Chapter 1 — Beginning of the End
Dr. Jack Goldstein was born in 1930 in Detroit, Michigan, and now resides in Oak Park, Michigan. He attended Wayne State University in Detroit, and received his D.P M. (Doctor of Podiatric Medicine) degree, with honors, in 1952 from the Illinois College of Podiatric Medicine in Chicago. After serving with the army in Korea during the Korean War, 1953-1954, he began private practice of podiatry and foot surgery in 1954, and is currently practicing in Livonia, Michigan. He is a member of the Michigan State Podiatry Association, the American Podiatry Association, and the American Association of Hospital Podiatrists. He is also a member of the National Health Federation, Consumers For Pure Food, and is on the board of directors of Americans United To Combat Fluoridation. He is a member of the American Natural Hygiene Society and has served on its board of directors and is currently president of the Society. He has lectured throughout the United States and Canada and has appeared on many local and national radio and television programs.
Nature understands no jesting. She is always true, always serious, always severe. She is always right and the errors are always those of man. She despises the man incapable of appreciating her, and only to the apt, the pure and the true does she reveal her secrets.
GOETHE
My dear friend, Carol Leib, who introduced me to the right path; My dear friends, Dr. and Mrs. Robert Gross, both of whom guided me along that path, picked me up when I was down, helped me when I needed it and showed such an understanding and compassion toward me that there was no other way but to recover; and my dear wife and soulmate, Corinne, whose encouragement, optimism, persistence, nagging (Thank God!), devotion and understanding enabled me to take the path. She gave me the strength to go on.
My book is a result of the efforts of these people. It is an experience in living--an enlightenment.
It does not have an ending, because it is a beginning!
The story you are about to read may seem unreal, exaggerated, and even unbelievable. But whether you like it or not and whether you believe it or not, this is the way it happened. It is truth--every word of it!
Truth is, in fact, stranger than fiction!
Certainly there is a need for qualified surgeons, emergency care physicians, etc. There are times when surgery is necessary as well as the use of life-saving techniques and drugs. There is also, because of removal or non-functioning of the thyroid, pancreas, or various other glands, the necessity for the substitution of these secretions, the lack of which would result in death.
A doctor is also a teacher; yet how many patients, all of whom have the God-given right to knowledge about their bodies, are ever taught by their doctors the function of their bodies. It seems that the function of one's body is kept secret--a mystery. Why? So many people have told me they've gone to their doctor only to come away with such instructions as, "Get this prescription filled and take the medicine as directed."
People are not taught basic prevention of disease (which, as far as I'm concerned, is the raison d'etre of the medical profession), but are taught to expect disease as they get older and to "learn to live with it." But good health is normal and there should be no compromise.
Many of the health problems of today are the result of apathy, lack of interest, lack of knowledge, and a disrespect and misunderstanding of the marvelous innate and built-in wisdom and needs of the human body.
Most people today want instant cure. They don't care how or why they became sick. They just go to their doctor and say, "Doctor, I'm sick. Cure me!" It just cannot work. The body must of necessity eventually break down when it is neverendingly poisoned with drugs. When the doctor tries to improve upon nature, it's the patient who takes the risk.
It is indeed a strange "science" which teaches us that substances (drugs), which make us, sick when we are well should be taken when we are sick to make us well.
Nature is slow. It takes years to cultivate ill health because the body can take much abuse, but it also may take years to undo all the damage heaped upon the body by "normal" living. Nature is slow, but nature is sure. One must have patience, knowledge, and understanding.
People have a right to know that there is another approach to health; and this is the purpose of my book. The story can apply to anyone, and anyone can identify and relate to the story. My particular disease is not important; rather it could be almost any other disease, afflicting anyone.
My story depicts the gradual downfall, deterioration, and hopelessness of a person under medical care, with reasons why it happened, and the dramatic recovery when a plan of living was followed (after abandoning the medical gamut) which is in harmony with natural physiologic laws as applied to the human being.
You will learn what is good for your body and what is bad for your body. You will learn a way of living that will enable you and your children to enjoy life--a life of simplicity, free of complication, a life abounding in physical and mental well-being, a life filled with something most people do not seem to enjoy--HEALTH.
Therefore, this book is dedicated to the untold thousands of people who have suffered, are suffering, and may suffer in the future, regardless whether it is ulcerative colitis or another disease, in the hope I can share an experience that could end their suffering, prevent future suffering, and let them enjoy their birthright--vibrant health.
It is my fervent desire that, after you have read this book, those of you who have health will understand how to maintain it; those of you have lost health will understand how to regain it; and those of you who have never had health will have learned how to experience it.
After all, what good is life without health?
