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(Music) Speaker 1: (Music) I know that youíve been
in the medicine thing. Youíre a doctor from Canada. Where did you Ö you know, you came
into this field as an MD and then you found natural solutions in your life somehow. Tell
me how that came about and why that suddenly became a good idea for you.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all natural solutions are, in my opinion, the only way to go and
my reason is the medications are not dealing with the root cause of the issue. For any
scientist, I mean this is totally scientific. [inaudible 00:00:39] scientist, you want to
go to root cause. You want to treat whatís wrong; whatís out of balance rather than
put a Band-Aid over it which I think is what the medications do. Now, Iím not against
medications per se. Itís not like a big political thing, but itís more letís do what really
works, and what we do know about the anti-depressants is, the fact is they donít really work. Theyíre
mostly placebo. Speaker 1: So, whatís the difference between
suppressing symptoms and actually dealing with the root cause?
Speaker 2: Well, when you give an anti-depressant, for example, what youíre doing is fooling
the brain into thinking thereís more of a certain neurotransmitter or chemical messenger
which affects mood. Rather than doing that, the body is really smart. What it needs is
the raw materials to make the neurotransmitter and if thereís anything in the way of making
thatís also going to cause problem. So what I look for is, is there a deficiency in, say
tryptophan which will make serotonin. Is there a deficiency in tyrosine which makes dopamine
which we need for attention and for mood? So, we really look at what the deficiencies
are; B vitamins extremely important and you might be say, ìWell, how can a vitamin be
as potent as a drug?î Itís not potent than the drug because itís actually addressing
the root cause. Now Ö I mean the whole issue with the way
modern medicine is being practiced, to me, doesnít make any sense because I use an analogy
of a car. You take your car to your mechanic because you have an engine light on, on your
dashboard. Now if you did that and they said, ìOh, no problem lady, cover over the red
light or pull out the wires.î I mean, youíd say, ìHey this isnít such a good mechanic,î
right? You want him or her to look under the hood. Itís really a matter of figuring out
whatís going on, and 2 minutes with the doctor and writing a prescription isnít the answer.
So, what I do is I take a history people fill out; a full questionnaire in advance and then
I review it with them and already I have a whole lot of information. For example, if
somebody has Ö theyíre complaining Ö somebodyís complaining of depression and they also canít
sleep and theyíre kind of wired, Iím going to look for serotonin deficiency. Thatís
going to give me the clue and I may not have to do any lab testing. If on the other hand
theyíre depressed, but theyíre unmotivated. They canít even get started in the morning,
their attention is poor, then theyíre likely low in dopamine or they may have an adrenal
deficiency, and all of those with more questioning can be figured out and then treated appropriately
with the right supplements. I went to medical school at the University
of Toronto and had great training. You know, they really taught the art of medicine there.
We learned how to take a good history; how to relate to the patient, imagine that, relating
to the patient, and then as I went into my residency in psychiatry. It became clear to
me that peopleís moods were affected by their lifestyle and I had figured out for myself
pretty well, but I also began to read very wonderful mentors like Abram Hoffer, Carl
Pfeiffer, and learned about nutrient deficiencies and how they affect mental health and began
to apply this with my patients. So right after the residency, I was actually already experimenting
with this and getting results, and I havenít turned back.
I have patients coming to me who have been on anti-depressants or some sort of psychotropic
medication for years and years, and in fact, the drug wasnít even working anymore, and
the person is tired of taking it. If they go off it, by the way, if you go off a drug
suddenly, you have withdrawal effects, so thatís not safe and they know that because
some of them have actually tried and then theyíre told by their doctor, ìSee, I told
you had to be on it for life.î What I do is I help people very gradually get off of
the medication while supporting their own physiology and biochemistry with nutrients
and what happens is the brain knows what to do with the nutrients and itís actually giving
them what they need to make the neurotransmitters, to make the chemicals that will raise their
mood and make them feel better, and by the time theyíre off the medication and on the
nutrients, theyíre feeling way better than they did on the meds, and theyíre happy,
and theyíre real. They have a real mood. You know, one of the things that the anti-depressants
do is they flatten the mood and people refer to it as chemical brain. You know? They just
donít have the joy Ö they may not have the real deep depression, but they donít have
the joy that they would like to have, and they donít have Ö even the sadness that
they want to have when itís appropriate. You know, when thereís a death or a loss.
They find that their moods are normal and itís just so fun for me to see this, and
I see this every day in my office. We have to feed our body and feed our brain.
Our brain is this 3-pound very hungry organ that uses 20% of the nutrients, 20% of the
glucose, 20% of the energy that we take in, so we have to feed it properly and one of
the real terrible things here is the SAD - Standard American Diet, SAD; really bad; no providing
the nutrients that we need. Why do you think weíre seeing such an epidemic of ADD in children
or depression in all ages? Because weíre not getting the nutrients we need, and not
only that, but the foods weíre eating are actually interfering with the way our gut
is supposed to work. We donít, for example, have as many good, friendly bacteria as we
should have. Weíre wiping them out with stress, with birth control pills, with antibiotics
which weíre giving to children at a very early age, and thatís really serious because
those friendly bacteria help to make our vitamins and the vitamins are needed to make the neurotransmitters.
So, you can see how you can actually get depressed from being on antibiotics. You can see the
connection. So, my job is to make sure that my patients
are eating appropriately, and Iím not going to go into all the details, but fresh vegetables,
organic fruit, protein, essential fatty acids, and then definitely be taking a high quality,
high potency multivitamin. The One-A-Day from the drug store is not going to cut it because
for the way our diets are and the way weíre exposed to toxins that need detoxifying, we
actually have to fortify our bodies. You know what youíre doing here is investing in your
future and if you want to have a future and a good one, live healthfully.
(Music)