Saray Stancic, MD ran her first marathon in 2011. This coming October she will walk 25 miles to commemorate the 25th anniversary of her diagnosis with MS. She was supposed to be in a wheelchair by now. "They told me that I would never walk without a cane and that Icould expect to be wheelchair-bound in 10 to 15 years." Her triumphant story is now the subject of a documentaryCODE BLUE, which is about whymedicines most powerful tool is almost never prescribed.
Dr. Stancic shared her story with The Beet. It all began when as a young medical resident, she was having trouble walking and went to the doctor, who did all the tests, MRI's and blood tests and delivered the devastating news: "You have MS."
"I was a young doctor, and so I took all the meds and did all the things mydoctors advised and I kept getting worse. ThenI read about a doctor who had treated MS patients with diet changes in the Netherlands and I immediately began researching more.Her work led her to a plant-based diet, and successfully overcoming her chronic condition. She has a collection of canes and crutches in the basement she says, a reminder of what might have been, had she not taken her own treatment into her hands and changed her diet.
Dr. Stancic'strue cause now is to change the way the medical community views nutrition.She is on a mission to get hospitals and doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals of all types to help feed patients healthy plant-based foods, get the fast food and junk out of hospitals, and make nutrition an integral part of medical training.
"They used to let you smoke in hospitals," she points out. "Now that is absurd. Having a Burger King in Rutgers Medical Center is equally absurd. I protested but no one listened. One day I want to be able to say, they used to feed heart patients eggs and bacon and pancakes. It's just insane."The example starts with the doctor, she adds. "Studies show that if a doctor eats healthy and exercises and is mostly plant-based then the patients will be more likely to follow his or her advice," Stancic says.
Dr. Stancic:I am ininfectiousdisease specialist who started her career in the 1990s during the HIV epidemic and at the VA.... As a young woman, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and I was very ill and taking all these medications and depending on a cane and as a young resident, I was really struggling.
"Then one dayI came across an article in 2003 about the effect of diet and chronic illness and specifically this spoke about the effects on MS -- both the cause and the symptoms. Royce Swank wrote an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 1952 and said that somehow dairy was connected to worsening symptoms of MS. He was looking at the incidence of MS in Norway and saw that those who were consuming a diet high in dairy and animal fat had a higher incidence of the disease and worse disease. So he started "treating" patients with a low-fat plant-based diet and he followed 130 patients over 34 years and he found that those who followed the diet were symptom-free.
"And here I was a physician at 32 and struggling and this was not taught to me in medical school. And this offered me a glimmer of hope and it wasn't just Swank but others too. And it wasn't just diet but exercise and sleep hygiene and stress relief and these lifestyle interventions were ethe best weapons against MS. And of course, I went to my physician and he didn't think there was any merit in it.
"So I had to take my own treatment into my own care and I adopted a plant-based diet because the overwhelming body of evidence pointed to the fact a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds was the optimal diet not only for MS but for all of us. I went off all my medicines and went into that diet.
It's been 25 and I take no medicines and I run every day. October 11th this year 2020 on that day I am going walk 25 miles and celebrate 25 since my diagnosis. And they told me I'd be in a wheelchair within 10 to 20 years. I don't even have a cane. I have a collection of canes and crutches in my basement. I don't need them.
"My hope is to tell the story of the absence of this critical piece of education in our medical schools. All of our doctors are not getting this education which is particularly important in our world today. The rates of obesity are rising, heart disease and diabetes are all rising. And I am an infectious disease specialist and I treat people from a lifestyle basis. We know that those who have bad outcomes from COVID-19 who die from it have obesity and diabetes. and hypertension ... we can prevent 80 percent of these diseases. We can prevent 80 percent heart diseases. . . and isn't it tragic? Every year about 600,000 people diet every year from heart disease and we could save about 450,000 people a year.
"Not only bring education to the community, but to the public. This is what we need today: To prevent diseases and maintain wellness by changing how we eat.
"Even the way we train physicians is inhuman. They are on-call 24 hours at a time. So they have no time to eat or sleep and no time to exercise. The hospitals should be the example of how we treat humans. Inside Rutgers ... I can tell you there is a Burger King inside... and that to me is unacceptable. I have tried everything, petitions, signs, stood inside the hospital and our community that is struggling with heart disease and hypertension and obesity.
"We need to change medical school and the hospital's food environment. Our patients in the hospital who are healing and recovering from illness should be fed a plant-based diet. We can't serve bacon and eggs and pancakes to someone recovering from a heart attack or heart surgery.
"You used to be able to smoke in the hospital in the 1960s. Today we know better. Today we know that these foods are fueling the disease states: Obesity and hypertension and heart disease. And those are fueling the COVID-19 crisis... this is like a perfect storm, it's come together. And how can you ignore that?
"We need to change the medical school education, as well as pharmacists and nurses and everyone in the health care community. We know that doctors, those who are the ones giving the message to their patients are most likely the ones practicing this lifestyle himself. That doctor who is exercising and eating plant-based and meditating and taking care of themselves is more likely to counsel and educate their patients as well.
"The patients take it more seriously when the doctor is an example. Erika Frank has published literature on that. So those doctors who set an example and those patients are more likely to take it more seriously. They think, If my doctor does it then I should as well.
"I work with patients to practice what I call Lifestyle Medicine. I tell them to optimize every aspect of their life. I spend 2 hours with patients and help them realize they don't have to be hypertensive or obese or have heart disease. I counsel them that they can make changes that will intervention and reverse their disease. They can. That' s what I want for every human being is to optimize and empower them to live their best lives.
"I also mentor youngdoctors and help them integrate this lifestyle medicine into their practices, because we want to treat the disease and teach and educate people about lifestyle medicine.
"I am not against medicine and I think it is an important part of the management and armament against diseases. I am an infectious disease specialist. Where would we be without antibiotics? But many of the diseases we treat are preventative and only 3 to 5 percent of the NIH budget goes toward prevention. But while the advances in medicine are important we know that prevention is even more important. Prevention is always preferred over cure.
"In 2010 I ran a marathon. It was an extraordinarymoment for me. I am blessed and hope to spread this healing message far and wide."
"For the film, interviewing doctors like Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn (below) and Dr. Ornish was meaningful. We all care about spending time and resources on prevention.Seven of the top 10 causes of death in America are chronic diseases, two of which, heart disease and cancer, account for nearly 50% of all deaths.
"US health care costs are approaching 3 trillion dollars per year with 86% of these dollars goes to manage chronic illness.Yet studies tell us thatby changingour lifestyle, including diet, physical activity, cigarette smoking, and managing body weight, we can prevent nearly 80% of chronic diseases that gravely compromise our quality of life. We have to change this paradigm."
More Information About Code Blue:
Code Bluereveals lapses in the current state of medicine and provides a common-sense solution by featuring the practice of lifestyle medicine to prevent, manage and reverse chronic diseases. The film presents the hurdles faced to the proposed shift: antiquated curricula in medical schools, confusion in the media, inadequate government policies, and the underlying influences of the pharmaceutical and food industries.
Code Bluefollows passionate physician Dr. Saray Stancic, as she reflects upon her journey from a multiple sclerosis diagnosis to wellness through her own adoption of lifestyle medicine. Dr. Stancic introduces us to expert physicians and scientists who are paving the way to make the meaningful and necessary change in our healthcare environment, in turn, empowering audiences to stand up and reclaim control of their health.
In Code Blue, the doctorswho have rallied around her and been interviewed for the movie reads like a Who's Who of plant-based medicine, including:
See more here:
This Doctor Treated Her MS By Switching to a Plant-Based Diet - The Beet
