Useful Excerpts from the book [L’alimentation ou la troisième médecine] (CITE) by Jean Seignalet, Third Edition

Summary Tables of Results

Table XXIII - Diet Results in Autoimmune Diseases

Diseases	Number of Patients	Complete Remissions	90% Improvements	50% Improvements	Failures	Success Rates
Rheumatoid Arthritis	200	83	66	11	40	80%*
Ankylosing Spondylitis	75	47	25		3	96%*
Psoriatic arthritis	15	6		7	2	87%*
Polymyalgia rheumatica	11	8	3			100%*
Still’s disease	5	4		1
Polyarticular idiopathic arthritis	2		1		1
Oligoarticular idiopathic arthritis	1				1
Palindromic arthritis	2	2
Inflammatory arthritis X	4	2		2
Sjögren’s syndrome	36	11	9	8	8	75%*
Systemic lupus erythematosus	5	3	1	1
Scleroderma	6		6
Dermatomyositis	1		1
Mixed Connective Tissue Disorder	2		1		1
Schulman’s Fasciitis	1		1
Graves’ Disease	3	colspan: No relapse, reduction in exophthalmos
Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis	4	1	2	1
Multiple Sclerosis	13	4	3	6		100%*
Peyronie’s Disease	1	1
Myasthenia Gravis	1			1
ITP	2				2
Chronic Active Hepatitis	1	1
Pemphigus		Colspan: Not enough follow-up
IgA Nephropathy	1	Colspan: Blocked progression

Table XXIV - Diet Results in Diseases of Contamination

Diseases	Number of Patients	Complete Remissions	90% Improvements	50% Improvements	Failures	Success Rates
Primary Fibromyalgia	16	14		2		100%*
Bipolar Disorder	1		1
Endogenous Depression	1	1
Parkinson’s Disease	2		1	1
Adult-onset diabetes mellitus	18	14	4			100%*
Hypercholesterolemia	36	Colspan: 30% reduction in cholesterol levels				94%*
Spasmophilia	10	3	2	2	3	70%*
Chronic fatigue	6		2	1	3
Overweight	100	30	25	25	20	80%*
Gout	2	2
Chondrocalcinosis	1	1
Bone marrow aplasia	2	1			1
Sarcoidosis	3	Colspan: Insufficient follow-up
Osteoarthritis	20	6	8	6		100%*
Migraines and headaches	20	13	4		3	85%*
Myocardial infarction	1000	Colspan: 3 infarctions - expected number 27
Cancers (prevention)	1000	Colspan: 1 cancer - expected number 18				94%*
Leukemias	2	1		1
Cancers (treatment)	2		2

Table XXV - Diet results in elimination diseases

Diseases	Number of patients	Complete remissions	90% improvement	50% improvement	Failures	Success rates
Irritable bowel syndrome	220	215			5	98%*
Microscopic colitis	2	2
Ulcerative colitis	8				8
Crohn’s disease	14	13		1		100%*
Acne	30	26	4			100%*
Constitutional eczema	11	6	4	1		100%*
Urticaria	15	14			1	93%*
Urticarial vasculitis	4	2			2
Psoriasis vulgaris	25	15	5	1	4	84%*
Chronic bronchitis	8	8
Asthma	18	13		4	1	94%*
Recurrent ENT infections	100	80			20	80%*
Chronic sinusitis	3	3
Hay fever	16	11	2	3		100%*
Allergic conjunctivitis	10	10				100%*
Quincke’s edema	7	7
Aphthous stomatitis	5	2	2	1
Behçet’s disease	2	1	1

* Figures encompassing improvements up to 50%

Comments on the complete results

The results recorded in the various diseases where the ancestral diet was tried are listed in Table XX. These figures are very significant, as these are chronic conditions considered incurable by conventional methods. Medical and surgical treatments are often helpful in alleviating symptoms or resolving a complication, but they fail to cure patients. The original type of diet is often and profoundly effective because it addresses the root cause. Some points warrant further comment.

Successes

Successes, when achieved, are very clear. This refers to either improvements of at least 90%, or complete remissions. We should speak of remissions, not cures, because abandoning the diet is generally followed by a relapse after a few weeks or months.

For the diseases where I have been able to gather more than 15 subjects, the frequent effectiveness of the diet seems undeniable. This is the case for rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Sjögren’s syndrome, hypercholesterolemia, irritable bowel syndrome, recurrent ENT infections in children, and acne.

For other diseases where few people have been tested, it seems justified, a priori, to be more cautious and wait for a larger number of patients and more long-term data before taking a definitive position. However, no medication has yet succeeded in inducing complete and prolonged remission in systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, fibromyalgia, Crohn’s disease, psoriasis, or asthma. Under these conditions, even a single success becomes significant. The overall assessment of the low-calorie diet is therefore very encouraging.

Failures

Observed in 0 to 30% of cases depending on the disease, they are just as clear-cut as the successes. This clear distinction between responders and non-responders was already highlighted by Darlington et al. (1986). These failures are frustrating for two reasons:

1. They are unpredictable. Neither clinical signs, nor additional examinations, nor the severity of the condition allows for a prognosis. Patients who benefit from the diet do not appear to differ from those who do not. I have only observed one fact in rheumatoid arthritis: failures are more frequent in men than in women, at 50% versus 14%.
2. They have no obvious explanation, and we can only formulate hypotheses. The main ones are as follows:
   • The duration of the nutritional change is too short. In some individuals, it may take more than a year to eliminate harmful waste through the excretory organs. This is either because the quantity of accumulated harmful molecules is large, or because their detoxification capacity is weaker than in other people.
   • Failure to eliminate a harmful food. Excluding grains and dairy products, and reducing cooking times, is sufficient for most patients. However, other substances may be harmful to others.
   • Inability to eradicate a responsible bacterium due to pH, enzyme, mucus, or enterocyte damage, which are specific to certain individuals. A dental, sinus, or bronchial infection can be a source of germs that will re-inoculate the intestine. Gastric hypochlorhydria should also be suspected.
   • Inability to restore proper sealing of the small bowel wall due to excessive interferon release (estrogens, stress) or permanent damage to certain areas of the mucosa.

It would certainly be very informative for specialists in the digestive system and molecular biology to study certain elements in the small intestine:

• pH of the intestinal contents;
• precise analysis of the bacterial flora;
• examination of the mucosa by endoscopy and biopsy;
• measurement of mucosal permeability;
• sequencing of genes encoding digestive enzymes;
• sequencing of genes encoding enterocyte mucins.

Comparing these factors in responders and non-responders to the diet would provide valuable information.

3. Intermediate Cases

While the effects of the diet are usually quite pronounced, in both directions, there is a small minority, less than 2%, of patients who respond partially. They report clinical improvement, between 30 and 80% according to their assessment. They retain biological abnormalities, showing that their disease is still present.

4. Limitations of the Method

The ancestral-type diet can often extinguish a disease, but it is unable to eliminate certain irreversible lesions.

I will give a few examples:

• in rheumatoid arthritis, arthritis may cease, but deformities of the hands and feet persist;
• chronic bronchitis is curable, but not bronchiectasis;
• Asthma attacks are curable, but emphysema, which results from the dilation of the pulmonary alveoli, is not.

Similarly, while a well-chosen diet can certainly prevent many cancers, it is probably pointless to begin it at the stage of widespread metastases.

It is therefore advisable to initiate nutritional changes as early as possible, at the onset of an illness, without waiting until it has caused irreversible damage.

5. Authenticity of Results

It is entirely impossible to attribute the remarkable successes achieved through dietetics to spontaneous remissions or a placebo effect.

Indeed:

• the beneficial action is observed in many diseases traditionally considered incurable;
• the success rate is very high;
• the benefit recorded is very significant, with improvement in 90% of cases or complete remission;
• this benefit is long-lasting, with follow-up over several years (9 years for the longest-standing patient);
• the positive effects of the diet are not felt immediately after consulting a doctor, but a few weeks or months later;
• abandonment of the dietetics is followed, after a variable period, by a relapse.

These genuine results are logically explained by the mechanisms that I have extensively discussed in the preceding chapters.

Finally, while certain complementary measures (minerals, trace elements, vitamins, probiotics) provide a significant boost, it is clearly the low-toxin diet that is the key factor in the successes. Nutritional changes alone are very effective in curing many patients; complementary measures alone are insufficient.