Plant Chat: Dr. James L. Marcum, MD

Dr. James L. Marcum is a board-certified cardiologist practicing with Chattanooga Heart Institute and has been named by USA Today as one of the most influential physicians in his field. He is the author of   The  Ultimate  Prescription   and   Medicines That Kill, as well as an in-demand speaker for his role as the director of Heartwise Ministries. Currently, his radio program, Heartwise, airs across the nation, and he hosts the health program The Heart of Health Live!, which can be seen on secular and Christian television. He is married to Sonya and has two children, Kelli, and Jake. He enjoys music and outdoor activities.

I was so happy to interview Dr. Marcum for my blog, as he is a great enthusiast of whole foods, plant-based diets. Here’s what he said about my books, Plant-Powered for Life and The Plant-Powered Diet, “What I liked about your books is that we live in a real world, where people eat fast food three times a day. You help them make gradual changes. We can’t change people overnight, we have to love them and not judge them.”

I’m also really excited that I will be featured on their radio program at Heart Wise Ministries very soon! I really love Dr. Marcum’s wholesome, balanced approach, which combines spirituality, positive thinking, a plant-based diet, and exercise into an optimal lifestyle.

Tell me about your program, Heart Wise Ministries.

I am the founder of Heart Wise Ministries, which started in 2006, and it’s grown from there. It is in 305 radio affiliates around the world, it’s all over the Internet, 9 television networks, and in every city in the U.S. now.

Since 2006, I’ve been trying to get out the good news on healthy eating. Through our television and radio ministry, we are slowly getting the word out. In fact, last night we just finished filming the sequel to Forks Over Knives with T. Colin Campbell, which deals with the forces keeping the health movement back, such as government and big business. This movement is starting from the ground up with individuals demanding things. I will be in the film as a medical doctor stating some of the challenges we deal with in the world we live in.

What is your health philosophy?

I come from a different place, as I work as a cardiologist in modern medicine, and I am interested in discovering why people are sick in the first place, working with habits, including food, as well as the brain. And the spiritual life is key—whatever that looks like to you—it’s key to healing. God wants us to understand things and to do better with our health, by eating plants, thinking right, and treating our fellow man and earth right.

I believe that nutrition is our front line defense. A whole food plant-based diet increases nitric oxide levels, which lowers blood pressure, improves endothelial function, and reduces inflammation.

But I live in the worst place in the world—the South—to get people to change and to know what a vegetable is! We’re fighting food deserts here. There are tons of KFCs, but few produce stores.

The pharmaceutical companies have $240 billion in profit, with $680 billion in research and development—that’s about 1 trillion dollars a year. There are only two countries—the U.S. and New Zealand—who allow pharmaceuticals to advertise—they are the second largest advertisers behind car companies. It’s an uphill battle.

What health advice do you give to your patients?

I share your belief that there is power in plants, they interact with our own healing systems in our bodies. One of the things I believe is that you really have to touch someone’s heart; if they do something for the wrong reason, it can create chemistry in the body that is just as bad as anything. We need to do things for the right reasons and move one step at a time. For starters, drinking water every day, 70% don’t drink enough water. Then the next thing is to try not to eat so big at night and never miss breakfast. Then it’s 3-5 fresh fruits a day. And then I help them make substitutions, letting them have just enough “bad” stuff to make them happy. Then I use biometrics, looking at things like CRP and lipids. Once they start going in the right direction, then I can get them off meds, inflammation goes away, their color is better, they start making nitric oxide, reduce oxidation, and everything starts to improve. Then the light bulbs go on, and people start looking for books like yours, looking specifically to treat the body in this manner. They can plug into their spiritual side; there are tons of examples in the Bible of a whole foods, plant-based diet.

We need to love people, not judge them, and meet them where they’re at, one step a time, towards health. Everyone can do something to improve health—they can speak in positives not negatives and turn down stress part of the brain, which affects food making decisions and the dopamine addictive pathways.

I can get people off almost all of their meds if they move to a whole foods, plant-based diet. First, it’s blood pressure—nitric oxide goes up, inflammation goes down, they feel better so they start to move to more, they hydrate which also helps blood pressure, they’re taking in more trace elements which lowers blood pressure. A whole foods plant-based diet can almost always get them off blood pressure meds, because it changes all sorts of pathways in the body, there is better endothelium dilation, so the body gets better nourishment, and the blood pressure almost immediately goes down. And brain power—inflammation goes down, brain inflammation goes down, serotonin goes up, they can get off depression meds, get the correct neurotransmitters into the body, improve brain power, decrease levels of dementia, and help with IQ. I’ve seen in my patients that after 5 years of eating better, IQ raised 10 points, and I attributed it to CRP going down—the PET scan in the brain showed blood flow was getting better, not to mention taking away all of the toxins, carcinogens, damaging fat, and the extra animal protein—which stimulates cancer and cancer genes. And now we know that you can turn on and off genes—it’s an exciting time we’re in right now. A plant-based diet traces back to every disease system, even multiple sclerosis.

What is your personal eating style?

My journey started 10 years ago. My wife is a lifelong vegetarian, but I grew up eating meat—I’m from the South. She wouldn’t cook meat in our home, and this started 25 years ago. She did the buying, and I ate meat only outside of the home then. But I got to reading and doing more things that I tried in my own life—fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains—and I took it one step further. When I felt bad, I added this or that, and for all the bad stuff that my body craved, I found a substitute. For example, I like to use peppers and lots of flavors, as well as tangy things, and lots of textures.

My wife is big into fixing healthy stuff. We eat a lot of raw foods at home; I’ve trained myself to actually like raw things. I’ve retaught my brain how to like things like raw kale and greens. We also make smoothies out of all sorts of good things. I’ve gotten up into my 50s and I’m not as athletic as I’d like to be, but I do my 45 minutes of aerobic exercise each day. I’ve really embraced eating healthy, and I feel better.