"I had severe inflammation and pain due to rheumatoid arthritis. That's what the rheumatologist called it, but I don't think she really knew for sure. I wasn't able to function properly; I couldn't exercise; and when I got up in the morning I had to hold onto the furniture just to walk. Everything took twice as long to do because of the pain.

The rheumatologist prescribed shots that I had to administer to myself at home twice a week, and the shots weren't even working. That's when I drew the line and chose another alternative.

I followed the nutritional plan that Dr. Mercola and the nutritionists in his office suggested strictly for five weeks. I was referred to him by a co-worker who had very good results as well. She was constantly getting colds and flu whenever anyone around her had them. Now it's been a year and a half since she's been sick.

My daily plan involved eliminating grains and sugars, increasing vegetables (organic) to three pounds, eating three raw eggs, and drinking 32 ounces of vegetable juice, plus lots of water.

I noticed changes after the first couple of weeks. I didn't really believe that simply changing the type of foods I was eating would make a difference, but I'm sure a believer now.

As a result of following Dr. Mercola's program two main things changed. First of all, I could barely walk when I went to Dr. Mercola's office. I'm 36 years old and that was just not acceptable to me. The second thing is that I was on three different medications (Enbrel shots twice a week, prednisone (for pain), and hypertension medicine).

The results are astounding to me. I followed the nutritional plan strictly, and over two months time I weaned myself off of all of the medication I was taking. I am now able to walk, exercise (roller blade, bike), and I am medicine-free, including the blood pressure medicine that I had been on for 12 years.

I believe that my pain was a combination of the food I was eating and emotional stress, and the EFT sessions that I had did have an impact. I intend on continuing EFT on my own, because I still have slight pain from time to time, and I believe that it will definitely help.

At first, I was frustrated at how much time it was taking me to cut up and prepare meals (dinner, lunch, juice, etc.) each evening (two to three hours). Now when I go to the grocery store, I do a lot of the cutting up of vegetables right away and store them in zip-loc bags. This way I can quickly gather the necessary ingredients for salads and juice without having to do all of the cutting each time.

The main thing to understand is that this is a major LIFE change. People need to make sure they are committed and are willing to incorporate these changes for LIFE. I'm thankful for my pain for one reason: it made me dive into the plan 100 percent and I was able to see the impact that it had on me. Had I not had the pain, I may not have been as religious."

-- Donna Mitchell
Island Lake, IL

"Prior to seeing Dr. Mercola I had gone to see another doctor who at the time had put me on two different medicines for diabetes (a medicine for high blood pressure and another for a thyroid problem). After taking the medications my blood sugar was still around 160, I wasn’t getting anywhere with my thyroid problem, my blood pressure was still elevated, and the doctor wanted to put me on a cholesterol medicine. I began to come to the realization that once I was put on all of these prescriptions I would never be getting off of them, it was a never-ending battle.

My wife, who had found Dr. Mercola’s Web site, had been pushing me to go see him for two years, but I put if off for as long as possible since I guessed from reading the Web site that if I did go it would mean a real commitment on my part and I would have to change my lifestyle and diet drastically. But when my previous doctor put me on cholesterol medicine, that was the last straw--I agreed to go see Dr. Mercola.

As I had expected it was a total change of diet but at this point I was willing to tackle the change in order to get my health back on line. It was either that or totally give up and resign myself to being on all kinds of prescriptions for the rest of my life and continue on that downward path to poor health. The first things Dr. Mercola had me do was stop taking the high blood pressure medicine, stop eating all grains, sugars and anything that would turn into sugar, begin juicing vegetables each day, add raw eggs and unpasteurized (raw) milk to my diet and begin to walk daily. He told me that once you cut the grains and carbohydrates from your diet you lose your appetite for them. Because of this it was not as difficult to stay on this diet as it sounded initially. You can make some delicious meals with all the vegetables you want and all the meat that you need. Plus, with the help of Dr. Mercola’s cookbook the program is easy to stay on.

The program has made a major difference in my health to say the least. I have now been on this program for seven months, and I have lost 70 pounds, most of which I lost in the first four months. I also dropped three pant sizes and two shirt sizes. At my next visit with Dr. Mercola, everything was looking so much better that the doctor took me off the diabetes medicines. Since then my blood sugar has stayed between 81 and 93. The last time I had my blood pressure taken it was textbook perfect, my thyroid problem no longer exists and my cholesterol has dropped into a normal range.

Since making these changes I have become more active, have more energy and have been increasing my exercise program."

--William Doehler
Streator, IL