For almost thirty years I struggled with severe psoriasis. This thirty years included two months in Texas Childrens' Medical Center in Dallas along with thousands of dollars in drugs and visits to doctors around the world. The financial drain was nothing compared to coping with a severe skin disease and its unreliable treatments offering short-term benefits and horrific side effects.
Despite Cum Laude Honors and a Bachelor of Science degree in Scientific Nutrition, successful fulfillment of all academic requirements to apply to American medical schools, many years of work as a Registered Dietitian (RD) and visits to dermatologists around the world, I was never formally taught how food could be my own medicine. By the year 2000, I had five years of training plus fifteen years of work as an RD. Yet never once did that education show me how my diet could be associated with my psoriasis, allergies, asthmatic bronchitis, rosacea, acne. Never once in two decades did a professor or dietitian view my very visible skin disease and suggest any way to address the disease through diet. Also, during the first fifteen years of my work as an RD, not a single client ever told me that my dietetics work had signficantly helped them in any real or lasting way. I grew bored and doubted the value of my training and work as a dietitian. Despite the effort and expense required to garner and maintain an RD certification for 15 years, I relinquished the certification in 2001 and felt sure that I'd never return to the field of nutrition.
In June 2002 my condition worsened and life changed drastically. The tight skin and swollen knuckles on my hands would no longer allow me to pick up a glass of water, wrap my hands around a steering wheel or unscrew a jar. The topical steroids I'd used for decades were inadequate to address my increasing discomfort. Methotrexate, a form of chemotherapy, had been recommended as a treatment option. But unlike those who take methotrexate temporarily for cancer, people with psoriasis often take this chemotherapy indefinitely. Aware of the terrible side effects and financial drain associated with this powerful drug, I grew desperate and went to Google in search of a safe alternative. Because 20 years of training and work as a Registered Dietitian had never taught me how diet could be related to psoriasis, I was shocked when 'diet' began appearing as a healthy treatment option. Through extensive research I was introduced to a dietary approach that has been associated with reducing inflammation and enabling the body to heal itself naturally. Once I understood this way of eating, it was easy to understand why the diet offers positive, rather than negative, side effects. With nothing to lose but a disease and unwanted weight, I committed myself to this way of eating for 6 months. By December 2002 my hands had cleared almost completely, I lost 20 pounds, experienced drastic allergy improvements, and spent no money on prescription medications. Additionally, I'm no longer dependent upon rounds of prescription medications and inhalers for allergies, sinus infections, rosacea, asthmatic brochitis and acne. Before changing my diet in 2002, terrible allergy problems never allowed me to even pet animals for fear of subsequent wheezing and asthma. Now I'm the lucky guardian of a shedding eighty pound dog and I kiss his face all day long without any congestion. Improving my diet has worked other wonders, too. My cousin, a plastic surgeon, insists I look younger now than I did ten years ago, with nary a penny spent on Botox.
Because psoriasis can exhibit unpredictable remissions, I waited and studied for two more years before returning to the field of nutrition. Prior to changing my diet, I'd never had a remission extend beyond two months. By 2005 with almost three years of remission, a sense of ethical obligation lead me to return to dietetics to see if what I'd learned about diet and chronic disease might help others, too. In spring of 2005 I approached Whole Foods Market to teach at their headquarters. At that time, educators at Whole Foods Market had to be Registered Dietitians, so I took and passed the test for recertification as a Registered Dietitian.
Several diets are associated with natural healing. And conventional medicine has become far more receptive to them in the past ten years. In fact, many healing diets are now touted by leading medical schools, medical doctors and internationally recognized researchers. The University of Michigan's top Ten Medical School has published its own "Healing Foods Pyramid" in conjunction with their medical doctors and registered dietitians. Notable researchers and scientists include Neal Barnard MD, Gabriel Cousens MD, Joel Fuhrman MD, and Colin Campbell PhD. Even the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics which oversees Registered Dietitians has published research illustrating the value of a plant-based, whole foods diet. Other versions of healing diets include macrobiotics, raw food, veganism, pH balance, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, nutritarian, anti-aging, and antioxidant rich diets.
For the purposes of effective nutrition education and practical application, I've looked for common threads of success that run across healing diets. After studying many of them, one thing is obvious. They all emphasize plant-based, fresh and whole foods like vegetables, fruits, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds and whole grains like brown rice and quinoa. They emphasize clean water and unprocessed food. When animal protein, meat or dairy are eaten, it's on an occasional basis. In many ways a healing diet is simply what humans relied upon for good health throughout human history before refrigeration and food processing. Based upon one's health history and diagnoses, other specific dietary recommendations may be necessary for sustainable healing. But empirical research performed by the world's leading researchers makes it clear that a plant-based (though not necessarily vegetarian), whole foods diet offers value to all.
Although I fully respect the potential value of strict adherence, my personal practice taught me that it's possible to achieve significant healing from a modified version, a "fast food version" per se, that is less time consuming, suits my lifestyle and facilitates long-term compliance. I spent hundreds of hours reading books, taking cooking classes, and learning the shortcuts of incorporating this diet into my lifestyle at home, in the office and in restaurants. Diet change can be very challenging, but you can bring the healing power of food and its associated benefits into your life successfully without making seismic shifts in your world.
To my great surprise, my career has come full circle. Now I insist upon being a Registered and Licensed Dietitian. Since learning how to use diet to reverse my own disease I've repeatedly observed nutrition and supplement enthusiasts act as a health hazard. The vast majority of those who present themselves as nutrition advisors have no legitimate dietetics license. For good reason, random people can't walk into a hospital and care for patients simply because they think they are qualified to do so. Because hospitals care for the sickest individuals, all who practice patient care in hospitals are strictly credentialed and supervised by organizations, not just individuals. The only medical nutrition therapy license qualified for patient care in accredited U.S. hospitals is the Registered Dietitian (RD) license. I have worked with a few CCN's in nonhospital environments and certainly admire the work of Kelly Barnhill of The Johnson Center for Children. Many RD's are CCN's also. For those who do not have the credentials necessary to work in hospitals, their perspective is by definition limited. Anecdotal stories become the basis of practice instead of clinical observations made by a comprehensive medical team qualified to treat those most ill. Also, when there is no active supervising organization over a revocable license, individuals make up their own rules for practice and market themselves any way they like because they have no accountability. Obviously no license guarantees perfection. But based upon longstanding observation I am now ethically obligated to professionally partner only with those who have the credentials necessary for patient care in accredited hospitals.
Please note: although the worldwide TV broadcast of "The Incurables" chooses to say that I "cured" my psoriasis, I am not "cured". I've often seen diet create significant, sustained symptomatic remission for many chronic diseases (including my own). But as a clinician I consider the word "cure" to most often be marketing, not reality. I never use the word "cure" in the context of myself nor my clients.
My intent is to communicate that research now makes clear the potential benefits and lack of risk in a quality diet, and that a quality diet can broaden your options for optimizing health while reducing associated expenses. The choice is yours to decide if you will give food a chance to be your medicine.
CREDENTIALS:
Cum Laude Honors and Bachelor of Science Degree in Scientific Nutrition, successful fulfillment of all academic requirements to apply to American medical schools, All-University Racquetball Champion, Texas A&M University, 1985
Dietetic Internship, Indiana University Medical Center, 1986
Certification as a Registered Dietitian, 1986
Clinical Dietitian and Director of Food and Nutrition Services in several hospitals across the United States, ARA Services Inc., 1986 - 1990
MBA, University of Texas at Austin, 1992
Masters of International Business , SYLFF Fellow, L'Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Lyon, France, 1993
Healthcare Sales Executive with Baxter Healthcare Corporation, DrKoop.com, notHarvard.com, Clear Cube Technology, 1994-2004
Recertification as a Registered Dietitian and Licensure as a Licensed Dietitian in the State of Texas, 2005
Authored my first book, "Your Healing Diet", 2005
Founder and Leader for the Austin Psoriasis Support Group, 2003- 2008
Member American Dietetic Association, Dietitians in Integrative & Functional Medicine
Proficiency in French and Spanish languages