Category — Blog

No one diet is right for everyone.

I’m now using the advanced, new Diet Therapyâ„¢ Software to design a diet that is specially tailored for each client.

No other software can analyze your nutritional needs in this highly individualized way.

Now what you eat can help with your health issues instead of causing problems, and help you manage your weight, all while giving you more food choices than you thought were possible.

Your customized eating guidelines also accommodate personal preferences such as vegetarian and Kosher diets.

Popular diets come and go—but none really promote health in the long run.

• The “one-size-fits-all” approach can’t address individual needs
• They’re too restrictive and complicated
• They address one issue like weight or detoxification, while actually causing other problems
• They’re largely based on what food industries want us to buy
• The sense of deprivation only backfires.

The factors that determine your ideal diet are:

• health conditions
• body type
• blood type
• food allergies and intolerances
• vitamin and mineral imbalances
• ideal weight

New technology now provides a system for determining which foods are best for you.

The software used to create your personalized diet guidelines integrates proven nutritional strategies from many renowned, independent nutritional researchers, including Dr. Joseph Mercola, Udo Erasmus, Dr. William Wolcott, Paul Pitchford, Dr. Laura Power, and many others.

Click on the book to the right, for more information!

A dilemma you may be facing and how I can help:

You’re seeking natural healing methods. You’re looking for a rational, cohesive program that addresses your own personal needs. Or you’re just looking for some quick tips to give you a jumpstart. But you’re probably overwhelmed and wondering where to begin or how to judge what’s right for you.

The natural healing field can be an impenetrable jungle of hype and confusion - there are so many different approaches and opinions - how do you sort it all out?

I offer consulting by email that cuts through this jungle - a unique service that you won’t find elsewhere.

Everywhere you’ll find conflicting advice, methods, products, and testimonials, but no one’s seeing the forest for the trees. I provide the map that’s missing, so you can see the best routes for you.

You may visit practitioners who each pull out their preferred “tool kit” to use with everyone who comes in their door. But your needs may require different tools at different times. I have the breadth of knowledge and experience to cut across all the individual practices and methods.

Years ago, I asked myself why this kind of guidance was not available. I developed it myself, and now it’s available for others.

• I distill pertinent information from many sources, with easy and clear yet thorough explanations

• I can suggest self-help methods that I think would be useful, and walk you through easy guidelines for learning them.

• I make unbiased recommendations that are personalized to fit your own unique needs and budget

Some of the approaches I draw from:

• Healthy eating according to your individual metabolic and glandular type

• Nutritional supplements, herbal remedies and detoxification methods

• Homeopathy and the Heilkunst system of medicine

• Methods for mental/emotional healing and understanding the spiritual dimensions of health challenges

• Energy or vibrational healing

I offer one free consult. For more info about consults, go to the Contact page.
If you’re ready to order, go to the Ordering page.

And feel free to browse the site for Articles, Resources and Links, and post comments.

On the right-hand sidebar, you can subscribe to GFSH mailings sent roughly 4 times a year. Or if you do RSS feeds, you can subscribe to receive each blog post.

Cutting through the Natural Health Marketing Jungle

A few years ago the big thing in the natural health marketplace was Noni juice. It claimed to help just about every ailment under the sun, and there were a multitude of glowing testimonials. There was Ester-C and Blue Green Algae.

Now it’s soy shakes, goji berries, and krill oil - and a dozen more. But we forget that these products go in and out of style just like other types of products, and the overinflated claims and testimonials make us believe that each new panacea is the one to stock up on and tell all our friends about.

Well, there’s something wrong with this picture. It’s not that all those products have no value. Some have a lot of value as tools that work for specific purposes. But in any case, it’s not hard to see beyond the marketing hype, that many of these products aren’t exactly what they seem.

Let’s look at a few particular issues to start cutting through the hype:

1. Specialness - is the product really as special as it sounds?

Most of the heavily marketed natural health supplements are essentially “knockoffs” of other products and are not truly unique. Many contain very ordinary ingredients that could be bought separately for a fraction of the cost. But with slick packaging and marketing, they become “new and improved” as if they deserve the special attention and price tag.

Many contain “proprietary ingredients” that make them sound special when they may not be. A critical thinker would want to question the manufacturer to find out what’s so special.

2. Specialness - Hidden presuppositions in the marketing claims.

If the product is really one of a kind, and no other goji juice contains THIS many antioxidants, that may be true, but do we really WANT that many antioxidants? We don’t really know that. Chances are that we don’t really, or that the difference in the amount of antioxidants is not significant. Many people don’t know that too much antioxidant activity can be quite harmful. But the “more is better” assumption is built into the marketing claim.

3. Testimonials - a dime a dozen.

Testimonials can be quite impressive. People seem to “cure” their arthritis with this Flexanol product. Or it’s MSM. No doubt those people did get those results - probably most aren’t lying. But what do testimonials really mean, in terms of how likely this particular product is to help YOU?

Well, it’s a bit more complex than just finding the thing that helped your neighbor’s arthritis or diabetes or high blood pressure or fatigue, and assuming that the product they swear by is going to help you.

The first thing to understand about symptoms is that you may have a similar symptom as your neighbor, but what caused yours is probably different, and so the treatment you need is going to be different. But the natural health market has to paint a picture with a very broad brush, so there’s no room for individualizing. That’s why the results are really very hit-or-miss, and those glowing testimonials don’t mean very much in the end.

4. Marketing to symptoms.

The natural health market targets symptoms. Colon cleansing products are “good for” detoxification. Certain phytonutrients are “good for” brain power. Certain herbal formulas are “good for” flu symptoms. “This product for that symptom.” What’s wrong with this picture?

Well, a dozen cases of flu symptoms might each have different causes. A dozen cases of migraine might each have different causes. If your headache is caused by not drinking enough water, the one-size-fits-all product that claims to reduce migraines is probably not going to work for you.

But if you match the product with the symptom, you get this simplistic view of natural health self-help, which has a very low success rate overall, if you look past the overinflated claims and testimonials to see what actual percentage of people are getting the results.

5. Results based on removal of symptoms.

Now we have to look at what “success” really means. If my cough goes away because I took a “natural” cough suppressant, but a few months later I have bronchitis, was that really a success? It looks like we had a great success with the cough, right?

Now the cough suppressant product claims success. But, the two conditions may very well be linked. Even though the suppression of the cough may have *caused* the bronchitis, still the cough product is claiming success, when really it’s a failure.

Many products will remove symptoms, just like allopathic drugs can remove symptoms. But if they drive the problem deeper so that later on down the road we develop a more serious condition, what does that say about the wisdom of removing the symptom in that way?

Everywhere in the natural health field you’ll see this emphasis on removing symptoms as if that’s what we’re aiming for, and if we do that, then we’re successful. This is a huge error in the understanding of the meaning of symptoms.

The symptom is just the messenger, not the disease. Sure, sometimes you do need to manage the symptoms in order to make yourself more comfortable, but there are ways to do that safely without suppression which drives the disturbance deeper.

The problem with natural health marketing, and even many natural health practitioners, is that they don’t really know the difference between the symptom and the disease. They are working on the level of symptoms just like the allopath is, trying to kill the symptom for the short-term gain of making the patient feel better. That’s what most people are looking for.

Well, that’s what people can get, if they’re willing to risk making themselves sicker in the longer run. They may be young and robust, and maybe they won’t notice the damaging effects of some of these natural health protocols. But I think that many people would want to know that there is another side to this health marketing hype, and that they may be spending a lot of money on products that aren’t really helping.

This is not to overstate the potential for harm, either. But the key is that the appropriate treatment for a particular conditon depends on the underlying cause of that condition and working on the causative level. If you’re simply looking at the superficial level of symptoms, you may be palliating at best, and suppressing at worst.

Generally people don’t really know what they are doing except that they’re taking something “natural” to help a particular symptom or problem. They have no idea of the complex physiological functions that are being altered, and the possible imbalances that are being caused, even by taking a simple nutrient like calcium.

Generally these things are safe in relatively small doses, but we need to take a sobering look at the megadoses and “more is better” approach that’s often thought is required to get the best results. The heroic “no pain, no gain” approach works well for ripping off a band-aid from your finger. But otherwise, we really want to know whether the gain is real and isn’t causing new problems that we didn’t bargain for.

_____________

So what’s the best way to make your way through the jungle of health products?

First, find out what is really unique about the product you’re interested in. Consider that what it does might be done just as well by many other more ordinary products. Most of the network marketed products (what used to be called multi-level marketing) fall in this category. Most are not-so-unique products that don’t do much more than their simple counterparts in your local heath food store.

If there is a dizzying array of similar products, and you’re not sure which you need, find out if they’re all really essentially different. For example, there are dozens of different products based on beneficial phytochemicals in berries. Are they each so different from one another? The claims point to specific differences - one comes from a unique source, one is more pure than the rest, etc. The distinctions are dizzying, and probably not as important as it sounds.

Look at what your need is fundamentally. Maybe you’re constipated, and you need to address that. But do you need a stimulating herbal formula - or maybe you just need to drink more water. If you’re a chilly type with certain deficiencies, the stimulating herbs may actually have a weakening effect for you. So you’d want to investigate what is the best way for YOU to approach this constipation problem, and not just match your symptom to the product.

For private consulting to help people sort out their real needs, with a rational approach to cutting through the natural health marketing jungle, see Personalized Consulting by email

I wrote this originally to someone asking about fibromyalgia, but it really applies to all types of chronic illness, so I thought it might be generally useful.

The key is that treatment for chronic problems has to be individualized for each person, and is usually multidimensional, so there’s not just one thing that’s going to wipe it out. Everywhere are testimonials that someone “cured” fibromyalgia or arthritis or heart disease with this or that supplement or alternative treatment, so it’s assumed that this or that technique or substance is THE answer for that problem.

But no one knows whether it will work for the next person, because no one’s looking at what the true causes are in each case. In other words, ten people with fibromyalgia symptoms may all need different treatments.

Sometimes one simple intervention like getting off diet soda or cutting out wheat or improving sleep habits makes a big difference, if the problem is minor and isn’t deeply rooted. But usually it takes more than that.

The very first thing I’d ask is what was going on in the person’s life when the symptom first appeared. And I’d find out whether they’re taking any drugs that could have side effects like the symptoms they’re having. Very important to rule that out. All too often, doctors don’t take that into account, and slap on a new diagnosis when new symptoms come up.

Fibromyalgia, for example, is just a fancy way of describing the symptoms of muscle pain and fatigue. It’s not a true diagnosis, but an allopathic label, so it doesn’t disclose the cause of the problem, and only tells you what you already know (you have pain and fatigue).

There’s no such thing as an entity called fibromyalgia (or arthritis or diabetes or ADD or heart disease, etc..) which is the same for everyone who has those symptoms, although of course most practitioners do try to treat it that way.

This means that every person who has those symptoms may have different underlying causes. So the approach they will take depends on whether they want to get to the root causes, or whether they just want to suppress or palliate the symptoms. It depends on the person’s inclinations and what he/she is prepared to do.

Just to give you an idea of possible causes of that and other chronic conditions -

• emotional blockages;
  latent inherited diseases that are triggered into action by physical or emotional trauma (including vaccinations);
  past shocks and traumas;
  severe nutritional imbalances;
  toxins such as aspartame and mercury;
  cellular dehydration;
  infectious agents like Epstein-barr virus or Lyme;
  deep fears and false beliefs.

Often with complex, chronic conditions it’s a combination of all of those, and susceptibility is key.

For example, we know that mercury dental fillings aren’t good for anyone, but one person might become very destabilized from them, because they have a lot of other things going on and that was just the last straw. Whereas someone else might be able to handle it without becoming destabilized, until they get a vaccine or have an emotional trauma.

Also there are many opportunistic microbes like mycoplasma, which are more the effect than the cause, but contribute to making the person feel sick. There are many pleomorphic microbes which are generated internally under stress.

The tendency is to focus on those, but that’s misguided, like killing the messenger. Or if you lost something in a dark alley but you’re looking for it under the street light just because it’s easier to see there. Reducing some of the microbial load can sometimes help the person feel better in the meantime, but doesn’t solve the problem.

The root cause of disease is not on the material level at all, so all treatments aimed at getting rid of things on the material level are working on effects, not causes.

The ideal is to work at the causative level, while helping the person to manage symptoms, but the aim is not simply to get rid of symptoms (effects). Even in alternative medicine, usually the focus is on symptoms, and if the symptom goes away, they consider it a success.

Well, from the patient’s point of view, of course it’s good that they feel better! But if the symptom has simply been suppressed, the problem will emerge again later and probably more seriously next time. And it’s not only drugs that suppress, but herbs and nutrients can be used suppressively too!

But let’s step back and look at some possible scenarios:

1. If the person is conventional medicine oriented, but willing to try a few other things on their own:

• Look at how your soul/spiritual life is being neglected, and what would nourish you on that level.
• Look into improving the diet, and eliminate common culprits like aspartame, MSG, gluten.
• Look at diet typologies to determine what type of diet suits your particular metabolism
• Improve the amount and quality of water and salt you’re using.
• Use some super-food type supplements - start with basic ones like cod liver oil, concentrated green foods and fruits, hemp seeds, minerals especially magnesium, B-vitamins and C, etc.
• Look at stress and emotional issues and consider learning EFT or Buteyko breathing or some form of meditation/relaxation technique.
• Look at lifestyle - exercise, sleep, relationships, etc.

2. If the person is willing to do various unconventional treatments, some of these may be useful in addition to the above basics:

• Homeopathic treatment for the acute problem
• TCM (traditional Chinese medicine)
• Use a Zapper to reduce the microbial load.
• Do oil pulling for a gentle liver cleanse, and some other detox methods depending on their particular constitution, no one-size-fits-all methods.
• Anything that regulates the autonomic nervous system like Buteyko, qigong, yoga, cranial osteopathy, etc.
• Body/mind techniques like Feldenkrais, Rosen work, etc.

The most comprehensive approach I know of is treatment with a practitioner of medical Heilkunst, www.homeopathy.com/clinic. Heilkunst is the complete system of medicine that includes homeopathy.

Putting together a strategy can of course be overwhelming for anyone, especially figuring out how to individualize it, where to start, prioritizing and coordinate everything. I can help people do that.

All natural healing methods are potentially useful - the trick is to know what you’re really targeting beyond the symptom, and which is the right tool for that, for this particular person at this particular time.