The Best Medicine
Time|March 4, 2019

Doctors Are Embracing Creative Ways To Use Food To Improve Health And Prevent Disease.

Alice Park
The Best Medicine

WHEN TOM SHICOWICH’S TOE STARTED FEELING numb in 2010, he brushed it off as a temporary ache. At the time, he didn’t have health insurance, so he put off going to the doctor. The toe became infected, and he got so sick that he stayed in bed for two days with what he assumed was the flu. When he finally saw a doctor, the physician immediately sent Shicowich to the emergency room. Several days later, surgeons amputated his toe, and he ended up spending a month in the hospital to recover.

Shicowich lost his toe because of complications of Type 2 diabetes as he struggled to keep his blood sugar under control. He was overweight and on diabetes medications, but his diet of fast food and convenient, frozen processed meals had pushed his disease to life-threatening levels.

This story is from the March 4, 2019 edition of Time.

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This story is from the March 4, 2019 edition of Time.

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