wws@ukma.UUCP (Bill Stoll) (08/03/85)
After all the talk about the pros and cons of SUGAR, finally, someone has hit the nail on the head. Bill Stoll has had the courage to share with us his experience of getting off refined carbohydrates (sugar is just the most commonly used). When it is all said and done,the only thing that matters is whether the benefits are worth the bother. Several writers have alluded to the controversy in "religious" terms. There is a lot of truth to that. Being off sugar is an experience that is as difficult to explain to the "scoffers" as color is to explain to a blind person. You will find no one who has tried being off refined carbohydrates and caffeine (at the same time) included among the ones who scoff; the ones who bleat "prove it to me!". I am a Holistic Physician who was converted when a dentist demonstrated (kinesiologically--which seemed like magic to me at the time) that sugar was a great stress to me. When I finally followed his recommendations: meticulously removing all refined carbohydrates and caffeine from my diet for two weeks; my life was changed forever! Up till that time I believed the party line: "diet has nothing to do with disease". Until the Cancer Society was forced, in court, by CSPI, to release the diet/cancer connection last year, the official position of the AMA, announced each year at their annual convention, was that people who were treating anything with diet were deluded. As a consequence I paid no attention to diet at all. I was 39 years old, jogged regularly and accepted my chronic illnesses as the natural consequences of nearing 40 (over the hill). I weighed 263#; wore a lumbosacral brace for ruptured discs on my left side; I couldn't feel my left leg, or reliably tell when I had to pass stool or urine (there were 5 defects on my myelogram), so I had severe hemorrhoids, constipation and chronic prostatitis. I was told there was no alternative to surgery for my back and my butt. I had hypertension (160/110); cholesterol over 300, used nose drops every day (8 years), carried anti-acids every where I went; had arthritis so bad in my knees I was told to stop jogging or risk plastic kneecaps and was depressed most of the time (a 15 year problem). I had three doctors; a Psychiatrist (10 years), a neurosurgeon (2 years) and an internist. Together, they had me on : Valium (40mgm/day--for "muscle spasm"), Elavil (150mgm/day--for depression), Talwin 50mgm (as needed--for pain) and Quaalude (400mgm as needed for sleep) all at the same time. I finally became so depressed, while taking all this medication, that I was unable to work as a solo Family Practitioner. It was in this condition that I began teaching Medicine at the University of Kentucky Medical Center, moved to Lexington and met Mike Lerner (my Dentist friend). Within two weeks of dietary alteration I was no longer depressed; my constipation was gone (first time in my life) and my nose wasn't stuffy any more. In a few more weeks I felt better than I could remember ever feeling in my life. I had been so depressed for so long that I feared I was becomming MANIC (as in manic/depressive). While I was deciding whether to take Lithium or not, Mike convinced me that I was just beginning to feel like a normal healthy person should feel--I had been living my life comatose up to that point. How right he was! I began to have so much energy I needed 3 hours less sleep per night. I began experimenting with Relaxation Techniques: TM, biofeedback, autogenics, breathing, etc. I finally found the one that happened to work for me: SILVA MIND CONTROL. The combination of SILVA, whole foods and aerobics (yes, I had continued jogging) eliminated every one of the chronic conditions I listed above within 6 months. It has been 7 wonderful years since then with no recurrance of any conditions. My patients noticed such a dramatic change they began asking what I was doing--that's how I got into Holistic Medicine. All successful Holistic Physicians I know got into it because of a similar personal healing EXPERIENCE. As a Founding Member of the American Holistic Medical Association (currently serving on the board of trustees) I know a lot of Holistic Physicians. NO physician who has tried Holistic Medicine is found among the "scoffers"; the ones who bleat: "show us proof!". Another similarity between sugar elimination and Holistic Medicine is : there can be no possible harm in trying it. Unfortunately, many people WOULD RATHER DIE THAN MAKE A FOOL OF THEMSELVES. Survival of the fittest say I. Maybe I'm biased because of my personal experience. However, since I've practiced Conventional Medicine alone for 15 years, and Holistic Medicine (which includes all of Conventional Medicine plus all of these new things) now for 8 years, I'm at least qualified to compare the two. I TELL YOU TRUE----THERE IS NO COMPARISON. Physicians who insist on practicing only Conventional Medicine are as much an embarassment to the profession today as the physicians who tried to discredit Pasteur in the last century. It is time to reveal that I am Bill Stoll's father. I'm proud that my example has influenced him to finally try eliminating the "sugar poison". Maybe it will help make up for all the terrible example I was to him while he was growing up and I was still listening to the AMA. No one should try to test whether sugar is a great stress to them without some basic guidelines to assure them of success and of what to expect. I have prepared a detailed protocol that will assist the "seeker of wellness". I would be happy to provide a copy FREE to anyone who would send a SELF ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE to me at: the Holistic Medical Centre, 1412 N. Broadway, Lexington, Kentucky 40505. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. We are all learning as fast as we can. Any assistance is most helpful. I'm ready to change my mind tomorrow if contradictory data appears. In the meantime, I want to know why (if this is Placebo effect) I didn"t get it so dramatically before. cbosgd!ukma!wws(Walt Stoll)
geb@cadre.ARPA (Gordon E. Banks) (08/06/85)
In article <2010@ukma.UUCP> wws@ukma.UUCP (Bill Stoll) writes: > I weighed 263#; > I had hypertension >(160/110); cholesterol over 300, used nose drops every day (8 years), >carried anti-acids every where I went; had arthritis so bad in my >knees I was told to stop jogging or risk plastic kneecaps and was >depressed most of the time (a 15 year problem). >Together, they had me on : Valium >(40mgm/day--for "muscle spasm"), Elavil (150mgm/day--for depression), >Talwin 50mgm (as needed--for pain) and Quaalude (400mgm as needed for >sleep) all at the same time. I finally became so depressed, while >taking all this medication, that I was unable to work as a solo Family >Practitioner. >cbosgd!ukma!wws(Walt Stoll) It is no wonder you felt bad. Anyone who was on the amount of depressant medication (Valium, Talwin, and Quaaludes) that you were on would be depressed, weight and hypertension aside. Just getting you off all that stuff should have made you feel wonderful by comparison. I have eliminated sugar from my diet before for periods of several months for weight control purposes. I'd have to say that I didn't feel any different. Certainly if I stringently eliminate carbohydrates (including starches) I feel MUCH worse. No energy. Hard to excercise without fatigue. I probably wasn't stringent enough for you, searching out every detail of everything I ate to make sure it didn't have a gram of sugar in it. (I never use or used caffeine.) So based on my experiments I would have to say that either your chemistry is different than mine, or you are indeed getting a "religious" effect. I suspect the latter. But, if it works for you, fine. I just am skeptical of your generalizing.