Reversing Osteoporosis

Dear Dr. Diehl,

In 2017, at the age of 66, I attended your Lifestyle Medicine lecture on “Reversing Lifestyle-related Common Killer Diseases” at Loma Linda University where my husband was a prostate patient.

Inspired, I moved towards the recommended plant-based whole food diet, which I have followed – coached and supported by your books Health Power and the Optimal Diet Cookbook.

A year later, when I was diagnosed with the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis, you helped me to better understand how diet and exercise could have a powerful therapeutic effect on this disease. You told me what to do, and I followed your instructions to the “T”.

Aside from a diet with a focus on foods-as-grown with plenty of Fruits and Vegetables, Whole Grains and Legumes, some Nuts and Seeds, and plenty of Water, I began to exercise every day. I have been using the treadmill, running two miles, and walking 3 to 4 miles averaging 50 miles a week.

Today I received the results of my bone scan, over the last three years:

• my lumbar spine bone density increased 9.4%

• my hip bone density increased 6.3%

And this was achieved without any over-the-counter or prescription drugs, or any calcium supplements. Your lifestyle medicine approach has changed the direction of the trajectory of my bone density: I am reversing osteoporosis! 

I am so grateful for the privilege of hearing your lectures while my husband and I were at the Loma Linda University Medical Center some four years ago. We are facing the future with assurance and optimism because we know now what to do and what works.

—Lyn Schneyder, July 29, 2021

“I’m a new woman!”

"I joined CHIP 7 years ago with a weight of 302 lbs. Losing weight consistently for the first time ever was something that I had not done before. But it gradually came down with the new CHIP eating pattern and with fairly regular exercise. And despite many challenges, I have been able to keep it at around 175 lbs. A new woman! I am not yet at the weight that I dream about but I am jubilant over my success so far."

—from Ohio

THE CAT CAME BACK

Sid Kettner, MD (Creston, B.C., Canada)

They came for a variety of reasons but finished the last Creston Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) with the same experience—success. One came because her father had come to the first CHIP program ever conducted anywhere. Our little town of 5,000 had embraced Dr. Diehl’s successful CHIP health seminars in 1988, and this family’s life had been changed forever. When seeing the dramatic improvement in the health and vitality of their dad, three of the four children followed his new healthy lifestyle of diet, exercise and stress control. Now she wished to take the course herself as a “tune up” and to honor and “show off” her father, who still is very fit and active at 80 plus.

Another lady came to lose weight so she would be accepted for knee replacement surgery. She had not been successful on her current fitness course. She was happy with the loss she experienced with CHIP. She was equally impressed with the wonderful food and gracious staff, especially when they came in one morning to re-show the video, she had missed because of the cataract surgery she had undergone that week.

A nurse came because her blood sugars were relentlessly going up despite increasing doses of oral meds and insulin. She also appreciated the staff coming in an extra morning to re-show the video on diabetes that she had missed because of a death in her family. Her blood sugar dropped by more than 50% and she had to see her physician to cut back her insulin, after just five days of getting introduced to the CHIP program.

A physician and his wife, a nurse who is qualified to deal with post heart attack, stent and coronary bypass surgical patients, came out of some curiosity and the desire to support one of his patients. Both were amazed at how they personally lost weight and gained energy so quickly. She claimed to have learned more about heart disease prevention, recovery and reversal with CHIP than with her cardiac rehab training course. She sang CHIP’s praises at her service club and offered to co-facilitate the next program. Her husband plans to promote the program to the Interior Health Authority of British Columbia. He wants to work with a committee to see if partial sponsorships could be obtained for those patients who desperately need it. She made a special phone call to us while on business in Vancouver, to tell us how excited she was. She had tried to buy a new pair of slacks since she couldn’t hold her present ones up with a belt any longer! She found out she had dropped two full sizes and ended her text with an ecstatic, “Yeehaw! I just LOVE how I feel!”

An extremely obese lady was referred by her physician. She had been depressed for years, and she was not motivated to lose weight or to exercise. To top it off, she was a chronic smoker as well. However, after only 3 CHIP presentations she quit nicotine. She started to exercise, with a few hundred steps per day first, and then gradually increasing that routine. In addition, it did not take her long to recognize the importance of reducing her meat consumption to get her cholesterol and weight down. And before long, she had cut out her meat entirely. She lost 13 pounds in the first 4 weeks, typically walks 3-5 miles daily now and clocked up to 6.5 miles. Recently she added an additional 2.5 miles just going up and down a ladder to wash the walls of her house. Talk about motivation! Two weeks before the end of the program, she had lost 23 pounds and was going for the final 2 pounds of her goal—which she wrote on her initial evaluation form. She was indeed up to the challenge. Her self-esteem shot up, she walked to all the sessions, she became happy, always smiling. And each evening she seem to be lingering to chat with the staff about the exciting changes she was noticing on an almost daily basis.

One elderly lady, seemingly very, came for reasons unknown to the CHIP staff. How could her health be improved? We found out she had been a vegetarian since age six when her parents divorced. The father kept the farm with the cows, the pigs and all the rifles for hunting wild game—along with two sons. The mother found a small place with a garden plot, kept the other son and this young girl. They survived on growing some tobacco for cash and lots of vegetables for food. They couldn’t afford to live “high on the hog” (or the beef, dairy and wild meat) like the other half of the family. The only meat she knew as a child was the occasional squirrel or rabbit they got when “the cat came back” from his hunting trips around their neighborhood! Sadly, her father and two older brothers, who dined on meat and shunned their vegetables. died in their late fifties of heart attacks. She and her younger brother are enjoying great health and are full of vitality in their eighties. She just wanted to attend the CHIP program to find out if she was on the right track with her life-long eating habits. What a gal!

Five people ended up losing between 20-25 pounds, and that was over 10 weeks. Others, of course, lost less, but all are thrilled with the pounds that came off so easily—without any dieting. They ate lots of food, were not hungry and just formed a new habit of choosing the best food for their overall health and welfare.

The CHIP program got its start in Creston 32 years ago. It has now spread to a number of continents with over 85,000 grateful graduates. We are planning to have our next program once the COVID-19 allows us to gather and intermingle again. There will be 18 sessions, over a period of 10 weeks. There will be lectures, food preparation demonstrations, gourmet breakfasts and food to be sampled at each session. There are programs of exercise and stress control as well as group discussions and personalized advice. Yet all graduates will be referred back to their own physician with reports of biometrics and with the hope of having better health with supervised medication reduction. Monthly, free follow-up programs occur for as long as the graduate wishes with continued healthy meals, entertainment and medical PowerPoint lectures by local health providers. For more info go to CHIPhealth.com and to register (limited to 30 participants).

Letter from a CHIP Graduate

After finishing the CHIP program, a recent graduate wrote this and addressed it to the CHIP facilitator.

"Thank you so very much!  You have no idea how much I needed this program!  I’ve been in a downward spiral since my precious little grandson, Noah, passed away!  I didn’t care about anything any longer because I was so wrapped up in my grief!  I was in a far worse place than you could even imagine!  And yet, through attending the CHIP program and meeting your fabulous team, I began to realize how much I have to live for as I thought about  my other grandson, namely Noah’s younger brother!  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!"

M.A.R. (March 2020)

And here it is in verse:

No class tonight and I am so sad!

The CHIP program is over and that’s too bad.

But I’ve done well and I’m so very proud.

I’ll sing it from the rooftops, joyfully and loud.

At last, I found support that I’ve needed so much

With encouragement, prayer and the gentle touch.

From a team that I know cared so deeply for me,

Who gave their support so unstintingly and free.

The food samples, videos, the handouts and more!

I felt welcomed and loved as I walked in the door.

I renewed old friendships and met new friends as well.

I learned many new tricks from the stories they tell.

I applaud the leader, the team and that great staff

That brought me from darkness and lighted my path.

From high blood sugar and pressure taking its toll,

But now I’m on a new track--with good health my goal!

Turn Around in New Zealand

This report from Lydia W.

Dear Dr Diehl

I'm overjoyed! For the first time in 60 years I am now at my normal (ideal) weight for my height: 138 lbs! Please take a look at my pictures:

• 2012--at my biggest weight: 308 lbs (140 kg)

• 2013--at 270 lbs (123 kg), one year after getting into CHIP

• 2019 (January)--176 lbs (80 kg)

• #2019 (November)--138 lbs (63 kg)

I'm now at the lowest weight I've ever been as an adult. After having been a diabetic for 22 years, my physician gradually took me off my diabetes medications (insulin injections and 2,000 mgs of Metformin). My blood sugar levels are now totally normal (below 125 mg/dL), and with my long distance vision dramatically improved, my optometrist had to give me new glasses. Most reassuringly, my physician announced that in spite of my long standing diabetes, the clinical results of my liver and kidney tests were within the normal range.

With all that big weigh loss over time, and after living in black colors most of my life, now I like to wear bright colors, and I have been wearing shorts for the first time ever last January (picture #3).

After trying so hard in losing weight and getting my diabetes under control, I found my answers by changing my lifestyle. I shifted to a simple diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and lots of unrefined starchy foods. That meant lots of whole grains, roots and plenty of beans --all very low in fat, sugar and calories, yet high in fiber and nutrients. At the same time I set aside 60 minutes a day for walking and some gym time for toning and flexibility.

I was fortunate that I could augment Dr. Diehl's program with 35 free sessions on line of the Mastering Diabetes program. It also promoted a strict very low fat diet centered on plant-based whole foods.

Spiritually, I have grown by leaps and bounds. My middle name "Joy" is being set free as God deals with past lies, shame and judgment. Sometime soon, I will be hosting a NEW ME dinner program to share my joys of moving towards complete health. The dinner, of course, will be CHIP-style. Ever so grateful for the investment you made in my life.