By Lawrence Wilson, MD
We recommend specific products and specific numbers of tablets or capsules for many reasons. This bulletin explores some of these reasons.

Among them are the balance of yin and yang, specific nutrients for certain toxic metals, specifics for the levels, ratios and patterns on the hair analysis, and often specifics for a tendency or what we calla research associations or disease trends.
There are also reasons why we do NOT recommend many herbs, certain glandulars and a number of popular vitamin and mineral products.

YIN AND YANG

All things in life are to some degree yin or yang in the Chinese medical scheme of things. This is a very complex concept, but one which acupuncturists and a few other practitioners have been exposed to.
The concept also applies to foods and nutritional supplements. It is an important reason, however, why some approaches work on some people while they are not effective with other patients.

For example, slow oxidizers are far more yin, in general, than true fast oxidizers. This can be confirmed with acupuncture and other methods of assessment.
The products recommended take this into account. Fast oxidizers are told to eat more lightly cooked or raw oils and fats, which is quite yin. Slow oxidizers must reduce fats and oils and eat more cooked vegetables and meats. These dietary items are quite a bit more yang, since cooking renders food more yang and animal protein, which we strongly prefer, is far more yang than vegetarian or raw food regimens.

Supplements. The same principle of balance applies to nutritional supplements we suggest. Yang supplements include animal based products such as certain glandular products, especially thyroid, for instance. Others are pancreas found in GB-3.
Some practitioners prefer to use a vegetable based digestive aid and wonder why the results are not quite as good. It is because it is far more yin.
Supplements are that synthetic chemicals tend to be much more yin as well. These include such remedies as vitamin C, for instance. When given intravenously, in particular, it is harmful for most people. It will, however, cure a severe infection and is okay in this situation only.
In this way, understanding yin and yang as applied to our nutrition programs will help one understand why certain products are recommended at special times and why others are not in the program at all.

WHY WE DO NOT RECOMMEND MANY HERBS

Herbs are incorporated into some of our formulas. However, few others are ever recommended. Here is why:

1. Herbs tend to be quite yin. This fact alone makes them less attractive for us, as most people today are very yin. We regularly have to take people off even the best herbal regimens to obtain excellent results.

2. Herbs are of irregular quality. Some are even irradiated, a horrible practice that may have been instituted to discredit herbs. The quality control problem is getting worse as more and more people seek to use them.

3. Many herbs contain toxic metals and other toxic substances. This makes the herbs even more yin and harmful in other ways. For instance, peppermint and spearmint will soothe the stomach quite well. However, they contain too much aluminum, which happens to be the active ingredient, just as it is in many over-the-counter remedies of heartburn. The presence of toxic substances will give a quick response, but will also show up in poorer results long term, We are particularly concerned with East Indian, Chinese and other imported herbal products. These do not go through the rigorous testing, in most instances, that American herbs tend to go through.

4. Most herbs are not specific enough for our protocols. That is, they do not balance body chemistry in the way we like. For example, ginseng will enhance the rate of metabolism, but has a few stimulant substances in it. It is, unfortunately, a yin herb by our experience. It is not just nourishing the body, but stimulates it in too many cases.

5. Herbs are not that easy to combine. Anyone who has studied herbs extensively knows that only certain combinations are good. However, modern doctors are not trained in this science and combine herbs willy-nilly. This is harmful in most cases. Because we must combine products in our programs, we much prefer working with nutritional products that are far better researched in combination with each other such as the vitamins, minerals, glandulars and a few amino acids that we do recommend.

WHY WE RECOMMEND METABOLIC PACKS

The most important single product for your patients is the correct metabolic pack for their oxidation type and, in the case of the fast oxidizer, the correct product for their sodium/potassium ratio.
Endomet Labs, the products we recommend, offers three metabolic packs. Megapan is for slow oxidizers only. Stress Pak is for the fast oxidizer with a normal or elevated sodium-to-potassium ratio. SBF Formula is only to be used for a fast oxidizer with a low sodium-to-potassium ratio.
Doctors may want to match these Metabolic Packs by combining their own products. However, it will likely cost much more and require many more tablets or capsules.
These products are formulated for their nutrient content, their yin or yang balance, and much more. They are made a certain strength so that one can give more to an extreme fast oxidizer and few to a more mild case or a smaller person.
The are also formulated to take into account the overall condition of the body chemistry, which is often not the case with other brands of supplements.

WHY WE SUGGEST ONLY CERTAIN VITAMINS, MINERALS AND GLANDULARS

The main reason has to do with the specificity of the programs. In our model of health, the body maintains a delicate balance of the minerals, for example. This we call the mineral system of the body.
When one gives any mineral, vitamin or even some amino acids, for that mater, it will tilt the entire balance in one or another direction.
Dr. Eck learned about this balance from soil science and the work of Dr. William Albrecht. He worked at the University of Missouri in the early twentieth century. Dr. Eck refined the concepts further with his own research. The theory appears correct and helps explain about how our bodies interact with nature.
This means that when one takes a multi-vitamin product, for example, much of it is usually incorrect for the delicate balancing that we require. It is the same with multi-mineral formulas and so on.
So we are careful to only recommend that which will balance the body chemistry, as revealed on the hair mineral test. This fact cannot be ignored without sacrificing the power of the program, even if one desires “instant” results in a symptomatic fashion.

THE STAGES OF STRESS AND THE OXIDATION RATE

Two other important concepts that are woven into our nutritional balancing programs have to do with the stress theory of disease, put forth originally by Hans Selye, MD in the mid-twentieth century. DR. Selye was a brilliant doctor who realized that all bodies respond to stress in specific and predictable ways.
Dr. Eck took much of Dr. Selye’s work and made it available in a form that the public can readily appreciate. He also popularized another important concept that is at the heart of our program recommendations. This is the concept of oxidation or metabolic typing.
Dr. Eck borrowed from the work of Dr. George Watson, PhD and Melvin Page, DDS, among several others. This is one of the most basic concepts in healing and has much to do with the stress theory as well.

WHY WE DO NOT ENDORSE MOST SYMPTOMATIC THERAPIES

Finally, we tend not to recommend symptomatic therapy. This may be a difficult lesson, but is an important one. Symptomatic approaches, which are the rage in medical circles as well as nutrition circles, always leads to masking of deeper problems, more illness later, greater cost later, rebound effects and more.
Correcting the underlying body chemistry is far more powerful than any hormonal approach, replacement therapy and other symptom ased approaches. It is a unique feature for those who want to go beyond symptomatic medicine and nutrition.
I will, however, list a few instances where symptomatic approaches are used, and we do recommend it in these cases.

1. The patient may demand symptomatic relief. This is understandable if the symptom is severe, or the patient does not understand why we don’t like symptomatic approaches.

2. Symptomatic therapy (such as hormone replacement therapy) may be the only way to approach a patient who cannot or will not change the diet, lifestyle and reduce stress. 

3.Rarely, a symptom is life threatening and must be handled first. Examples include an overwhelming infection, very high blood pressure, arrythmias, a tumor, a blocked artery or other similar situations. In these cases, we suggest waiting to do a nutritional balancing program until the symptom is under good control.

4. Symptomatic remedies used temporarily may convince a patient that nutrition can be helpful. This alone is a benefit. They can then go on to learn that nutrition can be used in a much more powerful, preventive, predictive way to alleviate many conditions at the deepest levels of functioning of a human being. Of course, it is equally important that the patient not stay in the symptomatic mode of thinking. This is where many practitioners unfortunately remain, even after years of exposure to our concepts. We hope we can continue to reduce this problem with our written material and other educational efforts.
These are basically the only times we recommend symptomatic approaches, which we feel have caused the current health care “crisis”, by which we mean the terrible health of the American people, and those everywhere who use conventional medical and even symptomatic nutritional approaches.

All information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.