Dr. Vagnini is a board certified cardiovascular surgeon who, after more than 20 years of performing heart surgery, has turned his clinical practice to the prevention of heart and related diseases: hypertension, stroke, diabetes, and obesity. He is the medical director of the Heart, Diabetes & Weight Loss Centers of New York in Manhattan and Westbury, Long Island , where he sees patients on a daily basis.

He received his medical degree from St. Louis University and completed specialty training at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan . He also served in the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant Colonel.

In his practice, Dr. Vagnini follows the lead of current medical science for maintenance of heart health. This often includes nutritional as well as drug therapies for cholesterol lowering, weight loss, and management of diabetes.

As a health educator, Dr. Vagnini conducts a call-in radio program, The Heart Show, on WOR 710 radio, New York , Sundays at 4 PM . He publishes a monthly newsletter that is posted on his website www.vagnini.com. He is the co-author of the NY Times bestseller, The Carbohydrate Addict’s Healthy Heart Program. His current book is Dr. Vagnini’s Healthy Heart Plan, which includes his popular and very successful 30-Day Insulin-Regulating Diet.

In support of his practice, Dr. Vagnini is an active member of the Academy of Anti-aging Medicine , of the Society of Bariatric Physicians, and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and of the American College of Nutrition.

His radio slogans, for which he earned the title of “The Prevention Doctor,” is “Heart attacks and strokes can be prevented,” and “Your health is in your own hands.” 

Name: Frederic J. Vagnini MD, FACS

Location: Long Island, New York

Website: www.vagnini.com

Diet Detective: If you had to pinpoint one single food or activity that would help a person live a longer, better quality of life—what would you suggest?   

Dr. Vagnini: Of course this is difficult since living longer and healthy requires a multitude of efforts.  In my book, Count Down Your Age, of course, I consider it to be really a bible of lifestyle changes starting with the questionnaire to count down your age.  The single most important activity would be following a healthy lifestyle.  Of course, genetics plays an important role in preventing disease, living longer and healthier.  However, we do not have the opportunity to changing our mother and father.  It is certainly difficult to decide what would be the activity that is the answer for longevity.  In the past, I have used a program of what I call cardio-nutrition, which is simply diet, exercise, weight reduction, stress reduction, nutraceuticals and prayer.  To choose one individual thing would be difficult.  Amongst the lifestyle changes, I certainly think that avoiding chemicals and foods that are detrimental to our health is a significant part of living longer.

Diet Detective:  What’s the most impressive research that’s come out about anti-ageing in the last few years (something we haven’t heard about, but the research is really overwhelming)?

Dr. Vagnini: The American Academy of anti-aging medicine was founded by two colleagues who have been extremely creative and way ahead of modern thinking in creating the science of anti-aging medicines, Dr. Ronald Klatz and Dr. Robert Goldman.

Presently, the theories of anti-aging are as follows;

Please note that many of the factors in aging are related to heart health and indeed they are also related to insulin resistance.  In my opinion, the most underestimated area in the area of aging is the prevention of cardiovascular disease.  It has been my contention over the last 20 years, especially since cardiovascular disease is a number one killer in the world, that much of cardiovascular disease is related to impaired endocrine function and I have coined the term, cardio-endocrinology. 

It is now clear that many people with heart and blood vessel disease including hypertension, lipid disorders, heart failure and coronary atherosclerosis are predisposed to the disease by a new term called an increasing cardiometabolic risk and in that situation, the cardiometabolic risk is secondary to hyperinsulinemia and metabolic syndrome.  Metabolic syndrome, of course, is centered around four key premises including central or visceral adiposity (belly fat), elevated blood glucose levels, hypertension and lipid abnormalities.  Additionally, in this syndrome, one can find low hormone levels, especially human growth hormone, male and female hormones, elevated homocysteine, elevated uric acid, elevated markers of inflammation.

I believe that recognizing these underlying metabolic problems can prevent heart attack and stroke.  Individuals with metabolic syndrome, which is secondary to hyperinsulinemia are at marked increased risk for diabetes, heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.  Research has certainly shown that certainly diabetics and prediabetics are prone to Alzheimer’s disease and certain types of cancer.  This is a major area that one can prevent the devastation of cardiovascular disease and neurocognitive impairment. 

Additionally, there are 40 to 60 million pre-diabetics in the country today that can be diagnosed and can be prevented from going into type II diabetes, which is presently along with obesity is epidemic throughout the world.  Therefore, my feeling is that this overwhelming evidence of hyperinsulinemia and metabolic syndrome with an increasing cardiometabolic risk is an area that is significant in the anti-aging field.  With regards to other factors in the future, I can certainly see stem cell therapy, genetic bioengineering as areas in the future for extending human life and good health in the prevention of degenerative diseases.

An extremely new area in the area of anti-aging medicine is something that has been talked about in the past, however at the present time there is no evidence that something can be done about, telomere shortening.  Of course, telomeres are the end portions of chromosomes that as we age decrease in length and have been associated with increase in degenerative diseases.  There has been a great deal of research with regards to telomere shortening and new research has now led into the field of activation of telomerase, which is an enzyme that when activated can increase telomere length.  I have recently become associated with a company that is researching and has already found some successful results with a natural compound to increase telomere length.  For additional information with regards to this interesting and new information, you can check the website: www.tasciences.com.

Diet Detective: You recommend supplements – there has been much controversy surrounding the taking of supplements in the last few years. Shouldn’t you get your nutrients through food? What’s the justification for taking supplements—and where is the overwhelming convincing evidence that taking supplements works?

Dr. Vagnini: There is no question that if you could get nutrients through food, this would be a great assistance to good health, longevity, and prevention of degenerative diseases.  There are a number of problems associated with this, especially the poor American diet with improper intake of fruits and vegetables and the fact that even if the diet is better, the nutrients have been shown to be depleted in the foods. I have developed a program of cardio-nutrition, which is the utilization of nutrients for specific heart and cardiovascular related problems including lipid abnormality, hypertension, weight loss and diabetes as well as fatigue.  In these areas three nutrients have been utilized to help with hypertension, cholesterol lowering, and other cardiovascular problems such as arrhythmia and congestive heart failure. 

With regards to the use of multivitamins, there are numerous articles showing the importance of multiple vitamins and there are numerous articles showing the efficacy of herbs such as aged garlic, which has been studied extensively throughout the world with approximately 2000 articles in scientific literature.  Research recently sometimes negates the importance of nutrients and these studies standout, but not significantly in my mind, since there are many, many other studies throughout the world indicating the importance of vitamins.  Recently, even the importance of antioxidant nutrients have come under attack in spite of multitude of research indicating their efficacy.  As far as specific nutrients for management of disease, for example, natural therapies for something like blood pressure indicate that certain things such as garlic, magnesium, taurine, arginine, Hawthorne and other herbal nutrients including pyridoxal triphosphate and natural diuretics are helpful along with diet and exercise. 

With cholesterol lowering, certainly the natural red yeast rice has been used throughout the country as a potent cholesterol lowering agent, although there is some question about its statin-like activity, however simple things such as fiber, niacin, guggul lipid, and other nutrients have been effective in lowering lipid levels.  Omega 3 fatty acids are one area where there is very little question.  Diets high in Omega have been recently shown to slow down the progression of early Alzheimer’s disease, macular degeneration, and help with impaired cognitive function and certain types of behavioral problems. 

The cardiac benefits of Omega 3 have been well outlined, especially with a recent supplement to The American College of Cardiology Journal on the cardiovascular benefits of Omega fatty acids.  A recent article in the Lancet on statin drugs with supplemental Omega indicated that the incidence of cardiovascular endpoint such as heart attack and stroke are decreased when adding Omega.  The benefits of Omega are overwhelming in that they have been reported to reduce inflammation, reduce thrombogenicity, decrease triglycerides and help with heart rhythm.  Research has also shown that there is a reduced incidence of sudden cardiac death.

Diet Detective: If you had to boil it down to one behavior, and one behavior only, what would you say causes accelerates ageing? Eating, stress, lack of exercise?

Dr. Vagnini: Of course, once again accelerated aging is not the result of one problem, but a multitude of poor lifestyle  choices.  If I had to select one area, I would say that living a toxic lifestyle is something that should be avoided , factors include a poor diet, lack of exercise, high stress, exposure to dietary toxins and pollutants ,plus  other factors that accelerate the aging process.

Diet Detective: Is there anything about yourself that you've changed your mind about in the last 20 years?

Dr. Vagnini: As a young man, I was always in a very good health and followed a reasonably good diet and exercise program.  As I reached 50, I developed a severe weight problem and after concurring that and stopping smoking, I did not feel that there is any problem with intake of sugar and I had a diet, which included high amounts of sugar and carbohydrates.  My family history finally called up to me and that my blood sugars started to rise to dangerous levels and I started to regain weight from the initial 100 lbs that I lost.  I realized that sugar was a problem for me and I discontinued the majority of simple sugars and many carbohydrates from my diet.

Diet Detective: How did you come to your conclusions about weight loss and dieting?

Dr. Vagnini: Many of them come from personal experience having to what I call beat the genes.  I have a picture in my office of my mother’s family, two sisters, and eight brothers, almost all with obesity, diabetes, premature heart disease, and when I was overweight, I looked at the picture, and I said. “Well, this is my fate”.  However, because I had two young children, who are now beautiful teenage daughters Grace and Claire, I was motivated to turn my life around and therefore much of my ability to help other people to lose weight is my personal battle against obesity.  It was extremely helped by the co-authors of my New York Times best selling book The Carbohydrate Addicts Healthy Heart, Dr. Rachael and Dr. Richard Heller.  Additionally, my conclusions about weight loss and dieting have included the management of thousands of people in my practice for weight loss, diabetes, and health deterioration.

Diet Detective: If you could eat one forbidden food whenever you wanted without gaining weight, what would it be?

Dr. Vagnini:  Cakes and probably bagels.

Diet Detective: What dessert do you dream about?

Dr. Vagnini: There is no question that in the past it used to be Italian Napoleons, but now it is special Italian cheesecake from my favorite restaurant in Long Island and an Italian cheesecake from Bill Mullino Restaurant in Roseland.

Diet Detective: If there were one healthy food item (something you love) that you had to eat every day, what would it be?

Dr. Vagnini: It would be probably pasta in small amounts since I do limit my carbohydrate intake, and if I take the pasta in a small amount in conjunction with salad, protein, and vegetable, I cannot control my weight and glucose levels.

Diet Detective: What do you consider the world’s most perfect food?

Dr. Vagnini: This is a very difficult question, and the category would have to be something of course without the simple sugars with some degree of protein low in saturated fat and high in dense nutrient, so the world’s perfect food would be probably whole grain type of pizza or wrap with vegetables and a low fat protein.

Diet Detective: What physical activity do you do to keep yourself in shape?

Dr. Vagnini: After loosing a 100 pounds, I found a complete loss of muscle mass, and I had to discover what it was like to utilize a gym and workout program.  I started to build muscle through a program of weight lifting, resistance training, and aerobic.  So, presently I utilize course training, which is a combination of aerobic exercise, treadmill, a bike, and resistance training.

Diet Detective: On those days when you're not motivated to work out, but you know you have to, what's the one thought that gets you going?

Dr. Vagnini: One must put oneself on a program.  I usually tell my patients that when they wake up in the morning, they will brush their teeth, because it is a matter of habit.  Individuals must get into a routine where they take a certain time of the day or certain days where they must continue their workout program.  With regards to not only working out, but with dieting, we need to have a motivating factor and my motivating factor continues to be, to be around to my young daughters so I can be there for them as they grow older.

Diet Detective: Do you have a favorite low calorie healthy recipe or cooking tip? If so would you share it?

Dr. Vagnini: I believe that grilling of foods without charring is a good healthy way to maintain good health, especially since I prefer a higher protein diet, so therefore I would suggest grilling without the use of charring secondary to things such as charcoal.

Diet Detective: Do you have a Calorie Bargain?

Dr. Vagnini: This is difficult, but I think calorie bargains are vegetables that can be very heart healthy and cancer preventive such as cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage, especially used with a low fat dip, these vegetables taken in a raw form I think are very heart healthy. 

Diet Detective: What’s your definition of failure?

Dr. Vagnini: It is something that the individuals must overcome since we will continue to have failures on a daily basis and we must utilize some type of underlying motivation to continue a road to success.  I am a firm believer in prayer and something that should be in the background of everyone’s program. 

Diet Detective: What's the most bodacious chance you've ever taken?

Dr. Vagnini: As one gets older, chances such as unsafe driving or intake of toxic substances is decreased because anyone would with intelligence knows that as we are in the second part of our life, we want to live longer and healthier.  A recent chance I took was in traveling to the Bahamas with my young daughter, Claire, who wanted to swim with the dolphins.  I had some trepidation of getting out into deep water because I had an injury to both legs and I had not been in deep water or swimming, but because of the love of my daughter and a chance to have further bonding with her, I met the task and jumped in and was able to complete the job with a little struggle.

Diet Detective: What was your worst summer job?

Dr. Vagnini: It certainly was without question when I was a young boy working at a summer vacation center in Nassau County, I had a job of picking up empty bottles on the beach and peeling potatoes in the hot summer sun in a basement.

Thank you!!!!

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