A basketball star convinced me to become a podiatrist.
It was the mid- to late-1960s.
The Vietnam War was heating up fast and young men my age were getting drafted.
“Not me,” my friend said. He was a basketball superstar.
“My dad’s a podiatrist and I’ve always wanted to do that. So I’m going to podiatry school. It’s a good way to get a deferment.”
“What’s a deferment?” I said.
He shot me a look. “Deferred military service? If you stay in school, you don’t have to go overseas.”
That sounded good to me.
Plus, the more my friend described it, podiatry sounded like a noble pursuit.
And so, as my time at Villanova drew to a close, I applied to the Pennsylvania College of Podiatric Medicine. And got accepted.
Later in life, I became interested in tracing the biochemical roots of diabetic neuropathy.
Which led me to conclude that so many diseases—migraine headaches, spikes in energy, rashes, fatigue, digestive problems—are caused by compression of the peripheral nerves.
Which, in turn, is often caused by a diet rich in sugar.
I wrote about this in my book “Sugar Crush.”
But I don’t want to spoil that for you.
For now, if you’re interested, keep reading my posts.
I’ll tell you a bit more about it.
Or, if you’d like to ask me questions, I’d be happy to answer them as best I can.
A doctor once changed my life by showing me that diabetes causes peripheral nerve compression.
I’ll never forget the day I met Dr. Lee Dellon.
He was giving a lecture on what, at the time, was his novel approach to decompress nerves of the lower extremities.
He described research he’d performed on laboratory rats, all of which concluded that diabetic neuropathy is really neuropathy caused by compression of the peripheral nerves.
Back in 1984, when he published his first paper, this was a controversial idea.
After the lecture, I went up and introduced myself.
I was fascinated by Dr. Dellon’s.
He invited me to read a textbook he’d written on the subject, then to visit him at Johns Hopkins where he would explain his theory further.
In Baltimore, I scrubbed in with Dr. Dellon and watched him perform nerve decompression surgery.
Importantly, he performed this procedure using 3.5 magnification.
Without proper magnification during surgery, you simply have no idea what Dr. Dellon is talking about. However, with proper magnification, it’s clear as day.
I could see the nerve compression with my own eyes, and the only possible cause for such compression was the patient’s abuse of sugar.
That was a seminal moment for me.
When I got back to my home in Scottsdale, Arizona, I co-founded the Wound Management Center and soon began doing these surgeries on my own patients. To great success.
If you want to know more about how sugar causes all sorts of diseases—headaches, lethargy, mood swings, rashes, digestive issues, and more—pick up my book, “Sugar Crush.”
Or ask me questions here. I’ll be happy to answer them
