From the Desk of Carolyn Dean MD ND
People ask me how I navigate being on top of the health news of the world and report it to my viewers and readers. It can be overwhelming. The toxicity of our air, water, and food, unhealthy GMOs, gluten intolerance, heavy metal overload, and endless prescription drugs are all contributing to widespread chronic illness.
Here’s how I cope with all this devastating medical news, I make sure I spread the word. I’m currently revising a third edition of my book, Death by Modern Medicine, because even though we seem to be getting sicker as a nation, getting healthy can be easier than you think.
My focus is to educate you and help you learn to take care of yourself because it appears pretty hopeless to expect any changes in our present ‘disease-care’ system (not health care system) that makes so much money by keeping people sick. I say that even though the MAHA movement (Make America Healthy Again) is gaining momentum because I’ve been gathering evidence against Big Pharma and Big Agra for decades.
Prescriptive naturopaths
I have the unique perspective as a M.D. and a naturopath to witness the increasingly prescriptive practices now undertaken in many naturopathic practices. So instead of being sent for a myriad of medical tests and then prescribed drugs by their medical doctor, patients are undergoing a series of expensive nutritional tests, including genetic testing, and then being prescribed a long list of supplements by their naturopaths. I recently learned that one naturopath, who is likely highly qualified, charges $700 per hour.
For the most part, nutritionists and naturopaths can only offer higher and higher doses of dozens of supplements that often don’t work because, according to my observations, most patients are fundamentally deficient in magnesium, a state that has to be rectified before moving forward.
Magnesium deficiency is a major underlying kingpin in chronic disease because magnesium controls 700-800 different enzyme systems in the body and 80% of known metabolic functions that are brought to a grinding halt if you don’t have enough magnesium.
But instead of recognizing magnesium for what it is, even integrative doctors turn a blind eye. They’ve gotten into the allopathic habit of running expensive tests to define a person’s metabolism, neurotransmitters, hormones, nutrients, and even genes. Then they prescribe a whole host of hormones, supplements and procedures to correct the imbalances without even realizing that most of the imbalance could be due to a lack of magnesium in vital enzyme systems. In fact, they often ignore magnesium in favor of more expensive nutrients.
I’m repeating these facts because while they are simple facts about the essentiality of magnesium to basic human functioning and health, I must continue to repeat them because even naturopathic medicine is failing people and their health.
I made it clear in 1973 that I was committed to helping people
One of my medical school interviews was conducted by third year medical students who reported to the Dean of Students that I would not make a good doctor because I was naïve and had a Pollyanna approach to medicine because I thought I could help people.
Prior to meeting with the third-year medical students, I had already been interviewed by Dr. Nicholson, Dean of Students who seemed to think I had a good head on my shoulders, a sparkle in my eye, and a sharp wit, all of which would make me a very fine doctor. We both agreed that the third-year students had gotten it all wrong.
That interview was in 1973, and idealism in medicine was a rare commodity. Also on the endangered list were nutrition, natural medicine, spirituality, and ethics.
I entered medicine with a view to educating people about nutrition and lifestyle but what I found was a pervasive indoctrination against anything not drug—and surgery-oriented.
During the summers and my medical internship, I trained in naturopathy, acupuncture, homeopathy, herbalism, nutrition, and Chinese medicine, all of which were invaluable tools in my medical practice, and continue to be priceless in my consulting, herbal research, and writing career. If I had not gone to medical school, I would never have developed an understanding of how natural medicine and allopathic medicine work and I would never have written this and dozens of other books.
After all of my years of cross discipline practice and study, it is my opinion today that lifestyle and nutrient approaches, using bioavailable minerals and food-based vitamins can, in many cases, effectively treat the majority of modern-day chronic diseases.
My third edition of Death by Modern Medicine is my ultimate argument for why you have to take charge of your own health and wellbeing. Stay tuned for the release of this book and a few more blogs that I’m write on this topic.
Carolyn Dean MD ND
The Doctor of the Future.
