Eating His Way to Better Health

Roger Snell was extremely sick and his doctors told him that he would probably not live much longer. Years of unhealthy habits had gradually worn down Roger’s body, causing him to develop a number of serious health conditions, including diabetes, an autoimmune disorder and stomach ulcers.

He was taking 13 prescriptions and was so weak that he often lost his balance, requiring him to use a wheelchair. The high doses of steroids he was taking to bolster his autoimmune system caused him to develop strep throat and a clostridium difficile infection. The strep throat caused Roger to have a severe fever, which resulted in seizures.

Roger’s health problems hadn’t started overnight. He had been a busy reporter for over a decade, and then worked for the Kentucky Proud program. Both of these positions required Roger to spend a lot of time on the road. Over the course of many years, he got in the habit of regularly consuming fast-food meals that were meat-focused and high in calories.

“I always said, ‘I want my last meal to be a steak,”’ said Roger.

With his health conditions, Roger had exhausted the options provided to him by conventional medicine. “My doctors had a chemistry problem they couldn’t solve.” If they continued to boost his immune system, it might cure his infection, but his strengthened immune system could attack his pancreas, causing him to develop insulin-dependent Type 1 diabetes.

“With the old physician’s rule of ‘do no harm,’ that left them with their hands tied,” Roger said. “At this point, I had nothing to lose.”

Roger’s co-worker Shirley was a patient of Dr. James Roach, and encouraged Roger to see him. Shirley tried for two years, but Roger remained reluctant. Shirley eventually was the person who dialed the phone to make the appointment, but was told that Dr. Roach was booked solid for the next four months. She was so determined to get Roger an appointment that Shirley actually drove to the office to speak to Dr. Roach’s staff in person. She was successful, and scheduled Roger an appointment the next day

April 27, 2017, was the day that Roger first came to see Dr. Roach. When he arrived at Dr. Roach’s office, one of the first things he remembers seeing was a sign above the desk of Wendy, the nutritionist, which read, “Hope is practiced here.” This sign brought Roger significant joy and hope even in the midst of a dark and painful time in his life.

Dr. Roach’s office at the Midway Center for Integrative Medicine isn’t a typical doctor’s office. Walking in the door, people often notice that it smells surprisingly good. Doctors’ offices typically smell like medicines and chemicals, but Dr. Roach’s office smells enticing and welcoming, like food. This is because he actually sells supplements, teas, bars of dark chocolate and coconut butter at the desk in his office.

Dr. Roach practices integrative medicine, which combines a respect for conventional medicinal practices with a holistic approach to patient care. He spends much more time with his patients than most doctors, trying to gain a deep understanding of their overall health, rather than just treating the initial complaint. Dr. Roach asks lots of questions and does extensive testing of each new patient’s genetics, micronutrient levels, allergies, heavy metals and hormones to help him get a full understanding of the patient’s body and lifestyle.

Dr. Roach is a conventionally trained doctor who completed medical school and received his medical license. Dr. Roach’s father started the clinic, and he joined it in 1981. He had a conventional medicine practice for many years, but said, “Around the year 2000, I was studying for my boards, and wanted to see how long and well I could live.” After doing extensive research, he decided that he wanted to incorporate a wider variety of treatments into his practice, especially nutrition and supplements. “I could not ethically go back to how I was doing it before.” In 2003, he changed the name of the clinic to Midway Center for Integrative Medicine. “We don’t treat, we support. We facilitate the body’s ability to get you well,” Dr. Roach said.

Dr. Roach was happy to work with Roger. “I love to treat things other people can’t fix. I get to turn into my Sherlock Holmes.” Dr. Roach was not scared by the conundrum identified by Roger’s other doctors, who didn’t know how to help him fight his infection without causing his immune system to attack his pancreas. Roger said that Dr. Roach was well-prepared to help him: “I was, like, the 100th autoimmune patient that he has.”

After gathering data about Roger’s medical history, Dr. Roach then ordered many tests, which showed that “everything was in the red.” He prescribed major diet and lifestyle modifications, and directed Roger to follow an anti-inflammatory diet intended to boost his immune system while dampening autoimmune system activity. Dr. Roach asked Roger to eliminate all forms of gluten, wheat, rice, oats, bread and dairy, and focus on eating vegetables and fruits, preferably organically grown.

Roger said he was directed to eat “as close to the farm as you can get—which is near and dear to my Kentucky Proud heart!”

For their anti-inflammatory benefits, Dr. Roach recommended broccoli, berries, salmon, sardines, avocados, peppers, mushrooms and dark chocolate. Roger was directed to drink only water and green tea and to reduce his meat intake: organic chicken and turkey a few times a week, and grass-fed beef once a month.

Roger had to learn a lot about food, nutrition, and cooking in order to make these radical changes to his diet. “I had to learn how to eat again!” he said. He used numerous recipes from the Grain Brain Cookbook, and learned to eat salads and make vegetable smoothies. Roger also reached out to people in his life who had previously tried to help him develop healthy habits: “Someone I had teased for years about her vegan diet ... many of her great recipes I now use!” he said, laughing.

Following Dr. Roach’s advice, Roger ate a lot more wild-caught seafood, especially salmon and sardines, and sometimes shrimp. He avoided farmed seafood, because they are often fed grain. Luckily, since he worked for Kentucky Proud, he already knew where to get great healthy local products. “I purchased pasture-raised eggs, chicken and beef from Chelsey Schlosnagle.” In addition, Roger was surprised to find that even the grocery store Kroger had a line of Simple Truth beef that is pasture-raised without antibiotics, steroids or hormones.

In addition to directing Roger about what to eat, Dr. Roach also had advice about how to eat. Essentially, he recommended eating very slowly. Dr. Roach said, “I recommend chewing until it’s a liquid, savor and taste everything, enjoy it.” It took some time to learn to eat this way, but Roger said doing so, “made the digestion easier.”

Dr. Roach also asked Roger to take a large number of supplements to support his immune system, improve his stomach health and reduce inflammation. These included fish oil, vitamin D, turmeric, mastic gum, alpha lipoic acid, marshmallow root, berberine, InflamAway, zinc, resveratrol, probiotics and TherBiotic, vitamin D-A-K, chrysin and boswellia (frankincense).

The changes that Dr. Roach suggested had swift and dramatic positive effects on Roger’s health. “I lost more than 40 pounds very rapidly with the diet over the first year. With the diet and supplements, I was weaning off the diabetes meds in 30 days and ended them in 90 days with glucose levels holding steady for almost an entire year with Aic levels indicating that I no longer had diabetes. Almost exactly one year later, I turned in the wheelchair, walker, hospital bed and bought new walking shoes. My wife and I resumed playing tennis for the first time in 20 years.”

Roger found that a lot of people were supportive and interested in the changes they saw in him, and were curious to hear how he’d achieved his health turnaround. He spread the information about his diet, and encouraged many people to see Dr. Roach. When Roger went back to his neurologist, he was surprised by how supportive and interested he was. “My neurologist looked at the list of all the supplements I was taking after the April 2017 crisis and said that six of them were anti-inflammatory and were obviously working better than the steroids, without side effects.”

Once Roger’s health stabilized, he needed to develop healthy habits for eating on the road. If traveling for a day, he often makes a smoothie and puts it in a cooler to take along. In addition, he said, “I will eat at higher-end fast-food restaurants about once a month when traveling. But there are healthy salads at Wendy’s; I love the salad bar at Cattlemen’s (and don’t order any steak); and Panera Bread has great soup choices.”

However, one of his old standby restaurants is no longer a food stop for Roger: “I have never been to McDonald’s since nearly dying in April 2017.”

Roger did have some health setbacks after the amazing improvements, however. “Unfortunately, those gains were erased in July 2018 with the next round of attacks, which destroyed my pancreas and greatly zapped my strength. But I weathered the attacks much better, I believe because of the strengthened immune system, diet, and all the steps recommended by Dr. Roach and his nurse-practitioner, Wendy Enneking.” Roger continues to follow the diet recommended by Dr. Roach, with a few modifications.

Reflecting on his journey, Roger is surprised that conventional medicine usually doesn’t ask much about food habits when gathering information about patients. “They ask about your prescriptions, but don’t ask what you are eating. Why isn’t every medical office asking, ‘What are you eating? How much?’”

For more information about the work of Dr. Roach and Roger Snell, see their books at EdibleLousiville.com