The Exam Room by the Physicians Committee She Had Heart Disease, These Changes Made It Go Away | Lauren Bernick
Mar 24, 2026
Lauren Bernick, founder of Well Elephant and host of Age Like A Badass Mother, reversed her own heart disease with a whole-food, plant-based approach. She recounts the warning signs, a life-changing calcium score, and the shift that made it stick. Hear practical tactics for eating out, travel hacks, sustainable tweaks for healthy fats, and the mindset that turned a crisis into long-term change.
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Shocking Diagnosis While Thinking She Was Healthy
- Lauren discovered she had coronary artery disease at 46 after a calcium score CT showed her arteries were 75% worse than peers.
- She was shocked because she thought her low-carb, mostly-vegetarian habits and regular exercise meant she was healthy.
Chest Pain During Upward Dog Stopped After Diet Change
- Lauren routinely experienced chest pain during Upward Dog in yoga and it resolved after adopting the plant-based diet.
- She suspects those pains were angina because they stopped once plaques regressed.
Read Esselstyn And Start Whole Food Plant Based Now
- Lauren immediately read Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease and used it to switch to a whole-food plant-based diet overnight.
- She replaced meals with oatmeal, Esselstyn recipes, and committed to the diet as a root-cause approach instead of statins first.
