Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

172 Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

Diet Is the First-Line Defense

Working with patients with autoimmune diseases such as connective

tissue disease, myositis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus is very re-

warding. These patients had been convinced they could never get

well and are usually eternally grateful to be healthy again and not

require medication. I regularly get notes and letters, such as these

unsolicited comments:

"After three months I am off all drugs."

— Richard Arroni

"I would like to shout, Dr. Fuhrman did it."

— Fred Redington

"Six months ago I prayed I would die, now I'm ready to live again."

— Jennifer Fullum

"Thank you for saving my life."

— Harriet Fleming

An aggressive nutritional approach to autoimmune illnesses

should always be tried first when the disease is in its infancy. Logi-

cally, the more advanced the disease is, and the more damage that

has been done by the disease, the less likely the patient will respond.

My experience with inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid

arthritis is that some patients are more dietary-sensitive than others

and that some patients have very high levels of inflammation that

are difficult to curtail with natural therapy. Nevertheless, the major-

ity benefit — and since the conventional drugs used to treat these

types of illnesses are so toxic and have so many risky side effects, the

dietary method should be tried first. Modern drugs often contribute

to the disability and misery of patients with an autoimmune illness

and increase cancer risk. Studies show that the long-term outcome is

poor after twenty years of taking such medication.^44 A recent study in

the British Journal of Rheumatology showed the major drugs to treat

rheumatoid arthritis, such as azathioprine, cyclophosphamide, chlo-

rambucil, and methotrexate, increase the likelihood that the person

will die of cancer.^45