everywhere you look, it seems a heart attack is just waiting to happen. more than 1 million heart attacks a year. that's one just about every 30 seconds. just in the united states. if you haven't had a heart attack yourself, you likely know someone who has. i've got a secret to share. with what we know right now, we could see the last heart attack in america. i've been investigating this for over a year. i've got lessons to share, things you need to know. things your doctor may not tell you. i'm a pretty typical guy in his early 40s with a family history of heart disease. so i decided to go on a mission to never have a heart attack. but how?

dr. arthur agiston has guaranteed he can see trouble coming. gleers advance. >> here's where the blood is flow, and this is the lining -- >> reporter: he is using an ultrasound to look for plaque in the artery leading to my brain. a blockage heerl could cause a stroke and would be a sign that i'm at increased risk for heart attack. >> unless you do the imaging and the advanced testing, you are really playing russian roulette with your life. >> you're actually going to look for what in my heart? >> yes, for calcium, which is part of the process, the process, the plaques in the heart. >> i've never had a problem, but you're looking for it anyways? >> yes, and if you're heading for a heart attack in five, ten, 20 years, you would already have plaque. it's a lifelong process. >> reporter: we all know plaque is bad. blocks your blood vessels. plaque is formed by ldl cholesterol in the blood, the bad cholesterol.

think of it as "l" for lousy. building up on the walls of your arteries forming plaque that can accumulate slowly over time narrowing the blood vessels, like something building up inside a pipe. this narrowing in the blood vessels leading to your heart can cause chest pain called angina, it can also cause a heart attack. did you ever wonder how seemingly healthy people can have a heart attack? this may surprise you. most heart attacks happen in people with no symptoms. in people whose arteries are less than 50% blocked. [ siren ] >> here's how. cholesterol can cause unstable bubbles or blisters of plaque to form in your arteries. these can be incredibly dangerous. most are covered by a cap, but inflammation and stress can cause the cap to thin and rupture, resulting in a clot that blocks the flow of blood to the heart. robbed of oxygen, the heart muscle can't function properly, heart attack.

and therein lies the key he says, we can now find clues before the heart trouble gets dangerous, before the first symptoms. >> one of the best kept secrets in the country in medicine is doctors who are practicing aggressive prevention are really seeing heart attacks and strokes disappear from their practices. it's doable. >> and you're saying we -- with what we know right now, we don't have to have any more heart attacks in this country? >> i'll never say not any, but the great majority, yes. absolutely. >> it's the biggest killer of men and women, heart disease in this country. >> and it's completely preventable. >> your body needs cholesterol, actually makes it. it's in the lining of every cell in your body, the liver sends out ldl cholesterol. and when everything works right, the good hdl skanchls ldl and bring its back to the liver. you also get cholesterol in foods, things like meat, french

fries, eggs, butter, desserts, ice cream. your cholesterol number is a good measure of what's in the blood, but here's the problem, it doesn't tell you if it's building up in the walls of your blood vessels, forming plaque. and it's a plaque that causes heart attacks. >> if you look in the coronary care unit and people who have heart attacks, the cholesterol levels of those who have heart attacks versus those on the streets who have it are essentially the same. >> that is kind of surprising, right? because you'll hear people exchanging their cholesterol numbers, if it's low, they seem proud of it, if it's high, there's cause for concern. you say, you know what, you're not looking in the right place. >> that's essentially useless. >> reporter: here's what does matter agatston says, the size of your ldl or bad cholesterol particles. larger particles don't pose much of a threat because they pass without sticking. it's the smaller ldl particles more likely to launch in the blood vessels and cause a build-up of plaque.

>> if they're small, you can have a lot of particles that penetrate the vessel wall more easily. there are a lot more little old ladies in their 80s with very high cholesterols who have squeaky clean vessels. they have large particles and they don't get into the vessel wall. >> you have to ask about the size of the particles as well when it comes to bad cholesterol. >> yes. >> that's why he wants a blood sample. >> i don't think anybody likes getting their blood drawn. >> reporter: he wants to find out if i have a lot of small particles, a sign that i could be prone to building up plaque no matter what my overall cholesterol number is. >> doctor -- >> reporter: you'll hear about my test results in just a bit. but next, a controversial diet. this 66-year-old woman skipped surgery to try and eat her way to heart health. >> we're never going to end the epidemic with stents, bypasses, with the drugs, because none of is treating causation. ♪

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sharon is 66 years old, a retired private investigator from canton, ohio. a year ago, she had a heart

attack. after a coronary artery became completely blocked. >> he said for someone who had what you have, the only warning you usually get is death. and at that point, i really knew how lucky i was. >> like a lot of women, she did not experience the classic chest pain, but rather fatigue and a pain in her jaw. >> he said you're going to have to have open heart surgery. he says i can fix you today. i can take you right down to o.r. and operate on you right now. my son was in there and he was ready to wheel me down to the operating room because he was frantic, you know, it's terrifying. >> what kintz did next may surprise you. she turned the surgeon down cold. she said no to open-heart surgery and decided to take a chance. >> i always have sweet potatoes on hand. >> reporter: using food as medicine. >> i love these. these are wonderful.

>> reporter: she is betting her life on a controversial diet created by dr. caldwell eselton. a general surgeon by training. you have easy-to-remember adages of how people can decide what they should and should not eat. >> we know what they shouldn't eat is oil, dairy, meat, fish, and chicken. what we want them to eat, we want them to eat whole grains for their cereal, bread, and pasta. beans, vegetables, yellow, red, green, and fruit. now, what particular vegetables do we want them to have? book bo -- bokchoi, beet green, brussel sprout, spinach, and asparagus, and i'm out of breath. >> reporter: nothing with a mother, nothing with a face. you can imagine the meat, egg, and dairy associations think that's a terrible idea. >> incorporating lean beef into a healthy diet can actually help you stick to a healthy diet

because it's a food that people enjoy. >> eggs are a source of 13 vitamins and minerals. eggs are the gold standard when it comes to protein. >> dairy foods are very nutrient rich, you get a lot of nutrients for every calorie you consume. >> reporter: to be clear, he's not a cardiologist, he has no special degree in nutrition, but when it comes to food is medicine, he's a true believer. >> you know sharon? >> oh, yeah. >> doctors recommended she have an intervention. she's not doing it. could she be putting herself at risk? >> no, i think that's an excellent question. in hundreds of patients, data going back over 20 years and one of the most recent studies, about a decade. once they start eating this way, you'll make yourself heart attack proof. we know that if people are eating this way, they are not going to have a heart attack. >> reporter: his food-based prescription puts him squarely against conventional wisdom which says diet is only part of a heart healthy lifestyle. >> if a doctor were to say to

me, look, heart disease is a food borne disease, if you follow this diet, very restrictive, but in exchange you're not going to have a heart attack, what would you say to that? do you agree with that? >> i would say that's an overstatement, an oversimplification and an overstatement of really what we're able to do. even though i know there are people who say it. >> i was curious about the science behind the doctor's claims. i dug up some of these peer review journals. they were small, a handful of patients, but the results were impressive. in one study, patients on the diet and cholesterol-lowering medication, had no heart attacks, no coronary events of any sort after five years. and 3/4 of these patients actually saw their blockages get smaller. >> you're not talking about just reducing your chance of heart disease, you're talking about potential reversing heart disease? >> absolutely. >> the late wisdom is that once you develop these plaques, they're there, you're stuck with them, try not to let them get worse. is that faulty thinking? >> i think it's absolutely

faulty thinking. >> here's a picture he likes to show of a heart patient with a blocked coronary artery, and here's that same patient after going on a plant-based diet. you see the way the blockage has almost disappeared? a year after her heart attack, sharon kintz says she feels great. check out those moves. a year ago, simply walking was enough to wear her out. with a diet, there's one question you have to ask. can she keep it up? i asked sharon to meet me here in new york city. you know, cooking at home is one thing, but eating on the road, eating on the run, well, that's quite another. as the old saying goes, if her diet can make it here, it can make it anywhere. 46th and broadway, please. >> sharon, how are you? when you cook at home, it's a lot more in your control. what's the most difficult thing

when you're on the road? >> well, what i see here i see pizza, which is not, because i'm sure there's oil in it. and that looks like pepperoni. when i look up here, i see pasta. my question would be, do you have whole wheat pasta? and then my second question is, can you prepare it without oil? that's a not. but they have pasta and they have salad. >> here's another restaurant. i'm going to take advice from you. you look at a menu like this, tell me what comes to your mind? >> the majority on there i'm not going to eat. >> you just focus on salads? >> no, not really. i could have the baby spinach leaves minus the chicken. i could have the peaches, the strawberries, forget the walnuts. >> is this a restaurant you would -- >> oh, yeah. if i was hungry, you bet. >> you could get a meal here? >> you bet i could. >> you think this diet's going to make you live longer? >> boy, i hope so. i hope i get to see you retire. >> i have a feeling you're going

to have to live a very long time, which i hope you do. >> i hope i do too. >> oh. >> again, i think -- well, you know what? if i don't live longer, i know i'm going to live more of a quality life. coming up, former president bill clinton opens up about his own bad heart and his brush with death. and he tells me he's now a vegan. that's right, a vegan. map welcome to idaho, where they grow america's favorite potatoes. everyone knows idaho potatoes taste great. but did you know they're good for you too? they're high in vitamins and potassium. and idaho potatoes are now certified to carry the heart checkmark from the american heart association for foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

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a survey by the american heart association found 40% of americans believe their hearts are in great shape. the real number, fewer than 1%. former president clinton can relate. he passed all his white house physicals. but just four years after leaving office, it took a quadruple bypass operation to save his life.

>> i was lucky i didn't die. >> former president clinton, like too many people, was busy. and for years he ignored warning signs from his heart. but in 2004, during an exhausting book tour, there was something different. was someth different. >> i had a real tightness in my chest when i was getting off the airplane and it was the only time i'd had it unrelated to exercise. >> we're here outside new york presbyterian hospital and in just a couple of hours former president bill clinton is scheduled to undergo surgery. >> so i immediately went down to our local hospital and they did a test and said you got real problems. they hustled me down to columbia presbyterian and they confirmed the determination that i had serious blockage and needed the surgeries. >> the doctors immediately new,

options were limited. the 58-year-old clinton needed to have his chest opened, his heart stopped, and surgery performed. >> there's no medical treatment for reversing the obstructions that have already formed in his blood vessels. >> good hillary and chelsea there and all i remember is it was happening fast and everybody who cared about me was scared and i felt rather serene. >> reporter: on labor day 2004 -- >> starting this morning around 8:00 he had a relatively routine quadruple bypass operation. we left the operating room around noon and he is recovering normally. >> it hurt like the devil for about three weeks and it hurt so much that i had a hard time even watching movies much less reading. and then when i started again to exercise and i forced myself out. i mean like the first day, tried to just walk a half a block.

i was really trying to push myself into doing the therapy. there was that period when you're just not sure you can come back. >> did you confront your mortality? >> oh, yeah. but i lived with it -- you know, when i was in elementary school, i was fascinated by cemeteries. and i used to walk in a cemetery in the little town where i was born where my father and my grandparents were buried, now my mother buried, and i used to go visit them and read the headstones and see when people were buried there, when they lived and how long they lived. it was different for me. i was -- i grew up knowing that i couldn't live forever. grew up knowing that people i love would die because my father died before i was born so i never had the fear, the terror, of my own mortality.

>> how do you know that you're healthy now? first of all, would you call yourself healthy now? >> well, i think i'm healthier than i was. you know? i lost 20-something pounds and i feel good and i actually have, believe it or not, more energy. i seem to need -- when i do sleep, i sleep better but i seem to needless sleep to function at a reasonably high level than i did on the other diet. >> i'm really out of shape though. >> you talk about the fact that you love to eat. this -- >> but you know, i like the stuff -- i like the vegetables, the fruits, the beans, the stuff i eat now i like. i like it. >> do you call yourself a vegan now then? >> well, i suppose i am if i don't eat dairy or meat or fish. you snow. >> so you cut all that out. >> once in a while, it literally -- in well over a year now, at thanksgiving, i had one bite of turkey. >> you're doing this for your

health. >> yes. >> is that why you're doing it? >> absolutely. >> mr. president, how are you? >> great. >> last time we spoke a few weeks ago you said you were going to be really strict on the diet. you were doing a pretty good job. you said? >> i'm being more strict now. >> are you? >> um-hmm. by the time i have my 65th birthday, i want to weigh what i did when i went home from law school in 1973. >> wow -- >> that's what i'm working on. >> that's a grand am bigs. i like that. how much was that? will you tell us? >> i got down to 185. now i got down there when chelsea was married, i weighed about 192. which is what i weighed when i graduated from high school. anything under 195 was my optimum weight my whole life but in the summer of '73 we had a scorching hot summer and i ran three miles a day at the hottest hour of the day which i could do back then in order to make the

pounds go off and it was the first time since i was 13 years old that i had weighed 185 pounds. i'm going to try one more time to make it. >> coming up -- the pictures don't lie. i learn if my arteries are young or old. i'm going to find out what fate has to offer me. what's this? it's progresso's new loaded potato with bacon. it's good. honey, i love you... oh my gosh, oh my gosh.. look at these big pieces of potato. ♪ what's that? big piece of potato. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. [ electronic beeping ] [ male announcer ] still getting dandruff? neutrogena® t/gel shampoo defeats dandruff after just one use. t/gel shampoo. it works. neutrogena®.

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so what about me? i have a family history. am i heart attack-proof? so a couple of weeks ago i met up with dr. arthur to gauge my likelihood of having an actual heart attack. time to see what fate has to offer me. >> we had some good news when we did the imaging, you had no plaque in your coronary arteries, your carotids were like a spring chicken. >> i like that. someone made a comment to me that this was sort of a four-year guarantee i don't have a heart attack. >> i would extend it to five to eight years. >> based on what you've already seen, five to seven years if i'm feeling chest pain, it is

probably not heart attack. >> yes. >> moore good news. looking at my ldl, the bad cholesterol, the doctor tells me they are mostly large particles, the kind that don't build up as plaque in the blood vessels. >> putting my whole picture together now, the imaging and all my laboratory tests, what can you tell me? >> are you at low risk for future heart attack even though there is some family history and clearly your lifestyle that you maintain your weight, that you do the exercise, has helped to decree your risk. >> if diet and exercise can make someone like me low risk for a heart attack even with a strong family history, well that's encouraging. >> i don't think there is any question that not only could we be past our last heart attack but the vast majority of people even my age, if they're prepared to change their diet, exercise a little more, it would actually reverse a lot of their bloag