Heart & Soul

I have a splitting headache, I’m starving and I feel just a little bit crazy. No, I’m not the victim of a major PMS attack. I’m getting healthy—or so that’s the promise of the good folks at the Hippocrates Institute, one of the nation’s oldest natural healing programs. A fully cleansed body, obtained after weeks on an all-vegan, all-raw diet is the key to great health they say. But if you’re a coffee-drinking, red wine-loving, lamb-chop eating “foodie” like me, they warn you to get a head start on the detox at least a week before you arrive on Hippocrates’ hallowed ground. So I have given up my own beloved seven deadly sins: caffeine, alcohol, meat, sugar, salt, fat and flour-based anything (especially pound cake). If this was the path to good health, it was going to be a very long three weeks.

Why submit to such torture? Simple: Middle-age and genetics were kicking my butt. Specifically, the diverticulitis (a painful and potentially debilitating colon disorder) that plagued my parents had suddenly attacked me, along with painful fibrocystic breasts, and my cholesterol and weight were climbing. My four workouts a week and handful of supplements each day were doing absolutely nothing. Western medicine also had nothing to offer me except pills and surgery (the colon) someday. I was determined to avoid that fate, but I knew I needed help.

Where Miracles Happen
I arrived at Hippocrates’ West Palm Beach campus—a lush few acres of Florida jungle dotted with odd, little cottages—feeling slightly better. I quickly learned:
l. This was no luxury spa; the program began with doctor’s appointments and many guests were battling cancer and other ailments.
2. They were not kidding. Lunch was 80 percent sprouts, but surprisingly delicious.
3. I was not alone.

The staff was warm and knowledgeable, as were many of my fellow guests. As we shared lecture notes and tips for chugging wheatgrass over the next few days, many of us—including me—would find great, new friends.

The banner over Hippocrates’ front door reminds you that miracles are possible. The Institute’s director of operations, Scott Josephson, R.D., explains why. “I have seen people come here with fibromyalgia who could not walk, but they walked out of here after completing the program,” he says. “We have had people report metastatic cancers that have regressed for a year. These are daily occurrences here.” Yet Hippocrates’ Institute directors, Brian Clement, Ph.D., and Anne Clement, Ph.D., stop short of claiming to cure illness. The program, which is based on the discoveries of founder Ann Wigmore, a woman who healed her colon cancer with wheatgrass and raw foods, is designed to help the body achieve a healthy acid/alkaline balance that many health experts think is the optimum environment for healing. This is achieved by taking daily doses of wheatgrass, organic green juices and eating raw, living (sprout-based) foods, accompanied by a range of non-invasive therapies to improve mental and physical health. “We are an educational institution,” Josephson explains. “We give people the tools to heal themselves.”

A Theory Tested by Time
There is little research to explain exactly how Hippocrates’ 50-year-old program (hippocratesinst.org) works for so many people, including many who return often to shore up their health. Several small studies do suggest that a raw, vegan diet will improve heart health, lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels and help you lose weight. Another recent study from the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at Oxford found people who eat a vegan diet are 45 percent less likely to get blood cancers and 12 percent less likely to get cancer overall. Anecdotally, I can attest to the program’s power. At least two of my fellow guests saw dramatic changes in seven days. One, a diabetic for decades, was off insulin for the first time in years. Another, a young woman with multiple sclerosis who arrived leaning heavily on a cane at all times, rose without it and walked to me to hug me goodbye.

I got my miracle, too. My diverticulitis is in full retreat. My stomach had been on fire after nearly every meal for months; I am now pain free. My fibrocysctic breast pain is gone as well, as are many of the cysts themselves. As a bonus, after two weeks on the plan, I lost 12 pounds and a few points of cholesterol. I have no more headaches, and I feel wonderful and energetic. I left Hippocrates with a new way of life and the firm belief that we are our own best medicine. Give your body what it needs and it will do its best to heal itself.

Sheree Crute is a Heart & Soul contributing editor based in New York City.