Dr. Shintani

I was looking at an ad in the paper for Dr. Terry Shintani's seminar for his 10 day program.

He's featured in the Encyclopedia Britannica quoting

The clinical results of this program were startling.

Perhaps most astonishing, however, was that many in the program were able to achive control of a number of hitherto intractable health problems. Several people with diabetes no longer needed insulin or oral medication after two weeks."

Then was a quote from Newsweek

some of Dr. Shintani's patients sound as though they've been to Lourdes ... On the fifth day of the program, (Dr. Shintani) called me at work and told me to stop taking insulin. My blood sugar was normal.

Couldn't find the articles online, but I found a link to his Hawaii Diet.

The HawaiiDiet, developed by Terry Shintani, MD, is more than a diet, it is a prescription for a better health through changes in lifestyle.

Dr. Shintani recognized that to achieve optimal health, one needs to look at not only the diet, but also the "holistic" aspects of one’s being: spiritual, mental, emotional and physical. Optimum health requires that we achieve a harmony within us. This includes a life without high levels of internal stress. Saying a prayer, meditating and laughing daily, as well as performing acts of selflessness, and finding a love for life can all reduce our stress. Dr. Shintani, in his book HawaiiDiet, looks at the larger picture of health including reduction in cholesterol levels.

In Hawaiian diet, participants are allowed to eat an average of seven ounces of protein per week, in the form of fish or poultry. This reflects the fact that traditional diets, such as those of ancient Asia, included roughly this amount of animal products. In the third week, the diet is strictly vegetarian. This reflects the fact that most pre-modern humans ate no flesh on most days.

*** [12/14/12]

What if you could reduce your need for medication in just 10 days? What if, at the same time, you saw your weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and chronic pain decrease, and your energy increase while eating more food?

This is how I believe medicine should be practiced – with less medication rather than more – and a greater emphasis on a natural whole person approach rather than an artificial pharmaceutical centered one. (Go to HiDiet.org for our free seminars on how this is done.)

The problem is that our current health care system does not work that way. We have disease care, not health care. Health insurance pays enough for doctors to put you on medication, but not enough for the time it takes to teach you how to get off the medication.

Medications do help – by treating symptoms and the damage from disease – but little is done to remedy the underlying disease.

So you wind up taking medication for the rest of your life. The problem with this is that medications are now the fourth leading cause of death, according to JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association).

When I first started to practice medicine, I wanted to help people who needed it most, the Native Hawaiian community.

When our program won a national award from the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, I started a nonprofit organization, the Hawaii Health Foundation, in 1996 with Kenneth F. Brown (then chairman of The Queen’s Health System) along with members of the Hawaiian community. Our mission is to promote health through traditional values, diet and lifestyle. Basically, I wanted to spread the message of health and aloha throughout Hawaii and the world, and in doing so help change the way medicine is practiced. Until then, the Hawaii Health Foundation offers a solution for people and doctors to help reduce the need for medication.

Dr. Shintani, a Harvard-trained nutritionist, is licensed to practice medicine and law, and is board-certified in preventive medicine. He is formally designated a “Living Treasure of Hawaii” and is offering a free seminar Aug. 3 and 4.