Comment by Dr McDougall from his website
Ruth Heidrich demonstrates the miraculous healing properties of the body with the right diet, exercise program, and supportive environment. I know many of you believe that you are incurably ill. After over 25 years of practice, I can say without hesitation I have never seen anyone fail to improve their health when they changed from the typical American diet to the McDougall diet. The principles are too basic to be unsuccessful. It would equivalent to seeing a smoker’s health not improve after giving up 2 packages of cigarettes a day, or an alcoholic failing to become healthy after drying out.
Ruth achieved three dramatic benefits from a healthy diet and exercise program that are rarely talked about: “cure” of her cancer, cure of her arthritis and reversal of her bone loss. The McDougall Program for Women book discusses in great detail the benefits of a healthy diet and exercise program for women with breast cancer. Essentially, the rich American diet is the most important controllable cause of breast cancer according to many experts. If you believe this, then it makes no sense to “throw gasoline on a fire.” In other words, once you get a dietary-caused cancer one of your fundamental treatments must be a change to a healthy diet. I published the first study on the dietary treatment of breast cancer in a medical journal in the early 1980s (the results of the study Ruth mentioned above). I was considered radical back then. Over the past 20 years there have been many similar research papers published in the world’s best medical journals that come to the same conclusion: women who get breast cancer and eat healthier live longer (you will find most of these papers cited in The McDougall Program for Women).
Most people consider bone lost to be irreplaceable. Bone is a living tissue and given the right stimulus, like exercise, it will try to build itself stronger. The one thing that prevents this for most people is the highly acidic American diet (meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, and hard cheeses are very acidic). The acids we eat in our foods must be neutralized – the bones are the primary buffering system of the body. They dissolve in order to neutralize the acid and the bones are then washed out into the kidney system (making kidney stones along the way). After years of such treatment they become so frail they break with the slightest provocation, like a friendly hug. A complete discussion of diet and osteoporosis is in The McDougall Program for Women.
Let Ruth Heidrich be an inspiration for those of you who have little hope and so much to live for. The greatest medical miracle ever experienced is the human body properly supported by the right foods and surrounding environment. Don’t delay; you will never have the opportunity to live today over again.
