"Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Lupus"
These are the journals I try to stay on top of every month,
but now I have a new one to add to the list.
The International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention,
a new peer-reviewed medical journal created to document the science
of nutrition and lifestyle to prevent, suspend, and reverse disease,
with an editor-in-chief no less prestigious than Dr. Kim Williams,
chief of cardiology at Rush,
and past president of the American College of Cardiology.
I was honored to join their editorial advisory board, along with
so many of my heroes. And the best part is it's free!
Go to IJDRP.org and put in your email to subscribe for free
and you'll be alerted when new issues are out,
which you can download in full for free in PDF form.
Instead of preventing chronic lifestyle diseases,
we doctors just tend to manage them. Instead of curing, we just mitigate.
Why? Because of finance, culture, habit, tradition.
Many of us envision a world where trillions of dollars are not wasted
on unnecessary medical care. For this reason comes
the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention.
After all, without data, you're just another person with an opinion.
Just to give you a taste, how about pitting plants against one of the most
inflammatory diseases out there— lupus, an autoimmune disease
in which your body can start attacking your own DNA.
Kidney inflammation is a common consequence,
and even with our armamentarium of immunosuppressant drugs and steroids,
lupus-induced kidney inflammation can lead to end-stage renal disease,
meaning dialysis, and death, unless perhaps you pack your diet
with some of the most anti-inflammatory foods out there
and your kidney function improves so much you no longer need
dialysis or a kidney transplant.
And another similar case is also presented with a resolution in symptoms
and normal kidney function, unless he deviated from the diet.
Even just cutting out animal products, randomizing people to cut out meat,
eggs, and dairy without significantly increasing fruit and vegetable intake
can cut C-reactive protein levels, a sensitive indicator
of whole-body inflammation, by nearly a third within eight weeks.
But with lupus they weren't messing around.
A pound of leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables a day like kale,
fruits like berries, and lots of chia or flax, and a gallon of water a day.
Basically, a green smoothie diet to extinguish lupus flares.
Note though, if your kidneys are already compromised, this should be done
under physician supervision so they can monitor your electrolytes
like potassium and make sure you don't get overloaded with fluid.
Bottom line, with such remarkable improvements due to dietary
changes alone, the hope is that researchers will take up the mantle
and formally put it to the test.
Autoimmune inflammatory skin disease reversals can be
particularly striking visually.
A woman with a 35-year history of psoriasis, unsuccessfully managed
for year after year with drugs,
suffering from other autoimmune conditions like Sjogren's as well.
But put her on an extraordinarily healthy diet packed with greens
and other vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, avocados,
some whole grains and boom, before and after.
Within one year, she went from 40% of her entire body surface area
inflamed and affected, down to 0%, completely clear.
Oh, and her Sjogkren's symptoms resolved as well as a bonus,
while helping to normalize her weight and cholesterol.
Speaking of autoimmune diseases, what about the treatment
of type 1 diabetes with plants?
We'll find out next.