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. After being told that teachers at Whole Foods Market must be Registered Dietitians, I took and passed the test for recertification as a Registered Dietitian. Nevertheless, I'm ethically obligated to tell students anywhere that it was desperation and personal research, and not the two decades of institutional training, that led me to bypass our USDA Food Pyramid in favor of a plant-based, whole foods diet that need not be vegetarian nor vegan. Since 2002 health, wealth and life have improved incalculably and indefinitely for me and many of my clients.
Several diets are associated with natural healing. Many are now touted by leading medical schools, medical doctors and internationally recognized researchers. Notable visionaries include Neal Barnard MD, Gabriel Cousens MD, Joel Fuhrman MD, and Colin Campbell PhD. The University of Michigan's Integrative Medicine Department has developed its own "Healing Foods Pyramid" in conjunction with medical doctors and registered dietitians. Other versions of healing diets include macrobiotics, raw food, veganism, acid - alkaline balance, anti-inflammatory, and anti-aging antioxidant rich diets. Even the American Dietetic Association now publishes research illustrating the value of a plant-based, whole foods diet. My personal healing and decades of dietetics experience combined with a growing mountain of empirical research make it clear that a healing diet need not be strictly vegetarian.
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. If meat or dairy are eaten, it's on an occasional basis. In many ways a healing diet is simply what humans have relied upon for good health throughout the entirety of human history. 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, 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.
Ironically and to my great surprise, my career has come full circle. Now I'm proud to be a Registered and Licensed Dietitian. Since learning how to use diet to reverse my own disabiling disease I've repeatedly observed enthusiasts become a health hazard. The vast majority of those who present themselves as nutrition advisors have no legitimate dietetics license. The only nutrition license considered qualified for patient care in American hospitals is the Registered Dietitian (RD) license. I have worked with CCN's in nonhospital environments and I routinely refer to a few of them for a variety of issues. For those who do not have extensive training and experience gained in hospital and medical facilities, limited perspective and opinion can become the basis of useless or risky convictions. Lots of money is wasted on products, diagnostic tests and supplements. There was a time when I did not recognize the importance of seeking nutrition advice from an appropriately experienced and licensed professional. Now I clearly see the public safety of a legitimate and revocable license. Especially if you have a medical diagnosis, you will find no substitute for significant clinical dietetics experience, and many years of it with a wide variety of thousands of patients, within supervised hospital and research facilities.
Please note, although the internationally TV broadcast of "The Incurables" chooses to say that I "cured" my psoriasis, I am not "cured" nor have I seen diet "cure" anybody of any chronic disease. I've often observed sustained and significant remission from chronic disease (including my own) following diet change. But 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
Recertification as a Registered Dietitian and Licensure as a Licensed Dietitian in the State of Texas, 2005
Member of the American Dietetic Association, 2005 - present
Authored the books, "Your Healing Diet", selling across the USA and five countries, 2005 Founder and Leader for the Austin Psoriasis Support Group, 2003- 2008 Proficiency in French and Spanish Languages