Nutrition and Weston A. Price
by Ron Schmid, N.D., ©2003

     About thirty years ago, I recovered my health through natural foods. Eventually I decided to become a naturopathic physician. I went back to school for pre-med courses, and then went to the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, out in Oregon. I graduated in 1981. I moved to Connecticut then-one of the few states to license naturopathic physicians-and got my license. I've practiced here ever since.

     I've taught courses, and seminars, in nutrition, at all four of the accredited naturopathic medical schools in the United States. I served for a year as the Clinic Director and Chief Medical Officer at the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine. I'm a member of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, and of the Connecticut Society of Naturopathic Physicians. I'm on the Honorary Board of the Weston A. Price Foundation. I tell you these things so you'll know something about who I am, and what I've done.

     Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine is the title of a book I wrote in 1986. It's about the history of the human diet, about what our ancestors ate, about what primitive people in remote parts of the world ate and still eat in the few places where they still live in traditional ways. It's kind of a guidebook about traditional wisdom you can use to figure out what foods are best for you, in light of how people lived in good health for hundreds of generations before refined and processed foods.

     Now that information has been valuable to me. It's enabled me to live in good health-I'm 56 and I feel better than ever. I've been able to help many of the people who've come to see me. An important part of what I do for my patients is to show them-often in considerable detail-how to eat. I recommend the nutritional supplements and herbal medicines that I think will most help their situation. I do certain lab tests that help clarify what the problems are. I do physical exams. But to help someone-well, if a person is ready to focus on diet and supplements…that's what can work wonders.

     The thing is, I see supplements in the context of food. I recommend them in the context of food. What I'm going to talk about is healing with food, and using supplements as an integral part of that. I'll explain the ideas I've used to help people over the years. I hope those ideas will benefit you.

     Some people have said that my book is a good book, that it's helped people to see the importance of certain dietary principles. I hope that's true, because I've based all my work on the work of some truly great men. You may have heard of some of them, and perhaps not of others. Weston Price. Francis Pottenger. Max Gerson. Henry Beiler. Sir Robert McCarrison. Max Warmbrand. These men left us work that's like a beacon in a sea of darkness. There's so much confusion about nutrition, about food! So much hype, so much money spent spreading false information. How do you sort it all out?

     I went to the sources. My undergraduate degree is from M.I.T.—I was trained as a scientist. I spent many years studying the work of the men I just mentioned, and many others, plus several years in practice, before I wrote my book. I sought to understand the principles embodied in their work and adapt those principles to today's world.

     Let me tell you about one of those men, Weston Price. Dr. Price's most famous book is Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, first published in 1939. Price traveled all over the world in the 1920s and '30s, living amongst and studying people in so-called primitive cultures. He documented in great detail that as long as these people ate their native diets, they lived in splendid good health, with literally none of the medical problems of people eating modern foods.

     Now that's a really critical point. Rather than asking you to just blindly accept it, I'd like to offer some evidence that it's true. The medical establishment and the food industry would have us all believe that things are great today. Our health has never been better, we live longer, medical science is working wonders. And those native people, those hunter-gatherers, they all died in their forties, if not sooner.

     Please don't believe it. If you should read my book, I think you'll agree that I prove this point, as Dr. Price's work proved it-people in native cultures everywhere, before contact with the white man, enjoyed incredible good health. Here are several examples:

"When I graduated from medical school in 1911, I had never heard of coronary thrombosis."

     Now this was the President's doctor. He was no dope, as they say. The reason he'd never heard of coronary thrombosis in 1911 was because the first article about it, detailing four unusual cases of this new phenomenon, was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1912. Coronary thrombosis is a heart attack. It's a modern disease, a disease caused by refined foods. They don't call these problems the "diseases of civilization" for nothing!

     I've gone to some length to make the point that diet and disease are intimately related, and that so-called "primitive diets" are associated with freedom from modern diseases. That's because my own version of a primitive diet forms the basis of the way I help people. The diet is always adapted for the individual, and I recommend pure supplements that complement the person's diet, and address his or her medical problems.

     Now I'm going to describe the principles of that diet, as they were studied and understood by Weston Price.

     Native people throughout the world followed dietary regimes that were largely dictated by custom, by what they described as the wisdom of their ancestors. One of the many fascinating things Price wrote was that whenever he asked native people the reason why they ate the foods they did, they invariably replied, "So we can make perfect babies."

     Now, what were the foods that were considered most important for woman and men who wished to conceive a child, for pregnant women, and for growing children? Price studied this in great depth. His answer, based on his careful observations, is that two different groups of foods were considered absolutely essential in every culture throughout the world. Those two groups are:

     So those are the foods that native people everywhere said were most important for their strength and health, and for making perfect babies. We know now that these foods all are incredibly rich in fat soluble vitamins A, D, and E, in essential fatty acids, and in EPA and DHA, as well as a host of other nutrients that I'll detail later.

     This is confusing for many people. We've been told by the processed food industry , by the supposed scientists they employ, and by the media they advertise in, that animal fats are bad for us. Let's set aside their propaganda, and look at it objectively.

     Let me put it in a commonsense way: It all depends on the quality of the animal. That's to say that the quality of the food that comes from an animal depends on the quality of the animal's life. The animal's food and environment completely determines the quality of the food that comes from the animal —not to mention the chemicals it may have been fed, sprayed with, and injected with.

     Cows, steers, goats, and sheep are ruminants. They're designed by nature to eat grass. Meat, raw milk, eggs, and butter from healthy, grass fed organic animals are wonderful foods. Fish is wonderful food, although care should be taken to secure fish from relatively unpolluted waters. The fatty part of all these foods carries essential nutrients! These foods, together with fresh organic vegetables and fruits, and in some cultures whole grains, constitute the primitive diet. What emerges is that it's not animal fats that are causing our modern problems. It's refined foods. We actually suffer from a lack of the nutrients our ancestors got from healthy animal fats.

     Several other important principles emerged from the work of Price and other nutritional pioneers. Native diets were made up entirely of whole, unrefined foods. Many foods, including animal protein, were customarily eaten raw. Vegetables were important foods, as were limited amounts of fruits. When they were available, milk products were used raw and carefully prepared in ways that preserved the enzyme content. Diets were high in fiber. In cultures where grains were available, only whole, unrefined grains were used. Bread was made from fresh ground flour and baked immediately. And of course, the vast majority of the stuff in modern supermarkets was entirely absent.

     Now what does this mean in practical terms? How does one apply this information?

     None of us can eat the way our ancestors did. But we can follow the principles and choose our foods and supplements accordingly. Let me emphasize the power of a simple program carefully followed. I suggest that most people eat mostly fresh vegetables, both raw in salads and cooked, and organic source animal proteins—fish and shellfish, meat, fowl, eggs, yogurt, raw milk, and certain other high quality dairy foods. Complement those foods with a little fruit and small amounts of whole grain foods. Use extra virgin olive oil, raw apple cider vinegar, butter, and good quality sea salt to flavor your foods. For people with a taste for it, undercooked or raw animal foods from healthy animals work wonders. There's a great book about how to prepare raw protein foods, among other things. It's called Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon. She's the founder of the Weston A. Price Foundation. There's an excellent web site, www.WestonAPrice.org.

     Applying the principles I've described allows me to individualize a diet for each person, based upon their needs, goals, likes, and dislikes. When the basics are successfully applied, all sorts of chronic problems start to clear up. I estimate that over 90 percent of the problems in at least 90 percent of people will either markedly improve, or outright disappear. That's the basis of how I approach virtually all chronic problems. Acute problems involving a fever may require a short fast first.

     Another important thing to realize about these diets is that I use the plural, "diets," to emphasize that this is not one diet. Every person's diet should be different…it's the principles that remain the same for all of us. Each of us needs to apply those principles to ourselves in a unique way when it comes to choosing foods from day to day. But as good as these diets are, they're still not complete. That's where supplements become important and in some cases, life saving.

     Weston Price's work here too gives us a basis for understanding. Price was an incredible person. He was a dentist, and that was what led to his interest in native diets. Between 1910 and 1925, he noticed that the children of his dental patients were having problems that the parents never had. Not just decay, but also crooked teeth and crowding of the dental arches. The specialty of orthodontics was invented because of this! Price wondered why this happened in children of people who had all 32 teeth, perfectly straight. He knew from his studies of anthropology that native people everywhere were renowned for their splendid, beautiful teeth. He decided to search the world to learn if something in their diets was responsible.

     He kept meticulous records and photographic accounts of all he saw. His work shows that everyone in traditional cultures had all 32 teeth, perfectly fitting into the dental arch, and perfectly formed, as long as the people had no access to the white man's foods. Eating refined foods invariably caused dental decay and systemic diseases, and then, in the next generation, crooked and crowded teeth.

     In studying the dietaries of the native people, Price collected over 10,000 samples of native foods. He sent them back to America for analysis in his laboratories. Price was quite a scientist. He was one of the pioneers in developing assays for vitamins A and D in the 1920's. He wrote a textbook on dentistry that was on every United States naval vessel throughout the 1920's. His publications of his studies of problems associated with root canals, first published in the 1920s, were rediscovered 70 years later, and became the basis for the recent book Root Canal Cover-Up. (That's another story that I just don't have time to go into now.) His articles appeared in dental journals throughout the twenties and thirties. His classic book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, was required reading in Harvard anthropology classes for many years. The point is that this man was truly an incredible scientist.

     Now, back to why quality supplements are absolutely critical as a complement to even the best diets today. Price's analysis of the foods of native people revealed that these people consumed at least ten times more of all of the then known vitamins and minerals than people eating refined foods consumed. For many nutrients, the figure was thirty, forty, or fifty times more. The implications of this are staggering! It enables us to understand in historical terms why so many nutrients, including many discovered since Price's times, are so effective in seemingly large doses. I mean, think of coenzyme Q10, alpha lipoic acid, grape seed extract, calcium and magnesium, glucosamine and chondroitin, MSM, vitamins A, B complex, C, D, and E, selenium and chromium and all of the other trace minerals. All of these nutrients were present in native diets in amounts anywhere from 10 to 50 times more than in refined foods diets. And that includes animal source vitamins A and D.

     By the way, many published studies have shown that it is the synthetic versions of these vitamins that cause problems when taken in excess, because they're different biochemically from their natural counterparts. You can read the details of this in a book called The Calcium Factor, by Bob Barefoot and Dr. Carl Reich.

     Understanding a little more about what native people ate brings this into even better focus. You see, native people used all of the animals they ate. This was partly for spiritual reasons. People literally worshipped the animals in many cultures-for example, the buffalo for the Plains Indians, and the salmon for the Indians of the Pacific Northwest. The other reason they used all of the animals was because they considered specific parts, especially the eggs of sea foods and the organs of land animals, to be essential if they were to make perfect babies generation after generation. We now know that those foods contain the highest concentrations of any known foods of all of the critical nutrients I spoke of a minute ago.

     I can't resist an aside here. I'm going to tell you a few stories about the way native people lived. I think these stories speak a lot about why they ate the way they did and the effects of their nutrition.

     The first is about a primitive Eskimo man in a time when food ran short during the long winter night north of the Arctic Circle, when for months there is no daylight. He takes to stormy seas in a kayak to hunt seal with a harpoon. In darkness, bitter cold, high winds, and rough seas, he searches the dark waters for food. A wave crashing over a kayak can snap even a strong man's back; as breakers approach, the kayaker rolls the vessel, submerging himself. The tight fit of seal skins between the upper edge of the kayak and his waist keeps water from entering. When the white water passes, he flips upright and continues the hunt. Finally he kills a seal and returns home with food for his family.

     As impressive as Weston Price found the physical strength of primitive Eskimos, he was even more impressed with their character. He wrote of their courage, honesty, openness, dedication to family and community, and their ability to survive and thrive in their harsh northern environment. And that brings me to my next story, once again set in the far north. Great, unexplored areas of northern British Columbia and the Yukon Territory were still inhabited by Indians in the 1930's when Price visited. Groups of Indians lived in the regions inside the Canadian Rockies in the far north, where winter temperatures of seventy below zero precluded the possibility of growing cereal grains or fruits, or of keeping dairy animals. The diet of these Indians was thus almost entirely limited to wild animals and some plants and berries in the summer.

     One old Indian was asked through an interpreter why Indians did not get scurvy, which as you know is from vitamin C deficiency. He replied that scurvy was a white man's disease; while it was a possibility for Indians, they knew how to prevent it and white men did not. When asked why he did not tell white men how, he replied white men knew too much to ask Indians anything. Asked how, he went to his chief for permission to tell. Upon returning he explained that when an Indian kills a moose, he opens it up and finds the small ball in the fat above each kidney. He cuts these balls-the adrenal glands-into pieces that are immediately eaten, one by each Indian in the family.

     The adrenal glands, we now know, are among the richest sources of vitamin C in all animal or plant tissues. Cooking destroys vitamin C. The Indians' empirical knowledge and use of different organs and tissues of animals has certainly been verified by modern methods of analysis. Their wisdom preceded these methods, and the discovery of vitamin C, by thousands of years.

     Such wisdom is again demonstrated in a story of a white man running out of supplies while crossing a high plateau in the far north country just before the fall freeze-up. He was a doctor of engineering and science, and he was forced to hike out of the wilderness when his prospecting plans fell apart. While crossing the plateau, he went almost blind with a violent pain in his eyes that persisted for days. He nearly ran into a grizzly one day, and an old Indian tracking the bear recognized the white man's plight.

     The old man led the prospector to a nearby stream, and with a trap of stones caught some trout. Throwing the fish on the bank, he told the prospector to eat the flesh of the head and the tissues behind the eyes. In a few hours the prospector's pain was largely gone, and in a day his sight was returning. In another day, it was close to normal. He'd been living on refined flour and sugar, and was suffering from xeropthalmia, due to vitamin A deficiency. The fatty tissue around the eyes is one of the richest sources of vitamin A in any animal's body.

     Now, my final story. Viti Levu, one of the Fiji Islands, is one of the larger islands in the Pacific. When Dr. Price visited, he thought he might find natives in the interior living far enough from the sea to be entirely dependent on land foods. He could not. Everywhere in the interior, piles of sea shells were found.

     His guide told him that food from the sea had always been considered essential. Even when they were at war with coastal tribes, the interior tribes had arrangements to send special plant foods by courier to coastal tribes in exchange for seafoods. The couriers were never harmed. It's kind of ironic to compare that with the wars between supposedly civilized societies of the last hundred and fifty years or so. Anyway, no places were found where seafoods were not eaten. As Price's studies progressed, it emerged ever more clearly that healthy, free-ranging animal life of the land and sea everywhere provided humans with essential nutrients apparently unobtainable in adequate quantities from plants.

     My stories make it obvious that the development of native cultures was not simply a matter of people randomly eating what was available. Rather, throughout the world, cultures passed on the accumulated wisdom of the group to the next generation. This wisdom was concerned with laws of nature that when ignored lead to sickness, death, and the degeneration of succeeding generations. We know not from where this wisdom came. We know only of its loss from the consciousness of the vast majority of people today.

     There are two points to my stories. One is that native people everywhere discovered that following fundamental nutritional laws put them in harmony with nature. Modern civilization has chosen to ignore these fundamental truths. The sophistication of our technical knowledge has bred arrogance that has precluded an appreciation of native peoples' superior skill in interpreting cause and effect. The wisdom of indigenous people in understanding laws of nature and living in harmony with these laws is a treasure humanity must not lose if we ever wish to regain our lost strength and resistance to disease.

     My second point is that native people had detailed information about using specific parts of animals and the unique importance of each part, as well as vast knowledge about the importance of specific plant foods and the medicinal use of herbs. The special foods and herbs native people emphasized had concentrations of nutrients far beyond that found in foods generally available to most of us today.

     Think of it! Coenzyme Q10, so helpful for cardiovascular problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, periodontal disease, and so many other problems…the richest source is heart!

     Alpha lipoic acid. It's a unique antioxidant that's both fat and water soluble. It's known to be low in people with diabetes or heart disease, and probably in other chronic diseases as well. It's officially approved in Germany as a treatment for diabetic neuropathy! It's richly supplied in these foods native people emphasized.

     The nutrients known to be critical for bone health include calcium, magnesium, boron, manganese, and vitamin D. These nutrients are in short supply in the muscle meats we customarily consume today, but they're richly supplied in bone marrow. Other trace minerals including selenium and chromium are found in their highest concentrations in the organs. Glucosamine and chondroitin are found in the cartilaginous tissue that surrounds the joints. MSM, methylsulfonylmethane, or organic sulfur, is a food constituent found almost exclusively in animal source foods, and in highest concentrations in the organs.

     Today, in both sickness and in health, we need supplements to provide us with optimal amounts of these and other critical nutrients. I hope I've been able to show you why supplements play such a vital role in providing the everyday nutrition we need for optimal health and resistance to disease, as well as in aiding recovery from problems. The important point is that we need substantial quantities of the full array of nutrients, and even the best modern diets cannot possibly give us optimal amounts.

     Now that you know how I see supplements in the context of traditional foods and healing, let me tell you about some of the supplements I use.

     Not all supplements are created equal. I've supplied my patients with supplements from many companies for over twenty years. Nearly every company uses either magnesium stearate, stearic acid, or ascorbyl palmitate as a lubricant (a flowing agent), solely to speed up the manufacturing process. When possible I've used products free of these and other additives.

     In a key study in the journal Pharmaceutical Technology, the percent dissolution for capsules after 20 minutes in solution went from 90% without stearates to 25% with stearates. These substances clearly adversely effect the dissolution and absorbtion of nutrients.

     This indicates that pure supplements work more efficiently. My experience with patients confirms this. Nutrient delivery is rapid and thorough. There are no hidden ingredients to cause reactions, no upset stomachs. But pure supplements are just not found in the vast majority of health food stores. They're chiefly available only through physicians. In the best supplements, you'll find only the best quality nutrients and herbal extracts. Capsules are topped off with synergistic natural ingredients. For example, ginkgo extract capsules may be capped off with ginkgo leaf powder, while most companies use inert and potentially allergenic fillers. Production machinery must be run slowly in order to avoid the use of stearates and all other additives.

     I'm going to take some time now and go into how I use supplements in my practice. I don't want to bore you with long list of "Take this nutrient for this disease, and this herb for this problem," and so on. I'm going to limit it to a few comments about each nutrient or herb, and share some insights I've gained using supplements with my patients.

     I'll start with MSM. MSM is organic sulfur, a raw material for the protein and connective tissue that makes up our body mass, for enzymes that conduct countless chemical reactions, and for powerful natural compounds that protect us against toxicity and harmful oxidative stress. Sulfur has a long history of healing-it's the sulfur in the waters of healing hot springs that relieves arthritis, and the sulfur in DMSO that makes that substance such an effective topical pain and inflammation reliever. MSM provides major pain relief. It inhibits pain impulses along nerve fibers, lessens inflammation, increases blood supply, reduces muscle spasm, and softens scar tissue. It also relieves allergic conditions.

     The holdup for most people with MSM has been dosage. The amount that works best for each person varies widely, and many people just don't try enough. It often takes 15 or 20 grams a day, or even more, for optimal results. But often when people try to take high doses, they just don't want to take a lot of capsules, and the bitter taste of MSM powder turns people off. We use natural vanilla and orange flavorings, and staevia. Our Vanilla-Orange MSM powder tastes great. The only side effect of MSM is that if you take too much for you, you'll notice mild intestinal cramps and loose stools. It's best to work up the dosage slowly. Occasionally someone will notice mild headaches in the beginning; that's probably a detox reaction. You might want to look at the book The Miracle of MSM, The Natural Solution for Pain. The co-author is Dr. Stanley Jacob, the Oregon M.D. who has used DMSO and large doses of MSM for over 35 years in his practice.

     There's a little experiment you can do with MSM capsules. Pour water into two clear plastic cups. Then I open a capsule of our MSM and pour the contents into the water. The powder sinks, and then I stir it a little with a spoon, and it disappears. It dissolves completely as it goes into solution. Then I take an MSM capsule from another company, and I open that up and pour the contents into the other cup of water. The powder floats on the surface, and when I stir it, it just glums up into balls. You can't get it to dissolve no matter how hard you stir. That's because the magnesium stearate used as a lubricant in production coats every particle of the nutrients. Try it. It's a very graphic demonstration of how stearates slow down the dissolution and absorption of nutrients.

     Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfates are other important supplements. Glucosamine sulfate travels to the joint tissue and nurtures the cartilage, ligaments, and tendons. Numerous studies have shown greater relief for arthritis sufferers than drugs provide, without the dangerous side effects. As an aside, I'd like to mention that twenty years ago when I was in naturopathic medical school, the notion that a protein-like nutrient such as glucosamine sulfate could be absorbed more or less intact and then travel to specific tissues and have effects there was very controversial. During my third year of school, I transcribed tapes of lectures by Dr. Jeff Bland, who graciously allowed me to self-publish them in the form of a bound book for fellow students. That book, called Lectures of Dr. Jefftey Bland, had a section detailing the work of a group of researchers in England who through radioisotope labeling studies had discovered that a significant percentage of proteins are absorbed intact or in large fragments. In other words, they showed that all proteins are not simply broken down into simple amino acids. They also showed that those large fragments of protein selectively traveled to specific tissues they had an affinity for. In effect, a large portion of liver protein went to the liver, and heart protein went to the heart, and joint protein went to the joints. This is really the scientific basis for how glandular supplements and glucosamine work.

     Like glucosamine, chondroitin too contains nutrients that nourish the joint tissues. Studies have shown chondroitin helps repair damaged cartilage significantly in as little as three months.

     Let me talk now about calcium. It's impossible for me to talk about calcium without talking also about milk. There's so much confusion about milk, I'd like to try to clarify some of that. Yes, commercially available milk is terrible. The cows have been turned into milk machines through selective breeding, hormones, and poor feeding practices. They're fed antibiotics. Because their condition is so poor, and because the food industry wants long shelf life, the milk must be pasteurized. Homogenization further degrades its value. No wonder so many people react so poorly when they consume commercially available milk.

     But suppose you take some healthy, old-fashioned Jersey cows, that have not been bred to be milk machines, and keep them out at pasture eating fresh green grass most of the time. Take the proper procedures to insure that the milk from those animals is kept pure and clean. The raw milk from those animals is wonderful food for toddlers, young children, adolescents, and adults—in short, for people of all ages. Here's the key, my friends. It all depends on the quality of the animals. If the animals are fed properly—mostly grass, that is—raw milk is wonderful food. Please believe me, I have seen this for over twenty years. I've had hundreds of patients of all ages who thought milk was no good for them thrive on the raw milk from healthy grass fed animals.

     People say we're the only species that takes milk as an adult. True, but we're also the only species that in many parts of the world evolved a gene some ten thousand years ago that enabled us to digest milk as adults. That evolutionary change conferred an adaptive advantage upon humans in those parts of the world where it occurred. The problem now is that good milk is so hard to find. I'm fortunate enough to live in one of the few states—Connecticut—where certified raw milk is available. In most places, food industry and medical monopoly pressure has combined to rob people of this wonderful food. I wish I had more time to talk about this now, but perhaps it's something I'll be able to discuss with those of you who are interested, at some time.

     That leaves us with the issue of how best to insure adequate calcium intake. Our ancestors ate the bone marrow and the cartilaginous tissues of animals for a rich supply of calcium. And with the dawn of the agricultural revolution, they used top quality raw milk. They got lots of calcium, and I find that people today thrive on lots of high quality calcium. The best source readily available is microcrystalline hydroxyapatite calcium, MCHC, and that's what should be used in an optimal calcium formula. All of the calcium should be from MCHC. Most companies beef up the calcium content with cheap, poorly absorbed dicalcium phosphate.

     The best MCHC is derived from free-range, organically raised New Zealand cattle. Incidentally, for those of you who are concerned about using animal-derived tissues because of the mad cow disease controversy, I suggest you see the article "Animal Pharm" (that's p h a r m) in Wise Traditions, the quarterly publication of the Weston A. Price Foundation. British organic farmer Mark Purdey details how he resisted the government's order to spray his cattle with organophosphates for warble fly. He had to go to court, but he won and was exempted from using the spray. Shortly after that, the mad cow disease epidemic occurred in England. No cows in his herd developed mad cow disease. Organophosphates enter the central nervous system and deform the molecular shape of various nerve proteins. Mr. Purdey details how this could be the real cause of mad cow disease, as well as explaining the overwhelming evidence that the disease does not spread from animals to humans from eating infected animals. We have reprints of the article for those of you who are interested, please call us and we'll send you one.

     Back to MCHC. Microcrystalline hydroxyapatite is the ultimate source of bioavailable calcium, it's better absorbed than any other form. It's a complex crystalline compound, composed of calcium, phosphorous, delicate organic factors, protein matrix, and trace minerals that naturally comprise healthy bone. Other ingredients might include magnesium, plus manganese, boron, buffered vitamin C to help absorption, and natural vitamin D3 from fish oil. A study in The New England Journal of Medicine reported that women who added 1000 mg of calcium to their normal daily diets showed a 43% reduction in bone loss. Extra calcium is good for you!

     An optimal multi should contain Vitamins, Minerals and Antioxidants, including coenzyme Q10, grape seed extract, alpha lipoic acid, and tocotrienes. The calcium should be from hydroxyapatite. 400 IU of vitamin E, 1000 mg of vitamin C, and 200 micrograms each of selenium and chromium, all in highly bioavailable, excellently absorbed forms. A formula like this will be a 6-a-day, but for the people who just want to take one or two a day; the balance, quality, and amount of nutrients can be superior to any regular one or two-a-day.

     I mentioned that we combine our nutrients with synergistic natural ingredients, rather than filling capsules with inert materials or potentially allergenic fillers. Our Grape Seed Extract 100 mg is topped off with Rosehips Powder. The OPCs that constitute 95% of the extract are among the most powerful antioxidants. They protect against free radical damage and strengthen the collagen structure of the vascular system. The result is enhanced circulation to the body's organs and tissues, including the retina of the eye. I recommend to all of my patients who are willing to take extra supplements that they include at least 100 mg of grape seed extract in their daily routines.

     We top off our CoQ10-100 mg with tocotrienes, and our Alpha Lipoic Acid (we make both a 100 mg and a 300 mg) with buffered vitamin C. Alpha lipoic acid is a fascinating nutrient. It's a unique antioxidant that's both fat and water soluble. Levels are found to be lower in people with diabetes and heart disease, and it's officially approved in Germany as a treatment for diabetic neuropathy. High doses seem to be particularly beneficial. I routinely ask people with these problems to take three 300 milligram capsules daily, one with each meal.

     Now I'm sure you've heard about the latest attempts to discredit vitamin C. After years of claiming that vitamin C caused kidney stones, the medical establishment finally gave up on that one. Now the media has picked out another poorly designed, misleading, and totally inaccurate supposed study that tries to suggest that moderate doses of vitamin C contribute to hardening of the arteries. This is not science. It's propaganda. Please don't believe it for a minute. Linus Pauling, a biochemical genius and a genuine humanitarian, was right about vitamin C. Taking some extra is good for you. We top off our Buffered Vitamin C with 25 mg of alpha lipoic acid. Buffered vitamin C, by the way, is exactly the same as so-called "Ester C." They're both simply calcium ascorbate, the calcium form of ascorbic acid. Somehow the people who market "Ester C" managed to get a trademark on the name they gave to this form of vitamin C. But it's just calcium ascorbate, or buffered vitamin C.

     A few words now about our standardized herbal extracts, Ginko Biloba 60 mg, Milk Thistle 175 mg, and St. John's Wort 300 mg. Each is topped off with the respective plant powder. I think that's important, because the whole plant contains the synergistic compounds that are not found in the isolated extract, while the extract concentrates elements of known potency and effect. The whole plant and the extract work together. For example, there's been some recent research showing the importance of other compounds in St. John's Wort besides hypericin, the active ingredient in the extract.

     St. John's Wort, by the way, is an even better herb than most people realize. It's as effective an antidepressant as prescription drugs, but without the side effects. That's been shown in many double-blind studies using from two to six capsules a day. The higher doses are necessary for moderate to severe depression, but that much is often useful for many people seeking help with milder depression. It depends on the person. But don't be afraid to recommend up to six a day. Supposed problems with sensitivity to sunlight have not materialized. In fact, such reactions seem to be very rare. And another thing about St. John's Wort—it's a great tonic and immune stimulant. I often suggest it as a general tonic, or for someone with a mild case of the blues. You don't have to be clinically depressed to benefit from St. John's Wort.

     Milk Thistle and Ginkgo are two other herbs that many people benefit from. One trial showed that even college students did better on tests when they were taking Ginkgo. Hundreds of studies have documented Ginkgo's benefits as both a preventive and treatment for age-related mental decline. While Ginkgo works by enhancing circulation, especially circulation to the brain, Milk Thistle protects and regenerates damaged liver cells. This too has been shown in hundreds of clinical studies. Just think, these and other herbs have thousands of years of use to recommend them, and now they also have hundreds of clinical studies verifying their use. Milk Thistle is a powerful antioxidant, a marvelous tonic, and an anti-aging agent. Milk Thistle and Ginkgo are the two herbs I make a part of my daily health regime.

     I can't talk about herbs and plants without a short discussion of Psyllium. We have a product called Herbal Cleanse, it's 100 % pure grade A psyllium seed powder. The reason we have that is because I've taken a heaping teaspoonful of psyllium powder shaken into about ten ounces of good pure water first thing every morning for the last four years. And I drink a big glass of water before and after! The great thing about psyllium is this: it both detoxifies and serves as a great bulking agent. Now let me explain why we need a bulking agent, and the beneficial effects of a bulking agent.

     Our ancestors spent their days hunting, gathering foods, and socializing. At night they sang and danced. Now eventually, the agricultural revolution changed all that. Farming was actually a lot tougher. But either way, they got lots of exercise. So they burned a lot of calories, and had to eat a lot relative to us today as a result. They had no refined foods. So they got a lot of fiber. And they ate a lot of raw or undercooked protein, which is actually very easy to digest when you're used to it, and makes for easy elimination. As a result, I'll bet that a lot of languages didn't even have a word for constipation. The point is, most of us today benefit from routine use of psyllium as a bulking agent. And the whole gamut of problems people have in their lower intestines, from colitis and diverticulitis to hemorrhoids and fissures, benefit immensely from psyllium.

     The reason for that is partly because the more bulk, or fiber, is in the lower intestine, the lower the pressure is. The less strain. And lower pressure and less strain is a key part of getting rid of hemorrhoids. This also has a major impact on various other intestinal problems. I've even had a number of men with early stage hernias find that the hernias no longer bothered them when they began my regime of a heaping teaspoonful of psyllium powder every morning.

     That ends my brief summary of the ideas behind my use of food and supplemental nutrients to restore and maintain health. If you'd like an experienced physician to guide you in your own journey to health, please e-mail me, or call our office at (860) 945-7444.