Here is the full transcript of Dr. Philip Ovadia’s talk titled “Feed Your Heart: The Secrets to Staying Off the Operating Table” at TEDxJeffersonU conference.
SUMMARY: Dr. Philip Ovadia, a heart surgeon with over 20 years of experience, delivered a compelling talk titled “Feed Your Heart: The Secrets to Staying Off the Operating Table,” focusing on the importance of metabolic health in preventing heart disease. He shared his personal journey of confronting heart disease risks and emphasized the systemic failures of the medical industry in addressing preventive measures.
Dr. Ovadia highlighted the alarming statistics of heart disease in the United States and the preventable nature of the majority of cases through lifestyle changes. He critiqued the medical community’s focus on treatment over prevention and called for a paradigm shift towards educating and empowering individuals about metabolic health. The talk outlined simple, actionable steps for improving one’s health, such as eating whole foods, increasing physical activity, optimizing sleep, and managing stress.
Dr. Ovadia’s message was clear: by prioritizing metabolic health, individuals can significantly reduce their risk of heart disease and improve their quality of life. His passionate plea aimed to inspire audience to take charge of their health and break the cycle of chronic disease.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
The Tragic Loss
I couldn’t save her. She shouldn’t have needed to be saved. She was 39 years old, a mother of young children, and despite many hours of heroic work by my team and I, those children would grow up without their mother. My own heart sank. I felt almost numb. I remember the looks on the faces around me. Why? A life taken so young.
I had so many questions, and I’m a heart surgeon. She was only 39.
As a heart surgeon for over 20 years, I have dealt with patients dying and each time it is uniquely painful. But this time was different. This time I was acutely aware of how the medical system had failed, how the system had failed her. This time, I couldn’t accept failure as an option. It was time to create change, for more than one patient. It was time to ignite change for all patients.
A Reflective Examination
In the aftermath, I thought about all the times she could have been saved before she ended up on my operating table with a devastating cardiac problem. How many times the indications that she was at risk were ignored? Obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes. Conditions that have become so common, that they are accepted as normal.
I also thought about the 600,000 people that die every year in the United States from heart disease, the number one killer in the US for each of the last 70 years. But unlike some diseases, oftentimes this is 100% preventable. If it is, why haven’t we done something about it? Why does someone in the US have a heart attack every 40 seconds? Because we have been fixated on the wrong ideas about what causes heart disease, because we have been too focused on how to treat heart disease instead of how to prevent it.
So instead of performing surgery on the solution, we find quick fixes by putting Band-Aids on the symptoms. And while we have gotten better at keeping people with heart disease alive longer, we also see heart disease occurring in younger and younger patients. Having been in the operating room for two decades and seeing thousands of patients lying on my operating table, I believe we must go above and beyond treating people for heart disease when they are already sick. We must do better at preventing heart disease from occurring in the first place.
We must address the underlying cause of heart disease: Poor metabolic health. Would you believe it if I told you that success would actually mean seeing less patients? According to a recent study, 88% of the adults in the United States are not in optimal metabolic health. Seven of the top ten causes of death, including heart disease, are associated with poor metabolic health.
The Personal Connection
Yet we have little to no education in our daily lives about what it means to be metabolically healthy. Insulin resistance, one of the hallmarks of poor metabolic health, has repeatedly been shown to be the top risk factor for the development of heart disease. Despite this, insulin resistance and metabolic health rarely enter the conversations that doctors have with their patients about heart disease treatment and prevention.
Where are those conversations happening? The answer is they’re not. As a heart surgeon, I have seen the devastating effects that heart disease has on patients and their loved ones. But one patient that I had a deep connection to shaped my entire perspective on how I want to change the narrative. That patient was me. Yes, you heard that right. This heart surgeon was dangerously standing next to his own operating table.
A Call to Action
My own table? This time it’s personal. As a young child, I watched my grandmother suffer with and ultimately die from heart disease. And as I became morbidly obese and developed pre-diabetes, I was concerned I would end up just like her. I was attuned to the fact that I was traveling down the same path that so many of my patients had followed, and I, like so many of them, felt powerless to change my direction.
Always easier said than done. We know what needs to happen. Yet that first step seems almost insurmountable. It was only when I learned to overcome my own health challenges that I realized empowering people to understand metabolic health will be the pivotal key to preventing heart disease and keeping people off my operating table.
As I realized that we can reverse and prevent chronic disease, it redefined what I see as possible. Now, I want you to join me in imagining what the world will be like when we eliminate heart disease as a major cause of death and disability. When it is no longer the norm to spend the last half of your life on an ever increasing number of medications.
The Path Forward
And instead can remain vibrant and active throughout our later years, when we can expect to be able to keep pace with our grandchildren and our great grandchildren, who themselves are no longer burdened by the skyrocketing rates of obesity and the childhood development of metabolic diseases like type two diabetes.
And as I stand here today, having lost 100 pounds, I want to inspire and challenge each of you to take charge of your health. I implore you to learn how to assess your metabolic health and how to improve it. It does not have to be complicated or out of reach.
First, start by eating whole, real food. Real health isn’t about restricting. It’s about rethinking what we eat. Eat the things that grow in the ground and eat the things that eat the things that grow in the ground. If your great grandparents weren’t eating it, you probably shouldn’t be eating it.
Second, move more throughout your day. We greatly underestimate the power of simple movement. We don’t have to be gym addicts or personal trainers to be at our optimal health. Start by moving walking 30 minutes each day, or simply finding ways to create activity that inspire metabolic growth.
Third, sleep more, sleep better. While we feel the need to pack more into 24 hours than humanly possible, sleep is a silent superpower that can change our entire bodies physically and mentally. Remember those days as teenagers when sleep was the greatest thing ever? It’s because our bodies used it as fuel to become strong, healthy humans in later life.
Fourth, manage stress by surrounding yourself with a strong community, an inner circle of like-minded people, or even a religious group. Find peace in a common mission. And find the people who were seeking the same tools to stay strong throughout the entire journey. A rising tide lifts all boats.
So find that tide and finally find a physician or other health care practitioner that can guide you to better health, one that is not focused on symptom-based treatment, but rather root cause treatment.
Conclusion
These simple, achievable actions, when put into play with consistent effort and intentionality, will have a major impact on your health and the health of those around you. These changes can keep you off my operating table. When enough people become proactive about their health, the health care system will respond and become more proactive and focused on preventing disease instead of treating disease.
As people learn and demonstrate that they can remain healthy and vibrant throughout the majority of their life, we will reduce our need for chronic care. We can redirect billions of dollars currently spent on treating chronic illness. And when people are empowered to manage and optimize their health, we will become less dependent on the pharmaceutical industry and will no longer be enslaved by the food industry pushing ultra-processed food that keeps people hungry and fails to supply the nutrients needed to support optimal health.
I can’t go back and prevent that unfortunate 39-year-old woman from ending up on my operating table. But I can empower each of you to stay off my operating table. Start with yourself. Take those simple yet bold actions that will change your mindset. That positive mindset will lead to new behaviors which will then become habits. Those habits may save your life. Teach your children and your families to do the same.
Let’s break those generational cycles of unhealthy living and thinking and take back control of your health. Whether you’re 39 or 99, it’s the heart that matters the most. And then, ask yourself this question: Whose life will you save next?