We all love a great story. Well, how about someone who was given not much more than a couple of years to live. Diagnosed with level 3 COPD she was told the disease was irreversible. So meet Kate McGoey Smith who was carrying round an oxygen tank and made blind by the disease. I was drawn to the attention of Kate via this video of her story youtube.com/watch?v=vxiKwQ9...
I can't watch the video but are you sure that she's demonstrated reversal of COPD rather than just been able to manage the condition or halt further deterioration? (both of which are great of course)
Reversal in a clinical sense is a very strong claim to be making.
Did you visit her website? I suspect there might be a piece on forksoverkives website as well.
As for reversal, it's like the word cure - a no go area. Some people violently object to the word cure, and reversal can get the same attention.
Have I cured my arthritis? Well quite obviously my body is depleted but as each year goes by and it does not degrade further from arthritis, and in fact with my nutritarian & yoga focus it in many ways gets better.
I just read today, I think in the Maily Dail (aka Dailymail) of someone "reversing" their rheumatoid arthritis with a keto diet.
The acid test is how long one survives or at least survives with no further degeneration. Obviously with my perspective on Keto, such people are risking swapping one chronic illness with the possibility of another in years to come.
Only time will tell who is right, or indeed whether high-carb and low-carb are both right, and that the people who suffer are those in the middle! As veganism goes mainstream much better research will be possible and no longer will they have to bundle vegetarians with vegans to keep population large enough to analyse.
A more pertinent question is whether you visited her website before choosing to use the word "reversal" in the title of this post.
I'm probably nitpicking a bit, but there is an issue of credibility here. I follow a low fat vegan diet too and I believe there is a lot of strong evidence from high quality peer reviewed articles as to it's benefits. But hyperbolic headlines making unsupported claims don't advance this in my view, and run the risk of making us all look like a bunch of wingnuts.
I would not have added the word reversal ino the matter unless there were authoritative prior statements on that basis. These words can be so sensitive, and for me to add that in as a person who has no personal connection would be mistake on my part.
I agree. Diet is important of course, and there is at least one sort of diet which will make you very ill indeed. However there's a far larger number of diets which "work", and any claims for miracle cures need to be backed up with some fairly solid science.
I post on RA forums when it feels right. RA is my special subject and so they have my full attention if they want it. Sometimes I will post a short note, on other occasions a link to my story on youtube.
Btw. July 1st a year ago (2017) was the last drug i have taken for arthritis. In fact I have been totally drug free ever since. So I am celebrating my first full year - and that feels good.
research shows that people with rheumatoid arthritis generally have their life cut short by 10 years. Do I want to die 10 years before my time?
"IF I HAVE ARTHRITIS." Sorry for the caps, but the IF leaves me at a bit of a loss.
As to no cure... I was told categorically there was no cure for arthritis. Well that may be true if you rely on medication, but if this forum has any value at all it is that food can bring back life. I have been told categorically that "diet has no effect" more times than I have had hot dinners. I am not saying reversing or curing is easy, and for some it may be impossible - depending on the illness and the stage of progression
If you go to the NRAS forum there you should find my name splattered to the four corners. However I was told, officially, by NRAS that "diet has no effect" and so I no longer post there.
Well I have proved them wrong, and I continue to prove them wrong, each and every day. So each and every day more and more people end up with medication they could avoid - if they had the motivation and support.
My own pathway out of the clutches of arthritis was a fight. And I mean tooth and claw. It may seem an easy thing, change your diet and that's it. That is not true. Yes, some people seem to recover overnight with a wave of a magic wand. Many people with arthritis adopt a vegan lifestyle and they do not recover. But I had a fight on my hands and I know from very personal experience that my pathway to health was not easy.
Next Tuesday I have a visitor from Portland, Oregon staying with me for two weeks. Katy Hoogendam. Whatever magic I weaved to gain recovery is nothing compared with her story. She has had arthritis since six months old and has lived a life entirely heavily medicated, on crutches and in hospitals. Two years ago she found the same Paddison Program that I follow. Now aged 29, she is now heading for the USA yoga championships. She is not medication free, but she is reducing her last drug Enbrel steadily. Google her name and arthritis, if you want to know more.
Without the dietary changes I would have got nowhere, the same with Katy. This is why the term lifestyle is preferred over diet.
So does it surprise me that Kate McGoey Smith has healed herself substantially from COPD? NO. Am I surprised that people are skeptical? NO. Do I think she would have gained this level of recovery without her dietary changes? NO. Do I think it was simply a matter of dietary changes? NO.
So what else is necessary - besides diet - to recover from the depths of a chronic illness? Total focus and determination. Patience. Research, critical re-assessment. Listening to your body. Giving yourself space & time to heal. Support from family & friends. Exercise, building up to an hour a day, every day of good cardio.
As I have posted before I don't like the word cure partly because its use leads to people trying to state facts.
What is much more useful esp in arthritis are measures such CRP, mine being normal. Both my doctor and rheumy decided it was good for me to stop taking methotrexate. If you want I can set up an appointment with them and you can argue about choice of words with them.
Hi Andy - I found this on an internet search and want to set the record straight
1. I do not have COPD and have never claimed to have it
2, I have a rare disease (2-4 in a million) called Idiopathic
Pulmonary Arterial Hyoertension - high blood pressure in the pulmonary arterial of the lungs - no cause and no cure- given 2-5 years to live - drug treatment given to try to slow progression of disease
3. Left me legally blind, 24 hour oxygen and more -suffered for 5 agonizing years
4. Within 15 months on an oil-free whole plant based diet got sight back and off oxygen during waking hours, my disease went from a level 3-3.5 out of 4 levels to a 1 as determined by my pulmonologist not me.
5,. Evidence - submitting case study with corresponding medical findings for publication -D, Caldwell Esselstyn one of the co-authors
6. I hope others will save the judgement and go to the source - my integrity is my most cherished asset-
thanks andthe best to all as we are all on a journey,
. . . 📄 A Plant-Based Diet Got Me Off the Lung Transplant List and Helped Restore My Eyesight by Kate McGoey-Smith, Dip Nrsg, MSW, RSW, FM (August 28, 2017): forksoverknives.com/plant-b...
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Interesting article on Celiac disease 
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