Day 033 - 10 Oct 94 - Page 35


     
     1   Q.   You said on page 12 that eliminating meats has also
     2        permitted hypertensive patients to eliminate medication
     3        use.  Do you want to just explain that?
     4        A.  Yes.  This is predicated on many, many studies, most
     5        of which took place in Australia using vegetarian diets
     6        because of a number of studies showing that vegetarians
     7        have lower blood pressures on average, but also a lower
     8        incidence of hypertension, and also simply beginning a
     9        vegetarian diet within six weeks causes a demonstrable
    10        lowering of the blood pressure in hypertensive patients
    11        and in normotensive patients.  Researchers studied the use
    12        of a vegan diet, a pure vegetarian diet, over a year;
    13        twenty-six patients, all of whom had hypertension, all of
    14        whom were on medication for treatment of hypertension and
    15        all of whom then began a vegan diet and were asked to take
    16        a daily walk.  Their diet was monitored; to my
    17        recollection, whether they walked or not was not
    18        monitored, but at the end of a year 20 of the 26 subjects
    19        had discontinued their use of anti-hypertensive
    20        medication; yet the overall group, even though all of them
    21        were treated with medication at the beginning and only six
    22        of them were treated at the end, the average blood
    23        pressure was actually lower than at the beginning,
    24        suggesting that dietary changes have a profound influence
    25        on blood pressure.
    26
    27        Now, the precise mechanisms of a vegetarian diet that are
    28        responsible for this, the precise components, has also
    29        been the subject of investigation.  Part of it is the low
    30        fat content.  There may be other contributors as well.
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Is that the one year trial which you refer
    33        to at the bottom of page 12?  As I understand it, it was
    34        not just a vegan diet; there was an exercise programme
    35        involved as well in combination with it?
    36        A.  That is correct.
    37
    38   MR. MORRIS:  I think this is a good time to break.
    39
    40   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, before we do that, again because it is
    41        going to save time in the end and may mean that
    42        Dr. Barnard can get back to the United States sooner than
    43        he might otherwise do and may even avoid a return trip,
    44        several of the references -- and this is why I mention it
    45        now because it is a convenient moment -- listed to go with
    46        his statement are not, at any rate, in my volume.  One in
    47        particular that may matter -- as your Lordship
    48        understands, I am chiefly concerned with cancer of the
    49        breast and colon -- one that may be of particular
    50        importance, which is not in my volume, is the paper by 
    51        Paolo Toniolo, which is reference 24 which Dr. Barnard 
    52        mentioned this morning in his evidence.  It is not in my 
    53        volume.
    54
    55   MS. STEEL:   I am not sure that may be our mistake.
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  When you say reference 24, you have just
    58        numbered your references?
    59
    60   MR. RAMPTON:  The Defendants sent us an index, call it what you

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