I find it amusing when people try to solve major problems by turning to tiny piece of the larger problem rather than addressing the entire problem as one whole unit. Healthcare outcomes and costs is a good example of everyone arguing about how to treat symptoms when the cure for most of chronic disease is quite literally an attitude change away.
Reductionist thinking is making progress, albeit, at a snails pace, when major change could be had in what amounts to seconds on the human evolutionary time scale. Reductionist treatment of symptoms in the healthcare industry DOES VERY LITTLE TO TRIM HEALTHCARE COSTS in the long run, and worse, may borders on the unethical when it is KNOWN that there is a more prudent, more effective, and less costly solution at our fingertips…or should I more appropriately say, “on the tines of our fork”. Maybe we all can learn from the story cited by Doctor John A. McDougall who mentioned a doctor in a poverty stricken country dealing with an epidemic of cholera who discovered the source was a faucet drawing infected water. The solution? It wasn’t medications. Not increased taxation. Not encouraging insurance companies to compete. Not more walk-in clinics. Not more doctors or nurses or more hospital beds. That village doctor SOLVED the problem with one simple action that treated the entire problem at once. He turned off the faucet so people would stop drinking the infected water. Problem solved.
How do we turn off our nation’s healthcare equivalent to that “faucet”? It’s our food!
When we look at the WHOLE of our nutritional habits we learn that there is no reductionist piece of our diet that is causing us to endure costly, debilitating chronic diseases after a lifetime of eating. It’s not JUST the fat in our diets, or JUST the sugar, or JUST the salt, or JUST processed foods, or JUST animal products, or JUST too much animal-source protein, or JUST eating and drinking too much calcium, and on and on…It’s the entire American diet and even today’s version of the Mediterranean diet, which people believe is healthier than the typical American diet.
It has been proven time and time again, by competent doctors who are successfully treating chronic disease and in fact, even rolling back the awful effects of some of the most debilitating diseases, that what we eat is destroying our health and is linked to a cause of chronic diseases which forces us to face overburdened doctors within an overburdened, almost bankrupt healthcare system.
One cardiologist, Dr. Jami Dulaney, was quoted in a recent newsletter from the T Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies, “I was listening to a podcast called Forks over Knives …what caught my attention was Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s work on reversing coronary artery disease with a whole foods, plant-based diet…He taught his patients ‘the how’ and ‘the why’ of no-oil added, whole foods, plant-based nutrition. They reversed their coronary artery disease, their high blood pressure, their diabetes, and their peripheral vascular disease. They became healthy and happy…”
More doctors and patients are discovering the merits of the protocols espoused by doctors who are actually arresting, and even “CURING”, MANY of America’s chronic diseases including some forms of arthritis, heart disease, strokes, impotence, acid reflux, heartburn, type-2 diabetes, obesity, acne, oily hair and oily skin, body odour, bad breath, energy deficiency, memory problems, food-related cancers, and much more. Here’s a quick reading list for anyone wanting to read one of the entertaining and enlightening books on this subject. [NOTE: I recommend that you do NOT CHANGE your dietary, exercise, or any treatment program until you thoroughly consult with a qualified physician, meaning, consult with your doctor who is certified and authorized to diagnose illness and prescribe a medical therapy program]
- Dr. John A McDougall, M.D.: The Healthiest Diet on Earth; The STARCH SOLUTION –Starch Solution is my all-time favorite of his books!–; Digestive Tune-Up; and The McDougall Program for a Healthy Heart.
- Dr, Neal D. Barnard, M.D.: Power Foods For The Brain: (Protect your Mind, Strengthen Your Memory); and Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes.
- T Colin Campbell, PhD.: WHOLE; and The China Study.
- Dr. CALDWELL B. ESSELSTYN, Jr., M.D.: PREVENT, REVERSE HEART DISEASE. I strongly encourage you to buy this book to read it carefully and to pass it along to your loved ones. If you eat the typical American Diet, or even the today’s version of the Mediterranean diet, it is HIGHLY PROBABLE that you will suffer one of the chronic diseases these doctors as a group address with their treatment protocols. But, if your chronic disease turns out to be stroke, or heart attack, you will almost certainly want to read this book. Late is better than never and may still be useful and helpful to you after your attack.
- Dr. Dean Ornish, M.D.: Eat More, Weigh Less; and Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for REVERSING HEART DISEASE.
Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn’s book, REVERSE HEART DISEASE, explains in detail his success in stopping and reversing heart disease. Information EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW. Joined at the hip, so to say, is Dr. John A. McDougall’s book, STARCH, that works hand-in-glove with Esselstyn’s to help people SUSTAIN a program of advanced, [and, in my opinion, more intelligent], nutrition. These are the key tools to knowing why you might want to consider a plant-based, whole foods nutritional lifestyle, and if you do, how to go about doing so.
END NOTE
- .”Frustrations of Being a Plant-Based Cardiologist”, By CNS Graduate Jami Dulaney, MD. T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutritional Studies, NESSLETTER: March 29, 2017.
- Dr. Dulaney is a cardiologist in Port Charlotte, Florida. As a traditional cardiologist she was impressed with the impact of nutritional components of a health program. After practicing cardiology for a number of years was somewhat dismayed with traditional medicine but impressed with the results of some of the doctors she discovered who were leaning on a plant-based nutritional therapy program in their medical practices including renown cardiologist, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. She studied many books on the subject including those written by, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Fuhrman, Dr. Barnard and Dr. McDougall. She even completed the Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate in partnership with eCornell as well as the Diet and Lifestyle Intervention course by Dr. Pam Popper. She is a marathon runner and triathlete who has completed four 140.2 mile distance triathlons including 3 Ironman races.
