Did that title catch your attention? It’s an absurd notion, right, the idea that headaches represent a deficiency of aspirin . . . or naproxen, or Imitrex, or Relpax, or zelmitriptan, or Aimovig?
If we were to view headaches as nothing more than a deficiency of some drug, there will be no effort made to address factors that allow the emergence of headache in the first place, just an effort to suppress a symptom.
Yet that is the paradigm that defines virtually all of modern medical treatment: Suppress a symptom or other phenomenon associated with a health condition, but make little to no effort to address the cause.
With type 2 diabetes, for instance, drugs like Byetta, metformin, glimepiride, and Farxiga are prescribed to reduce blood sugar . . . while never addressing diet (or, worse, prescribing a diet that raises blood sugar), insulin resistance, fatty liver, vitamin D deficiency, and disrupted bowel flora/SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) that caused high blood sugars in the first place.
With rheumatoid arthritis, drugs like Celebrex, methotrexate, sulfasalazine, Enbrel and Humira are prescribed to reduce joint pain and inflammation . . . while never addressing the metabolic endotoxemia that originates with consumption of the gliadin protein that initiates intestinal permeability, SIBO that adds to intestinal permeability and allows bacterial breakdown products to enter the bloodstream, hugely amplifying inflammation; or vitamin D deficiency that provides a “permissive” effect when an autoimmune initiating factor like gliadin is present.
With eczema, steroid creams, absurd biologic agents like Dupixent (and costing $37,000 per year—yeah, you heard right) are prescribed, even immunosuppressive drugs like methotrexate and azathioprine that have side-effects that include liver damage and lymphoma are prescribed. The contribution of the gliadin protein of wheat, SIBO, and intestinal fungal overgrowth are never addressed.
Just as a headache does not represent a deficiency of aspirin, so type 2 diabetes does not represent a lack of blood sugar-reducing drugs, rheumatoid arthritis and eczema doe not represent a lack of immune system-suppressing drugs—yet that is how the medical system manages these conditions.
This is why in the Undoctored approach to health, we do not treat health conditions; we address the factors that allow disease to emerge in the first place. I have been emphasizing this point repeatedly, as I still get questions daily like “Do you have any alternative treatments for prostate disease?” or “What are the alternative treatments for reducing blood sugar?” Undoctored is not a compendium of alternative treatments. Undoctored is based on correcting factors such as diet, common nutrient deficiencies that prevail in modern life, and addressing disrupted bowel flora that all contribute to allowing, say, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, autoimmune conditions, skin rashes, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, ulcerative colitis, and asthma to emerge. The Undoctored approach is not targeted to “treating” one health condition; it is designed to restore overall health that includes becoming non-diabetic, not having rheumatoid arthritis, not plagued by eczema, while enjoying high levels of functioning and slenderness.
One can argue that extreme situations required extra solutions… diet and essential supplementation is good, and of course this is the main reason of the program.
In the days of pandemic people needs a little bit of immune-boosting. You can eat oysters everyday or take some zinc supplementation. The program is a little bit restrictive from vitamin C for example. So there is nothing wrong to take couple of grams of extra vitamin C. The extreme stress that everybody’s under those days probably requires some braiding exercises maybe even ashwagandha.
It doesn’t mean that you’re treating conditions you’re helping for the conditions not to acure in the first place. Like for example ,eating one of the yogurts that we make… sometimes our bodies need some extra help. Probably even will be beneficial to take some NAC.
Toby Lime wrote: «The program is a little bit restrictive from vitamin C for example.»
Where do you find that?
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I do not consume citrus fruits anymore because of high carbs and fructose. That is restriction for my vit C intake. I use to eat large spectrum of citrus fruits. Now I eat peppers, sauerkraut, parsley…but still not like I use to eat before. I feel it is a good idea to take extra vit C at that moment. Don’t you?
Toby Lime wrote: «I do not consume citrus fruits anymore because of high carbs and fructose»
Fruits are fine in the program context, within net carb guidelines. They don’t need to be eliminated. Unsweetened cranberries and blueberries, for example, are decent sources of C, without being terribly high net carb (and so appear in a number of program recipes).
Supplementing C, including mega-dose, has been studied in the historical program (TrackYourPlaque), but with an eye toward any benefit in atherosclerosis, and with no benefit seen. C is not one of the program core supplements arising from modern deficiency.
Many people on the program do elect to supplement C, to varying degrees. Toxicity isn’t a major risk, although people need to keep in mind that most raw Vitamin C comes from the country that gave us COVID-19.
re: «I feel it is a good idea to take extra vit C at that moment.»
If that’s in reference to COVID-19, I see that intravenous vitamin C is being explored in some trials, but that’s in people who have already acquired an infection, and, IV-C has to be used because the doses exceed what can be absorbed orally. Such data as exists for use of C in the common cold also looks like any benefit is reduced duration (i.e. treatment), not prevention. If it works,a fascinating question will be why.
The Undoctored program has been addressing reducing odds of COVID-19 infection, but the very point of the base article here is that it won’t be suggesting treatments.
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I am reading the book by Dr. Michael Greger “How Not to Die” and I am getting confused as to what I should eat.
How does a person decide which eating regimen to follow, Wheat Belly or How Not to Die?
I avoid bread of any kind and as much sugar as possible. I do make your yogurt and consume it every morning as my breakfast. For lunch, I eat a salad with greens, kimchi, olives, peppers, some other raw vegetables, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar.
Dr. Greger recommends avoiding meat, eggs and any animal fats.
Can you help me with my dilemma? I am a member of your Undoctored program.
Luther Anthony
Luther Anthony wrote: «I am reading the book by Dr. Michael Greger “How Not to Die” and I am getting confused as to what I should eat. … I am a member of your Undoctored program.»
As a UIC member, see this forum remark I posted the last time this came up.
For the benefit of everyone else, the remark references both Denise Minger’s review of the book, and my FAQ article on Doing Undoctored as Vegetarian.
In general, for any given position on nutrition, supplements and healthcare, you can find books with entirely contrary points of view. A core concept in the Undoctored program is self-directed healthcare, and not reliance on gurus, nor on super-gurus to help choose gurus. Figure out what matters, how to measure it, and decide for yourself.
What matters, of course, is outcomes; some prompt (e.g. weight loss, T2D reversal), some not so prompt (slowing, arresting, reversing atherosclerosis, and healthspan generally). So in service of outcomes, what to mind are the markers that matter (often ignored by both Standard of Care and other dissident diets).
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