Hero Docs

The quick answer:  The modern diet was invented in America and like an ancient plague is now spreading around the world.  The cure could also come from America.  Here are four docs who effectively preach the gospel of good diet and health.

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Hero Docs

Nearly 20 years ago, David Halberstam wrote a bestseller about the Vietnam War titled The Best and the Brightest.  Vietnam, despite the valor of those who fought and died, was a horrible mistake, the book concluded.  Worse, the string of bad decisions that put us in that unwinnable war, were made by the best and brightest people our society could muster. 

Halberstam meticulously demonstrated that really smart people, despite their best efforts, could fail the public they serve.  His phrase, “best and brightest,” seems an apt introduction to the topic of this post: doctors.  I like doctors; taken together, I think they’re the best and brightest of our society.  But like the soldiers of Vietnam, they also fight an unwinnable war—the war against chronic disease, which is a product of our modern lifestyle.  They write prescriptions for pills, but the problem is what we eat.  It doesn’t have to be that way.

A handful of these doctors, like Halberstam, have seen a better way, and have spoken openly.  They’re pioneers, in my view.  Rather than “going along, to get along,” they have gone against the grain, and called for radical change.  They not only practice medicine, they do research, and become public advocates.  Their message: Prevention is better than treatment; simple lifestyle changes are superior to expensive drugs and high-tech procedures.  Like others who take unpopular stands, they’ve faced derision and censure from the powers that be.  Here are four practicing physicians with their own bestsellers:

Cardiology

Heart disease is too profitable to cure.  A cynical statement, don’t you think?  The docs who perform the bypass operations, or slip stents into your coronary arteries, make a lot of money.  Likewise for the drug and medical device companies.  Hospitals have invested billions in coronary care wards, surgical suites, and cath labs; for some, coronary treatments provide half their income.  When the big bucks flow, such an enterprise, like a run-away train, takes on a life of its own and isn’t easily stopped—even if there’s a better answer.

But a handful of doctors have dared to speak up.  They’ve pointed out that these pricey procedures are just treating symptoms and aren’t really extending life.  And they have gone to the root of the problem and argued for making lifestyle changes, big changes.  In their mission, a few have become well known:

Dr. Dean Ornish:  A Texas kid who graduates summa cum laude from the University of Texas, then attends Baylor College of Medicine, isn’t likely to leave the Lone Star state.  But Ornish did; he served his internship and residency at prestigious Mass General, and then crossed the country to practice and teach cardiology in San Francisco.  Some call it Bagdad by the Bay, justifiably, but it was also just up the 101 highway from Silicon Valley, ground zero for the digital revolution. This was during the ‘80s and change was in the wind, especially along the 101.

The rising star in cardiology was CABG, coronary artery bypass graft surgery, a procedure that sawed open your chest and replaced occluded heart arteries with veins cut from your leg, or arm.  Surgeons who did CABG procedures were the rock stars of the hospitals.  But a new paradigm was coming—less invasive procedures.  Just down the 101 from Dr. Ornish, a medical device start-up named ACS, for Advanced Cardiology Systems, was using balloon catheters, and then stents, to prop open those diseased coronary arteries. 

But Ornish had a zero invasive procedure in mind: cure heart disease by removing what caused it—the modern lifestyle.  He organized a study that treated 28 heart disease patients with diet (low-fat, plant-based whole foods), smoking cessation, stress management (including yoga and meditation—this was San Francisco, after all), and exercise.   (You may, ahem, note the similarity between Ornish’s program and the lifestyle advocated in this blog.)  For comparison, a control group of 20 patients received the conventional treatment, mainly drugs. 

The result was dramatic:  After one year the test group’s progression of coronary blockage was stopped, and for 82% of the patients reversed.  In the control group the progression of artery blockage continued unabated.  The results were reported in a top medical journal, Lancet.  Did the world adopt the Ornish program?  No, revolutions don’t happen that easily, especially when it involves the dismantling of lucrative enterprises.

Ornish appealed to the public, with the 1990 book Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease.  The application of lifestyle change to other diseases followed, and a 2008 book, The Spectrum: A Scientifically Proven Program to Feel Better, Live Longer, Lose Weight, and Gain Health.  Ornish also founded the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute, and worked with Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, to show that lifestyle changes can lengthen telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that control how long we live.  Ornish is a hero, but there are others.

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr:  This is a guy who walked the fitness talk—he won an Olympic gold medal in 1956 in 8-oared rowing.  As a surgeon at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, and chair of their Breast Cancer Task Force, he grew dissatisfied with the treatment of cancer and heart disease—treating symptoms with pills and procedures seemed like surrender; it wasn’t the same as curing the disease, or protecting future victims. 

Esselstyn started an experiment with 22 patients suffering from severe coronary artery disease.  The treatment included a low-fat vegan diet (just 10% of calories from fat), use of cholesterol-lowering drugs, and group therapy sessions with Dr. Esselstyn and his wife. 

Of the 22, 11 were still following the program after five years, and examination showed that the progression of blockage had been stopped, and in some cases reversed.  More important: none had suffered heart attacks.  Esselstyn published a bestseller, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, and collaborated with Dr. T. Colin Campbell in the recent movie, “Forks over Knifes.” 

Nutrition:  There’s a growing awareness of the importance of diet and lifestyle in disease prevention, but as a nation we have just begun to actually change the way we eat and live.  The pendulum is poised to swing, however, and two doctors are active advocates of dietary change:

Dr. Neal D. Barnard is a major spokesman for the idea that a healthy diet can prevent and treat disease.  If you’re reading this blog you likely agree, but Barnard goes one step beyond the diet presented in this blog (a home-cooked diet of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains, and sparing meat).  He advocates zero meat, or a vegan diet, though he comes from a family of ranchers.  Barnard is also a leading opponent of the Atkins diet, which basically replaces carbs with meat. 

In 1985 Barnard founded the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), to promote the benefit of plant-based diets, oppose harmful medical practices, and the use of animals in medical research.  In 1991 he organized the Cancer Project to inform the public about the role of a plant-based diet in cancer prevention and survival.  Earlier this year PCRM actually sued the US government for pushing food guidelines that lacked scientific evidence (specifically, the recommendation for meat and dairy, as well as the confusing food pyramid).  Some of Barnard’s books:

• Diet:  See his 1990 book (updated in 1995), The Power of Your Plate: Eating Well for Better Health, a book supplemented with the advice of 17 experts.  In 1994 he wrote, Food for Life:  How the New Four Food Groups Can Save Your Life. 
• Diabetes:  With an NIH grant, Barnard studied the power of a plant-based diet to heal type 2 diabetes and published a 2006 bestseller, Dr Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes.  The study showed his diet more effective than the program of the American Diabetic Association.
• Overeating:  In 2004 Barnard published Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings—And 7 Steps to End Them Naturally. 
• Weight loss:  See A Physician’s Slimming Guide: For Permanent Weight Control.  Barnard later studied the role of gene expression, the power of the body to regulate the expression of certain genes through diet, and wrote Turn Off the Fat Genes: The Revolutionary Guide to Losing Weight.
• Pain management:  Barnard, in 1999, issued Foods That Fight Pain: Revolutionary Strategies for Maximum Pain Relief. 
• Cancer:  The Cancer Survivor’s Guide: Foods That Help You Fight Back. 

Dr. Joel Fuhrman is a former world-class figure skater, family physician, nutrition researcher, and author.  Reflecting his work as a diet-focused family physician, he addresses a variety of medical conditions:

• Fasting:  This was discussed in a prior post, but Fuhrman, impressed how animals stopped eating when ill, researched a book on the benefits of fasting: Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor’s Program for Conquering Disease 
• Immune system:  Searching for ways to strengthen the immune system of patients, Fuhrman wrote, Super Immunity: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Body’s Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free,
• Weight loss:  Two series, Eat to Live, and Eat for Health, address the problems of the modern diet and advocate a plant-based diet.

Please comment:  Who has influenced you to eat better?  What made you ready to change?

Comments

[Em]

My hero is Dr. Steve Aldana, who wrote "The Culprit and the Cure" - comprehensive look at how the disciplines of medicine, food science, exercise science, and behavioral science fail to acknowledge each other, all to our detriment, as it results in an overall "elephant in the room" that none of them effectively address - the Western Lifestyle.

[Meredith]

I'm not sure if he's still a practicing doctor, but Dr. Andrew Weil has helped me a lot. I was struggling with the unwanted side-effects of rheumatoid drugs and decided to go off drugs and onto an anti-inflammatory diet. It helped me a lot at a time when conventional medicine wasn't making much sense.

[Katherine]

Unfortunately, we haven't had an experience with any doctors who have been particularly helpful in these respects. I have been influenced to change my eating habits, and those of my family by findings through independent reading and empirical research on myself. The books of Nina Planck and Michael Pollan have been influential, as have been the people I've met at farmers markets. My grandmother was diagnosed with Type II diabetes and was told that it was a chronic condition with no possibility for change. I have been visiting her for the past few weeks, and cooking all of her meals, and her blood sugar is out of the diabetic range (almost to normal.) I have faith that God provides what we need to live good lives; and that eating plants that are grown, or animals (and animal products) that are raised in the way that he intended will lead us to good health. Following this idea has worked well for my family and I.

[LC]

Well said Katherine!
Really enjoyed this post Skip. I like how you can research something and then write about it in a way that's concise and interesting. Thanks for doing that and I'm glad for the helpful reading list.

Don Colbert is another MD who advocates healthy living (7 pillars of Health, What Would Jesus Eat?, etc,) I have learned from his books as well as Michael Pollan's, this blog, the scriptures.
I love to watch Food and Health documentaries which is where I can learn a lot and info. is presented in an interesting way: Forks Over Knives, Food Matters, Beautiful Truth, and most recently Burzinsky ( a Dr. who challenges the FDA and is shunned for developing an effective treatment for cancer.)

Anything I've learned about nutrition has been from the above sources or from family or friends. Ironically, nutrition and lifestyle has never even once been mentioned in any face to face doctor visit I've ever had. The "pill" seems to be all they know.

[Laura]

My parent's influenced me first and foremost. As my mother battled with breast cancer she tried to change her diet, after much prayer and fasting. She struggled with it and ultimately lost her battle as she was unable to make the changes she knew she should until it was simply too late. Upon her death, my father addressed our entire family. He spoke of the Word of Wisdom and cautioned us that we should eat meat sparingly.
Then, as I struggled with postpartum depression, I went to a Naturopath who suggested eating for my blood type. This pretty much eliminated all processed food. Interestingly, even though as a B blood type who is supposed to eat meat, the amount of meat suggested is far less than normal consumption in the Standard American Diet. It calls for a generous amount of fruits and vegetables with moderate amounts of grains and some dairy. I don't follow it strictly, but it was a great stepping stone as it helped me wean myself off of processed food.

I think that changing one's diet can be one of the most difficult things we are faced with today. We are accustomed to things that are ready to eat at a moment's notice. We are used to soft fluffy bread. We are used to ridiculously saturated sweetness and flavor in our food. It is hard to make that initial adjustment. The healthy stuff just doesn't compare at first. After your body is used to it, you can start to enjoy the real flavors. For instance, I made blondies for a family who's mother was having chemotherapy. I made them with white flour and white sugar, thinking they would prefer that to my "weird healthy" whole spelt flour and sucanat. When I tasted them, they were disgustingly sweet. I promptly made a new batch with my healthier (healthier, as any type of sugar isn't all that healthy) ingredients. The flavor was more complex and plenty sweet, but there was more to it than just sweet. I definitely preferred it. The family loved it- one daughter even said it was her "new obsession." When another of my friends came over she tried them both and she preferred the really sweet whiteflour/white sugar version. Because it is what she is used to. It is harder to appreciate more flavor/less sweet when overly sweet is what your taste buds are attuned to.
My mother knew that diet would save her life, but she couldn't do it. It is easy in theory, but for most it is much harder to actually live. I struggle with it constantly, but keep working at it.

[skip hellewell]

Laura, thank you, you have clearly laid out the diet reformation challenge. It's a learning process that requires profound change. We must replace our love for sugar with a an appreciation for traditional flavors. It takes time; diet reformation isn't a 30-day program. A book publisher suggested this but we declined. Profound change takes time. So sorry for the loss of your mom.

LC, a future post will talk about some really good YouTube videos on nutrition. I've been screening them, making a list of the best.

Katerine, the good nutrition you are preparing for your diabetic grandmother is a work of love, but love that makes a real difference. Congratulations.

[Nancy O]

My husband had the surgery (2006) to clear his arteries (his heart is healthy)...it was major with 6 bypasses. Then they gave him all the drugs to take and warned him that it could damage his liver, etc. Twenty years ago, he had surgery for colon cancer. He has had emergency gall bladder surgery, arthuroscopic surgery on both knees. These all take their toll on his poor body.
We are so used to listening to these doctors and doing what they say. I find it disturbing trying to deal with people who are "smarter" than me. I told my husband that I would rather see him eat a healthy diet (we eat quite healthily) and forget about the pills - even if it meant his life was a year shorter or something...which I don't think it would be. He accused me, laughingly, that I was trying to do him in.
I have my own struggles with weight and I know the cure! ... but like many have said, it's hard getting out of those comfortable places. Making small changes over time is good. I look at your blog and see...okay, I have done this and that, but not this and that! : ) Your writing has been motivating to me. Thanks, Skip. I want you to do another year!