The recommendation from Test Country is the latest accolade for this site.

I am honored to be recognized in this way, and it reenergizes my enthusiasm for continuing this important work.

You are wise to question whom you can trust when it comes to maintaining, enhancing or rebuilding your health. Very slowly, the mainstream media has come around to realizing what millions of you have already figured out.

With so many websites, newspapers, magazines and other publications offering health advice, with every new multi-million dollar TV ad for another proclaimed miracle drug, and with the endless recommendations offered by traditional and natural physicians, it is essential to ask this question, above all others:

“What is their real motivation?”

If the answer provides you with a sense of security, move on to the next important question:

“What are their qualifications?”

The primary ploy of the existing medical establishment is to get you to forget the first question—their real motivation—by dazzling you with what appear to be magnificently glowing qualifications.

But beware of the following scams masquerading as medical science:

• Clinical trials conducted by heavily biased "researchers" with various ties to interested corporations and pharmaceutical companies

• Advertisements and news stories carefully scripted to scare you into belief

• Posh corporate offices and flashy websites

• An extreme focus on whatever funnels in the most profit, rather than on what will enhance your health or save your life

Don't fall for these schemes!

My motivation is to make you as healthy as you can possibly be. This requires that I do the following:

1.    Provide you with the most up-to-date natural health information and resources that will promote your highest degree of health, and

2.    Expose corporate secrets, government misinformation, and mass media hype that can steer you toward an early grave.

In other words, Mercola.com is not a tool to get me a bigger house or fancier car, or to run for Senate. I fund this site; therefore, I’m not handcuffed to any advertisers, silent partners or corporate parents.

Nearly All New Ideas are Initially Ridiculed

There are many skeptics who violently oppose the truths I reveal, vilifying me for seeking to open the eyes of the public.

I am reminded of a statement by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, who pointed out over 200 years ago that each newly discovered truth has to pass through three stages:

1. First, it is ridiculed.
2. Next, it is violently opposed.
3. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident. 

My experience on the Web mirrors his 18th century wisdom.

There are some so-called “skeptics” whose REAL motivation is profit, rather than genuine disagreement about science, and these folks share one agenda—to sabotage your access to the truth.

So it boils down to a matter of intention. Those with your best interests at heart will eventually come around. But those with profit as their bottom line will oppose the truth to the bitter end, since the facts simply don’t earn them big enough paychecks.

When I offer or recommend products, I do so because I have thoroughly researched them and found they are the absolute best. I will not recommend substandard products, and I will not push products at you that you don’t really need, regardless of any potential financial upside.

I use the profits generated by product sales to make the Mercola website better and more functional for you.

I’m a Fully Licensed Physician

First and foremost, I am an osteopathic physician, also known as a DO.

DOs are licensed physicians who, like MDs, can prescribe medication and perform surgery in all 50 states. DOs and MDs have similar training and licensing requirements, beginning with four years of study in the basic and clinical sciences, followed by the successful completion of licensing exams.

But DOs bring something special (and I believe critical) to the practice of medicine.

Osteopathic physicians approach medicine holistically, treating the entire person rather than a collection of symptoms. DOs help patients develop attitudes and lifestyles that don't just fight illness, but help to prevent it as well.

I am also board-certified in family medicine and served as the chairman of the family medicine department at St. Alexius Medical Center for five years. I am trained in both traditional and natural medicine.

Honored by the Huffington Post in 2009

In November 2009, I was named the by the Huffington Post as the “Ultimate Game Changer in Wellness,” an honor bestowed upon me by readers themselves.  

The Huffington Post defined Ultimate Game Changers as:

“100 innovators, visionaries, and leaders in 10 categories who are harnessing the power of new media to reshape their fields and change the world.”

Of the 100 candidates, a single top Ultimate Game Changer is selected for each of the 10 categories, of which Wellness is one.

I am truly honored to be doing this work on your behalf. I promise to continue helping you separate fact from fiction when it comes to your health, undauntedly bringing you accurate, relevant information through Mercola.com.