5 ms·

Before you become "so dismissive" of traditional physicians, you try getting someone to radically alter their lifestyle for the promise of potential benefit in

Before you become "so dismissive" of traditional physicians, you try getting someone to radically alter their lifestyle for the promise of potential benefit in 10-20 years. Even if you can point to a few people that have done it, I can point you to plenty of data that says it's really hard and most people can't. Even technology may not help: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2553448 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2553448. Edit: Also reversed is a pretty strong word. I haven't seen any compelling evidence that Crohn's can be cured with lifestyle change.

aviv 9y ago
You haven't seen it because your traditional world of medicine does not include that group of people. I have. About a dozen of them. In fact, each Crohn's patient that I've seen undergo a fast 2 weeks or longer has not had any flare ups since. And completely stopped taking all medications and undergoing their usual treatments. (they do watch their diet after, mostly fruits and veggies). Lifestyle change alone will not cure it. It must be preceded by a proper water fast. Reversed IS a strong word, and very appropriate here.
tcj_phx 9y ago
> try getting someone to radically alter their lifestyle for the promise of potential benefit in 10-20 years. There is an incredible amount of confusion with regard to appropriate lifestyle interventions. Part of the problem is that your predecessors' predecessors (doctors in the 1950's and 1960's) came up with some simplistic and wrong advice that never got properly withdrawn: the hazard of butter and the superiority of refined vegetable oil, the hazard of salt (farmers and veterinarians give animals salt licks), estrogen as "the female hormone" -> DES babies && prescription horse urine (PREMARIN is PREgnant MARes' urIN), etc. The American Heart Association still warns about saturated fat [0]. If science advances one funeral at a time, what can be done about organizations that insist on being wrong? [0] https://recipes.heart.org/Articles/1013/Healthy-Cooking-Oils https://recipes.heart.org/Articles/1013/Healthy-Cooking-Oils Modern medicine does have some good advice, but it's very tough to separate the wheat from the chaff. I think medical professionals are just as confused as everyone else. On Christmas I heard someone (a physician's assistant) recommend an erection-killing intervention to help stop her sister's boyfriend's hair loss [1]. [1] https://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/news/20120413/propecia-proscar-new-sexual-dysfunction-warnings https://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/news/20120413/propec... - this side effect might not be not universal, but is devastating to the men who suffer it. "Palliative" drugs are commonly used. This is essentially Elisabeth Rosenthal M.D.'s rule #2 for American medicine: "A lifetime of treatment is preferable to a cure." [2] [2] How Economic Incentives have Created our Dysfunctional US Medical Market - https://medium.com/@RosenthalHealth/how-economic-incentives-have-created-our-dysfunctional-us-medical-market-b681c51d6436 https://medium.com/@RosenthalHealth/how-economic-incentives-... Dr. Brewer's pregnancy diet is supposedly quite helpful for dealing with common pregnancy problems. Iirc, the core pillars of this diet are adequate protein and "salt to taste". But conventional medicine never figured this out for itself - I've met lots of women who suffered from dangerously-high blood pressure during their pregnancies. One's diet consisted of saltine crackers - she was nauseous, and had to have labor induced before the baby killed her. Appropriate lifestyle interventions start to benefit people right away. Coconut oil rapidly helps with alcohol cravings, for example. People can lose most of their excess weight over a period of 2-4 years. Pregnant women immediately benefit from adequate salt intake. Etc. Doctors are doing much better today than 50 or 100 years ago. I think the industry would greatly benefit from a critical examination of common practices.

aviv 9y ago

You haven't seen it because your traditional world of medicine does not include that group of people. I have. About a dozen of them. In fact, each Crohn's patient that I've seen undergo a fast 2 weeks or longer has not had any flare ups since. And completely stopped taking all medications and undergoing their usual treatments. (they do watch their diet after, mostly fruits and veggies). Lifestyle change alone will not cure it. It must be preceded by a proper water fast. Reversed IS a strong word, and very appropriate here.

tcj_phx 9y ago

> try getting someone to radically alter their lifestyle for the promise of potential benefit in 10-20 years. There is an incredible amount of confusion with regard to appropriate lifestyle interventions. Part of the problem is that your predecessors' predecessors (doctors in the 1950's and 1960's) came up with some simplistic and wrong advice that never got properly withdrawn: the hazard of butter and the superiority of refined vegetable oil, the hazard of salt (farmers and veterinarians give animals salt licks), estrogen as "the female hormone" -> DES babies && prescription horse urine (PREMARIN is PREgnant MARes' urIN), etc. The American Heart Association still warns about saturated fat [0]. If science advances one funeral at a time, what can be done about organizations that insist on being wrong? [0] https://recipes.heart.org/Articles/1013/Healthy-Cooking-Oils https://recipes.heart.org/Articles/1013/Healthy-Cooking-Oils Modern medicine does have some good advice, but it's very tough to separate the wheat from the chaff. I think medical professionals are just as confused as everyone else. On Christmas I heard someone (a physician's assistant) recommend an erection-killing intervention to help stop her sister's boyfriend's hair loss [1]. [1] https://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/news/20120413/propecia-proscar-new-sexual-dysfunction-warnings https://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/news/20120413/propec... - this side effect might not be not universal, but is devastating to the men who suffer it. "Palliative" drugs are commonly used. This is essentially Elisabeth Rosenthal M.D.'s rule #2 for American medicine: "A lifetime of treatment is preferable to a cure." [2] [2] How Economic Incentives have Created our Dysfunctional US Medical Market - https://medium.com/@RosenthalHealth/how-economic-incentives-have-created-our-dysfunctional-us-medical-market-b681c51d6436 https://medium.com/@RosenthalHealth/how-economic-incentives-... Dr. Brewer's pregnancy diet is supposedly quite helpful for dealing with common pregnancy problems. Iirc, the core pillars of this diet are adequate protein and "salt to taste". But conventional medicine never figured this out for itself - I've met lots of women who suffered from dangerously-high blood pressure during their pregnancies. One's diet consisted of saltine crackers - she was nauseous, and had to have labor induced before the baby killed her. Appropriate lifestyle interventions start to benefit people right away. Coconut oil rapidly helps with alcohol cravings, for example. People can lose most of their excess weight over a period of 2-4 years. Pregnant women immediately benefit from adequate salt intake. Etc. Doctors are doing much better today than 50 or 100 years ago. I think the industry would greatly benefit from a critical examination of common practices.