Review of DOCTOR YOURSELF

I can think of no one better suited to educate especially the baby boomers (who have become the target of Big Pharma and their endless ads for questionable treatments) than Andrew Saul, PhD, a biologist and consulting specialist in natural healing. His previous book Paperback Clinic (reviewed in the Townsend Letter Aug/Sept 1999) has been used as both a college textbook and reference work for health practitioners. In Doctor Yourself, he provides an enormous amount of information on the use of nutrition - orthomolecular medicine - in treating almost all disease. "Orthomolecular" means using a therapeutic substance that is natural to the body, such as a vitamin or mineral. The research has validated this treatment for several decades. The reason most people are not aware of this is because the drug companies have convinced the public (and the government) that drugs are the only scientific medicine. The end result is that millions of older Americans now spend more on drugs than on food . Surely there is something very wrong with this scenario.

Abram Hoffer MD, in his Foreword, says Doctor Yourself represents a new type of comprehensive medical reference book. In my opinion, it is one of the best I've seen.

The book is not about vitamins, says Saul, it is about diseases treatable with vitamins. And don't worry about what your doctor says about vitamins. Most allopathic doctors in the US know nothing about nutrition; it isn't taught in medical school, therefore it doesn't exist. But there is more than sufficient published research accessible to anyone interested enough to look it up. Saul coats his medical advice with wit and humor too - important information that is also fun to read about.

The author also doesn't mince words. He comes right out in the beginning with Fire Your Doctor! and Your Money or Your Health? Provocative? Yes, but bolstered by copious research, biological truths, and crucial life and death issues. Read on!

Part 1 consists of Natural Healing Protocols: from Acid Reflux to Vaccinations, the medical advice is safe, effective, and affordable. Most of all, readers want to know, does it work? Unequivocally, YES! Andrew Saul's approach to Allergies:

"Most allergies are a lot of bunk. . . They usually disappear while you wait, if you use the safest, cheapest, and most effective antihistamine in existence: Vitamin C."

"Allergy, like most disease names, tells you little about cause and nothing about cure. . . Take enough C to be symptom free, whatever the amount might be...but stay a few thousand milligrams under the amount that causes diarrhea. That's about your only concern, because the safety of vitamin C therapy is unassailable."

"What really rankles me is that allergists have made a subculture out of avoiding various molds, pollens, hairs, foods - all substances to which we have had millions of years of evolutionary exposure."

"LAW: The quantity of a nutritional supplement that cures an illness indicates that patient's degree of deficiency. It is therefore not a megadose of the vitamin, but rather the megadeficiency of the nutrient, that we are dealing with."

Part 2: Natural Healing Tools and Techniques, includes Saul's Super Remedy for "when you don't feel well."

1. Get to niacin saturation, which is indicated by a mild, warm pink "flush." If you are feeling stressed, anxious, depressed, worried...continue to take enough niacin throughout the day so that each dose makes you feel just a tad warm.

2. Get to vitamin C saturation, which is indicated by bowel tolerance. Vitamin C in quantity is the best broad-spectrum antitoxin, antibiotic, and antiviral there is.

3. Get to carotene (and water) saturation. This can be simultaneously achieved by twice daily juicing with green or orange vegetables such as carrots.

4. Stop eating meat, sugar and chemical food additives. Be a vegetarian for a couple weeks, or come as close as you can. Just eat the other good natural foods, like salad, nuts, your favorite vegetables, brown rice and other whole grains, fruits, and beans. Buy fresh or read every label. No chemicals, no sugars. Just do it!

Andrew Saul says, "When I work with very sick people, the first "homework" I give them is to go flush, reach bowel tolerance, hydrate, turn orange, and save a cow." With humor and intellect, Saul lets people know that staying healthy is not at all complicated. It's only been in the past 50 or 60 years that we have come to depend on pharmacy, and between the "high calorie malnutrition" from processed foods, and the pharmaceutical drugs, are we healthier or sicker?

As more people become aware of books like Doctor Yourself, the medical paradigm will change, but not fast enough for most of us. If every American had a copy of this book, it could change the world as we know it. We could again be the healthy, happy people we were meant to be.