Andrea's Story

I had surgery to remove two large cysts on my ovaries. After the initial relief that the cysts were benign, I had to deal with severe pain so excruciating I thought I was going to die.  My doctor ran tests to find the cause and I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I was put on medication to help treat it and told there was no cure.

I spent the next two years on prescriptions of Lyrica and Ambien. Cymbalta was also prescribed, which I stopped taking after a few days because I couldn't tolerate the side effects. The prescription drugs brought temporary relief, but as soon as they wore off, the pain returned. I was taking two to three Ambien at night just to fall asleep. I could no longer stand feeling controlled by meds, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. What did I have to lose? I began my own inquiry into alternative healing and natural health.

I learned the importance of eating organic, whole foods, and why I needed to reduce my consumption of meat and dairy. For someone who loved Big Macs and Arby's beef-n-cheddar, I can say making this switch wasn't easy. I decided not to follow another fad diet, but commit instead to a new way of life. I read Eat To Live and completely changed my diet to following the Nutritarian program. I ordered and downloaded Dr. Fuhrman's eating plan, and now I base my meals on what I learned from him. This has completely changed my life!

I used to eat the typical standard American diet. I lived on fast food, soda, and coffee during college. I was popping five to six ibuprofen a day to deal with the pain. I didn't get much sleep and was under a lot of stress. I never became severely overweight, but definitely packed on an extra fifteen to twenty pounds during this time. I would binge diet, trying every new fad that came along.

It is this same (SAD) kind of diet, consisting of a lot of meat and processed foods that I believe contributed to my parents getting cancer, and my grandfather losing his life to cancer. In their early fifties, both my parents were diagnosed with cancer within a couple years of each other. It was very difficult to see them go through surgery and treatments for this horrific disease. This was a huge wake-up call me for me. I was desperate to learn more about the role our diet plays in our health. Could changing the way I eat help improve my symptoms and prevent me from following in my parent's footsteps? During the next several years, I learned from extensive reading and from my own experiences, that the answer was a resounding yes!

I started to notice improvements almost immediately. I haven't been sick, really sick, in years since I started eating and living the Nutritarian way.  I rarely experience the muscle pain I used to constantly endure. Even if I start to get a sore throat, it clears up in days before ever turning into anything serious. I used to be sick all of the time with chronic colds and urinary tract infections (UTI).  And for the first time in many years, I feel like I'm living in a 35 year olds body, not a very old body.