by Vic Shayne, PhD
Formulator
NutriPlex Formulas Inc
Like many of our doctor-clients, I’ve been in natural healthcare for several decades, starting off as a clinician. Then I formulated our whole food products. What attracted me to this field was that it was different than modern medicine in several aspects, chief of which is that it was all about getting to the cause of health issues via natural means. But things have changed.
Due to social conditioning, political and economic sanctions and pressure, and the power of the AMA, the field of natural healthcare has been railroaded. First, most vitamin and other supplement products are made by Big Pharma. And because of this, they have worked with the medical industry to eliminate the competition of natural healthcare practitioners. Second, it seems that natural practitioners have lost their way because they’ve lost their philosophy in favor of the reductionist thinking of modern medicine.
Natural healthcare was designed by its pioneers as a holistic science and art, going back into prehistory. This means practitioners considered the totality of the patient, from psychology to spirit to physiology. And, at least as importantly, the original philosophy embraced nutrition. Creating isolated and synthetic vitamins, flavonoids, and so on was unheard of.
Nutrition is not pharmacology, but now the natural healthcare industry is all about pharmacology, using so-called natural products like vitamins and herbs to throw at a health issue in the same way that MDs throw drugs at a health complaint. We see this everywhere we turn. A naturopath, chiropractor, or nutritionist will give a patient outrageous dosages of certain isolated nutrients – far more than the body would ever receive under natural conditions. Vitamin C is the best example of this misuse, as you know.
Modern medicine is based on reductionist thinking. The idea is to look at the immediate problem and do something to get rid of it right away. It’s a cookbook idea and not a holistic, humane practice. Side effects are not seriously considered, especially when they are much more subtle and long term.
The purpose of using WHOLE FOOD SUPPLEMENTS is to offer the body nutrients so that it will innately know how to use these food substances for cellular growth, motility, healing, protection, and wellbeing. The body and whole, natural foods have evolved to be in sync. This is not true of isolated vitamins or drugs or anything administered in high dosages.
Let’s return to our original philosophy and do the body good.