A physician and nutrition expert who teaches better health through vegetarian cuisine, John A. McDougall, MD has been studying, writing, and speaking out about the effects of nutrition on disease for over 30 years. Dr. John and Mary McDougall believe that people should look and feel great for a lifetime. Unfortunately, many people unknowingly compromise their health through poor dietary habits.
Dr. McDougall is the founder and director of the nationally renowned McDougall Program: a ten-day residential program that he and Mary McDougall host at a luxury resort in Santa Rosa, CA where medical miracles occur through diet and lifestyle changes. In addition to her formal training as a nurse, Mary McDougall provides many of the delicious recipes that make the McDougall Program not only possible, but also a pleasure. Dr. McDougall has cared for thousands of patients for almost 3 decades. His program not only promotes a broad range of dramatic and lasting health benefits but, most importantly, can also reverse serious illnesses including high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and others, all without the use of drugs.
A graduate of Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine, Dr. McDougall performed his internship at Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and his medical residency at the University of Hawaii. He is certified as an internist by the Board of Internal Medicine and the National Board of Medical Examiners. He and Mary are also the authors of several nationally best-selling books as well as the co-founders of Dr. McDougall’s Right Foods, which produces high quality vegetarian cuisine to make it easier for people to eat well on the go.
McDougall Books (Available at Libraries, Bookstores & through McDougall’s web site) □ The Starch Solution – Groundbreaking eating plan that challenges the notion that starch is unhealthy! (100 recipes) □ Dr. McDougall’s Digestive Tune-up. □ The McDougall Program - 12 Days to Dynamic Health (100 recipes) □ The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss (100 recipes) □ The New McDougall Cookbook (300 recipes) □ The McDougall Quick & Easy Coo
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Worldwide headlines were released on September 11, 2015, through the general media (newspapers, Internet, radio, and TV), about benefits derived from more aggressively treating high blood pressure (hypertension) with drugs. This news was based on the unpublished SPRINT trial: a randomized clinical trial of over 9,000 Americans, 50 years and older with high blood pressure, and an increased risk for heart and/or kidney disease. Half the participants were given a blood pressure target of 120 mmHg systolic pressure (top number) and the other half were given a target of 140 mmHg. An average of 3 kinds of antihypertensive medications were needed to reach the lower target goal (120 mmHg), whereas, only 2 drugs achieved the higher target (140 mmHg). The new target of 120 mmHg was publicized to reduce the rate of heart attacks, heart failure, and stroke by 30%, and cardiovascular deaths by 25%. (Likely, these figures are relative risk reductions, rather than absolute reductions, which means the perception of benefit is greatly exaggerated.)
This news release was bold, unusual, and improper because no evidence, statistics, or other information necessary to evaluate the clinical worthiness of these findings was simultaneously released. The scientific data required to independently assess the value of the SPRINT study will not be fully available until 2017; however, the practice of medicine has been changed, today, with this news. Drug companies have directly funded many of the people and organizations involved in the SPRINT study, yet no conflicts of interest have been reported that could point to strong financial biases.
One undeniable result of this media campaign to have physicians prescribe more pills is to bring tens of billions of dollars to the pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, physicians, emergency rooms, and hospitals will experience financial gains from initiating more treatment, and the side effects that always follow. There has been nothing in the news releases about the potential harms of treating to a lower target of 120 mm Hg. Past research has shown that aggressive treatment of blood pressure with medications increases the risk of stroke, heart attacks, and death.