“An apple a day keeps the doctor away”
or so we’ve heard in passing. I’ve always wondered where this notion originated. Not once in all my years of study in medical school did this concept resurface. It wasn’t until after becoming a doctor, that, as if in a state of pure lucidity, a veil was lifted from my eyes and just like that, it clicked.
Imagine maneuvering through life in sinus rhythm until one day the conduction system in your life goes haywire, unfortunately for you there’s no one in the vicinity that knows how to resuscitate. Your only options are to give up or figure it out on your own. Life tests us in epic proportions, but as I always say, nothing is coincidence and through some of the darkest moments are some of the greatest triumphs and insights to be had beyond your wildest dreams. My journey of becoming a doctor has been the most humbling and trying experience of my life. Let’s just say, I could write a whole book on just that. Without question, practicing medicine is truly a lifelong commitment; an unconditional path of service, but no one ever prepares you for what’s on the other side of your medical degree. Unless you go through it, you have no idea what it entails. I could never have imagined putting everything on the line, years spent locked up in isolation, a quarter of a million dollars in debt, health, giving up relationships and time with family and friends, with the sole purpose of giving up my life for others, to then cross the finish line and rather than persevering as a practicing physician, find myself in numbing pain, lying breathless on the floor asking myself the question “why?”
A decision to take a year off after obtaining my medical degree would prove to be one that, like a domino effect, ultimately resulted in my life spiraling out of control. One week I was on top of the world; a strong, independent woman, achieving the career of my dreams to, as if in an instant, having the rug pulled out from under my feet, watching as if from the sidelines, my life go into absolute ruin. Week after week brought such incredible blows from financial strain, a car accident, family and relationship struggles, major health setbacks, sheer isolation, all the while the career I worked my whole life to achieve went into standby. Not only did I fall, I fell beyond that point. In my, what I sometimes refer to as my year of demise, I stumbled on a roadblock, one that would indefinitely leave a permanent mark on my life and reignite my passion and love for medicine unlike ever before. In Newtonian fashion, I got hit in the head; it’s in this monumental, life-altering moment that I finally understood, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” This brilliant roadblock was truly my life-raft. It’s in this moment that I learned that
Chronic disease may be reversed by eating a whole-food, unprocessed, plant-based, vegan diet.
Elated that I uncovered the most profound piece of medical knowledge that could virtually obliterate all chronic disease, and at the same time I was unbelievably irate that I had never learned this potentially life-saving information in medical school. How could this information be true? Bewildered and brimming with utter skepticism I feverishly dove into reading medical journals and research papers, attending medical conferences, reading books, documentaries, meeting experts, all surrounding the idea of using plant-based nutrition as medicine. The more I learned, the more I realized the more I needed to learn. I immersed myself into a full time career of studying plant-based nutrition, lifestyle medicine, integrative medicine, functional medicine, naturopathy, Ayurveda, herbalism, etc. I became obsessed…literally. The dots were connecting and for the first time since completing my medical degree, my ah ha moment unleashed. It was one of those “full-circle” scenarios. My mind, inflated with this new-found information, went into intense vision-mode.
Years of study lead me to truly acquire a deep understanding of the underpinnings, and as a result, the shortcomings of Western Medicine. Where allopathic medicine flourishes is in acute care such as emergency medicine, but where it falls short is in chronic disease management. If, at minimum, the field of Western Medicine regarded evidence-based studies on whole food, plant-based nutrition documented in some of the world’s most prestigious medical journals as fact, as well as its unparalleled ability to prevent, arrest and reverse most chronic illnesses including North America’s leading cause of death, coronary artery disease, we would drastically transform our ailing system. I mean, no drug in the world has the power to do this, but one simple lifestyle change does? Now that is power; one that may empower people to take responsibility for their own health outcome, which in the end, may dramatically alter rates of morbidity and mortality.
When we welcome evidence-based discoveries, and as a result we challenge the norm and resist conformity, we pave hope for new possibilities in medicine.
From a very young age, my parents’ decision to pack up our family’s life into just two suitcases, flee communism in Poland, seek refuge in Italy and start life anew overseas in Canada, the word sacrifice conceptualized itself in my life and became an inherent part of my nature. Over time, sacrifice evolved into two driving forces; compassion and empathy. Walking life’s path, I’ve quickly learned that these forces are not teachable in the traditional sense, but rather it’s through life’s challenges that these have cemented my core. Through my journey of becoming a physician, I’ve come to realize it’s these attributes that truly distinguishes a mediocre doctor, from a great doctor; one that represents the living definition of what it truly means to be a doctor, which in Latin means, to teach. Quintessential to the practice is ultimately to teach a patient to listen to their body in order to understand what it’s saying through various signs and symptoms. It’s also necessary to teach a patient about the workings of the human body, the process of homeostasis and the fact that the body has the capacity to heal itself. In my experience, I’ve come to learn that unfortunately western medicine is not constructed in such a way that makes teaching the patient central, nor conducive to the practice. Add to this, dwindling communication between patient and doctor, it becomes apparent that the so called patient-doctor relationship is simply lacking. Amidst distrust, fear, intimidation and so on, our society has, generally speaking, become indoctrinated in a sort of illusory “doctor knows best” mentality. Compounded by the measly five-minute diet and lifestyle consultation we’re taught to simply squeeze into the last part of a patient encounter, it’s no wonder patients are “lost” when it comes to understanding their health. Grasping at straws, patients turn to Dr. Google or other healthcare professionals for answers to their health-care needs. The culmination of these shortcomings have unfortunately caused many people to distrust the medical system and oftentimes, has led to more harm than good.
Based on all of my years of medical education and understanding evidence-based medical research, I strongly believe that a radical transformation of our current healthcare system is crucial.
Every medical doctor has an obligation to “Do no harm”
and as a result he or she should do everything in their power to uphold this vow including learning how to properly, safely and effectively formulate evidence-based healthy lifestyle recommendations, as well as learning how to convey this life-saving knowledge to their patients. In order to accomplish this, all doctors should be educated in the fundamentals of all other major forms of medicine, such as Integrative, Functional, Preventive, Lifestyle, etc., as well as other areas of health education such as herbalism. Rather than inadvertently forcing patients to turn to other health professionals, including but not limited to: health coaches, dietitians, nutritionists, nurses, health counsellors, etc., or non-credible sources of health information or rather, misinformation, unrivaled to any other job or career in health, a western trained medical doctor whose learned in all fields of medicine would bar none be the most proficient and reliable resource for any patient to turn to. Not to say that there is no role for these in medicine. These roles if anything, would actually become more of an asset to the field of medicine since the lines of communication and understanding between a doctor and these other healthcare professionals would actually strengthen, which in turn would ultimately result in better patient outcomes. Wouldn’t it be nice if your doctor knew the basis of using certain herbs, or how to reduce inflammation in your body using food as medicine, or have the knowledge to discuss your exercise regimen with you? What if your doctor talked to you about the root cause of disease, rather than focus primarily on your symptoms and send you off with a “Band-Aid” drug as I like to call it? Wouldn’t you want to know about alternative options to drugs or perhaps lower doses of drugs used in conjunction with acupuncture for instance? How would you like it if your doctor spent time speaking to you about your healthy lifestyle habits and what you could do to prevent from getting ill in the first place?
The evolution of medicine is undoubtedly necessary, but it cannot be accomplished if all we do is continue to create new disciplines, subspecialties and labels in medicine, especially when it involves prevention and lifestyle transformation. Why do we need a subspecialty called Preventive, Integrative, Functional or Lifestyle Medicine? In my experience, these are extremely similar in terms of their focus.
We should instead begin to explore the unification of all major branches of medicine and call it simply…Medicine.
This interdisciplinary approach is the future of Medicine. Having doctors who are educated in medical school about prevention and, not Lifestyle Medicine per-say, but rather what I call, teaching people how to use lifestyle as medicine would inarguably revolutionize the field. Furthermore, viewing medicine in this way would create inclusivity of the patient on their personal journey to health and in doing so, could potentially inspire them to take responsibility of their own health, rather than seek aid from the doctor to simply just “fix them.”
In order to revolutionize medicine and transform the health of humanity both on a personal and system-wide basis, we must first begin by simply changing the lens in which we view medicine. Throughout my years of study post-medical school, as well as in the application of my knowledge working to help people transform their lifestyles, I began to see patterns emerge. Seeing people suffering from lifelong severe chronic disease get well via my lifestyle recommendations, brought life back to my soul; a feeling I always envisioned I would be rewarded with as a doctor practicing medicine under the umbrella of traditional allopathic care. It is then that I created what I believe is the answer to our medical system crisis.
A simplified approach to medicine that incorporates 5 principles of using Lifestyle as Medicine: Mind, Body, Social Support, Environmental Impacts and Whole Food Plant-Based Nutrition.
It is in this all- encompassing manner that all evidence-based disciplines of medicine could be incorporated under one practice rather than segregating prevention-focused specialties from each other. The principle of Mind incorporates all aspects of health and medicine involving one’s psychological, mental and emotional wellbeing, so for instance a focus on stress or trauma. The Body principle involves medicine focused on physical wellbeing, so what you’d find beyond the physical exam; anything from establishing an understanding of the underlying cause of disease, to ordering more comprehensive vitamin and mineral analyses, to physical activity and sleep education. The next principle of Social Support entails formulating personalized prescriptions to enhance one’s social network, since research shows that this is crucial to living not only a long, but healthy lifespan. The principle of Environmental Impacts is unfortunately often overlooked in many of the prevention-focused subspecialties in medicine. It’s here that a thorough investigation and/or analyses should be constructed in order to circumvent potential environmental threats to one’s body. For instance, a discussion could be had regarding mold or endocrine disruptor exposure. Last, but most certainly not least, is the principle of Whole Food Plant-Based Nutrition. What the world’s healthiest diets seem to agree on is that they are predominantly plant-based, centralized around eating more vegetables, fruit, whole grains and legumes, while reducing the consumption of animal fats and sodium. There is however a “diet” or rather what I refer to, a lifestyle, that seems to beat out each and every one of them and the only one that has been scientifically proven to reverse the leading cause of death in the US, the Whole Food Plant-Based Lifestyle. Application of simply just this one principle has the power to prevent, treat and reverse the vast majority of chronic diseases. Now that is medicine. In 2016, ingrained in scientific evidence, I created the world’s first ever comprehensive
Whole Food Plant-Based Nutrition Food Pyramid
with the sincere hope to ease and simplify the transition into this lifestyle. I say, if it doesn’t yet exist, then make it! Truly, it’s this type of mindset that’s needed for the evolution of anything really.
As the saying goes, “practice what you preach,” by putting all of my knowledge into practice, I began using myself as a sort of “guinea pig” and started implementing each and every one of these principles, most notably Whole Food Plant-Based Nutrition. Throughout my life I suffered from various different health ailments and diagnoses from cystic acne all the way through until my late 20’s, migraines, chronic constipation for over fifteen years, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Fibromyalgia-like symptoms, depression, anxiety, weight-gain, obsession with weight that turned into a binge eating disorder, Yo-Yo dieting, Gastrointestinal Reflux Disease (GERD), excruciatingly painful menses diagnosed as Endometriosis, fibrocystic breast disease, cervical inflammation, inflamed appendix to finding an enlarged lymph node in my neck.
Let me tell you, never underestimate the power of one lifestyle change. Within weeks, one symptom after the next started to disappear and after almost 1 year my medical problems completely resolved! Fluctuating from 30 to 40 pounds overweight, inflamed and sick, to now thin, vibrant, thriving and healthy.
What’s incredible is that for the first time in my life I was able to keep the weight off, while maintaining my health. No deprivation, no food obsession; rather than a diet this was truly a sustainable lifestyle change. A common misconception in health and medicine is that simply because someone is skinny, muscular and toned then they must be in great health. Don’t let the illusion fool you. In fact, the time in my life whereby I was the most physically fit was during my time at university, studying my first degree, Kinesiology. Learning and understanding the science of human movement, form and function, as well as nutrition, prevention, behavioral and holistic health, naturally I implemented everything I learned. On the outside I was the pillar of health, but on the inside, I was still suffering with chronic constipation, IBS and so many other health problems, all the while becoming incredibly dependent on laxatives.
I know what true health is first-hand and it’s not what we see being advertised in the world of Instagram or online. True heath emanates from the inside out. Put that on Instagram! It takes pain, trial and error and above all, knowledge, to really discern what it takes to be truly healthy.
The time has come.
We need to redefine medicine and what it means to be healthy.
May my visionary approach challenge the medical system to embrace this radical change. As a doctor, I have never felt more certain about the meaning of True Health and my sincere hope is that my words may serve as a catalyst to transform the field and the health of humanity.
