I would like to share my personal experience of moving away from conventional medicine and adopting a whole foods, plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle. Ten years ago at age 64 I had a physical checkup and my physician said my cholesterol was a bit high but I shouldn’t worry because I was just getting older. This didn’t seem right so I changed doctors and my new physician and friend said cholesterol of 285 was a disaster. He prescribed statin drugs. I took Crestor for a week and my muscles locked up so I called my physician and he said to take more of the drug. None of this seemed right so I did online research and found large numbers of people who had adverse reactions to statins that included liver damage as well as muscle damage.

I then took a 10 day live in course with Dr. John McDougall, adopted a WFPB lifestyle, and read all the major authors in this field. Within six weeks my cholesterol dropped to 156. According to heart surgeon Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, at around 150 you do not die of heart disease, which most of my ancestors did in their 60s, including my father at age 64.

I took the leftover statin drug samples that my physician had given me back to him and asked him to give them to someone else because I had solved my heart disease problem through diet. He was angry. I was under the mistaken idea that physicians were scientists who would welcome new information but this is often not the case. Physicians receive little, if any, nutrition training and their primary focus is on employing repair techniques learned in medical school. These can be very beneficial for acute health problems but often not for chronic issues. The real problem seems to be that many physicians want to offer a solution to all health issues, but when nutrition should be involved they can’t help as they are not usually trained in nutrition. This problem is compounded by the fact that perhaps 80 percent of health issues can be resolved by a whole foods, plant-based lifestyle.

The takeaway from my experience is that it is good to consult experts but you must do your own due diligence research and be the ultimate decision maker on your health.