Cleveland Surgeon Wins Benjamin Spock Award for Compassion
in Medicine
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Benjamin Spock, M.D. |
This April, PCRM established the Benjamin Spock
Award for Compassion in Medicine. Its first recipient is Cleveland
surgeon Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr.
Benjamin Spock, M.D., the most trusted pediatrician of all
time, was a tireless and courageous advocate for children and
families throughout his long career. At a time when most parents
were in awe of doctors, Spock and his best-selling Common
Sense Book of Baby and Child Care assured them that they—the
parents—were the true experts on their own children. The prevailing
wisdom of the day, for example, warned parents not to console
crying children; Spock countered that affection would only make
children happier and more secure. His guidance was delivered
in a friendly, reassuring, and down-to-earth manner completely
at odds with the cold authoritarianism of the time.
Later in his life, Spock became a vocal political activist
and a vigorous advocate for a healthy diet. As a member of PCRM’s
advisory board, he called for sweeping reforms of federal food
policy and helped publicize the links between cow’s milk and
type 1 diabetes. He will remain a source of inspiration for generations
to come.
Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D.
Benjamin
Spock Award Recipient
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| Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D. |
Dr. Esselstyn was a tremendously successful surgeon at the Cleveland
Clinic, one of the top-ranked medical centers in the world, when
he first began questioning the traditional approach to disease.
During his chairmanship of a breast cancer task force, he began
thinking about Western medicinefs focus on diagnosis and treatment
rather than prevention. It became clear to him that the American
diet was largely responsible for heart disease and many cancers
that are common in North America but infrequent in other parts
of the world.
Since then, Dr. Esselstyn has worked long and hard to promote
prevention and keep his patients out of the operating room. He
began a groundbreaking research study in which he helped heart
patients adopt a low-fat, plant-based diet over a 12-year period.
He and his wife adopted the diet themselves, often inviting patients
to their home for picnics of healthful foods. “It means a lot to
patients to know their doctor is making the same changes they are,”
he says. And he found ways to make the diet easy for his patients.
“If I take away something delicious, I replace it with something
delicious. I may, for example, take away a hot fudge sundae, but
in its place, I’ll tell you how to make a mean banana mango sorbet.”
Publishing the results of his study in the American Journal
of Cardiology in 1999, Dr. Esselstyn proved that heart disease
could be completely reversed with a vegan diet. Not one of the
patients who followed his diet ever had another episode of heart
disease. He called it becoming “heart-attack-proof.”
Born in New York City and raised on a cattle farm in upstate New
York, Dr. Esselstyn attended Yale University where he won a gold
medal for rowing in the 1956 Olympics. He later received his M.D.
from Western Reserve University. While at the Cleveland Clinic,
he served as head of the thyroid and parathyroid surgery section,
staff president, and a member of the Board of Governors.
Dr. Esselstyn has worked closely with PCRM over the years, speaking
out about the problems of low-carbohydrate diets and the health
benefits of a low-fat vegetarian diet. He combines medical rigor
with boundless compassion for his patients and for the public.
To read more about Dr. Esselstyn’s work, please visit his Web
site at www.heartattackproof.com
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