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NUTRITIONAL
MEDICINE Over 2400 years ago the “father of medicine” Hippocrates gathered
together all that was sound in the foregoing history of medicine. He
based his practice on the twin principles of nutrition and
detoxification. His famous aphorism “Let your food be your medicine
and your medicine be your food” highlights the essence of the
Hippocratic principle of healing. Simply stated, it is to
reestablish basic bio-systems and hereby assist the body’s innate
capacity to regenerate and heal itself.
For the last 60 years the Hippocratic view has gone through a renewal. A
body of evidence has been growing that documents and supports the
conviction that nutrients have the power to not only prevent, but also
cure disease, when given in therapeutic dosages. This constitutes the
field of nutritional medicine. With traditional pharmacology the
doctor uses synthetically produced, patented drugs to treat disease. The
new pharmacology uses high dose nutrients. Using nutrients as medicine
has the advantage of avoiding drug-induced side effects, which commonly
occur in drug treatment.
In reality the new research concerning nutritional medicine signifies a
fundamental change in our understanding of chronic disease. Historically,
we are in the midst of a so-called paradigm shift. A paradigm
shift is a change in our basic conceptual framework. The old paradigm
was one in which drugs played the central role in restoring the patient
to health. The new paradigm places substances natural to the body -
nutrients, enzymes, probiotic intestinal bacteria, hormones, botanicals,
animal-derived extracts - in the central role of restoring health.
A term, which has come to be used, that captures the breadth and essence
of the new paradigm is biological response modifiers (BRM). BRM’s
are natural substances derived from plants, animals and humans, that
influence biological activity in the human body. Some BRM’s enhance the
immune response. Others modulate gene expression, cell membranes,
acid-base balance, oxidant stress levels (oxidants & antioxidants),
energy metabolism, hormonal processes, detoxification and more. In
general, however, BRM’s are used instead of drugs to change the body
environment that has given rise to illness. Drugs are also used if the
clinical situation warrants them, but the use of potentially toxic drugs
is minimized. The reason for this is that drugs by their very nature are
synthetic substances, that are foreign to the body’s environment. The
body must detoxify them and their subsequent breakdown into metabolic
bi-products can give rise to illness in the form of side effects.
What is clearly emerging in the scientific literature is a new
pharmacology, in which high dose nutrient therapy shows potent clinical
effects in the treatment of a wide variety of conditions. Whereas
nutritional science traditionally focuses on the daily requirements of
surviving and the preventing clinical deficiency syndromes, modern
nutritional science is focused on thriving as well as preventing and
curing chronic disease. Modern nutritional medicine therefore utilizes
therapeutic dose range (TDR) determinations. These are the
concentrations of a nutrient needed to treat a particular disease.
The following is a list of illnesses, where nutritional medicine can be
used. Therapies are based on the latest scientific methods for
prevention and treatment. In many cases it is a question of making
life-saving information available years before conventional medicine
introduces them to the general public. In contrast to the hospital’s
impersonal assembly-line atmosphere with standardized treatments, a
personalized plan is drawn up on the basis of up-to-date medical
findings pertaining to one’s case:
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Acne,
adrenal disorders, alcoholism, angina, allergies, Alzheimers,
anxiety, anemia, arteriosclerosis, arthritis, asthma, atrial
fibrillation, autoimmune disease; |
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Body
building, Borrelia, bronchitis; |
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Cancer,
candida, cataract, celiac disease, cervical dysplasia, cholesterol (high),
chronic fatigue syndrome, colitis ulcerosa, Crohns disease; |
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Depression, diabetis, digestive disorders, diarrhea; |
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Eczema,
emphysema, epilepsy, esophageal reflux; |
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Fibrocystic breast disease, fibromyalgia, food allergy; |
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Gall
stones, gastritis, glaucoma; |
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Heart
disease, hepatitis, herpes, HIV, hormone modulation therapy (male,
female), hypertension, hypoglycemia; |
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Immune
deficiency, infections, inflammation (chronic), insomnia, irritable
bowel; |
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Kidney
disorders; |
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Leukemia,
lupus, lung infection, lymphoma; |
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Macular
degeneration, menopause, migraine, mononucleosis, multiple sclerosis;
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Neuropathy; |
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Obesity,
osteoarthrosis, osteoporosis; |
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Parkinsons
disease, PMS, polymyalgia rheumatica, prostatism (BPH) , psoriasis; |
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Raynauds
syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, rosacea; |
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Scleroderma, sinusitis, sleep disorders, stomach ulcer, stroke;
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Thyroid
deficiency, tinnitus; |
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Urinary
tract infection; uric acid arthritis (gout); |
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Weight
loss |
Links:
The following links contain considerable information regarding nutritional
medicine, which is also called orthomolecular-, complementary-, alternative- and integrated medicine:
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