Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

Most of you who read Total Health Breakthroughs know that Jim LaValle is a regular contributor to the newsletter and a very important member of our Editorial Advisory Board. Jim is also the Executive Editor of The Healing Prescription, our monthly paid newsletter.

MaryEllen Tribby, my boss and the publisher of both newsletters, credits Jim with restoring her health and saving her from the brink of type 2 diabetes. In fact, that’s the reason that we decided to launch The Healing Prescription. MaryEllen’s recovery was so dramatic, that she knew Jim could help thousands of people just like her if they only listened to his message and regained control of their metabolic health.

Having worked with Jim for over a year now, I knew he was a dynamic public speaker —he lectures frequently throughout the country, has his own radio show, and makes regular guest appearances on TV and radio health programs. So I was really looking forward to seeing him speak at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine’s (A4M) continuing medical education conference in Boca Raton last week.

I can tell you that I wasn’t disappointed — and neither were the 200 doctors who came from all parts of the US to hear him speak on integrative medicine and clinical nutrition. At one point there were so many questions coming from the audience that Jim had cut them off, saying he would not get through the day’s presentation if he took anymore.

As I sat listening to Jim and watching a room full of physicians taking copious notes during his presentation, I was struck by the fact that our country’s doctors need to be better educated about disease prevention and natural healing techniques before they reach for the prescription pad.

Here are some examples Jim gave in his presentation.

Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of disorders that includes insulin resistance, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, and obesity. The cumulative effect of these disorders can lead to type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Most physicians will prescribe the drug hydrochlorthiazide (HCTZ) for early blood pressure problems and Metformin for insulin resistance.

The problem is, HCTZ causes depletion of nutrients like magnesium, potassium, zinc, CoQ10, and sodium, but the package label only warns you of the potassium depletion. By unknowingly losing all of these vital nutrients, your body cannot properly metabolize glucose. So the end result is that medication being prescribed to manage blood pressure pushes the insulin resistant person right into the path of becoming a type 2 diabetic.

And that’s not all. Metformin will deplete B12 and folic acid causing your homocysteine levels to rise to dangerously high levels. This can result in kidney and cardiovascular damage and contribute to Alzheimer’s disease — all known consequences of type 2 diabetes. So by taking Metformin and not supplementing with extra B12 and folic acid, you could be accelerating the complications of the very disease you are trying to prevent!

Here’s another piece of information that I think was news to many of the docs in the room. Because HCTZ causes the loss of magnesium, Restless Leg Syndrome can develop. So after people take HCTZ for awhile, they complain to their doctors that they can’t sleep at night because of restless legs or muscle cramps. The doctor then prescribes Requip for Restless Leg Syndrome, when the solution is really to take more magnesium.

Two-hundred doctors that regularly prescribe these medications learned about their potentially devastating consequences in Jim’s seminar. But how many thousands are still prescribing them that aren’t aware of the nutrient depletions they cause?

I don’t even blame the doctors for not knowing this. I believe that most doctors try. Mine certainly does. I have gone to the same GP for years. He is a great doctor who gives me the best care he can whenever I need it. The problem seems to go back to their training and what the medical establishment deems as important for physicians to know. Somewhere along the line it was decided that cutting edge medicine was all about prescribing the newest drugs available for every conceivable illness. Only now are we finding out that this has opened up a Pandora’s box of new ills, most of them much worse than we ever could have imagined.

But here’s the good news. The doctors who attended Jim’s seminar were there to learn about his metabolic approach to disease prevention and treatment. Many of them asked questions about the best brands of nutritional supplements to recommend to their patients. Others wanted more information about the specific lab tests Jim uses to make a diagnosis. Most importantly, they were there out of a desire to better help their patients.

Attending this seminar made me very grateful to be working with an innovative practitioner like Jim LaValle. At his clinic in Cincinnati, on his website and the pages of his books and newsletters, and in professional conferences all over the country, he is helping to revolutionize the way healthcare is practiced.

Jim’s remarkable patient success stories prove that modern medicine combines the best of cutting-edge diagnostics with healthy living and natural substances that gently strengthen your body instead of weakening it with synthetic chemicals —a truly integrative approach that that can help keep us healthy and drug-free well into our golden years and vastly improve the way medicine is practiced in the US.