DON'T STAY AWAY FROM PHYSICIANS!!!
After 16+ very healthy years on a 99% McDougall vegan diet I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. A year later I am a cancer survivor after much chemo therapy, radiation, and a very successful surgery. I am STILL following a mostly vegan diet because Dr. McDougall is right - it is very health promoting. More than one doctor said to me, "Aside from the cancer, for your age you are a very healthy woman!". I think that my diet, along with modern medicine, is the reason I am at present cancer free. However, I cannot ignore the fact that if I had taken my doctor's advice given 7 years ago -"Because of your age, you should have a colonoscopy", I would not have had the very difficult and expensive year I have just had. I left his office thinking how healthy I was and how there was no way he was turning ME into a patient. Well, it is very probable that the doctor would have found the precancerous polyp, removed it, and nipped the cancer in the bud.
I will now have to see a doctor at least once a year for the rest of my life because of the damage done by the cancer. I have changed my attitude toward doctors. Most doctors are here to help. They love it when a medication relieves pain, a chemo drug shrinks a tumor, and a surgery heals. If it wasn't for modern medicine I would be dead today. I am very grateful to my doctors because it looks like I will be able to have a joyous Christmas and enjoy my grandchildren.
Yes, you want to choose a doctor who will not scoff at your diet, but don't let a vegan diet lull you into a false sense of security. Yes, it is much less likely on a vegan diet that you will get cancer and other ailments, but vegans STILL GET CANCER, and with many cancers, (certainly colon cancer), the earlier the detection, the better the outcome.
As for the risks of medical procedures - every vaccination I have ever had, most medicines and chemos I have taken and surgeries I have undergone, somebody, somewhere had a bad reaction and ended up in the hospital or even died. Our lives are full of risks but I am glad I finally began to trust my doctors and took the risks I did this year. Get screened! And
DON'T STAY AWAY FROM DOCTORS!!!

Agree and abide by this. FOR NOW. However, like everyone else I'll soon be forced to purchase "health" insurance due to the new Health Care Initiative and am angry I'll be forced to do so since I don't participate in the vastly uncaring, unhealthy soley for profit "health" care system we have. Would love to see other opinions and comments on this.