OCTOBER 13 • 2022 | 51

improvement within a month. 
After six weeks, the open sores 
were healing, and the nailbeds 
were no longer black. Before 
three months had passed, the 
only signs of a problem were 
very small, healing wounds, 
which were gone entirely by 
the end of August 2021, 18 
months after he started his 
study. His right ankle blood 
pressure, which he monitored 
at home with a Doppler 
device, steadily improved 
throughout the study.
Stein says that over the 
course of his two-year study, 
he climbed a total of 22,185 
flights of stairs, equivalent 
to 42 miles of elevation. “For 
comparison, the height of Mt. 
Everest is 5.5 miles,” he said. 
Stein’s account of his 
experience, “Patient 
Experience with Stair 
Climbing for Peripheral 

Artery Disease,” was 
accepted for publication 
in the Journal of Vascular 
Surgery Cases, Innovations 
and Techniques, a selective, 
peer-reviewed journal. 
(Read it at doi.org/10.1016/j.
jvscit.2022.08.019.)

“I believe it is highly 
unusual for a patient who is 
not a physician to have a paper 
published in a high-powered 
medical journal,” he said. 
The journal’s editor-in-chief, 
Matthew R. Smeds, M.D., 
noted, “We don’t see this 

type of manuscript from the 
patient’s side of things.”
Stein’s vascular surgeon, 
Bove, calls him “an exemplary 
patient.” 
“Dr. Stein had incredible 
insight into those factors 
that allowed him to walk 
further. When patients 
understand this and can 
implement change, whether 
it is in their activity, as in Dr. 
Stein’s case, or other aspects of 
their lifestyle — for example 
plant-based or Mediterranean-
style diets and smoking 
cessation — that is when you 
get the best results.”
Bove said he often tells 
other patients about Stein’s 
experience.
Stein says he hopes some 
“real” doctors will be inspired 
by his articles to do a multi-
patient controlled trial testing 
his approaches. 

Bert Stein in 
his office.

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