veganism: I have been curious for some time about people who strictly follow Veganism do when they become ill? I know for minor events Health Food Stores and what not have medications that are vegan friendly, but what about major diseases such as diabetes, cancer, or even involved in an auto accident, ect? Anyways, I am curious and please don't say that poeple who follow veganism never get major diseases because that cannot possibly be so. I realize their are potential health benefits, but no eating habit is a sure fire way of avoiding disease. Thanks!|||Our goal is to create a vegan society in a few hundred or few thousand or whatever years. If that actually happens, we can develop our own medicines and anything else without animal testing or ingredients. Until then, we will do whatever we have to do to survive. There is nothing hypocritical about it. It is not our fault that we live in a world with no respect for animals. We just do what we can. To refuse critical treatment just makes us look radical, veganism IS NOT radical, just some people are.|||If I have to use conventional medicine, I look for tablets and caplets without lactose and gelatin. I make it clear to medical professionals that I am vegan with the hopes that they won't try to give me animal-based products. Doesn't always work, unfortunately. And when I go through menopause, I will make it crystal clear to my gyno that I am NOT taking horse-pee pills.|||When you need real help beliefs don't matter any more.|||In my case, I use herbal remedies when and wherever I can. I recently had a sinus infection, and treated it with natural grapefruit seed extract as opposed to a medical antibiotic. It worked wonders. Having had chronic illness for most of my omnivorous life, I have found that I get sick far less often now that I follow a veg lifestyle. When I do, I am usually able to treat it naturally. When I ate meat, I was crippled with lupus, arthritis, and many other chronic ailments, and was taking a whole slew of medications. Now, I take none except my thyroid medication (which is animal derived, and cannot be helped-but eventually I hope to find a suitable replacement) Personally, I think most medications are overperscribed, and just masking or treating symptoms does no good-the symptoms we get when we are sick are the bodies way of fighting off the illness-sometimes we just need to let nature take its course. That said, I WOULD seek medical treatment if my condition became severe enough to not respond to homeopathic or natural remedies, and would accept that as a necessary part of recovery. In the meantime, the natural approaches have worked much better for me than conventional medicine ever did.|||I've been curious about this as well, and I *am* a vegan. I can't speak for everyone, but I think if I suddenly had something serious, I would have to just trust the hospital I ended up at. I would ask that my meals be vegan, and to have the non-gelcap versions of medications whenever possible, but other than that, it's out of my hands. My main reason for being vegan is that it is not *necessary* for me to cause pain and death, so I avoid it, but if it came to my survival, it would then be necessary. Though, besides medical techniques and medicines using animal testing, insulin, and possible animal derived substances in medicines, I can't think of anything particularly non-vegan I would have to do in a hospital. What specifically were you thinking of?|||If they eat healthy then they are including everything they need. Anyone can get sick. You are right , doesn't matter how healthy you eat , you can still get sick.|||I think if I had a serious disease, I would still try to eat a vegetarian diet, or even vegan if it was possible, but I would take my medication, even if it was made with animal products. I've always thought my vegetarianism is doing what I can to help, and if I'm in a position where my health is compromised, then I have to do everything I can do to get healthy.