I’ve enjoyed listening to Dr. Don Colbert on the Joyce Meyer show this week. While the last place I expected to find a person promoting principles that I consider biomed to be speaking was on Christian programming, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

I often watch Joyce in the early morning to get my day started on a positive note. This week she’s been interviewing Dr. Colbert on his book, the Seven Pillars of Health.
Now, I’m aware that in the alternative medicine arena there are people who are out to sell things, make money, etc. And I’m as skeptical as the next person.

Yet, I also know, through working with doctors who advocate natural remedies and supplements (but aren’t profiting off of their recommendations) that there is truth in many of the alternative approaches. And not everything is about prescribing a drug.

So, I watched Dr. Colbert with interest as he described the health effects of drinking pure water (at least one-half your body weight in ounces per day), laughing, exercising, getting enough rest, reducing stress, taking the right supplements, eating the right foods and detoxifying the body. What I found interesting was how closely what he was saying mirrored what I had learned through pursuing biomedical interventions for LuLu.

He spoke about environmental toxins having a significant impact on our health, and that they were everywhere, that we can’t avoid them. He cited a study about the hundreds of toxins that were found in umbilical cords of newborns. And he explained that our livers are designed to detoxify our bodies, but that they have to be kept healthy.

He also talked about the role of inflammation in disease. This is something that I read about over and over as I’m seeking to understand the complex, but definite, connection between a person’s GI tract, immune system and neurology. If we can keep our digestive system healthy, by the right nutritional intake, keeping yeast down and promoting healthy bacteria, then we can keep our immune system from getting into a chronic state of causing inflammation. And if our digestive system (which is responsible for so much of our brain chemicals) is healthy, then it’s producing healthy chemicals to regulate our brain. But these systems must all work in harmony and stay healthy. And the seven areas that Dr. Colbert has identified are ways we can work toward that health.

I don’t know much about Dr. Colbert beyond this. And I do suspect there are those out there attempting to make a buck off of people trying to get healthy. But more and more I’m not convinced that this is the case with many alternative medicine practitioners. I believe that they are just trying to help people find a way to promote natural healing.

And more and more studies are showing the effects of many of the thing that alternative medicine recommends. One of the keys that helped me understand why alternative medicine wasn’t necessarily quackery and why supplements might indeed be the right approach for many is to understand how medical research is funded. Most studies we read about in the newspapers are funded by pharmaceutical companies. Because the FDA prohibits anyone patenting natural supplements (no one can hold the patent on Vitamin C, for example), then there is less money to be made by pharmaceutical companies on natural remedies. Consequently, there is less funding for research for vitamins, minerals and other supplements. So, to say that the research is inconclusive on these things doesn’t necessarily mean more than there’s not been enough research done.

The hardest part about implementing biomedical, natural or alternative medicine approaches is deciding who you can trust and what things to try. Just go to the store and pick up a bottle of any supplement and try to figure out what the dosage should be OR even what that supplement is helpful for. The label will not tell you. So, turning to the internet to research it all is a frequent option. And again, it’s about figuring out which information you can trust.


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