Conclusion

Norman M. Kaplan, M.D., professor of internal medicine and head of the hypertension section of the University of Texas’ Southwestern Medical School at Dallas, is considered one of the foremost (if not the number one) authority on hypertension (high blood pressure) in the world. Speaking to more than 1,000 health-care professionals attending the Lifestyle Medicine convention at Loma Linda University School of Health in the summer of 1983, Dr. Kaplan addressed particularly the Seventh-day Adventists in his audience with these words:GVEGW 104.4

“You as Adventists may have espoused a certain dietary lifestyle on the basis of faith, in the past; but now you can practice it on the basis of scientific evidence. Hopefully you will not [go back and re] join the main stream, but [rather] adhere to your health heritage.” ^{96Cited in Far Eastern Division The Central Union Outlook, August 12, 1983.}GVEGW 104.5

One year later William Herbert Foege, M.D., M.P.H., director for the Center for Disease Control, United States Public Health Service, Atlanta, Georgia, under the administrations of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan (1977-1983), spoke at a Loma Linda University School of Health “Update” on Monday, March 5, 1984. He declared emphatically, “You Seventh-day Adventists are now the role model for the rest of the world.” ^{97At the time of Dr. Foege’s Loma Linda address he held the post of assistant U.S. surgeon general and special assistant for policy development in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Since the summer of 1986 he has served jointly as executive director and Fellow for International and Domestic Health of the Carter Center of Emory University, a consortium of nonprofit organizations that “seek to alleviate conflict, reduce suffering, and promote better understanding among peoples” of the world (D. Louise Coon to Roger W. Coon, Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia, June 12, 1991).}GVEGW 105.1