A few years ago, I was in Lahore, and I came across an old friend after some 25 years, who is a practising therapeutic nutritionist. I recognized him the moment I saw him though he refused to believe that I was the same guy. Meeting him transported me back in time, as he appeared slender and fit except for a few grey hairs around his sideburns. A bit of inquiry revealed that he had no cholesterol or any other health issues. He was not only physically fit but even after so many years also exuded the same healthiness and vigour of yester years. He carried the same sparkle in his eye and an extra bounce in his step. Meeting him was like Discovering a new definition of ageing, whereas the state of my health was nothing but in shambles and I was finding my physical troubles becoming almost unbearable. I had been through a few health crises with exceedingly high blood pressure and was also hospitalized on a few occasions. My lipid profile and cholesterol data were so haywire that no drug was having the desired effects. My health was not improving and the medication I was on made me feel emotionally depressed and just plain miserable. Besides being diagnosed of having benign arrhythmia I was gaining weight with each passing day. I was told by specialists that I have to live with my medical condition and as such these are not life-threatening. I was also advised to lose weight, without being told how. I tried dieting to eliminate some of the excess weight I had put on, but nothing worked.
When I shared all this about myself with my old friend, he offered me a barrage of advice on how I can correct my body's chemistry while restoring missing or deficient nutrients. Armed with the precision insight of a nutritional forensic investigator he told me ways to determine my deficiencies and spoke of means to revitalize myself. I rejected my friend's idea of achieving good health and beating disease, just with the help of just sound nutrition. My first reaction was that if nutritional therapies delivered so much and were as beneficial as he claimed then how come as a doctor I know nothing about them? It just seemed like another hoax. A few months passed by, and my physical condition deteriorated with each passing day. I was getting more exhausted and felt unable to get motivated until at least noon. My high blood pressure was turning chronic and was not even responding to the three different types of hypertensive drugs. l was unable to control these wild swings in my blood pressure and my bouts with arrhythmias were getting more frequent and frightening.
As I am a medical doctor, I was able to explore many options for my treatment with modern medicine. Nonetheless, it did not take much time when I had literally exhausted every option which conventional modern medicine could offer to fix my medical condition. Out of desperation, I called my same old friend whom I had earlier shrugged off and asked him if he could devise a nutritional therapy which would offer me some relief.
After a few discussions regarding my condition with my friend, I realized the sad fact that medical schools impart only a rudimentary understanding of human nutrition. We were told as medical students that advice on the use of natural nutrients should be based on the lowest levels necessary to prevent deficiency symptoms. These levels were defined as RDAs or recommended daily allowances of natural nutrients. However, there is so much evidence that RDA levels may be too low for people who have already lost their health or have degenerative disorders such as diabetes or coronary heart disease. There is overwhelming research data which Indicates that certain drugs and unhealthy diet patterns can increase the needs of the human body manifold.
Many studies have shown that instead of RDA doctors should be following optimal daily allowance (ODA) as determined by each individual’s own unique needs based on his or her medical condition. This is how my adventure in nutritional medicine began.
Following the nutritional regimen under the direction of my friend, I discovered for myself the tremendous health benefits accompanied by an improved lipid profile besides a ten-kilo weight loss and enhanced energy levels. Now, I found time from my career as a practising physician to learn more about these miracle nutrients which had such a profound impact on my overall well-being, As I dug deeper into clinical and therapeutic nutrition, I found out more about the healing virtues of food. I also become aware of food factors in various everyday found items such as beans, lentils, whole brown rice, extra virgin cold pressed oils, raw brown sugar and fresh vegetables. Finally, I understood why for thousands of years food has been regarded as a potent medicine.
When I started my nutritional regimen, I was presented a book by my same old friend, which introduced me to research in therapeutic nutrition, As I investigated further, to my amazement I found out that scientists worldwide are routinely discovering remarkable new substances in our food, and which are showing amazing therapeutic effects in study after study. I soon noticed that the amount of independent research on these non-patentable food factors was just overwhelming, every new study almost always confirmed the findings of the last one while adding to our knowledge about previously un-discovered healthy and beneficial aspects of these naturally occurring nutrients. On the other hand, modern medicine also referred to as conventional traditional or allopathic medicine, which I also practice, defines health as the absence of symptoms of disease in conventional medicines.
In conventional medicine tradition drugs and surgical operations are the primary remedial tools. We as doctors rely mainly on alleviating symptoms with drugs, while relying on the body’s power to heal Itself. By contrast, nutritional or natural medicine - is based on preventive care and focuses not only on bodily health but on psychological health too. For a nutritional medicine specialist - good health means avoiding disease by eating healthy because most of our sickness is a reflection of our lifestyle and eating habits.
Clearly, conventional medicine and nutritional medicine approach health
care from different angles. However, lately, there has been a revolution within the traditional medical
practitioners and a new era has begun - one that integrates a huge amount of research in nutritional therapies with the conventional pharmaceutical drugs and surgery. For years, I preached different – with the best of intentions and in accordance with our textbooks. I gave advice that I would not offer today. The primary reason, is that my knowledge related to clinical nutrition has vastly increased. The outcome of research in nutrition and prevention requires all of us doctors to reconsider our attitudes and amend the advice we render. I can attest to the fact that now patients are asking their doctors tough questions, demanding Information and keeping their options open.
It Is being increasingly alleged by patients that their interests and their doctor's interests. are often conflicting. Brushing of thousands of peer-reviewed studies on natural nutrients on the pretext that they were not included in our textbooks cannot
satisfy patients who already suspect and doubt the efficacy and reliabilityof a majority of drug therapies. In fact, only those who wish to profit from illness and disease would like people to think that there is no other way for us to maintain our bodies and health. But there is.
Never before in the history of this world, so many scientists from around the world have united in such an exciting ongoing investigation into the chemical basis for everyday food’s astonishing impact on human health The role of natural nutrients, the body's original spare parts, has been explored with remarkable zest over the last 50 to 60 years. According to the research that I have read so far, and after using it to the benefit of 100s of my patients I have come to the conclusion that nature has bestowed us with a monumental drugstore stockpiled with an elaborate display of non-prescription natural nutrients of mysterious chemical design which can fully prevent and cure majority of these medical conditions.
Last but not least, I am eternally grateful to God Almighty and to my old childhood friend, Dr Azmat Majeed, for the truth that he shared with me that not only changed my life for-ever but also changed the lives of huge number of my patients.