Doctor reverses autoimmune disease with diet
HOUSTON - A doctor reversed her own disease through diet and nutrition, and now she is helping patients across the country do the same. She says they're tossing-out medications and replacing them with fruits and vegetables.
Dr. Brooke Goldner is a busy mom, best-selling author, and on a mission to help others reverse disease, like she did.
"I actually lived with lupus for 12 years, which is an autoimmune disease, and I had kidney failure and blood clots, mini-strokes, and 16 years ago, I changed my diet. I gave up all the cheese I was addicted to, I started eating a plant-based diet, lots of salads, green smoothies, all that stuff that scares most people away, but I started doing that. And for 16 years, I have been Lupus-free, normal blood tests, I've had two kids, normal kidneys, so this really changed the way I understood disease and practice medicine," says Dr. Goldner.
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The dramatic shift in her health prompted Dr. Goldner to set out on a mission to give others the same chance. She explains many diseases boil down to what genes we're born with.
"All of us have a genetic component to whatever illnesses we might get, whether it's high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, or autoimmune diseases. What people don't understand fully yet is how much power we have over gene expression," says Dr. Goldner.
She says that means a few lifestyle changes can often prevent bad genes from turning into disease.
"Most of us aren't walking around with a little book of our genome. Every little thing that we might have, we might get, but it's interesting that most genes for disease are actually triggered by the same things. I mean, when you look at it, stress and sleep and diet- those are the main factors that actually influence the expression of many different genes, including ones for cancer, heart disease, and autoimmune disease," explains Dr. Goldner.
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Autoimmune diseases are on the rise at an alarming rate in other parts of the world that have taken on our western diet.
"So high animal products, meat, dairy and high processed foods, fast foods, that as people around the world are eating a diet more like ours, they are now getting higher and higher levels of autoimmune diseases as well," states Dr. Goldner. It all goes back to: we truly are what we eat. Studies show most people are deficient in minerals.
"Where do minerals come from? Those green, leafy vegetables growing out of the soil. A lot of people will use them as a garnish but not eat them as a meal. I really recommend that people start introducing those foods even if you haven't given up the stuff that's making you sick, you can start introducing more of the foods that will assist yourself and repairing themselves, which is going to be more fresh vegetables, fruits, unprocessed grains are not harmful in any way. You want to throw in some quinoa into your salad, if you want to add beans and things like that, none of those things are inflammatory," says Dr. Goldner.
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You don't have to look far to find other researchers who agree about the benefits of eating a high plant-based diet, with articles coming out of Baylor College of Medicine, the National Library of Medicine, and Harvard Medical School. Research from Columbia University shows plant-based diets are also linked to lower risk of severe COVID-19 and even helping people suffering from long-haul symptoms.
Dr. Goldner also highly suggests we all eat more omega 3's, like flax seeds and chia seeds plus drink more water. She wrote three best-selling books to help people reverse autoimmune disease.
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