BIG M ED I ( I N E: WHO S E H E A L T H ARE THEY PRO TE CT I N G? 341The Clinic is now injecting stem cells to try to make new heart
vessels grow. Wouldn't it be easier to stop the disease? It's appall-
ing, isn't it? It's just so grippingly unbelievable to think that we're
being led around by people who refuse to believe the obvious!
Both Esselstyn and McDougall have now been denied reentry into
the establishment, after headline-making success at healing people with
a nutritional approach. You can focus on the money-according to John
and Ess, 80% of St. Helena's and 65% of the Cleveland Clinic's respective
incomes were generated by traditional heart disease treatments, surgi-
cal interventions-but it's something more than just money. It may also
be the intellectual threat that the patient should be in control, and not
the doctor; that something as simple as food could be more powerful
than all the knowledge of pills and high-tech procedures; it may be the
lack of credible nutrition education in medical school; it may be the
influence of the drug industry. Whatever it is, it has become clear that
the medical industry in this country is not protecting our health as it
should. As McDougall reaches his arms out, palms up, and scrunches
his shoulders up, he simply says, "It's beyond comprehension."