Doctors Warn Against Stopping Medications and Replacing Them with Diets Without Medical Supervision

They stressed the need to distinguish between the improvement of symptoms or certain health indicators, such as weight and sugar levels, and the reduction in the need for medication under medical supervision, and between disease remission or complete recovery, explaining that judging recovery requires clear medical criteria and specialized follow-up.

Endocrinologist and diabetologist, Muhammad Ghannam, said that doctors have dealt with cases of diabetic patients who experienced relapses after stopping insulin, due to their belief in the possibility of relying solely on diet, noting that some cases reached serious complications, especially among type 1 diabetes patients.

He explained that some patients may notice improvement after changing their dietary pattern, due to weight loss or reducing ultra-processed foods, sugars, and sweetened beverages, but this does not mean that the diet has become a substitute for medical treatment, affirming that improvement in some health indicators does not justify stopping medications prescribed by a doctor.

For his part, the president of the Cardiologists Association, Jamal Al-Dabbas, said that medicine does not treat food as a single prescription suitable for all patients, explaining that the diet should be determined according to the patient's health status, age, medications, accompanying diseases, and factors related to the patient's lifestyle.

He added that the difference between patients makes it difficult to adopt a single diet for all cases, especially in patients with diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, and lipid disorders, stressing that any therapeutic dietary intervention should be preceded by an appropriate medical evaluation.

Al-Dabbas called for not generalizing the results of individual experiments, explaining that the experience of one person cannot replace clinical studies that compare groups of patients and determine the benefits and risks scientifically.

He emphasized that the media and social media bear an important responsibility in dealing with medical information, calling for not providing dietary and therapeutic advice in a way that may lead patients to make decisions that affect their treatment, especially when it comes to stopping or replacing a medication.

Gastroenterology specialist Maisam Akrash said that medical information should be based on scientific research, and that personal experiences, no matter how real they are to the person, are not sufficient to prove the effectiveness of a diet or to prove that it is the direct cause of improvement.

She stressed the importance of balance, moderation, and diversity in food, along with physical activity, avoiding smoking, and reducing sugars and ultra-processed foods, noting that dealing with food should take into account the differences between people and the causes of symptoms and diseases.

She explained that excluding a certain type of food may be appropriate in specific cases, but it does not necessarily mean that this food is harmful to all people, calling for searching for the causes of the disease instead of being content with a general list of prohibitions and permissions.

For her part, nutritionist Duaa Shank emphasized the importance of the body getting its needs from various food groups in appropriate quantities, warning against unbalanced diets that may, in some people, lead to a deficiency in nutritional elements or exacerbate certain health problems.

The president of the conference and the president of the General Physicians Association, Munir Abu Al-Sumn, said that diseases are not caused by food alone, and that each disease has multiple causes and factors, making it difficult to reduce treatment to a single diet.

He pointed out that some diets present themselves as a universal solution for a wide range of diseases, while modern medicine is based on diagnosis and determining treatment according to the condition of each patient, affirming that each person has their own special health circumstances that determine their nutritional and therapeutic needs.

For his part, the secretary of the association, Ibrahim Abu Tina, said that there are people who have talked about benefiting from some dietary practices, while others have talked about being exposed to harm or relapses, stressing that the role of the doctor is to place these experiences within their correct scientific framework.

He emphasized that the responsibility of doctors includes educating patients about the risks of making therapeutic decisions based on unverified information, and stressing the need to return to the doctor before making any major change in the diet or drug treatment.