Learn · Our research
What Happened to 109 Wildwood Guests?
Researchers studied our guests and published what they found. Here it is in plain words.
The short answer: Guests came to Wildwood for about two weeks. On average, when they left, their weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar were better than when they arrived. Months later, some of those gains were still there.
Want the technical version? Read the original study.
The study
Who was studied?
The study followed 109 adults who came to Wildwood between November 2021 and May 2022. They joined one of three programs here: the medical program, the mental health program, or the life alignment program.
Their stays lasted from 6 to 39 days — about two weeks on average. Most of the guests were women, and many were carrying extra weight when they arrived.
The researchers assessed the guests’ health at the start of their stay, again at the end, and again three or more months later.
The pre-post results on this page are based on the 90 guests with complete data out of the 109 who took part.
Life at Wildwood
What did guests do here?
No secret remedy — just simple daily habits, practiced together, day after day:
- Plant-based meals — no meat at all. While guests are in our programs, no meat is served. Every meal is whole plant foods — beans, grains, vegetables, fruits, and nuts — prepared by our chefs.
- Walking and exercise. Guests walked after meals and moved more each day, on our trails and around the campus.
- More water. Guests drank more water through the day.
- Real rest. Regular hours, quiet evenings, and an early night’s sleep.
- Fresh air and sunshine. Time outdoors every day on our 640 wooded acres.
- Water treatments. Hydrotherapy — warm and cool water treatments that help the blood flow and support healing.
- Classes. Health classes and hands-on cooking classes, so guests could keep going at home.
- Worship and prayer. For guests who wished, morning worship and prayer were part of the day.
The results
What changed by the end of the stay?
These are averages across guests with complete data at both time points. Some guests changed more, and some less.
About 7 pounds lost, on average, in about two weeks.
Cholesterol is a fatty substance in the blood. Lower is usually better for the heart.
LDL is the “bad” kind of cholesterol doctors watch.
Triglycerides are another kind of fat in the blood.
This is the sugar measured in a blood test.
The top number is the pressure when the heart beats. The bottom number is the pressure between beats.
About 3 more hours of movement every week.
Guests drank about two more glasses of water a day.
Months later
Did it last?
About nine months later — 8.6 months on average — the researchers checked again with 40 of the guests. Their weight was still down about 6 pounds (2.8 kg) from when they first arrived, and their triglycerides were still lower.
The researchers also asked about eating back home. Compared with before they came to Wildwood, the guests said they were eating about three fewer servings of meat each week. Please read that number the right way: it is about life at home, before and after the stay — not about eating at Wildwood. No meat is served here at all; every meal in our programs is plant-based.
Only 40 of the 109 guests took part in this later check, so we hold this result gently — it is hopeful, not certain.
Medicines
What about medicines?
About 17 out of every 100 guests in the study lowered or stopped their blood-pressure medicine during their stay — always together with our medical team, who watched them closely.
Overall, guests decreased their use of medication for blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar at Wildwood. Weight was lost at Wildwood without addition of weight-loss medication.
Please never stop or change a medicine on your own. If your numbers improve, that is a conversation to have with your doctor.
The heart of it
What helped most?
The guests who followed the new habits more closely tended to see the better results.
Wildwood is not magic. It is a place to learn habits — and the habits are what help.
Honestly
What this study cannot prove
Averages are not promises. Some guests improved more, and some less. Your results will be your own.
Everyone in the study chose to come to Wildwood. People who choose a program like this may be more ready to change than most.
There was no second group of similar people who stayed home, to compare against. So we cannot say exactly how much of the change came from Wildwood itself.
In short: the study shows what happened to these guests after they came to Wildwood. It does not prove that Wildwood caused every change, and it is not a promise or guarantee of what will happen to you.
We share it because it is honest — and because it really happened to real guests here.
Would you like to begin?
If these guests’ experience gives you hope, we would be glad to talk with you about which program fits your life. And if you would like the full details, the complete scientific paper is free to read.
From: Inankur and others, “Impact of Adherence to a Plant-Based Residential Lifestyle Medicine Program on Cardiometabolic Disease Risk Factors,” Nutrients, 2026. A study of guests at Wildwood Lifestyle Center, with researchers from Loma Linda University.