Lifestyle changes, predominantly diet, have been scientifically shown to have a much greater impact on chronic diseases than the drug therapies that are currently the medical system’s standard of care. On the other hand, diet has consistently been ignored or significantly down played by the medical system. This has been seen in the previous account (pdf) of critical health information . The three video presentations below illustrate this, and also introduce another medical pioneer Dr. Walter Kempner (of Duke University Medical School).

The first two presentations are by Michael Greger, MD, in which he shows and reads from clips taken from the medical literature. The name of the source can be seen in small print in the upper left-hand corner of the clips. These videos describe the effects of diet therapy devised by Dr. Kempner in the 1940s and 50s. The third presentation is by three physicians and one patient at the Joslin Diabetic Center in Boston - introducing contemporary practice.

Drugs and the Demise of the Rice Diet

Can Diabetic Retinopathy Be Reversed?

Right after seeing the following video, use your browser’s back button to return to this page (before YouTube runs away with you). The presentation is listed by its YouTube title. If it fails to load properly, you might go first to YouTube.com, and type or copy the title into the YouTube search field.

Reversal of Diabetic Retinopathy - You Should Know .

• At a point between one and two minutes into the Joslin Center presentation, one ophthalmologist states her agreement (with a previous remark by her colleague) that 40 years ago there was no treatment available for diabetic retinopathy. Dr. Greger reads from the medical literature to remind us otherwise.

• The Joslin ophthalmologists have called pan-retinal laser photocoagulation (PRP) the long-time “gold standard” of treatment for diabetic retinopathy. Dr. Greger quotes an article (Curr Opin Opthalmal 2014, 25, 164-170) stating, “Theories have suggested that PRP causes improvement in retinal oxygenation by eliminating a portion of the hypoxic retina (reducing demand for oxygen).” It should be obvious from this statement that the real problem is a lack of oxygen reaching the retina. And this explains why the rice diet works.
  
  The rice diet works for retinopathy for exactly the same reason that Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s low-fat, whole-food, plant-based diet works for coronary artery disease. In both cases the disease is halted and sometimes reversed – sometimes even completely reversed. The body is able to do this itself, when released from the demand of coping perpetually with diets too close to the misguided standard American diet. This diet tends to promote atherosclerosis – which will prevent the delivery of blood/oxygen to organs – and be the real, underlying cause of many diseases.

• It’s not too late to start with a whole-food, plant-based diet (even if other therapy is continued). Dr. Greger mentioned someone that went from being unable to discern objects to normal vision. Dr. Esselstyn’s patients included those the cardiologists considered lost causes. Some had a complete reversal of their condition.