Latitudes is the magazine of the Association for Comprehensive Neuropathy, devoted to providing cutting-edge information on advanced and alternative treatments for autism, Tourette syndrome, ADHD, and learning disabilities. They recently conducted and published this full interview with me. It provides a good overview of my non-toxic approach to neuropsychiatric conditions specifically and healthcare in general.

When you finish the article, please take the Latitudes survey if you or someone you care for has Tourette syndrome and/or experiences tics.

Interview with Joseph Mercola, D.O., by Sheila Rogers, editor
www.Latitudes.org
Latitudes, Vol. 6 No. 1; 2003

Dr. Joseph Mercola, founder and director of one of the world’s top-ten most visited health web sites, www.Mercola.com, is an osteopathic physician trained in both traditional and natural medicine and has been featured extensively in national media. He is board-certified in family medicine and served as chairman of the family medicine department at St. Alexius Medical Center, Illinois (1988-1993). He is a member of various professional organizations including the American College for Advancement in Medicine and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. His articles on natural medicine have been published in several leading international journals. Dr. Mercola is also the founder and director of the largest natural health clinic in Illinois, the Optimal Wellness Center (1443 W. Schaumburg Rd., Schaumburg, IL 60194).

Dr. Mercola, I have subscribed to your free weekly e-newsletter for the past few years and have wondered how your interest in this project developed.

The development of Mercola.com can be traced to the fact that I am somewhat obsessive-compulsive, and I disliked it when patients would come into my office and tell me something they had heard about on the news--a new medical development or new drug that I wasn’t aware of. After all, I was the doctor, and I should know these things first.

I learned that media services get most of their information from the wire services and that the best way to obtain this material is on the Internet. I started to collect data on new research and medical progress for myself then realized my patients might appreciate it. So I started to share the information online. I also sent abstracts to the Townsend Letter, subscribed to by alternative doctors, and they learned about my site. This was in 1996.

I understand you now have the number two natural health site in the world.

Yes, we have two million unique visitors per month. It is therefore already a primary destination for those seeking healthcare information outside of conventional medicine. But my goal is still to vastly increase those numbers, to make Mercola.com the online community for all those who understand, or want to learn about, the great benefit of natural and alternative approaches to health and healing. At present, aside from some guest experts who contribute the occasional article, I am the only one who posts material on the site. My intention, though--and my web team is developing some innovative technology toward this end--is to allow experts from throughout the natural and alternative health community to post their own information, so visitors are assured to get the timeliest and widest breadth of knowledge available to improve their health. Mercola.com is already very good at serving this purpose, but with these innovations, it will be outstanding.

Do you still see patients?

I do, but I’m taking a four-month leave to work on the web innovations and to support my first major book, The No-Grain Diet, which is being released by Penguin/Putnam publishers in late April. The book provides a clear, comprehensive, and step-by-step guide to the diet I developed, but is geared particularly to those who need to lose weight. Once people stabilize their weight with the dietary and emotional balancing principals I recommend in The No-Grain Diet, many of the disease conditions of modern society will be eliminated.

I wish you the best with your book and will be looking forward to reading it. What are your thoughts please on the current status of drug therapy for chronic neuropsychiatric conditions?

I make no major distinction between prescription drugs for neuropsychiatric conditions or for most other conditions; they relieve symptoms and sometimes are useful. I still use them occasionally, but it has to be recognized that they are a temporary measure until the underlying causes can be addressed. I will say that I consider the dramatic and documented increase in the prescribing of psychiatric drugs for children to be profoundly tragic.

If someone came to your office with a neuropsychiatric condition, what would be the typical approach?

The approach is basically the same regardless of the label they come with. We do a thorough history, which takes one to two hours to complete. Then we do a comprehensive blood analysis. We also have patients complete an extensive questionnaire that is designed to identify their metabolic type. This helps us pinpoint which types of foods they are "designed" to eat. I believe that when people eat a diet that’s compatible with their metabolic type it can improve their health. Also, frequently with adults there is an emotional component for some neuro-psychiatric conditions and we often use EFT--Emotional Freedom Techniques--to address this. I would say we pursue a healing path focused on the integration of bio-energy emotional resolutions with nutrition.

Would you describe EFT?

EFT is an energy healing technique that rebalances disturbances or blocks in one’s subconscious that prevent the conscious mind from achieving its goal. It is particularly effective for panic disorders. Sometimes the blockage can be removed in minutes; other cases are more complex and tangled in nature. This approach can result in lifetime, permanent changes.

Another way to think about EFT is as "psychological acupressure," as it is based on the same energy meridians that have been used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for over five thousand years but does not involve the invasiveness of needles. Instead, simple tapping with the fingertips is used to input kinetic energy onto specific meridians on the head and chest while you think about your specific problem--whether it is a traumatic event, an addiction, pain, etc.--and voice your positive affirmations.

This combination of tapping the energy meridians and voicing positive affirmation works to clear the "short-circuit"--the emotional block--from your body’s bioenergy system, thus restoring your mind and body’s balance, which is essential for optimal health and the healing of physical disease.

I have a concern that there is a wide variation in the background and approach of people who offer energy-related medicine, whether EFT, Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques (NAET), or other methods. As I understand it, there is no criterion for who can provide these techniques, and their experience and skill seem to vary widely. I’m not skeptical that the techniques can, under proper circumstances, be beneficial--but I think this is a significant draw.

That’s a very practical concern. EFT and NAET are two very different models, for starters. I hope to address this entire issue in greater detail on the web site within the next year or so.

But on EFT particularly, up to this point it has largely been restricted to the psychology community. It has foundations in the work of psychologist Roger Callahan, PhD, who in the early 1980s refined the work of others before him. In short, he developed a method of tapping at acupressure points--the same "energy" points on the body used in the field of acupuncture--while the client focused on their problem. Callahan’s approach also involved muscle testing on the patient. Then, in the 1990’s, Gary Craig modified and simplified the approach, eliminated the need for muscle testing, and coined the "Emotional Freedom Technique" label.

Some psychiatrists use it, as do some non-licensed health care professionals, but EFT is primarily done by psychologists. EFT is, though, largely risk-free. I suppose the greatest risk is simply not knowing how best to employ it, but it can’t really be misused to ill effect. I do, though, have a plan for my site that will include a clinician-rating guide. This will allow the public to rate EFT professionals and other health practitioners based on their personal experiences with them. Basically we’ll be forming a directory created by the public that other members of the public can refer to when considering a consultation with a practitioner. This directory will enable them to make an educated decision when choosing healthcare practitioners.

Can you tell us more about the metabolic typing you advocate?

William Wolcott is the founder of the Healthexcel System of Metabolic Typing and author of the book, The Metabolic Typing Diet (Doubleday). I recommend his approach.

People are, generally speaking, one of three metabolic types: "protein," "carbohydrate," or "mixed." If you are not a carbohydrate type and you follow a typical vegetarian diet that is heavy on grains, you can get sick--these people need to focus on getting more protein. In fact, for one person the low-fat, vegetarian Pritikin-type diet might clear up all of their health problems. But for someone else that very same diet might devastate their health, as they would thrive on more of an Atkins-type program.

Wolcott’s book includes a basic test. We use a more thorough, one-hour inventory that can be done by our patients online (and later this year, we hope to make this more comprehensive test available to everyone on Mercola.com). Based on the results of the responses to this more comprehensive test, a 25-page report is generated. This report provides their metabolic document that will assist people in implementing the dietary approach best-suited to their body’s metabolic type. To properly interpret this 25-page report takes a lot of training, of course, and we have the professionals with a strong understanding of nutrition in place to do just that. We intend to grow this team of professionals, as again, we aim to make this Metabolic Type Testing available to everyone on Mercola.com.

As a brief example of just a few of the improvements that understanding your metabolic type can initiate, I am a very strong protein type, and most of my diet is ideally protein and fat with some carbohydrates. But until recently I was consuming a quart of vegetable juice a day under the impression that this was quite healthy for me. This would be healthy for a carbohydrate type--wonderfully healthy, in fact--but it was pushing me in the wrong direction metabolically. I live in Chicago and it gets very cold there. I progressively developed a severe intolerance to cold due to my dietary habits. Once I understood my need for more fat and changed my diet, my cold hands and intolerance of cold weather disappeared.

There is a documented significant increase in autoimmune disorders over the past few decades. Of interest to Latitudes readers, a link has been made between autoimmune disease and Tourette syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, ADHD, and autism.

I believe this increase is largely related to the change in our society’s food intake. The diets are high in grains, particularly wheat, with large amounts of processed sugars. Also, the intake of raw animal fat has been virtually eliminated and substituted with trans fats. This can result in structural changes in the brain. And, to be honest, I’m surprised that the body can tolerate the incredible abuse we are subjecting it to in this manner! It’s amazing to me that people function as well as they do.

From a prevention standpoint, what would you suggest for someone who is pregnant?

They should of course pay attention to their diet and be sure that prior to pregnancy their diet contains enough omega-3 fat. The evidence for consuming the right amount of omega-3 is enormous, though most of us consume woefully inadequate amounts. A decrease in the amount of omega-3 fats is responsible for a variety of neurological dysfunctions and impaired visual health. Researchers are now linking inadequate intake of these omega-3 fats in pregnant women to premature birth and low birth weight, and to hyperactivity in children.

There is also interesting energy work being done by Dr. Bruce Lipton, a cellular biologist, that relates to optimization of the child while in utero. This work focuses on the need not only to provide an optimal nutritional environment, but also to ensure a minimum of negative emotions. Ongoing research is indicating that strong negative emotions can impact the fetus and cause genetic problems--an alteration of genetic diseases. It’s fascinating. Lipton’s efforts underscore the fact that post-genetic factors can influence the expression of genes. I’m working on doing a teleconference with him for our site soon.

It seems Dr. Lipton’s research could have far reaching implications. What do you suggest as sources for omega-3s?

Omega-3 is typically found in flaxseed oil, walnut oil, and fish. The best type of omega-3 fats is found in fish because it contains two fatty acids that are crucial to human health, DHA and EPA. These two fatty acids are pivotal in preventing heart disease, cancer, and other diseases. Low DHA has been linked to depression, schizophrenia, memory loss, and a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s. However, I highly recommend against consuming fish these days, as almost all fish from all water sources are now showing dangerous levels of mercury and other toxins. You can read about this extensively on Mercola.com, where I have, however, announced one safe source of fish--a delicious Alaskan wild red salmon--that I have had lab-tested; I am now offering this wild red salmon on Mercola.com. But because I and many, many others now advise against eating fish (aside from this wild red salmon or other sources that people know have been lab-tested and show no harmful mercury or other toxin levels), the best source by far for omega-3 is in fish oil, preferably liquid form versus capsules. Fish oil such as the Carlson’s brand offered on the site is purified of all harmful toxins, like mercury, and routinely certified as such, so I highly advise nearly everyone to take it daily.

What are your thoughts on dairy--do you recommend it?

I suspect that some people’s intolerance of diary may be related to the fact that milk is pasteurized; the pasteurization process causes structural changes in casein. It would be interesting to see how children who have negative reactions to casein would react to raw milk. I have found that for myself, unpasteurized cream has been a beneficial addition to my diet as a fuel source. I used to routinely recommend that everyone avoid milk, but there may be some who could tolerate raw milk. I think this should be further explored.

Thank you very much for your time and expertise, Dr. Mercola. We’ll be watching for new developments on Mercola.com, and hope that you accomplish all your goals.

As an aside, one of the areas Latitudes focuses on is non-drug treatments for Tourette syndrome. We have a quick survey on our site that allows people to record environmental factors, including foods, that they have found can aggravate or trigger tics or TS symptoms. We will share the results on our site to increase awareness that TS is not just a genetic disorder--and to help people begin to identify their own triggers.

We would very much appreciate if you could let your readers know of this survey at www.Latitudes.org/triggersurvey.html.