The Starch Solution (10 page)

From almost the first day, I ceased having chest pain, even when I exercised. A year later I am off my cholesterol meds and my total cholesterol went from 294 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) to 160 mg/dL and my “bad” LDL cholesterol has dropped from 212 to 60 mg/dL.
I’m also off my blood pressure medications, and at the doctor’s office my blood pressure was perfectly normal at 110/75 millimeters of mercury (mmHg). I stopped my diabetes medications, too, and my last hemoglobin A1C—a blood sugar test for the long-term control of diabetes—was normal at around 6 percent. I have lost more than 60 pounds over this past year, as well.

It’s a huge relief to have my numbers back under control and to be off those drugs. My newfound energy and sense of lightness have made me feel a decade younger. Still, I was nervous about my follow-up test.

During my second heart scan I had no pain on the treadmill, even though I got my heart rate all the way up to 160 beats per minute, beyond the highest the doctor expected I could go. When I stopped I still felt like I had more in me. The large areas in my heart that had not been receiving sufficient blood were almost completely functional now, leaving behind only a small deficiency my cardiologist called minor. He didn’t go so far as to say the results were perfectly normal, but he did say they had improved dramatically and were now only mildly abnormal. I think he was afraid if he told me I was altogether normal I would stop the dietary changes that got me well. He needn’t have worried. I see clearly now that what happened had everything to do with what I was eating. I would like to add that after almost 4 years, I have maintained my gains. My total cholesterol is now 139. I am another 5 pounds lighter and have had no further health problems or required any medications.

Followers of the McDougall Diet are often eager to inspire others by sharing their success stories. The case studies presented over the following pages look at successes battling heart disease, inflammatory arthritis, and cancer. Other examples throughout the book illustrate specific challenges my patients and followers have faced and overcome. You will find many more inspiring stories of weight loss and healing, as well as photographs and video interviews, at the Star McDougaller section of my Web site (
www.drmcdougall.com/star.html
). As you read these stories, you will notice not only our bodies’ astounding ability to heal from the gravest diseases, but also the great pride that comes from taking an active role in self-healing.

Robert, whom you met on
page 48
, ate meat, poultry, and dairy foods over six decades which caused his disease. Those foods prompted the formation of little pimplelike sores covering the interior walls of his arteries. Some of these pimples ruptured, causing blood clots to form. The scar tissue that formed around the sores and ruptures as they healed added to the blockages in the arteries, reducing the flow of blood through his heart. Before his tests, he didn’t know this was the reason his chest hurt when he exercised. What he did know was that his cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels were rising. His cardiologist worried about his risk for heart attack and stroke.

Robert saw profound changes after he replaced animal foods with starches, vegetables, and fruits. His cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar returned to normal. He could exercise more vigorously without feeling chest pains. He also got off the drugs he once needed to keep his test results in check. AH that just from changing what he ate.

Aortic aneurysms

Bowel and other infarctions

Claudication (legs)

Degenerative disks of the spine

Gangrene

Hearing loss

Heart attacks

Impotence

Kidney failure

Macular degeneration

Strokes

One morning when I was 15 years old I awoke with severe jaw pain. My doctor found no reason for it, and the pain disappeared as mysteriously as it began. Soon one shoulder was sore. Then the other. Again, the pain left. When it came raging back in my knees, my mom took me to the pediatrician. A year into my illness, the doctor put me on medication. By the following Christmas my knuckles were so swollen I could not get a size 10 ring over them. It hurt just to shake hands. I became depressed.

As my rheumatoid factor spiked and antibody markers rose, my doctor diagnosed juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. My body was on the attack—against itself. He prescribed a low dose of the cancer drug methotrexate to suppress my immune system. As I researched the drug I was so frightened by its side effects I refused to take it. Mom agreed.

Mom and I happened to be reading a book on veganism at the time,
The Kind Diet,
by Alicia Silverstone. The book referenced several doctors who believed arthritis could be cured through diet, among them Dr. John McDougall. My mother e-mailed him and he replied, recommending articles and books to read and a diet eliminating all meat, dairy, eggs, wheat, and soy. He said I should expect to feel better in about 4 months.

Within 2 months I felt 90 percent better. The pain was gone except for slight swelling in my knuckles. When soreness returned, Dr. McDougall encouraged examining my food more closely. My mom finally found the culprit: a packaged food I ate for breakfast that contained egg whites. It turns out that, for me, eggs and dairy trigger joint pain and inflammation overnight.

I now know firsthand that rheumatoid arthritis can be cured through diet. Were it not for the starch-based diet Dr. McDougall recommends, I would be suffering with terrible pain and disfigured joints, and taking a horribly toxic drug that might have destroyed my liver. Instead, I am a healthy 18-year-old college student, living a joy-filled life with a bright, healthy future in front of me.

Juliea, above, suffered from the hot, swollen, painful joints characteristic of inflammatory arthritis. As her immune system was compromised through years of eating a diet based on animal foods and vegetable oils, it should be no surprise that changing her diet improved her condition. That the improvement came so quickly—within just a few days—attests to the powerful effect of what we eat on the way we feel
and the spontaneous healing performed by a healthy body.

When the animal proteins were eliminated from Juliea’s diet, her body immediately stopped producing the antibodies that were attacking her joints. I’ve seen it over and over again. The result is almost instant relief from pain and swelling. The body continues to heal, with the painful inflammation beginning to subside within 4 to 7 days. Within 4 months of avoiding free oils (oils that have been separated from the foods that originally contained them), like olive and corn oil, and eliminating animal foods from the diet, more than 70 percent of people with inflammatory arthritis are dramatically improved or cured altogether.

Ankylosing spondylitis

Crohn’s disease

Dermatomyositis

Diabetes (type 1)

Lupus

Multiple sclerosis

Nonspecific inflammatory arthritis

Pernicious anemia

Polymyositis

Psoriasis

Psoriatic arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis

Scleroderma

Thyroiditis (resulting in hypothyroidism)

Ulcerative colitis

Uveitis

Vitiligo

For my first 47 years of life, everything went well. I felt perfectly healthy. I ran daily for 14 years, including three marathons, and ate what I considered to be a very healthy diet, with plenty of lean chicken, fish, and low-fat dairy. What I didn’t know was that cancer was growing in my right breast; that is, until it grew to the size of a golf ball.

When the lump was detected I was rushed off to surgery to have it removed. Recovering from the surgery, I was given the bad news: The tumor was malignant. Later, the doctor informed me that the cancer had spread throughout the breast and into my bones and one lung. The prognosis did not look good.

While paging through the newspaper during my recovery I saw a call for volunteers for a breast cancer study involving diet. I signed up. After meeting with Dr. McDougall in 1982 as part of that study, I left his office with instructions to follow a low-fat, vegan diet. That diet changed my life. I am now cancer free.

Since my diagnosis three decades ago, I have completed the Ironman Triathlon six times, run 67 marathons, won more than a thousand racing trophies, and been declared “One of the Ten Fittest Women in North America.” At age 74 I had a “fitness age” of 32. I’ve even written a book about my recovery:
A Race for Life: A Diet and Exercise Program for Superfitness and Reversing the Aging Process.

Cancers begin and are spread by unhealthy components of a meat- and dairy-centric, oil-laden Western diet. Vegetarians are generally healthier and have lower cancer rates compared with others living in the same communities.

The problem is the same as with heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis: Repeated injuries from unhealthy foods trigger further injury, followed by attempts to recover through inflammation, which, when chronic, is implicated in all stages of cancer: initiation, promotion, and progression.

Explanations for the micro-pinprick injuries that initiate and promote cancer focus on radiation and chemicals, as well as substances found in tobacco products and foods. Thankfully, however, the fact that a cancer has formed doesn’t mean that the body will abandon its attempts at spontaneous healing. Cancer is not a time for losing hope. It is a time for heeding the body’s message and taking action. Ruth’s recovery from cancer is an important example of how the body never ceases in its efforts to heal and stay healthy, even after very serious damage.

Brain

Breast

Colon

Kidney

Melanoma

Prostate