Vegetarian Summerfest - Friday Evening

Hans Diehl, DrHSc, of the Coronary Health Improvement Project
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com

During tonight’s plenary session, Jonathan Balcombe, Senior Research Scientist with the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, spoke about the intelligence and emotional complexity of non-human animals in a talk titled, “Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals.” While some of Balcombe’s information came from animal experiments, Balcombe explained that he doesn’t approve of animal experiments, but if the data is available, he wants people to be aware of it. One of the topics Balcombe discussed was the many symbiotic relationships in nature, for example, flowers and pollinating insects, and (who knew?) warthogs and mongooses. Mongooses will eat parasites and dead skin from warthogs. The warthog gets a grooming, and the mongooses get a free meal. He then stated that veganism is not a sacrifice, but a mutually beneficial relationship: fewer animals are exploited and slaughtered, while we get better health.

Hans Diehl, DrHSc, of the Coronary Health Improvement Project, spoke on “Modern Medicine: Miracles, Medicines, Money & Mirages.” Diehl advocates “lifestyle medicine” - exercise and a healthy diet. Diehl explained that our society needs a paradigm shift. Instead of taking care of symptoms with drugs, we need to take care of the causes of our health problems with lifestyle changes. Too often, someone goes to the doctor expecting a miracle drug to address their symptoms, when what they really need is a healthier lifestyle.

The Summerfest definitely practices what the experts preach. All meals are vegan and prepared with whole foods. Raw foods, gluten-free options, low-oil selections and a salad bar are available at every meal. The conference takes place on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, and the athletic facilities, including a workout room and swimming pool, are available to Summerfest participants. Every morning starts with group fitness classes, yoga and tai chi. Throughout the day, you can find people engaged in planned and unplanned outdoor activities like volleyball, Frisbee, soccer, and nature hikes.

After leaving the plenary session, I ran into Howard Lyman, who had spoken on mad cow disease at the plenary the night before. There was no Q&A at the plenary, but this late evening encounter on the sidewalk gave me the chance to ask him some more about the subject. According to Lyman, approximately 10% of Alzheimer’s cases in the United States are actually the human form of mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. CJD is frequently misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease because the symptoms are very similar, but CJD is fatal. While Alzheimer’s itself is not fatal, a secondary infection like pneumonia frequently is. Lyman told me that the state of Georgia, in the United States, has prohibited autopsies on people with dementia, in order to prevent contamination of their medical facilities with CJD. The threat of CJD is real, but money from the animal agriculture lobby is causing our government to stick its head in the sand. One of our nation’s biggest exports is red meat, and acknowledging that CJD is a significant threat in the US would jeopardize that source of income for this powerful industry.

This is one of the very cool experiences at conferences. Not only do you get to hear these expert speakers, but you sometimes get the chance to have a one on one conversation with them about an important issue.