I studied nutrition before I ever went to medical school.
I took classes in exercise physiology and nutrition thinking that I would be my own kind of health advisor. But I quickly figured out that no one was going to listen to me unless I got a medical degree.
But I received my medical degree years after I had already been advising people on nutrients and exercise.
Medical school taught me very little about using nutrients and herbs for healing. Even though herbs have been our only medicines for centuries and are still the first line of treatment for 80% of our planet, the modern medical establishment considers them alternative therapy.
They were included in a four credit-hour course on alternative medicine. The doctors at my medical school thought taking an herb was about as scientific as a Tarot card reading.
I knew from my experience before med school that those same “experts” were dead wrong in their complete neglect of nutrition, too.
Shortly after medical school I went back and did post-graduate work in nutrition and became licensed as a clinical nutritionist. I had to pass a very rigorous exam and I’m sure most physicians would have no idea how to pass that exam.
In fact the only other doctor I know in my field who also has that certification is Dr. Stephen Sinatra.
So you can’t find many other doctors who know nutrition, and I have a long 30-year history with it. And it’s a huge subject…
Knowing how complex it is and how much I had to put into it to give that kind of advice, I wouldn’t trust other doctors who don’t have the same experience.
You can’t just take a course and call yourself a nutritionist.
In fact there’s so much misinformation out there that I set aside time every week to write back to people like you who write me letters about the subject. Like what the nutrients and herbs I prescribe most are, which ones are my favorites, which ones do the most good….
Here’s what I tell them:
In a perfect world, you should just be able to eat whatever you want and your body will take care of itself. All you have to eat is what tastes good to you. But we’ve ruined that simplicity by giving you unnatural choices. In a perfect world, you should have to take anything extra. But we’ve got issues you have to reverse…
- Reverse the Carb Curse: The most fundamental issue you have to reverse is that our staple foods are now very low in nutrient density and very high in energy (carb) density. This taxes your body’s ability to get rid of the extra blood sugar that these food create. Which makes it almost mandatory that you get some help with your blood sugar to avoid diabetes and obesity and other chronic diseases. Fortunately there’s an herb that’s not very well known in the West, but for more than 2,000 years, people in India have used to help control blood sugar. It’s called the herb gymnema sylvestre. It’s also called “gumar,” which literally means “destroyer of sugar” in Hindi. This name describes the way that chewing the leaves interferes with your ability to taste sweetness. Because this amazing herb decreases the sensation of sweetness in many foods, it may reduce your cravings for sugary snacks, too. In one study, patients who took 400 mg of gymnema sylvestre extract daily for 18 to 20 months along with their oral medications showed a significant reduction in their fasting blood-sugar levels.1
- The Best Addition for Optimal Health: Food is the foundation for all health. But, the next biggest problem is that there is a progressive lowering of nutrient values in almost everything we eat.
Nutrients are disappearing for two reasons. The first is that we no longer eat meat from wild sources and get produce straight from the tree or the ground. The second is the falling nutrient content in our soil which means our food is now nutrient poor.
The best way to reverse this and to put those nutrients back is to take a well-designed multi-vitamin every day. Make sure the one you choose has at least 400IU of vitamin D to help prevent cancer and give you strong bones, that it’s high in B vitamins to strengthen your heart and blood vessels, and has mixed carotenoids (not just beta carotene) for eye health and antioxidant power.
- Take the One I Take Every Day: The next most fundamental thing is that we no longer eat the internal organs of wild game. CoQ10 concentrates in your liver, heart and all high-energy organs and does the same thing in animals. We used to eat those fresh to get CoQ10. But we don’t.
Domesticated animals aren’t allowed free range, and can’t exert themselves intensely and that’s the reason you produce CoQ10, for high-energy output. Docile animals in cages produce only one tenth the CoQ10 of wild animals.
So that’s why you need to do like I do and supplement with this critical nutrient. Because you can’t make energy without it. It also lowers blood pressure, improves memory, and is especially effective at energizing your heart.
One of the issues with CoQ10 is that it’s fat-soluble. You need to have fat intake to use it, but good luck getting healthy fats from modern food. The fix for that is to use the reduced form, ubiquinol, that is more readily absorbed and is eight times more powerful than standard CoQ10. Take 50 mg of the ubiquinol form every day.
1. Baskaran, K., et al, J. Ethnopharmacology 1990; 30(3):295-305