 years after the experiment, those who remained in the experiment, there were no cardiac events. In fact,
• 08:00 - 08:30 some people found that within a month, they stopped getting any chest pain at all. And right at the bottom you can see dramatic reversal of disease. What does that look like? It looks like this. This is an angiogram where we put some dye into your arteries to see what your heart looks like. And here you can see a little kink. That is where the heart disease is. Right? So here you can see this little kink. That's where the heart disease is. And then you can see after.
• 08:30 - 09:00 Now I spent a year at Papworth Hospital doing cardiac surgery. A year at Papworth Hospital up in Cambridge. It was one of the most difficult jobs I've ever done. It was very brutal. And almost every day we would do three cardiac bypasses. Three of them. Now if I was to show my colleagues this before and after result, my
• 09:00 - 09:30 colleagues would say, "Dr. Chile, that's brilliant. Well done. But this was not an operation. This was just from people changing their diets. Their arteries opened up naturally. Naturally. No operation. I don't know if you've ever seen a a cardiac bypass operation. It's brutal. You have to open up the chest, stop the heart, take out veins, replace veins. None of that was necessary. All that was was just a change of diet. Now, if I was
• 09:30 - 10:00 to ask you which would you prefer, an operation or a change of diet? Which would you prefer? A change of diet, less painful. And I'm telling you now, even today, I know there are doctors here. We're we're still not teaching people that this is possible. If somebody has severe heart disease, we send them to the doctor. Medications, stances, surgery. This is possible to reverse just by lifestyle change. And this is what heart disease looks like.
• 10:00 - 10:30 the the lovely fat artery on the left there is the healthy one on the right you can see it starts to narrow. So we must try to guard our hearts. Now heart disease is linked to high blood pressure. We call it hypertension. A third as we've said of the adults in Kenya suffer from high BP. The the normal level should be 120 over 80. What does that mean? It means the the maximum pressure in the system when
• 10:30 - 11:00 the heart is pumping the blood out is 120. When the heart relaxes when it's at it most relaxed it's at 80. That's what that figure means. So that this is the maximum that your pressures should be. Doesn't matter about your age or sex it shouldn't be any higher than this. Now why do we get hypertension? Is it genetic? Now, if you learn anything from the Garden of Eden, you have to learn that we don't we shouldn't blame each other.
• 11:00 - 11:30 You remember what happened in the Garden of Eden? God blamed Adam. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. And of course, the serpent didn't have a leg to stand on. Um, one person understood that joke. Okay, fair enough. Let's move on. If you go to your doctors and say, "Doctor, why do I have high blood pressure?" They will say to you it's essential hypertension. What does that mean? Essential hypertension is what doctors do to baffle people. You know,
• 11:30 - 12:00 instead of giving you a a straight answer, they give it a strange name and it makes them sound intelligent. You go to your doctor, you say, "Doctor, I've got back pain." They say, "Oh, don't worry. It's lago." Lombago is just Latin for back pain. It just sounds better. we sound more intelligent. And so when they say to you, you have essential hypertension, what that means is we don't know the cause. So 95% of people who go to
• 12:00 - 12:30 doctors with high blood pressure, what they're really saying is we don't know the cause. They you've probably heard it yourself, but they will tell you what the risk factors are. Let's look at some of these risk factors. family history of high blood pressure, black. If we're black, we have a higher risk. If you're male, have a higher risk. If you're obese, if you're diabetic, if you smoke, high salt levels, high stress levels, and you
• 12:30 - 13:00 don't exercise. We know all of these things are risk factors for high blood pressure. But you don't have to be a a brilliant doctor to know that the risk factors are actually the causes. If you're doing those things, that will lead to high blood pressure. Right now, let me go back to some of those risk factors because they don't seem very fair. Family history of high blood pressure. You mean if my family all has high blood pressure, does that mean I'm going to get it? Now, many
• 13:00 - 13:30 doctors will say, "Yeah, you probably will. It's genetic." It's not genetic. It is not genetic. You do not have to have it. Even if there was a gene, by the way, they haven't found the gene for high blood pressure. If you change your lifestyle, you can remove any risk of high blood pressure. It is not genetic. It is not your future. If you're AfroCaribbean, why should that be? Why should black people have higher blood pressure than anybody else? Why? Any
• 13:30 - 14:00 black people in here? Wh why why should black people have anybody have any answers why? Some people say, "Oh, it's because of slavery." Well, I don't know. We have a harder life. I don't think so. It's actually quite simple. We are designed slightly differently. By the way, look, we are black because we come from a hot country. We come from a hot country, so we have darker skin to protect us from the rays. Also, in order that we do not dehydrate, we hold on to water a little
• 14:00 - 14:30 bit more than the Caucasians do, so that we don't dehydrate. Now, how do we hold on to water? We do that by holding on to more salt. Wherever salt goes, water follows. Now, that's okay if we're living in a nice wonderful environment which is has low salt food, lovely like our ancestors did. But when we go into an environment where there's lots of salt in the diet, McDonald's, KFC, all that stuff, we hold on to salt more than
• 14:30 - 15:00 the Caucasians. We're at higher risk of having blood pressure. Now, why should males have higher blood pressure than females? Well, that's quite obvious. The reason why men have higher blood pressure than females is because men have to live with females. It's majority males here. I think I'm okay. No, that's not the reason. That's not the reason. The reason is that females have this wonderful hormone called estrogen. Um, it's always
• 15:00 - 15:30 mentioned in a negative way, but estrogen actually protects women from high blood pressure. So, when they reach the menopause, when there's no estrogen, their risk is just the same as men. Now, I want you to remember something. Hypertension. I know we call it a disease, but really it's a warning sign. It's a warning sign that something worse is coming. It's a bit like this was um this was my first car. It's not a bad car for a first car.
• 15:30 - 16:00 I mean, but I'll tell you something. I spent every last penny to buy my first car. I had no money left. I didn't have any money to buy petrol, so I just had a had a car to look at. But sometimes when I I scraped enough money up and put some petrol in the car and drove it, lots of warning lights went off. They all went off. I had no money to do anything about
• 16:00 - 16:30 it. So those warning lights would just keep going. There's nothing I could do until one day loads of steam came out of the engine. The car stopped and I was then stuck. I then had to get it towed away. I had to borrow money to get it towed away. Had to borrow money to get it fixed. Very expensive because I ignored the warning light. Hypertension is a warning light. Because if you're having high blood pressure, your stress
• 16:30 - 17:00 levels may be high, which means you are looking down the line at things like cancer, anxiety and depression, Alzheimer's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, or irritable bowel syndrome. All of these things are just down the line if you ignore the warning signs of high blood pressure. High blood pressure is not a disease on its own. It is a warning. And you know when we talk about disease, you can't find a better definition of disease than this from ministry of healing. Disease is an
• 17:00 - 17:30 effort of nature to free the system from conditions that result from a violation of health laws. What does that mean? It means that sometimes, for example, your body knows that you need high blood pressure. The disease isn't the problem. The disease is actually trying to get rid of what the problem is. Let me give you an example. Why would you need high blood pressure? So let's look at these
• 17:30 - 18:00 arteries. So you got the big fat artery on the left, the thinner artery on the right. The artery is being narrowed by cholesterol. Now if that artery is going to your brain, your brain needs the same amount of blood irrespective of how open that artery is. Right? You need that amount of blood. So how do you get the same amount of blood through a narrower artery? How do you do
• 18:00 - 18:30 that? You have to increase the pressure to make the blood go quicker because your blood your brain will need that blood. Now if the good doctor comes along and says okay your blood pressure is too high let me just lower your blood pressure artificially you are not going to get enough blood to your brain to your heart to your kidneys to your lungs and it leads to chronic disease. Tablets are not the long-term answer. What is an answer? One answer is as I've said before a healthy plant-based diet.
• 18:30 - 19:00 Healthy plant-based diet. I can guarantee just about on every topic that I talk about today, the more plants you eat, the better your health will be. Especially greens. Especially greens. Now, greens do something quite interesting. As you as you digest the greens and it goes into your bloodstream, it tells your arteries to release a chemical into your blood. That
• 19:00 - 19:30 chemical is called nitric oxide. Nitric oxide. So the greens are now going through your blood. They're telling the interior of your arteries to release nitric oxide. Nitric oxide will open up the arteries and lower your blood pressure. By the way, nitric oxide is the active ingredient of Viagra. Nobody's heard of Viagra.
• 19:30 - 20:00 Nobody's heard of Viagra. Only some of the women have heard of Viagra. The men are saying, "Well, what is this drug I I've had no need of?" You know what I'm talking about when I say Viagra, right? Erectile dysfunction. Viagra. So, greens have this ability to give us natural Viagra, natural opening of the artery. Many people, many men come to me and say, "Look, I've got a problem with
• 20:00 - 20:30 erectile dysfunction. Is there anything I can do about it?" Well, my first answer to those people is the bad news. The bad news is that it's worse than you think. Erectile dysfunction is just telling you that your arteries all over your body are closing down. which is why if you have erectile dysfunction, you have a massively higher risk of having a
• 20:30 - 21:00 stroke or a heart attack in the next five years. So, it's worse than you think. So, just going for a tablet is not the answer. The answer is to get yourself onto a healthy plant-based diet and do the exercise that is necessary that will open up the arteries. Now, many men say to me, "Dr. Judy, I hear what you're saying, but I don't like rabbit food. I don't like rabbit food. I always say to them this. If there's one thing I know
• 21:00 - 21:30 about rabbits, they don't need Viagra. Some of you understand me. Okay. So, look, the greens, they open up the arteries. They open up the arteries. So, there'll be a mad rush to the supermarkets for greens tonight, I'm sure. Okay. So, we're still talking about the heart, blood pressure, and heart disease. You can't talk about this without talking about exercise. Now, people ask me, what's the best exercise? Actually, walking is
• 21:30 - 22:00 probably the best exercise you can possibly do. But I always say, do the exercise that is relevant to you. Do the exercise that you enjoy doing, that you can sustain for years, for decades. If you can do that, make it into a habit, it then doesn't become a chore. I put my hand up and I'll say, "I do exercise a lot. I don't particularly enjoy any of the stuff I do, but I just treat it as my medicine for the day." Guard your heart with all
• 22:00 - 22:30 diligence, for out of it springs the issue of life. I don't think we sometimes realize how deep the Bible is. You see, this text is is interesting. Yes, of course, it's very interesting. Look, even from a medical point of view, do you know until 8 1624, we didn't know the function of blood, the thing that issues out of the heart. We didn't know, but we then realize that it's the blood gives life to the
• 22:30 - 23:00 tissues. But this text says even more than that. What it is saying is the issues of our lives don't come from our enemies. They don't come from our neighbors. They come from our own hearts. How we think. Can we let go? Can we forgive? The better, the more natural, the more the more forgiving and
• 23:00 - 23:30 loving we become, our blood blood pressure starts to come down, our health starts to go up. [Music]
• 23:30 - 24:00 How did I come back What
• 24:00 - 24:30 is up? [Music] [Music] Whatever
• 24:30 - 25:00 happened you [Music]
• 25:00 - 25:30 [Music] Could I care?
• 25:30 - 26:00 [Music] [Music] Take care.
• 26:00 - 26:30 talking about. Well, that's right. It's a good illustration of sometimes it's not just about what we eat that makes us healthy. Sometimes it's about what's eating us. And when we learn to let go, as we were talking about yesterday, and we'll hear more about tomorrow, you'll find that you'll be guarding your heart for life. Thank you very much. [Applause]